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Thursday, November 13, 2008

6

What did I do on Halloween?
(I didn't post this to my blog - lol - even though I originally intended to - oops?)
... I did nothing much at all actually - it has never really been a big thing in Australia, and we never made a big thing of it in our family when I was a kid, and we don't make a big thing of it now - I told the kids that some people here celebrate it but it is not really an Australian thing and DH and I never celebrated it, but if they wanted to go out "trick or treating" with a group of their friends we let them do it, and if I remembered I would try and have some lollies just in case a neighbour's kid or one of the kids friends or someone came and knocked (some years they do, some years we don't get anyone). I have noticed that celebrating it is becoming more popular here now - kids will happily do something that involves having fun and getting free lollies - and the people who sell costumes and lollies are happy to sell more stuff ...

anyway ... 6 years ago we decided to get a Golden Retriever puppy ... which should have had nothing to do with Halloween - except that once we chose him (he was the one who sat up and looked at DH and barked, when we first went to see the breeder and look at them) and we went to pick him up, and I asked what date his birthday was ... and got the answer - 31st of October ... aaaahhrrrggghhhh! - LOL

so ... on the evening of the 31st of October - I took Diesel for a nice long walk for his 6th birthday - LOL

... and I took this photo ... which kind of does look a bit ghoulish and scary with the green shining from his eyes!
(although to me he still looks like his usual lovable self - lol)

he was actually running towards me, because I got the camera ready and then called him ... and got the photo just before he noticed something way more interesting (to him anyway) beside me and changed directions and went to sniff whatever it was ...

btw - he ended up with the name Diesel because that is what happens when you don't tell the kids you are getting a puppy until you go and pick him up - and then find out that one of the kids doesn't like his pedigree name and 4 people sitting in a car have to find another name they all agree on ... the kids had recently seen the movie "Snow Dogs" and there was a Diesel in that ... lol



unfortunately we don't know what date Spook (the cat) was born ... although I don't think she really cares ... lol
(we got her from the RSPCA when she was approximately 8 months old - she had turned up somewhere as a stray and was not claimed by anyone ... their loss our gain ;-)

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

"Lest we forget"

I took this photo a couple of days ago, before I realised that it was almost 11/11 ...



this image is actually cropped from a bigger photo - it is the middle of a (rather scruffy) poppy ...

Why a poppy? and what is the 11/11 got to do with anything? - if you don't know - you can go to this website and find out - lol

I am not sure if this one was a "Flanders Poppy" or not - but it does look a bit like the ones in the picture on that website, and on a couple of other websites with pictures of Flanders poppies ... (there is a pile of links at the bottom of that page - one goes to "Red poppies")
... it could, however, be a similar species ... there are a few others that are fairly similar.

whatever species it is - it is a weird looking flower ... but - I happen to LIKE "weird"! - LOL