Yarranabbe Park

Growing

Bondi left some big shoes to fill, but Munson is growing into them very nicely.

Big bro

Imagine you're a young child visiting a park for the first time. Your parents are with you, it's a beautiful day and there's so much space to explore … but you don't know what to make of all the other kids, who are all shapes and sizes.

But on that first day you meet a really cool big kid, and he takes a gentle interest in you. He offers you a stick to play with. You reach out to take it, and he doesn't quite give it to you because he wants to show you how to play with it.

He pulls back a bit and then you have to chase him to get it. You forget that he's twenty times your size and go after him. He doesn't run too fast if you have little legs and will come back to give you the stick again. He bends his legs down so he's a bit closer in height than you are. This time you're brave enough to try to take it from him, because you know he's not going to hurt you.

He pretends to tug hard, even though he could just grab it and send you flying across the horizon with no effort. But he won't do that because he'd lose a new playmate.

 

Next time you come back to the park, you'll feel more confident. You know you don't have to bark loudly to frighten off the kids there or to impress your parents. You see your friend playing with other dogs, and you know you can join in.

Your friend's name is Munson.

The streets of Newtown

On the footpath where Australia Street intersects with King Street Newtown, there are dozens of metal pavers threading their way through the regular bricks. Most people probably walk over them without ever noticing the diversity of inspiration to be seen. Above are a few of my favourites.

Here's something else you might find underfoot…

Socialising

It's been a very social September so far - my friends Vance & Meme around for dinner;

Munson has been chatting with the cat from next door;

and last Friday the regular dog crowd at Sydney Park had another BBQ evening.

 

Goldilocks memories

This picture was sent by Iwona in Scotland, taken almost exactly two years ago.

Bondi was like a reverse-Goldilocks, a little bear who would steal into human's beds when they weren't looking. However for Bondi, every bed was just right.

There must be thousands of pictures taken of Bondi by different people around the world, from the earliest days of tourists snapping pictures of him at Pike Place Market in Seattle, right through to our epic journey of recent years. I wish there were a way to gather them all up in one site. That would be very right.

My Dog Tulip

via A Different Stripe