Newfoundland dogs Henry and Enzo both really enjoy the novelty of snow at home, as we do.

The snow at home started in earnest around 7:15 am on Monday August 15, 2011. It seemed to pick up the pace around 4pm that evening and continued until around 11am Tuesday 16th, when it promptly turned to rain.

The snow got fairly deep in places, in the middle of the lawn it measured 24.5 cms.

We had to restrict Enzo, now three years of age, from running around in the snow as he was still in recovery, albeit much improved. This was hard work as he was very keen to play.

This is what can happen when an artist has an extra 15 minutes or so on their hands...

Rather than making the obligatory snowman, we thought we would have a snow Newf, which I christened 'Spot'. Unfortunately these pure white Newfoundlands are very stubborn & non - responsive, they drool way too much indoors and house training is an issue with ongoing puddles...

A friend of ours points out however, that these white Newfoundlands have lovely temperaments, just like melting snow.

On August 28, 2011 we made a trip to Mesopotamia, one of my favourite places.

Our Sister Maree & brother-in-law Alan joined us, making it a fun family trip

We had a great day and I hope that I found some good material for at least a couple of oil paintings. Needless to say the 'Newfy boys' enjoyed themselves.

We woke on the morning of September 02, 2011 to another dusting of snow. I decided that I would take the opportunity to look for material for a new painting so Henry, Enzo and I headed to the Rakaia Gorge to see what we could find.

Henry appeared to appreciate the vista as much as I did...

The vista was the stuff that Kiwi travel brochures are made of...Definitely thoughts of a Newfy oil painting and art print based on the images I captured that morning, we'll let you know.

Enzo went for a swim just after this...talk about mid winter madness!

The boy's cart arrived in spring. To personalise it a little and to distinguish it from the Southern Newfoundland Society's carts, which arrived the same time, we painted this one black.

We found we can't call it a cart though because when we say that word both Newfs head for the car, thinking they are about to take a ride. Our neighbour has a black Toyota Hi Lux that is also a utility vehicle... we wonder if this might be the Hi Tux?

Having completed his first mission with the new cart within seconds, which was running over Enzo, Henry appeared to be relatively comfortable with the whole carting thing.

I didn't really mind the concept of being chauffeured around either...

More on carting as the next club carting day and the local Christmas parades come along.