Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me, Zim, here with Serene Scenery Sunday.  It may be Fall here in the great state of Kansas, but there is still a lot going on out in the gardens.  Let's have a look around; maybe we'll find some serenity together!

Remember the trip I took out to the Flint Hills Landscape place?  Mom got a bunch of new plants to put in - some Variegated Liriope that she scattered around our front gardens (where they can get some shade) and out back (where we have full sun all day long), she put in some Shenandoah Switchgrass.  Or Switchgrasses.  Hmm.  Moving right along - here is a look at two of them:

They're right by the Lavender plants she put in earlier this Summer.  They should be very happy and colorful together.

Let's look for the Liriope.

"BINGO!"

There's one - at the back part of the upper garden!  Here's a closer look:

Isn't it nice?  I'm sure my friend Sandy helped grow it.  I'll think about her when I see it - and the rest of the plants we got there!

Our Mums are blooming all over the place!  Well, actually not quite "all over the place" so much as mostly over here:

"Hey, look!  It's my mum's Mums!  Ha roo roo roo!"

We've got rusty-golden colored ones:

And crazy pink ones:

And white ones!  

There are some burgundy ones over by the mailbox, but they aren't blooming yet.  I have no idea what they're waiting for!  Look at how much fun the other ones are having!



Yeah.  The burgundy ones need to hurry up and join the party!

Speaking of parties ... check out the Purple Love Grass!

"The frothy things look like sparklers when the sun hits them!"

It's really thriving in there with the rocks and sedum plants!

Are you in your Zen of Zim Zone yet?  Not quite there, huh?  Well, this should send you over the top.  We've had some gorgeous sunsets lately.  How about we check out one together?  Just face west, clear your mind, and tilt your snooter to the sky ...

... and check the view over the Flint Hills:

While we're at it, I'm going to toss up a little prayer, letting God know how magnificent that sunset is and how much I appreciate it!  So much beauty ...

I hope your Sunday is a serene one!

Play bows,
Zim

Planning Session

Woo, everypup and everycat.  It's me, Dave.  Zim and I had a little planning session last night about what we wanted to do this weekend.  It was pretty exciting, as you can imagine - what to do next:  go exploring, do zoomies, help Mom make some tasty treats, play with our toys, go on car rides, meet up with some friends ... it all sounded great!

We decided to get right on it ...

"Zzzzz..."

"Zzzzz..."

... after we recharge our batteries a bit.  Ha woo.

Have a great weekend!

Luv,
Dave

Photo Finish Friday

Woo, everypup and everycat!  It's me, Dave, here with Photo Finish Friday!!!  What a great week it's been here at Ao4 Headquarters - we got some rain, we had a couple days of cooler, go-for-longer-walks weather, and Zim and I have had all kinds of great fun.  While he's been out on his cool adventures, I've had tons of fun, too!  I thought I'd give you a brief look into what I've been doing with a few pix and just a couple words.

Ready?

"Let's show 'em what we've got, Mom!"

Here's one of the fun things I did this week!  Check it out:

"Squeaky bone!!!"

Yep!  I got to have lots of fun playing with Mom and my canvas squeaky toy!

It's got the directions right on it, in case you get carried away and forget what to do!  
Woo.

But wait!  That's not all!  We went through our toy box and I found one I hadn't played with in a long, long time!

Mine!

It's my squeaky plastic barbell.  It just barely squeaks these days.  It tries hard, though, so I really like it.

I hope you had as much fun this week as we did!

Luv,
Dave

Since You Asked!

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me, Zim!  Remember my post from the other day - the one of me going for a very cool car ride?  Our very talented and kind friend Cindy asked, "Did you just drive around in the car or was there more to the adventure?"  Thanks for asking!  Sometimes we just drive somewhere to do something real quick, and then other times ... like day before yesterday ...

There we were, driving and driving.  Once we got on the other side of town and kept going, I knew there could only be one place we could be headed - to see my friend Sandy!  I was so excited!

As soon as we got there, I checked to see if she was there!

"Sandy!  Are you here?!?  It's me - Zim!"

I didn't see her anywhere, so I found some higher ground.

"Ha roooo?!?"

No response.  Hmm.  I looked all over the place for her.

"Ha roo in there!?!"

No luck.  I checked over by the water feature ...

"Sniff... sniff... must not get my feety-feet wet... sniff..."

I picked her scent up, but it seemed old.  

"Sandy's been here, alright!"
Note:  Mountain Goats.  Siberian Huskies.  Whatever. ☺

That was about when my friend Tara came over to greet us and to help Mom find what she was looking for - and she let me know that Sandy was away on vacation.  Or a business trip.  I can't remember, but she wasn't there!  Rats!

Not wanting to waste a really cool car ride, I shook off my disappointment and did some exploring.

"Check these out, Mom!"

For the record, Mom really liked those large river rocks and I think we should go back and get some.  Oh.  You know.  In Dad's SUV instead of the sports car.  It would just be a coincidence if Sandy was back from her trip.

Moving right along...

I thought we should check out this area:

"Hmmm!"

I promised to be on my best behavior and got the green light to proceed!  Take a look at what I saw:

"Fishies!"

Aren't they cool?!?  I sat there and watched them for a good, long while!  It was very relaxing.  I think Mom should make a cool fish pond like that for us - don't you?  And of course, that might require multiple trips out to Sandy's place for supplies and all...

I struck one more pose for Mom before we headed back home:

The money shot!  (Maybe even more so, if I had been looking at the camera...)

I'm sorry I didn't get to see Sandy, but I did have a great time anyway!  It was great fun to do some exploring, Tara is always very kind to us, and Mom got some new plants to put in our garden.  What a great trip!

Thanks for asking, Cindy!

Play bows,
Zim

Wordless Wednesday

Play bows,
Zim

Zimstigating & Navigating

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  So... there we were on Saturday.  Dad was flipping back and forth between college football games and a PGA tournament, Dave was  napping  helping Dad, and Mom ... Mom thought she was going to fold laundry and watch sports.  I had other plans.  It went something like this:

"Who's ready for a little fun?"

It took a bit of running around, doing some ha roo-ing and zoomies, pretty much launching into full Zimstigator mode.  It was great!  I kept it up only a short while before Dad suggested to Mom that she take me on an adventure.  As Colonel Smith used to say on that cool The A-Team show, "I love it when a plan comes together!"  Ha roo roo roo!  (He didn't say the "ha roo roo roo" part - that's me!)

Moving right along ...

I switched from Zimstigator to navigator in a heartbeat.  That's my serious face up there, can you tell?  No horsing around in the car - it's not safe!  Speaking of safe ...

"School zone!"

Always slow down and look for kids in a school zone!  Even on weekends; you just never know.

There's the KSU football stadium!

"Hey!  It's game day!  Where is everyone?!!?"
"It's an away game this week, Zim.  They're in Oklahoma."
"Oh.... right.  I knew that!  Go Cats!"

They're doing a whole bunch of improvements and renovations and stuff.  All privately funded, no soaking the tax payers for it.  Very nice.

We drove by another college in town, too:

This one's for Nora B. Webster's mom!

It was fun tooling around town!  I suggested we stop here!  I thought maybe we could pick up some cold drinks for everyone ...

"Sonic!"

... but we decided by the time we got everything, stopped and did some exploring at the park, then got everything home,  the ice would be melted.  Maybe next time!

I hope you enjoyed our car ride as much as I did!

Play bows,
Zim

Sunflower Safari II

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me, Zim.  Yesterday was another one of those postcard-perfect days here in Kansas, so Mom and I went out on another Sunflower Safari!  One of the plants we saw last week and thought might be a Compass Plant might or might not be, so we went back up to hunt for it again and to try to take pix of the back -- something called the bract.  Something about having more information to go on. Who knows!?!  I just saw Mom reach for her camera and keys and knew we were off to have some fun!

When we got up by where they were, I was the one to find the wildflower in question:

"They're right here, Mom!"

Who's the mighty (wildflower) hunter?!?  That's right - me!  Ha roo!

Here's a shot of the bract:

Mom also needed to shoot the leaves - I jumped in there so she'd have a lighter background and ... err ... more contrast.  You know, so you can see the leaves better.

Seriously.  You can see the leaves much better with me in there.

When I cleared out, this guy moved in:

Or maybe he was in there all along and that's why Mom suggested I get my snooter out of there.

I have to say, he was a pretty cool guy.  (You could even say he was "the bees knees" ... but I probably shouldn't be so pun-ny on a Monday, should I?)

After admiring him for a while, something across the way caught my eye!

"Mom!  Check this out!"

At first, Mom thought I was just admiring some thistle flowers, but then she zoomed in and saw what I did!  Check it out!

For the record, I had nothing to do with that notch in the butterfly's wing

I could have watched that butterfly all afternoon!  It was so beautiful!

Eventually, it finished doing its pollen dance and left.

Mom said we should probably get back, too.

I hope you enjoyed our most recent hunting trip!

Play bows,
Zim

Serene Scenery Sunday

Woo, everypup and everycat!  It's me, Dave, here with some photos to help get you into a wonderfully serene state of mind.  Let's start with a panoramic sunset!

Sunset over the Flint Hills.  And the neighbors' roof.

For the record, there weren't two moons out, accompanying the setting sun; I think Mom has a speck of dust or something on the lens of her iPhone.  Woo.

Remember the PowWow Wild Berry Echinacea we planted on one of our south-side-of-the-house tiers?  Let's go check in on them!

I sent Mom over the walls for some close ups!  Check these out:

I like that bold pink!  

You know what else is bold pink and blooming?  Some of the mums out front!

This is their time to thrive, so I'm sure we'll be sharing more pix of them with you in the weeks to come!

Tucked in the back part of that part of the garden is one of our Russian Sage plants.  This is a Lacey Blue Perovskia - we thought the drought/heat and a certain friend of Zim's who stomped it shortly after Mom planted it had killed it, but it's making a come-back!

"Привет."
(Oh.  I studied Russian at the SZK School of Siberian Studies for a while.
I thought it would help the Russian Sage if I greeted it in its own language.)

If you look closely, like I was, you can even see some of the purple flowers!  (Mom found the brick chunks when she was digging in the garden and put them there to help protect the plant.)

Speaking of digging in the garden, Mom took out a bunch of dead bushes and put in three new-to-her kinds of sedum.  Here's one of them:

That's a Lime Zinger Sedum in front of one of the Blue Dune Grasses she planted earlier this season.  I like that name - Lime Zinger!  You know who really likes that name?

"Now that's a cool name for a plant!  And I can sedum from here!"

Ha woo.  Even when he's in his Zen of Zim Zone, he's funny!

You know what else we can see from way up here on the deck?  The "14-inch" ornamental grass.  Take a look!

Plume Grass

The facts that (1) Mom checked the label before she planted the grass and that (2) the plumes are about 10 feet tall now make her serene.  Ha woo.

That's all I've got for you this week.  I hope you feel as serene from all of this as I do.

Me, Dave, so thankful for all the beauty that surrounds us.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Luv,
Dave