Had a great weekend – was sunny long enough to mow down my own private Amazon rain forest, played with the cockashit and groodle outside and took a few photos. ON the down side, I’ve lost my canon camera battery charger and have turned the house upside down looking for it … no avail. I eventually ordered [...]]]>

Had a great weekend – was sunny long enough to mow down my own private Amazon rain forest, played with the cockashit and groodle outside and took a few photos. ON the down side, I’ve lost my canon camera battery charger and have turned the house upside down looking for it … no avail. I eventually ordered a new one off Ebay yesterday. In the meantime, I used my old Canon Powershot. It’s a neat sturdy little point and click but it’s cantankerous at times. Most of the shots this weekend have too much grain or noise in them even though it’s a 10 megapixel camera and I purposely don’t use the ‘zoom’.  If anyone can tell me why this little camera does this … please advise (you can see the EXIF data on the fickr link).

This is a shot of Indy (the Groodle) after he had fetched the tennis ball a few times. I edited the photo in the GIMP to try and reduce the grainy appearance by use of an alpha mask and posterising the print.

Below is the cockashit, Mojo. She’s much more difficult to photograph cause she doesn’t stay still and the camera does not like her all black features. She’s begging for me to throw the ball here.

Yes, we have a new addition to the little red planet zoo. Meet Indie, the 14 week old Groodle. What’s a Groodle you say? A Groodle is a mix between a Poodle and a Golden Retriever. Indie has been with us for almost a week. He’s settled in very well and has already made his mark [...]]]>

Yes, we have a new addition to the little red planet zoo. Meet Indie, the 14 week old Groodle. What’s a Groodle you say? A Groodle is a mix between a Poodle and a Golden Retriever. Indie has been with us for almost a week. He’s settled in very well and has already made his mark (bite mark!) on a large selection of furniture. He likes to chew house shoes, socks and all the wooden furniture including the stairs.

He’s getting along with the rest of the family very well. He even tolerates little Willow! Over the weekend he became better acquainted with Harley, our cat. I can see Harley sleeping on top of Indie in the future but, as for now, they prefer to admire each other from a distance.

I love rock-a-billy, country, blues and bluegrass music. I grew up with Saturday night Bluegrass ‘musicals’ at my grandparents farm and was surrounded by this music at an early age. I frequently look for good tunes on the net ’cause in Melbourne I can’t listen to a country radio station. I’m a big Gourds fan and [...]]]>

I love rock-a-billy, country, blues and bluegrass music. I grew up with Saturday night Bluegrass ‘musicals’ at my grandparents farm and was surrounded by this music at an early age. I frequently look for good tunes on the net ’cause in Melbourne I can’t listen to a country radio station. I’m a big Gourds fan and stumbled upon this YouTube of their cover of Snoop Dog’s Gin and Juice single. I’d love to see these guys live someday.

This is a great live of this cover. They slip into a little Cheap Trick “surrender” in the middle of song. You can click the link to get the second part of the live Gin and Juice video.

It was cold on Sunday but both my gals wanted to get outside and my wife was keen to have them out of her hair for a little while so she could get some work done. We decided to take our dog Mojo out for a walk. Willow decided she needed to take her own ‘dog’ [...]]]>

It was cold on Sunday but both my gals wanted to get outside and my wife was keen to have them out of her hair for a little while so she could get some work done. We decided to take our dog Mojo out for a walk. Willow decided she needed to take her own ‘dog’ Ginger out too. We rugged up in scarves and hats. Just outside the front door there’s some kind of mutant iris plant that grows like a weed on steroids. It’s blooming in the middle of winter – a real floral overachiever. Willow walks out of the front door and immediately heads for the iris and picks a few choice blooms. Of course I had my camera handy and caught her in the act.

My other gal, Juniper, had Mojo and headed up the steep driveway to the road. After snapping a few at Willow and the flowers, I turned and caught Juniper with Mojo. We had a great walk and a few more images from it can be found below. Hope you’ve had a great one too!

We would never set out to purchase animals from a pet store except Banjo caught Cecilia’s attention. [...]]]>
I’d like to introduce you to Banjo. Banjo was rescued along with his brother Harley from a pet store. He and Harley had been in the store window for almost three months. They were very wild from little human contact.

We would never set out to purchase animals from a pet store except Banjo caught Cecilia’s attention. He had a very similar look to her cherished cat, Scobie, who passed away after 19 years (that was about 4 years ago). When she inquired about Banjo she learned he had ben at the shop for a long time with his brother. We found that they were afraid of human contact. We all felt incredibly sorry for both of them and decided that we would give them both a home.

Banjo and Harley have been with us for about 2.5 months. They are still pretty timid but do crave affection. Harley even tolerates 3 year old Willow chasing him and giving him a vigorous cuddle.

They are acclimatising to the noise family household and even getting along with the dog Mojo.

We had a beautiful weekend and Willow got to spend some quality time with her ‘other’ sister Mojo. Willow and Mojo payed fetch while they both bounced around on the trampoline. I got to sit in a nice comfy chair and examine the insides of my eyelids for cracks (yes, she bought that one – hook, [...]]]>

We had a beautiful weekend and Willow got to spend some quality time with her ‘other’ sister Mojo. Willow and Mojo payed fetch while they both bounced around on the trampoline. I got to sit in a nice comfy chair and examine the insides of my eyelids for cracks (yes, she bought that one – hook, line and sinker!) for a little whlie. It was difficult to get a decent shot of the two of them playing as neither sits still for more than a nano second. This was the best of the shots from the afternoon.

When does a dog become more than just a pet? I dunno but Mojo has been apart of our family for over 5 years – since she was 8 weeks old. She’s part shitzhu and part cocker spaniel. I guess that makes her a cocka-shit. She a very cheeky gal who loves to dig in the [...]]]>

When does a dog become more than just a pet? I dunno but Mojo has been apart of our family for over 5 years – since she was 8 weeks old. She’s part shitzhu and part cocker spaniel. I guess that makes her a cocka-shit. She a very cheeky gal who loves to dig in the garbage if we accidentally leave the cupboard door open during the day, bury half eaten pizza crust in our bed covers and manages to bring in half the dirt and debris of the outside into the house each day. But, she’s as much a part of the family as anyone else. Last weekend we took her to the beach. There’s nothing she likes more than balls and water. She had a ball!

Check out the action photos from the day in the gallery.