Wordless Wednesday

Ragnar & Mags

 

Perfect Fall Day (Almost)

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags!  Today is one of those rare mornings in Kansas where it's just wonderful out - low 40s and sunny.  Perfect walking weather for Sibes and bipeds!  So after Ragnar and I had breakfast, we all headed out!

"I don't really feel like doing the Colbert route today."
"I think Mom said we're doing Anneberg!"

Whew.  Those two walks start out the same, but then we cross the big street if we're doing Anneberg Park!  Ragnar was right - we crossed the street, headed through a couple housing areas, ... 

"What a sunrise!"
"The perfect Fall day!!"

... crossed another big road, then before we knew it, we were at the park!

Mom wanted to get a shot of Ragnar, Dad, and me posing by the trail marker.

Me, Dad, and Raggi

Obviously Dad didn't get the memo about not facing the camera and smiling.  Bipeds!  So hard to train!

Here we are once we hit the trail:

Me and Ragnar

You can tell how happy I am by the smile on my face, can't you?  Ragnar was smiling too.  We love that trail!

The pond had some mist on it -- you can kind of see it here:

"Watch for goose poop!"
"Goose poop is right up there with acorns, isn't it?!?"

Ragnar and I have a LOT in common!  He's such a great brother!

"Almost to the end of the trail!"
"We should do another lap!"

Ragnar really wanted to go on another loop, but Mom and Dad said not today.  Apparently, Mom had plans for us when we got home.  Plans that would turn this day from the perfect Fall day to an ALMOST perfect Fall day.

Yep.  She used the ol' Master Blaster coat-blower supreme on us!  AND brushed our lovely coats.  Egads, I didn't see that one coming!  It wasn't too bad, though.  Just don't tell our mom I said that.

Here we are, posing for treats after the fluff cycle:

"Do you have the big Zuke's or those tiny ones?"
"The 5-calorie ones ..."
"Can we do this again tomorrow, Mom?"

One of us seems to like being groomed just a tad bit more than the other.  'Nuff said!

Have a great day, everyone!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Up And At 'Em!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  As many of you know, we head out on our walks mighty early - mostly to beat the heat in the warm months, but also to get a great jump start on the day!   

"Right, Ragnar?!?"
"...yawn... Yeah, Mags.  Jump start."

OK.  Maybe not all of us are exactly "morning people" ...

"Ah, what a great day!  Ready to roll, everybody?"
"I'm good to go, Mags!"

We're about a 50-50 split.  But Mom and Raggi do like getting a good, early start on the day!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

What An Adventure, The Final Chapter!

 Hi everybody!  It's me, Ragnar.  Today, Maggie and I are wrapping up our really cool adventure on the Hudson Trail.  Lots of these photos are wildflowers, so that ties in really nice with our regularly scheduled Serene Scenery Sunday.  Ready to take one last look?

The quest for wildflowers started as soon as we hit the grassy part of the trail.

"Beware of sunflowers, Ragnar!"
"Mom?  Are we going to stop and take pix of all of them?"
"Not allllllllll of them ..."

Before we even got to that first big down-and-up, we paused to do some quick shooting:

Sunflowers!

Maximillian Sunflowers

More Maximillian Sunflowers

After that, Mags and I were ready to go!

"Let's get this off-roading party started!"
"Are you ready, Mom?"

Mom said she was ready, so we walked and walked and walked!  Much of our route looked like this:

Ah, Kansas!

It might look very plain, but if you look closely, you see things like the sunflowers, these bright blue flowers ...

Azure Blue Sage

More Azure Blue Sage

... and this beautiful kind of Goldenrod:

Showy Goldenrod

 I'm learning that Kansas really is a beautiful place - it doesn't take much to see the beauty everywhere!

"Oh, I hope we get to hike this trail again soon!"
"Me, too, Ragnar!  Oooh, look!  Another big hill!"

 

Thanks for coming on our big adventure with us!  We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did -- and we hope you have a very serene Sunday!

Sköl!

Ragnar

What An Adventure, Part 3!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags, here with the third installment of our great adventure - the "off-roading" part of the Hudson Trail.  We hope you've enjoyed parts one and two -- ready to continue our hike?

After we went over to Marlatt Park, we circled back to the grassy part of Hudson Trail.

Me and Ragnar, back on the Trail!

Here's a look back at where we had been -- the hill that you see is The Top Of The World!

We kept going and finally saw the edge of town in our sights:

"Up on the horizon is where we entered the trail!"
"We've still got a couple miles to go before we're there!"

How awesome!  We love our wide-open spaces here in Kansas!

"Is this great or what, Raggi?!!?"
"I love it!"

Ragnar was checking on Mom again.  He always does that; he wants Mom to be happy with what we're doing.  He's mighty sweet.  In a manly, Viking kind of way.

"I think Mom and Dad are enjoying this every bit as much as we are, Ragnar!"
"Then they're having an AWESOME time!"

 

Just when we thought the walk couldn't get any better ...

"WOW!  The trail goes down here!  How exciting!"
"Oooh.  Good sniffies here, Mags!"

Ragnar often takes the lead -- neither of us really cares, we don't really care about "alpha status" or anything; we're both laid back about that sort of thing.  But since he stopped to do some sniffing, I took the point!  We ran into THE Trippy Trap Bridge!  I mean, I'm SURE it's the real one!

Dad and I went over first, then Ragnar, then Mom.  Mom tried to get shots of us crossing, but it was slippery, round logs and our feety-feet were wet, so this is the best she could do:

Me, off-camera in the lead, Dad, and Ragnar crossing the bridge

Here's a look back at the Trippy Trap Bridge:

THE Trippy Trap Bridge! 

It was so cool!  No signs of Billy Goats or Trolls, though.  This time.

After the bridge, we headed up another small hill:

"Oooh!  Mud!"
"I love mud!"

We kept hiking, then eventually exited the trail the way we entered.  Here we are, back in civilization:

As you might be able to see, we got fairly muddy - wet grass, mud, dry dirt ... it happens.  But being Siberian Huskies, by the time we got home, we were clean.  We're magical like that.  And we might have gone through a few sprinklers.

Thanks for coming on our adventures with us!  Tomorrow, Ragnar will share some of Mom's wildflower shots with you -- just so he can make her happy.

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

What An Adventure, Part 2!

 Hi everybody!  It's me, Ragnar!  Given how many pix our mom took of yesterday's adventure, Maggie and I are going to take actually 3 days to fill you in on everything.  Mom was a little shutter-happy, if you know what I mean.  Anyway, when Maggie signed off yesterday, we were about to head down a giant hill!

The hill was grassy and wet from the dew, which made it a little slippery and a bit muddy!  Mags and I especially liked the muddy part.  Apparently, Mom doesn't like going down a steep, slippery hill while taking pix, so here we are at the bottom:  

"Wowzers, was that ever fun!"
"That was the BEST!"

On the way up the equally steep, slippery hill, I helped Mom take a shot of some Sunflowers:

"How's this, Mom?"
"Yeah, umm ... OK.  Thanks, Ragnar."

Here are some random shots of Mags and me hiking along the trail:

We both spent a lot of time with our snooters to the ground because wow, are there ever a lot of cool smells out there on the trail! 

Here's a great action shot, even if it isn't straight:

Mags and me - in action!

The only drawback to this part of the Hudson Trail (other than getting our feety-feet wet and muddy and all) was loose dogs. Fortunately for us, the ones we ran into were friendly. I mean the dogs.  The people with them ... not always the case.  That's their problem; Mom and Dad said we were VERY GOOD PUPPIES.

"Halt!  Who goes there?"
"Yeah!  And whoever you are, want to be friends?!?"

I like to check back with Mom during our walks, because ... I don't know.  But I like to check on her.

"Everybody OK back there?"
"Wait!  I see a bunny!"

   

Mom wasn't quick enough to get the bunny in the photo.

Up another great hill and more good snoofies:

   

We eventually came out onto a dirt road. Mom actually knew where we were, which, given her sense of direction, surprised us all!

"Oh, yeah, wait.  We've driven this route.  Right, Mom?"
"Right, Mags!"
"Wherever we are, I like it!"

"It says 'The Washington Marlatt Memorial Park'!"

Maggie said we were right by a place called The Top Of The World and that it's really cool there.  She hasn't been there in a long time, but Dad said once it gets cool, and at the rate our walks have been going, we could walk there!  Won't that be awesome!!??!!

Anyway, that's enough for today!  More of our adventure tomorrow!

Sköl!

Ragnar  

What An Adventure!

 Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  We had SUCH a great walk this morning -- an adventure, really!  It's going to take Ragnar and me a couple of days to tell you about it!

It started out pretty normal - up the hill on the big road:

"Check out the sunrise, Ragnar!"
"What?  I've got my ear flaps closed, Mags.  The traffic's too noisy!"

He had a point!  Very noisy on the big street at that time of day!  Anyway, at the top of the hill, we turned onto the Hudson Trail and just kept going!

"There's somebody coming!"
"It's that nice guy we see a lot!"

He was right!  We know most of the "regulars" along our routes.

We kept going up to where the paved/pebbled part of the trail ends.

"Just a little further!"
"Maybe our friends will be out, huh, Mom?"
"Maybe, Ragnar!"

Ragnar and I love seeing the pups who live at the end of the trail!

We ventured a bit into the grassy part of the trail:

"We should totally hike this part of the trail!"
"Mom and Dad keep saying 'one day soon', Mags."

"No time like the present - right, Mom?!?"
"Oh, please say 'yes', please say 'yes' ..."

Then much to our surprise, Mom and Dad caved and said we could keep going!

"This is so awesome!"
"Look at those hills!!!"

We hiked up and down and up and down -- it was so amazing!  Mom took a gazillion photos, so we'll share more tomorrow!  What a GREAT adventure!  Please stay tuned!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Ragnar and Magss

We're Not Bored-er Collies, But We ARE Bored

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags.  The other morning on our walk, Mom made us stop so she could get a photo.  It wasn't enough just to get a shot of some sunflowers, NO!  She wanted us to pose in front of them.  Seriously!  This is how it went:

"Look as bored as Siberianly possible, Ragnar."
"Got it, Mags."

I mean ... interrupting the walk?  For a photo shoot?!?  And she didn't have cookies?!?!?!

What was she thinking!?

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Covering

 Hi everybody.  It's me, Ragnar.  I thought it was Maggie's turn to post today, but she's ... umm ...

"Cover for me, Raggi.  I'm pooped!"
"Uh... Maggie's busy right now..."

...   tired  working really hard right now.  Yeah.  That's it.  Busy.  Working.  Busy working.  Because we're Working Breed Dogs.

So ... how's everybody doing?

Sköl!

Ragnar

Serene Scenery Sunday

Hi everybody!  It's me, Ragnar!  Today, Maggie and I took our mom and dad on a super long walk!  It was really serene, so we thought we'd show you a bunch of highlights.  Ready to take a look?  There are a lot of pix, so I'll keep the chit-chat down.

We got to go to Anneberg Park again!  Isn't that great?!?  We love walking the Perimeter Trail:

Mags and me in perfect synch!

Exploring the woods!

  We got Mom to shoot some video! Take a look!

 

To view on YouTube, please click here!

When we got to the clearing, we paused to enjoy the sunrise!

Me and Mags and the hazy sunrise

Much to our delight, we got to cross the bridge when we came to it today!  This adds probably a couple more miles to the route, and Mags and I just love it!

 

Here's an action shot of us on that "spur" beyond the bridge.

Dad held our leashes so Mom could get a shot of us with the sunrise in the background:

When we're in crosswalks, we focus on safety!  SAFETY FIRST, right!?!

Here's another cool action shot:

Lastly, here we are on the big road, heading back toward the park.

"Too bad it's not a purple haze; I'd do my Jimi Hendrix impression for you, Ragnar!"
"I love that song!"

It was a great walk, and left all of us feeling nice and serene!  We hope all of you are enjoying your Sunday!

Sköl!

Ragnar