I know I’m late with this one. I didn’t think I’d have anything for you this week.

Having looked through my recent photo files and found nothing of any real interest, I looked further and further back and found a beautiful photo, but .. for me, Finding Beauty isn’t merely about the physical, but needs to include some wider meaning.

So the day wore on and the time came for us to take Sid out for his second walk, and as I was getting him dressed in his warm coat and finding the lead with the reflective strips, OH suddenly made a dash for the door and disappeared without us.  I carried on getting us ready, because I’m kind of used to these odd kicks in his gallop, but when he returned I was truly surprised.

He came through the door bearing that gorgeous bunch of red roses that you see up there.   And he looked worried.

‘I’m sorry!’ he said, as he gave them to me. ‘I’m really sorry, but I can’t leave them in the car, they’ll freeze!’

I took them, I oohed and aaahed, and sniffed deeply.  They smelled divine.  Pure sweetness, powdery and rich.  And I thanked him and kissed him, as you do.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said again.

‘Why are you sorry?’ I asked, bewildered.

‘But it’s not the day!’ he replied.

See, that’s finding beauty, right there.  Not only does my lovely husband buy me a huge bunch of fragrant red roses for Valentine’s Day after thirty-two years of being married*, but he frets over getting it right.

The roses are very beautiful, and they’ll give me a lot of pleasure while they last, but the thought behind them is priceless, and even more beautiful than they are.

Does it matter that it’s ‘not the day’?  Not at all.  It matters that he bought them for me, and that he took the trouble to sniff each and every bunch to make sure he got the scented ones.  It matters that he loves me.

There’s really nothing more beautiful than that.

*Oops .. I just realised it’s thirty-three, not thirty-two!

This week’s ABC Wednesday post begins, most unusually, with a Photoshopped picture of the Princess and the Pirate singing a duet. Oh, it’s true that they did sing a duet, and they were in the conservatory when they did it, but they weren’t actually on the same bed, so I had to cut’n'paste, so to speak. See that little plastic hamburger toy? That’s what did it. Jack had only been with us for a week or so when he discovered this thing and took it to his bed to play with. And it squeaked at him, so he dropped it and looked disconcerted, then bit it again .. and it squeaked. And he squeaked back and the more the toy squeaked, the more Jack squeaked and yelped until he was pointing his nose to the ceiling and delivering a most spectacular roo. And then Princess Renie joined in, though judging by her face she had absolutely no clue why she was doing it. And amazingly enough, I was able to grab the camera and snap some shots.

This particular duo were very fond of each other and while they seldom shared a bed, they did like to be close.

You see, Jack was a very twitchy little fellow and couldn’t bear to have anyone touching him while he slept.  I think Renie would have liked to double up in a bed, but he wouldn’t let her so she used to get just as close as she could.  Just occasionally, with great delicacy, she’d manage to get a paw on him without disturbing his sleep.

The did love their big soft beds, but didn’t matter if there were none nearby, they’d simply drop to the carpet and doze there.   One day I took a picture looking down on them from above.  And as you can see, they’d just finished their dinner.

And talking of dinner – here they are eating.  This was in the month before she died, and Renie was hungry but didn’t want to jump down from her chair.  She ate her entire dinner like this, in the ‘downward dog‘  position.

And finally, just for fun, I snapped this picture for you this morning.

I invite you to guess what’s going on here.  Could it be that Data and Mr Depp (in his persona as Jack Sparrow) went to say hi to Sid, whereupon our brave dog took it upon himself to dismember poor Data?  As you can see, he’s missing a hand already and the other one is inside Sid’s mouth, probably getting dented!   As to Cap’n Jack .. is he defending his friend?  I dunno.  Seems to me more likely that he’s determined to keep his treasure chest!

Life is never dull with a dog!

I promised you something easier for Macro Monday this time, didn’t I? And I’m glad I did, because I stayed up till 3am watching the Superbowl last night so I’m not exactly firing on all cylinders myself!

So there it is. After that fiendishly difficult puzzle last week (the absinthe spoon, if you remember), I present you with a very ordinary, everyday object. One that you’ll find in most kitchens – at least in the UK, USA, and New Zealand. Never having travelled outside those areas myself, I cannot say for sure, but I suspect that this item is fairly widespread across the globe.

Instantly recognisable, seen as a whole, this may be too easy for you clever people, but I’m hoping it will be fun anyway!

As usual, check back tomorrow evening (UK time) for the answer. I’ll add a link to the big picture at the bottom of this post, and also the answer will turn up in the comments at some point. And thank you all for playing!

And here we are on Tuesday evening and I expect you’re all waiting for the answer, huh? Well, here you go! Congratulations (once again) to our champion guesser, Colleen! And to our joint winner Quilly – yes, you were right, too! Well done you two – the others were nowhere even close!

But I bet a lot of them will be kicking themselves! Tee hee.

Well, not so much Mr Sid, as Mr Sid’s footprints.

I didn’t set out to adopt a tripod.  I just went to the kennels to look at the dogs because I was missing my beloved greyhounds so much after losing them both within weeks.  I wanted to be around joyful, happy hounds, just for an hour or so.  I wasn’t ready to adopt again, I thought, but I was desperate for greyhound company.

And when S opened the door and her current residents bounded forth, Sid stole my heart.

I didn’t notice that he only had three legs to start with, because he was just as fast, and just as bouncy as the others, but as he turned to go back into the house for a drink of water, I did notice (with a little shock) that he wasn’t quite complete.  Of course, by then, it was too late, because his beautiful face, and the beautiful soul that shone out from his eyes, had already reached out and grabbed me. Later when OH met Sid, he said it was the same way for him, and he didn’t even want to look at any of the other dogs. Sid, he said, was the one.

And it’s funny, because he’s been with us for over six months now, and we’re so used to his bouncing hop that we often forget that he has a leg missing.  There are still times when we look at him and it hits us, with that same little shock, that he only has three.  There are even times when I see him get up and walk across the room and I think ‘why is my dog limping?’

I took that photo up there in the last light snowfall we had.  I was bringing him home up our icing-sugared driveway when I noticed the pretty little trail he was leaving in the untouched snow.

Sid isn’t untouched.  He’s had his hard knocks.  But he’s still beautiful – inside and out.

For more Friday Finding Beauty posts, visit Claudia at Dipity Road.