Normous tongue

I had no dilemma at all when selecting today's Blip. 

Of course it is the one, the only, the Bean dog. Bean dog with the loooong tongue. 

We enjoyed an hour lounging on the sofa in the sunshine at lunchtime. The extra illustrates how happy she was. Dogs can smile.

There was drama here this morning. 

Barry the farmer has been burning off uprooted gorse from his paddocks on the hill during the week. At some point yesterday morning the smouldering was kicked up by a brisk north-westerly wind and huge gouts of flame and plumes of dark brown smoke could be seen right next to the road. Presumably somebody got it under control pronto because when I looked again 20 minutes later there was barely any smoke billowing into the sky.

But as the sun appeared through the trees next to Chez M&B at 9am today I realised it was unnaturally dark red. It wasn't the sun at all; there were huge flames up the hill, once again fed by a nor'wester which had just started up again. 

10 minutes later fire engines revved and nee-nawed their way up past the property in a rush. 

When I had a look at lunchtime it was evident that the fire had spread and burnt half a hillside of gorse which hadn't yet been uprooted. No doubt Barry wanted it cleared, but an out of control fire won't have been his preferred method.

Through all of this I was mildly nervous about sparks starting fires down the hill close to Chez M&B. However the brisk wind was blowing everything  in the opposite direction to home. It was probably a twitchy landowner over there who called the Fire Service. I'm glad it's out now though. And I'm sure Barry will be on the case of any hotspots. He won't want to explain another call-out if it goes up again.

The norwesterly winds are blowing warm air from the tropics over NZ and it's reached 22C today. I've been in a t-shirt and thin leggings. 

It will last another couple of days before a more typical cooler weather arrives What a treat for mid-May. And having just looked at the forecast it seems it'll be rinse and repeat next week. 

So-saying, I'm off to sit in the sun with my book and my dog.

Toodlepip ...