Over the weekend JB and I took a walk around the domain with Quinn, and with our fancy SLR’s (of which I’m still stoked that Siblings boyfriend let me use his old one) and started snapping some shots. The idea was that he’d be able to show me how to use this brilliant piece of equipment with all of its brilliant buttons, but instead we ended up walking around, with our hangovers, taking random photos.

Some where hilarious (and to save some of my dignity are not shown here. You don’t need to see me pulling a funny pose in front of a fountain with a clever perspective), others where just pretty. I’d forgotten how nice it was just to walk, and talk and snap.

We lasted until the skies opened and I got a phone call that meant dashing off into the day. All in all, I got some good shots, I think. It was a pretty wonderful day for wandering around and smelling the flowers as we went.

Every Saturday at the back Parnell, La Cigale holds a small French Market. I wish I’d known about this earlier, it’s a great bunch of stalls filled with fresh veggies, still warm breads and pastries, stuffed olives and dips and tabbouleh salads, smoked meats, freshly squeezed juice stalls, big stoves of paella and stalls making while-you-wait crepes and waffles.

In short, a ridiculous amount of fantastic food. The Boy and I took Quinn down on the weekend (and the weekend before that . . .) and we had breakfast – two sweet chilli prawn skewers and a whitebait fritter, cooked up right in front of us! Mm, SO GOOD! We also stocked up on this brilliant cherry tomato foccacia, roasted capsicum dip, fruit for the week, chocolate croissants AND white chocolate tarts. The Boy and I also split a chocolate éclair, which was DIVINE! The chocolate on the top was still warm, and it was stuffed with the most delicious chocolate whipped cream I’d ever eaten. Ridiculously sweet, pretty much an orgasm in your mouth.

Walking up and down the little aisles, I was reminded of the fruit and veggie shop my parents used to own in Parnell. It was an open air shop, basically some clever shelves stuffed with every kind of fruit and veggies you can imagine installed on a patio a little off the street, with the coolers and workshops downstairs.

I spent a fair chunk of my childhood scrambling around the back streets of Parnell. Today Parnell is mostly fancy restaurants, and expensive botique stores, but back then I was small (and cute) enough to wrangle baked goods from the fancy upmarket bakeries, lollies from the confectioner down the road, and and milk fluffy’s from cafe owners.

It was a nice reminder of simpler times, I think. But I’m glad that Auckland still has these kind of open-air markets. And that we spent the rest of the weekend eating the goodies we brought back? Totally. Brilliant. :)

Take a super cute pup who would never hurt a fly:

Add a geek like The Boy (who may or may not have recently seen 28 Days Later), some minor photoshopping and you get this:

The things The Boy does never ceases to amaze me :)

When I arrive home after work, or at Barkley Manor to pick him up, Quinn does this funny little snuffle thing when he greets you. And he does the funny little snuffle thing because he’s trying to grin the biggest, cheesiest grin that you’ve ever seen on a funny little dog:

Now imagine his whole back end wriggling with the excitement of his little little tail and you have the best, most adorable, most likely to make you laugh greeter that you’ve ever met. :)

I’m glad that I took the opportunity to take Quinn for a walk earlier in the week, because the last couple of days, weekend included? Nothing but rain, and fog, grey wintery days.

Walking by the lake is so nice. While Quinn isn’t a fan of water (not even a little) he does enjoy standing on the pier and watching the little fish that look like minnows swim out and about in the water. So much so that he’ll dash from side to side, almost as if he doesn’t want to miss anything :)

Also? Loving that these wintery walks give me a reason to wear the silly hat with the bobble. Yay!

Just some shots from one of our walks this weekend. We had fabulous weather: gorgeous blue skies and there was still a chill in the air. Good for layers and crazy hats. :)

Hopefully there will be more walks like this one :)

Perhaps it’s just me, but sometimes I think it’d be wonderful to have a dogs nose, and to be able to smell all the interesting smells. This weekend just past Quinn and I went for a rambling walk, and for once instead of being quick smart about it, we ambled. And the more we ambled, the more he stopped to smell everything. The fallen leaves, the ferns at driveway corners . . . it was quite sweet, actually.

There should be more paying attention to the little things, I think. The change in seasons, the leaves that fall. And more taking the time to enjoy them. Oh, I wish there more sunlit hours in the day to go on more brilliant ambling walks!

These were taken when we were in New Plymouth a while back. It’s been so dismal in Auckland the last little while. Rain and wind . . . and often it’s so dark by the time that I get home that it’s not me taking Quinn for daily walks anymore. :(

I’m glad we still have all these photos. It was a great weekend away, the walks were new and different and quite dramatic, actually (check out the surf, and the black sand, and the driftwood scattered over the beach). We don’t have walks like this in Auckland.

I’m holding out till the weekend, we’ll have our walks then, I think.

Autumn is most definitely here. There is a street Quinn and I walk up to get to the local park that has completely exploded in colour. All the trees have either turned super bright yellow, or are a fantastic mix of red and oranges:

It’s super cold at the moment (even when the sky is super blue) and going outside means multiple layers, but I love ironic the colour change – all the trees almost look like they are on fire. It’s brilliant, really.

Before we drove the 5 hour drive back to Auckland The Boy and I took Quinn for a walk to tire him out (there’s nothing worse than a hyperactive little dog on a long car trip. Last time he wiggled under the drivers chair and kept popping out by the pedals).

The easiest way to tire him out is to have him run back and forth between The Boy and I, standing maybe 50 metres apart.

Worked like a charm :)