Serene Scenery Sunday

Greetings to all!  It's me - Maggie - here with Serene Scenery Sunday.  Are you ready to take a look around with us and see some of the sights that made us smile this week?  (I mean other than treats and new boxes and stuff.)

"Let's start down in our garden!"
"Yes, let's!"

Mom doesn't have any cool action shots of what Cammie and I were doing in the yard because on that day, as she hadn't yet learned how to use the rapid fire mode on the new camera yet.  Instead of seeing us, here are some flowers:

Rose of Sharon, the colorful kind

Rose of Sharon, the white kind

Let's throw some bugs in there, too!  (Unfortunately, no photos to share of my new favorite - the Cicada!  Oh, are THOSE fun to catch!!!  And you should hear how excited my mom gets about it!  She must like them as much as I do, because she always takes them away from me so she can have them all to herself!)  Anyway, here is a bee on our Lavender:

And here is a bee on our Sedum:

Our Butterfly Weed is still going full throttle:

Butterfly Weed

Speaking of "full throttle" ... Mom took Cam on a really fun ride this week.  They were all excited afterwards because they saw a Kingfisher and Mom was able to get some shots of it.  I love going for rides, so I asked if I could go on one, too.  I gave Mom the look no one can say "no" to.  No one!  Are you ready?  Brace yourselves; this one is a doozy.  Here you go:

Me

That's the look I did in some of my baby pictures that made my mom and dad fall in love with ME and pick ME as the one they wanted to adopt.  I only use it when I have to.  And in this case ...

"Why, yes, Mom!  I WOULD like to go for a ride!"

I mean, really.  Would you be able to resist that face?  Of course not.  So I got to go for a ride!  And Mom?  Well ... look who we stumbled into again:

BOOM!  Mrs. Kingfisher! 

I hope that all makes you feel as serene as it does us!  Have a wonderful Sunday.

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Portrait Time

Hello, everyone!  As Maggie told you the other day, our mom has a new camera.  At first, I wasn't too thrilled with the idea, but then I tried to look at the bigger picture -- if she wants to test that baby out on us, she's going to need to reward us!  Am I right?  Of course!  So when she asked Mags and me to come outside to do some portrait work, we were all set!  Let's take a look:

"Does she have treats, Cam?"
"I'm not sure..."

I mean seriously - no treats, no nice posing! Mom tried us on the front porch.

"See any yet?"
"No.  And I'm getting bored."

"Me, too.  Let's both do our Bored Look."
"Got it."

What was she thinking, coming outside without treats?!?

She decided to try again, in the house.  Here we are:

"Wait!  I smell those Fruitable treats!"
"I love those!  Let's do this thing!"

There is NOTHING wrong with being food-motivated! Nothing at all!

Mom wanted to try the flash out, too.

"Do you have any more Fruitables?"
"This 'WAIT' thing is killin' me!"

One of us might have been getting a little anxious to move on to more "active" things!

So, anyway - there are some shots from the new camera! Hope you all like them.

Cammie!

PS: OK, OK. To be honest, we DID get treats outside. Mags and I were just a bit more ... distracted than Mom wanted us to be!

Photo Finish Friday

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cam.  We had a little thunderstorm this morning, then it turned into a nice drizzle.  To celebrate (we need the rain, badly!) we went for a walk:

"This is great, Cam!  Let's find another puddle!"
"I love the way the rain feels on my fur!"

The rain helped cool things down a bit, too - at least for a little while!

I hope all of you have a wonderful day!

Cammie!

New Toy!

Greetings to all - it's me, Maggie!  As some of you already know, Mom got a new toy last week:

Mom's new toy

I couldn't be happier! Oh, no. Not about the camera. I mean, if it makes my mom happy, GREAT! But here's what I'm thrilled about:

"YAY!  A new TOY!!!"

That's right - it came in a BOX!!! Is that great or what?!?!

"I love it!  It's the perfect fit!!!"
"Is she getting treats?"
Mom, off-camera:  "No treats, Cam.  Just the box."

It's the perfect box!  Nice and roomy and SO FUN!

"Where did Cammie go?"

I love my new box!  Do you all love new toys as much as I do!?!?

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

PS:  To avoid confusion - these shots were taken with the iPhone, while the camera battery was charging!

Wordless Wednesday

Cammie! & Mags

Knock, Knock

Greetings to all, it's me, Maggie!  I heard a really good joke while I was on my morning walk the other day.  Want to hear it?  I was just walking down the street, when ...

"Knock, knock!"
"Who's there?"

"Sally!"
"Sally who?"

"Sally-mander!"

Ha roowooroo!!!  Sally-mander!!!  I hope you liked that one.

Sincerely yours, 

Margaret Thatcher

PS:  Many thanks to my dad for taking the pictures!

Something To Brighten Your Monday

Hello, everyone.  It's me, Cammie.  I know it's Monday, and for many of you that means the start of another work week.  Mom thought a nice photo of us girls would help brighten your day.  Let's go out on the deck and pose, shall we?

"This is my Monday face!"
"Hello.  ❤"

What can I say?  Are you smiling?  Then we've accomplished our task!

Have a great day!

Cammie!

Serene Scenery Sunday

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie, here with Cam for Serene Scenery Sunday.  We were so late putting up yesterday's post that we thought we'd just show you a couple shots of us enjoying the shade in our backyard.

"Oh.  Who, me?"
"Way to go, Mags!"

Oh. Right. My leash going straight up the wall? Yeah ... there's a good chance I followed Cammie's lead from the other day and jumped straight up the retaining wall. Pretty good, don't you think?  Right, Mom?  ... Mom?

"Double cute pose, Maggie!  Quick!"

A synchronized cute pose after a stunt like that is a sure-fire way to put some serenity back into the game.  Ha roo roo roo!

Have a great Sunday, everyone!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher - and Cammie!

The Second Part Of Our Recon Mission

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie, here with more photos from the Recon Mission I told you about yesterday.  So ... where was I?  (Figuratively, not literally ... since I'm still not quite sure about the latter - and neither is my m--moving right along ...)

We made one stop shortly after we found the water so Mom could snap this Great Egret:

Great Egret

There were actually a few of them, but this is the only one within photo-range.  Once she got back in the car, Mom started singing, "Egrets?  I saw a few.  But then again, too few to mention."  I think she's been listening to too much Frank Sinatra lately.  (Second verse here.)  And it could explain why the birds flew off.  A-hem.

We drove a little further and found a boat ramp. Mom thought that would be a possible kayak launch point. We got out and had a good look around.

"How beautiful!"

It was gorgeous! We saw lots of gulls:

And a couple Great Blue Herons!

I could see that guy from the boat ramp! We had a staring contest:

"I see you, Birdie!"

Both Mr. Heron and I heard a fish jump off in another direction and we turned to look at him:

"FISHIE!"

I think that means the staring contest was a draw.  Oh, well.  He was far more engaging than the buoy I beat over at the River Pond!

I jumped down off the steps-like area and walked onto the ramp to check it out.

"This looks like a good place to 'put in', Mom!"

It looked like a fine place to launch a kayak to me - and Mom agreed!  (It is indeed the launch-point they used the next day!)

We jumped back into the car and started driving again.  I noticed a boat in the water and some guy on skis chasing it!  It was crazy!  I thought the skier was going to catch the boat until ...

"SPLASH DOWN!"

I hope the skier was wearing a life vest!

We drove down to just before that "Road Ends In Water" sign and got out for a bit down there.

We had fun exploring, but there wasn't any wildlife to watch. That was pretty much of the mouth of Mill Creek, where it feeds into the big Tuttle Creek Lake. That thing is WAY bigger than the Kansas Ocean!

It was a great outing and yeah, like I said yesterday, we took "the scenic way" home.  And if we hadn't ... Mom never would have seen a Scissor-Tailed Fly Catcher for the first time!

Scissor-Tailed Fly Catcher

Nailed it!

Thanks for coming on our Recon Mission with us! Very successful mission indeed!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Our Recon Mission

Greetings to all, it's me, Maggie! The other day, Dad started talking about a place one of his friends said might be a good place to go kayaking. Mom was very interested, as she thought it might be a "wildlife-rich" area. It was decided ... somehow ... that Mom would go scope it out and that I'd go with her. How cool!  A recon mission!  Sort of.

Anyway, we drove and drove and drove ... and then everything around us looked like this:

"Sort of looks like the middle of Nowhere, Mom."

Just as an aside ... have Cam or I mentioned Mom's sense of direction lately?

We're talking farm field after farm field after -- well, you get the idea.  So then Mom told me that whoever rides shotgun is supposed to be the navigator and asked me if I'd looked at the directions yet.

"Well, no, but now that I see them, they do look tasty!
...and we just may have missed a turn back there."

I said we should keep going anyway!

Oh.

It might have been a better idea to take Dad's SUV instead of the sports-car, but it was a little late for that.  Besides ... LOOK!

WATER!

See?  I knew where we were going all along!  No problems, right, Mom?

Well, yeah, maybe one small problem.

Well, there could have been a problem there, but there wasn't.  We were able to turn around.

We decided to take a different road home, because the one we were on was supposed to loop around and then just get back on this 895S road and ... umm ...

You have no idea how confusing that area was.  But hey!  We worked it out!  After a while.  And several miles.  Right, Mom?

"This is so not good."

Besides, if we hadn't taken the scenic route, we never would have seen that Scissor-Tailed Fly Catcher!

Anyway ... while we were by the water, we had lots of fun walking around and looking at birdies and stuff.  And Mom and Dad did go kayaking there the next day!  I'll show you pictures of me exploring tomorrow.

In other news, it would appear that whoever is riding shotgun is no longer automatically the navigator.  At least we brought home good "intel"!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

My Favorite Toy

Greetings to all - it's me, Maggie!  The other morning after our walk, us girls went out on the deck with Mom, then eventually Mom took me into the backyard to play.  That sounded great, only ...

"I'd rather play with my favorite toy, Mom."

I mean - we all have our favorites, right? Mom said it was OK, so ...

"Yea!!!  CAMMIE!!!"

Cammie is way more fun to play with than any toy!

"Thanks for playing with me, Cam!"

Then I bet Cam that she couldn't grab me - 'cause I'm so fast and all!  But ... umm ...

"Gotcha, Peeps!"
"Hey!  Wait a minute!"

Wow, does Cammie have some moves!!!  And she's super-fast when she wants to be!!!

"Oh, don't worry, readers.  I'm not hurting her.  She's my little puppy and I know how to play nice."
"Ergh!"

I got out of Cam's grip and challenged her to a footrace! I mean - sure, she pinned me, but I can out-sprint her, right?

"Ha roooo!  Try to catch me, Mags!"
"Hey!  Wait a minute!!!"

She is F-A-S-T!!!

I think we are both airborne here!

And then ...

"Hey ... where did she go?!?"

Cammie ran so fast, I couldn't tell where she had gone!  I ran back the way we came - and then I saw her!

"WHEE!!!"
"WOW!  How did you DO that?!?!"

That's right - that's Cammie leaping up and over the retaining wall.  She had run clear around to the second tier down, then raced over and jumped UP to the first tier!!!  WOWZERS!

Mom made some note about amending the rule about not jumping off the retaining walls to not jumping UP them, either, but puh-lease.  Cammie looked AWESOME doing that - and I can't wait to try it out!

Anyway, what great fun!  We played a while more, then Mom said it was time to get busy in the garden.  Here's one last action shot of us, helping Mom while she tended the tomatoes:

"You're doing a fine job, Mom!"
"Yep.  Great job."

We were a tiny bit tired or else we would have been more hands-on.

I'm sure glad Mom let me play with my favorite "toy"!  

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher