What a cracker of a morning! Daylight emerged from the darkness, shaking off her dark cloak to reveal clear blue sky, the trees standing tall, sentries on guard to welcome in the new day. My steps were bouncy and full of energy as the dogs and I set off.
1. Towards the Glasgow Range
2. Over the Gentle Annie hills
There were lots of scents to excite the dogs and they were as keen as to get moving, running and sniffing here and there! We climbed up a small bank on the side of the track, not for any particular reason – just because we could! I almost ran down the bank – the mood was so joyous and the day full of promise. I found the first eatable mushroom on the side of the track. I didn’t pick it, but am hopeful it’s a sign of things to come! The foggy mist was sitting in the low pockets of the valleys. It muted the view and gave an ethereal mood to the scene before me! The sheep weren’t too pleased when we got to their paddock. One human, four dogs and thirty odd sheep are not much of a social mix!
The view to the East got even better as I walked along the road to our mail box. Our cows in the paddock by the road tried to eyeball the dogs. The dogs didn’t care, they were aware they had a fence between them and the cows and I suppose they figured I would protect them. As if! Near our mail box we have a few cabbage trees. Laurie and I planted them when we first moved permanently to The Coast. It’s surprising how well they are growing. We have three together and I guess like a family, they have grown very close to each other.
I was pretty keen to see the progress of the goat hut that Laurie is building. He’s also cut the fence to put a new gate in near the shelter. The future plan is to subdivide the next-door paddock and let the goats have a bit more scope with the weed control. Ollie will go back tomorrow, his work up here with Willow and Moon is done!
Further up the hill the views were stunning.Perfect colour as the sun was about to appear over the Radiant Range. I never fail to be awed and well … just gob-smacked by the beauty around us.Then once I got up to the top the sun had risen and was shining through the beech trees. To top it all off a lovely little mushroom was poking its head through the dirt. A-maz-ing!
I went back into Westport today. (For a very good reason that’s totally legit, but I’m not able to write about it just now.) On the way home I stopped at the Mokininui River. For those of you who have emailed me asn asked for more photos of the river, I include them now. The Rver was very low and ever so peaceful. There were blue herons, paradise and mallard ducks, the water was clear and clean and the air was fresh. Aahhhh – peace for the soul!
Once I felt refreshed I came home and arrived in time to run the dogs and feed the horse and goats. We had beautiful light at sunset tonight and so I leave you with views off our deck.
1. To the west
2. To the East
Wild4eva 