Samson the strong

Beautiful black Samson has been a member of our family for only a couple of years but in that time we have really changed his personality and Byron has found a good friend. From his initial behaviour we deduced that Samson had been neglected - a big dog shut in a small back yard with no company and nothing to do.

Now he has a whole acre of land to stretch his legs and run but what does he do? He lies in his hammock and sleeps all day! The dog bed is just outside the door and when ever anyone comes out, he is head up and eager eyes, and should you talk to him; well! He is on his feet and pressing close against you before you can say "Jack Robinson"!

We reckon he is the perfect security dog. He is black so no one would see him at night, he is silent so no one would know he was there but he would hear any one who came into the garage and he would be there and for sure he would trip them up!

This afternoon Colin and I went down through the yard to go and pick a few mangoes from the trees that lean over the creek at the bottom of the block. Neither Samson nor Byron needed any encouragement to join us - they were right there leading the way. Samson is a lizard chaser and we are rather fond of the big lizards that live in that part of the property so we had to call him back as he raced down to the water.

He was easily distracted by our call and raced back to join us as we made our way rather slower than he had, down to the mango trees.

Colin managed to persuade both Byron and Samson to pose for me with one of the pine cones from the Bunya pine. Byron is a little closer to the camera so looks to be larger but both dogs are identical in size however while Byron is a "designer dog", Samson is a Curly Coat Retriever which is a pure breed. It is also a very old breed of dog. The English Game Keepers of the landed gentry would have a curly coat retriever as their working dog.

The Curly Coat retriever has short hair over the face to the top of the head. The coat is hair and unlike Byron, moults. There is black hair all over the garage floor and we have to sweep it up every day. Poor old Byron is getting really woolly and I shall ring up tomorrow and book him in for a clip. He will then look more like a greyhound!

So now you have met the most important young members of our household. We worry about them when we go away any where and complain that it costs as much to have them looked after as it does for us to have our holiday - but we wouldn't have it any other way! They are always so pleased to have us home. Dogs are very forgiving!

AJ

A large nut!

Every day I take my camera out and use it. "My camera" could be the Olympus 500E with either of the two lenses that came with the camera or it could be my son's Nikon D70S that he no longer takes away with him when he leaves home for his long distance touring. This time it was the Olympus I was playing with and marched down into the back yard to see what I could find that was interesting.

Living on and acre of land with a waterway at the bottom does give me plenty of subjects for photography. Today was no different.

Lying on the lawn that Colin had only just finished mowing was a most "ginormous" football sized pine cone.

There were two of them, I wanted Samson, my Curly Coated retriever to pose beside one of them to give an indication of the size of it but he would not sit still long enough for me to focus! So you will have to believe me when I tell you that each one is the size of a rugby ball and more than twice as heavy.

When my youngest son was travelling to Brisbane to do his apprenticeship he would park his car in the shade under the trees and catch a train from the Gold Coast to Brisbane. One day he returned to find his windscreen smashed and the bonnet of his beautiful blue commodore, his pride and joy, dinted in a couple of places. To begin with he thought it was children who had been throwing missiles at the cars but looking around he found - you got it!!! - he found a pine cone from the Bunya pine not far from his car. That would account for the green smear on the bonnet! Up to that moment he had not realised that he had been parking his car under a Bunya pine - to him it was just a shady tree among a row of shady trees!

The tree in the back yard is now quite huge - it is over 30 years old and is still growing. The trunk has split quite some way up and the tree has two main trunks now which is why it looks as if there are more than one tree in this picture. The leaves are incredibly hard and every leave has a sharp point so they are not the sort of leaves you would pick to use in floral arrangements!

AJ