End Of The Season

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie. Yesterday, Cam and I had what might end up being the last pool party of the 2016 season.  Sad as it is, it means SNOW is right around the corner, so that's GREAT!!  Well, OK, maybe not snow, but we're heading into cooler weather. Anyway, we played Crazed River Otter Games (CROG), had a pool party, and Cam even took an outdoor shower!  I thought I'd show you some of the highlights today.

Here we are during a round of CROG:

"Say hi, Cam!"
"Hi, everybody!"

We were playing the Queen of the Landing version.

"I'm the Queen of the Landing!"
"No, I am!"

"Gotcha!"
"Mrrrfff!"

That round went to Cam, I must admit.  We moved on to the pool party.  I helped Mom fill it up.

"How's this, Mags?"
"Just about there, Mom!"

I'm pretty sure she wouldn't know how to do it without my supervision.

When we got it all set, I called Cam over.

"That's good, Mom.  Hey, Cam!  Are you coming?!?!"

She said to get started without her.  Here's a little video:

To view on YouTube, please click here!

True to her word, Cam eventually came down and joined me.  She ended up getting so wet that Mom grabbed our shampoo, wet her down all the way, then soaped her up!  After a nice rinse, she jumped back into the pool!

"Don't get suds in the pool!"
"I'm all rinsed, Mags!"

We played more CROG to get dried off, then raced up the deck stairs.

"I win!"
"What's this?  A bug?  Oh, wait.  Did you already get it?"

Anyway, we had great fun! I wish all of you could have joined us. And who knows. With Kansas' weather as it is, we may well have more pool parties this season!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Indoor Playtime

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  The other day, Cam and I were super bored after our walk, playtime on the deck, and a round of Crazed River Otter Games (CROG), so Mom said we could spend some time playing with our "supervised only" toys!  Ya and hoo!

Cam grabbed her pumpkin, and I went for Sneaky Snake.

Cam and her pumpkin, me and Sneaky Snake

After a bit, Cam moved over to the bed by the fireplace. I was starting to lose interest in just  laying around trying to rip Sneaky Snake to pieces  playing ever-so-carefully with my toy, and decided to see if Cam wanted to switch.  ... but then Sneaky is so fun to play with ... I just couldn't decide!  Here's a short video of how I handled the situation:

To view on YouTube, please click here.

So, yeah. I went back to playing with Sneaky Snake.

I seem to remember Sneaky having a much, much longer tail ....

At least I remembered to spit all the snake guts out -- right?!?

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Wordless Wednesday

Cammie!

Meeting Interuptus

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  I'm just here with Maggie, discussing our ...

"What?  Who, us?  No ... we aren't doing anything, Mom."
"Ha roo roo roo ..."

Well. We had been laying out our plans for the rest of the week, but we were interrupted!

Why does Mom always think we're up to something?!?

Cammie!

TV Show Review

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  I haven't talked TV shows or movies with you in quite a while, so I thought I'd let you know about my latest viewing.  We've been watching Poldark -- no, not the new one, the 1970s version.

"Aw, the little biped's crying!"

They have some pretty good horse chase scenes, a fight scene here and there, but other than that, it's sort of soap opera-esque.

"Cam, aren't you going to watch Poldark?"
"No.  I don't like Poldark!"

Oh.  Well, in that case ...

"Let's PLAY!"
"Now you're talking!"

So while it's not that hot of a show, I do like it -- because rather than settling in to watch it, Cammie wants to PLAY when it comes on! For that reason alone, I give it a paws up!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Serene Sunday

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  Today, for Serene Sunday, I thought I'd show you my soft, sweet, snuggly side.

Me and Mom

I hope your Sunday is filled with plenty of serenity!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

She's Doing It Again

Hello, everyone. It's me, Cammie. She's doing it again. Maggie, I mean.

"Do you see this?"
"Y'ello!"

"Seriously, Maggie.  You worry me sometimes."
"I'm embracing my inner feline."

"Mom?  I think we might need to hold an intervention."
"Meow."

Sigh.  I just don't get her sometimes!

Cammie!

Flower Friday

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Today, we're joining with our beautiful friend Dory to celebrate Flower Friday!  Let's start here on the front porch ...

Maggie and me at Ao4 Headquarters

As you can see, our porch planters are still going strong!  The Electric Lime Coleuses (in the pot right behind our "God Bless America" flag and in the pot on the far right) have done really well, as has the Fishnet Stockings Coleus (the pot behind the limestone on the porch).  Mom hopes to plant both types again next year.

Now let me show you around the back gardens a bit!

Everything in the Friendship Garden looks so good!

"This makes me so happy!"

The different Sedum plants Mom put in the pots are all doing really well, as are the various ornamental grasses and the Sedums she started from cuttings.  Here is one of the sedum plants Mom started from a cutting that a neighbor-friend gave her:

Neighbor Jim Sedum

Isn't that PINK wonderful!?!?  I love pink!

The BIG deal in our garden right now, as Maggie showed you on Sunday, is our Maximillian Sunflowers!

Me, striking a pose beside the Maximillian Sunflowers

You can get a pretty good feel for how HUGE they are there.  They are planted just below the wall I'm on.  As Maggie said, they're probably about 8 feet tall!

Another shot of me and the Max Sunflowers

Mom planted them where they have plenty of room to sprawl, but she is considering trimming them back next season, not just at the start of the season, but also right before the blooms start.  If any of you or your peeps have any experience with Maximillian Sunflowers, please let us know!  This is our first year with them!

One more shot of the Sunflowers:

"I feel so peaceful here..."

Mom has seen people stopping to admire them, and that makes her really happy.

I'll leave you with another pop of pink:

The Crape Myrtles match my collar and leash; that makes me smile!

I hope you enjoyed our garden tour for Flower Friday! Please check out Dory's post and see who else is joining the tour!

Cammie!

What A Walk!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Cam and I took Mom on a GREAT walk this morning, and I can't wait to tell you about it!

It started pretty much like any other walk ...

"Huh.  'Road work ahead'."
"We're doing some road work of our own, right, Mags?"

I'm not sure what they're doing there; they hadn't started work yet.

At the entrance to Hudson Trail, we ran into our Bichon friend Dexter and his mom.  That was pretty cool; he's a nice little guy.  After we visited for a couple minutes, we decided to turn right down that part of the trail for a change.

"This is great!"
"We haven't been down this part of the trail for quite a while!"

We did two legs of the trail, then stopped to pose for pictures.

"How's this, Mom?"
"Yeah, whatever..."

Then Cam told me Mom had some treats in her pocket, so ...

"Smile, Mags!"
"Ha roo, Mom!"

We had about 3 or 4 people come by during our shoot.  They loved us!  One lady said we looked like a picture in a magazine.  Obviously, she reads great magazines!  Another lady stood there talking to Mom for a long, long time.  She couldn't keep her hands off us, and kept saying how soft and sweet and well-behaved we were.  She asked Mom if we were that calm all the time.  Once Mom stopped laughing (nice, Mom, real nice) ... well, you know.  Though I must say, I'm not sure she believed Mom.  I mean the proof was right in front of her!  ... getting ear rubbie-dubbies and sweet-talk and ooooh, it just felt so good!

Anyway!  Eventually, we double-backed down the trail, and headed home.  We were just about to start the downhill stretch when I saw it!  A CAT!  A huge, black cat, right there on the sidewalk!  He was taking up the whole thing, just acting like he owned the place!

Seriously!

Brace yourselves!

It was HUGE!

A huge CAT!!!

With an attitude, I might add.

Take a look!!!

Cam went in first to check it out:

"Seriously, Maggie?!?"

Well, it seemed huge at the time.  I got a BIT closer ...

"Ha roo, kit-cat!"

Oh.  Umm... yeah.  You can't see him there, as he might have been in my mouth.  I just wanted to bring him home, but Mom said someone might be looking for him. I haven't seen any posters up saying anyone has lost a kit-cat, but still, Mom said we should leave it there. Or she might have said, "Leave it." One of the two. Sigh. He seemed like a pretty cool kit-cat.  I set him down in the shade.  It's going to be in the 90s again today; I'd hate for him to get over-heated.

"See you guys!"

Anyway, what a great walk! Thanks for coming with us! The drinks are on me!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Wordless Wednesday

Cam and Mags

Very Funny

Greetings to all.  It's me, Maggie.  So ... my mom got these cool-looking things to help stretch out her feety-feet and ...

Very funny, Mom. I know you PhotoShopped it. ... didn't you?

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

The One That Got Away

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  The other morning, Maggie and I took Mom on a delightful walk.  It started out like this:

Mags and me

Now, we could have been anywhere in that picture, but we were on our way to here:

"This is great!"
"Isn't it wonderful?!?"

That's right - we went down my favorite hill!

From there, we made a slight turn and stopped by the Kansas Ocean for a photo shoot.

"Don't look at her, Maggie."
"Got it, Cam."

She didn't have treats.  She also didn't have her camera (just the iPhone) ... which would explain why there was a Great Blue Heron posing on the rocks sticking out into the Kansas Ocean.

"Hey, Mom, isn't that a pretty birdie?"
"It's the one that got away, right, Mom?"

Mom wasn't real happy that she was "unarmed", camera-wise.  We thought we should give her a nice pose to help her get over it.

"Everybody say, 'Cheese.'"
"Cheese!"
... from out on the rocks, "Frog legs!"

We decided to head home after that.  The Great Blue may have been the one that got away, but at least the  two  three of us posed nicely for her!

Cammie!

Serene Scenery Sunday

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  For this week's dose of serenity, I thought we'd take a walk around our gardens to see what's happening.  Ready?

Do you remember Mom planted a couple Maximillian Sunflower plants for the first time this year?  She knew they were going to get big, but ...

The southwest corner of our garden

Yeowzers!  They are planted one tier down from what you see - about a 2-3 foot drop there. Some of the stalks are maybe 2 inches in diameter and are up to 8 feet tall!  Let's get closer!

Maximillian Sunflowers!

Mom is thrilled with how bold and colorful they are - even if they are a bit "untidy"!  Look at who else loves these:

Butterfly on Sunflower!

There were butterflies all OVER the flowers!

Mom thought it would be a good idea for me to sit in front of them. You know - a nice "pose in front of the Sunflowers". OK.

"You have treats, don't you?  I'm bored."

Nice, but ... missing something. I had another idea!

"Wait.  I'm doing my serene face."

I thought it was going pretty well, but for some reason Mom asked me to come out of there.  Could have been because I started nibbling on the flowers.  Hey!  She doesn't mind when the butterflies and bees do it!  Besides, perhaps if someone had been a bit more forthcoming with the treats, I wouldn't have had to resort to munching on Sunflowers.

Moving right along ...

"Yeah, whatevs."

Let's see what else is going on!

"Ooh, the Purple Emperor Sedum is looking good!"

Check it out:

Bee on sedum

The bees love those things!  I remembered not to try to eat them.  Go, me!

Oh, yeah!  And the coolest thing right now is the butterflies that are all OVER our Butterfly Garden!  It's Monarch Migration right now, and we're happy to report they've been making themselves at home here in the Ao4 Gardens!  Mom has as of yet to get a good photo, but she did get this other kind of butterfly:

Butterfly on Butterfly Bush

We're really happy they've found a temporary home in our gardens!

Mom also went out to a big Sunflower patch across from the Kansas State University football stadium this week to do some shooting.  This is her favorite from that stack of photos:

Incoming!

If you'd like to see more of the "big" Sunflowers, please click here to visit our FlickR album.

We hope our photos added a little serenity to your day!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher