Serene Scenery Sunday

Woo, everypup and everycat.  It's me, Dave, here with some scenes guaranteed to help you feel a bit more serene.  Ready to relax?

When this week started, we had some nice, warm weather!  We even hit over 70 degrees F one day!  I thought it was a great day to take a walk with my kid brother!

"Isn't this great, Zim?  I feel like I'm back in Texas!"
"Every walk is a great walk!"

Nothing beats walking with your best buddy!  Especially when it's warm and sunny!

And you can play outside for a longer time before Mom gets cold and wants to go in!

"SQUEAK!"

We even had sunsets like this:

God's amazing artwork in the sky

Doesn't that make you all warm and fuzzy?

Speaking of which...

Me and my mom.  Warm, fuzzy, and color-coordinated!

Then... as you know, our sunset scene changed from what you see above to this:

Blizzard of Oz, Part 1, in process

It came down like crazy!  And guess what?  A ton more is on it's way tomorrow night and Tuesday.

Zim thought he and Mom should take a spin in the car before the roads get all covered in ice and snow again.  Amazingly enough, they ended up going past the Kansas Ocean!

"No ducks today, Mom!  The KSO's frozen over!"

Doesn't it look peaceful and calm?  And they had the whole place to themselves!

I hope this helped you feel that inner serenity.  I think it did the trick for me.

"How 'bout you, Mom?  Feeling the warm fuzzies?"
"You betcha, Davy!"

Have a great Sunday!

Luv,

Dave

Snow Day Activity

Woo, everypup and everycat.  It's me, Dave.  You've seen one of Zim's favorite snow day activities - making his really cool snow forts.  I thought I'd show you one of mine.

After I trudge through the snow for a while ...

"Must ... keep ... going ... "

... rather than making a really cool snow fort, here's what I like to do!

"Mom?  Wanna snuggle?  Hold my paw?  Mom?  Hi, Mom."

Yep.  Nothing better on a cold, snowy day.  Or a 70-degrees and sunny day.  Or a rainy day.  Or a hot, Summer's day ... or ...

Luv,
Dave

Photo Finish Friday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me - Zim!  Did you see all that great snow in Dave's post yesterday?!?  Wowzers, what a way to cap off the week!  Of course, that means lots of extra work for me - and I got right to it!

Dave and I took Mom on a walk in the afternoon while Dad shoveled.

As we approached Ao4 Headquarters on the way home, I saw my biggest challenge - Dad had piled a huge amount of snow just to the north of our driveway.  Just piled it there.  Obviously, he needed me to make a really cool snow fort!

Am I right?  Why else would he pile the snow up like that?!?

"C'mon, Mom!  I need to get busy!"

I got right to work.

Can you tell how seriously I take my work?

This isn't a task to be taken lightly!  I put a lot of work into my really cool snow forts.  And a lot of heart and soul.  And my shoulder.

"Oomph!"

OK... just a few finishing touches!

Almost have it!

Yep.

Me in my really cool snow fort.  Checking for any sign of invaders.

This'll do for now.  I'm sure I'll need to reinforce it a bit today - we got a few more inches after Mom shot these pix, and Dad piled more snow onto my really cool snow fort.

A Siberian's work is never done!

Play bows,
Zim

The Snow Look

Woo, everypup and everycat.  It's me, Dave.  What a difference a day makes!  You saw yesterday how I was enjoying a little Kansas sunshine, comfy grass, and my squeaky bone.  I wondered why, when we went out in the afternoon, Zim kept getting a funny look on his face.  It was one I should have recognized, but I had just never seen Zim do it before.

So ... fast-forward to this morning.  Here I am on our after-breakfast walk:

On our way out

That's about when I remembered where I've seen that look before.  That was our sister Ammy's Snow Look!  (Check out this lesson she gave Zim.)  Yep.  She and our great sister Jesse could always tell when snow was on the way -- and Zim sure knew yesterday!

A certain biped around here was doubtful that we'd get any.  I'm not going to name names.

"Davy, I said I hoped they were wrong!"
"C'mon, Dad.  Let's go!"

Woo. I remember things a little differently.

On our way home

The picture above is my Snow Look, in case anyone is wondering.  Ha woo.

Luv,

Dave

Wordless Wednesday

Luv,
Davy

Just Ducky! Or Not...

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me, Zim!  Mom and I have been making lots of trips to the Kansas Ocean together lately.  There are a couple ducks who have been hanging out there lately that Mom can't identify.  She's been trying to get some good pictures of them, but the lighting is usually "off" when we're there.  That's OK with me - it just means we need to go more often!

Here I am on a recent visit:

It was a tad breezy that day, but we went at a time of day where the light was pretty good!  Sounded like a good plan ... only ... can you see over there on the right-hand side of the pic, on the far shore?  There was a guy down there!

"I think he scared the ducks off, Mom."

I haven't even been able to lure the ducks in like I do, so you know they're pretty skittish!  Hmm.  Yeah,  well, I don't know what that guy was doing over there, but he was in someone else's territory.  Oh, not mine.  But we usually see this guy over there:

We didn't see our hawk friend that day, but I'm sure he was watching from somewhere close!

Did I mention it was breezy?  Check out my floof:

Double-checking for the ducks

We didn't see the ducks.  Here are a couple pix of them from a couple days earlier:

That's the male.  He doesn't have a green head like a Mallard ... so we think they are something else.  If you'd like to see more pix and can help ID them, please click here to go to our FlickR set.  Please leave a comment if you have any ideas!

You can't really tell colors in this shot, but Mom likes it anyway:

His head is almost a rusty color.  Almost.

Speaking of rusty-colored heads ...

Me!

We'll try to get some better shots.  Guess that means more trips to the Kansas Ocean!  That's just ducky as far as I'm concerned!  Right, Mom?!?  Ha roo roo roo!

Play bows,

Zim

This Is For The Birds!

Woo, everypup and everycat.  It's me - Dave.  You aren't going to believe what went on around here over the weekend.  Remember what Zim said about being late with our post Saturday because Mom "someone" was out cavorting with Border Collies?  Well, it's TRUE!

"Can you believe that!?!?"

I know.  I was shocked.  Mom left without me ... without Zim ... without Dad, even!  And came back smelling like ... well, click here.  That's right.  Border Collies.  And she just couldn't say enough nice things about them - how sweet they were, how handsome, how well-behaved!  (Yeah, well, Zim and I have two out of three covered...)  Anyway, apparently she didn't go out just to commune with them - she and her friend were out searching for eagles!  I thought I'd share some of those pix with you today, since it's Monday and you might need a pick-me-up.  Ready?  Let's get birding!

This isn't an eagle, but Mom was pretty excited to get some shots of her.

Mom and her friend think it's a female Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker!

Next, they saw a Bald Eagle!  Here are a few shots of it:

Mom was mighty excited!  They also checked one of the eagle nests, but didn't see any there.  Here's the nest; it is huge!

I think if the eagles who made that didn't want to do eagle stuff anymore, they could get a job weaving baskets.  That's a mighty intricate-looking nest!

There were some gooses at the lake, too:

Mom said they're Canada Geese, though I have no idea how she knows where they're from.

They saw gulls out there, too, since it's an ocean:

I mean, there are always seagulls at the ocean, right?  Oh - and earlier in the week, Mom and Dad went out to Tuttle Creek Lake/Dam/Reservoir/Ocean and the River Pond and saw some other gulls.  Here is one shot from then:

It was warmer that day - you can almost tell just by looking at the photos, can't you?

On her way out of the park, Mom saw another Bald Eagle from across one of the inlets and stopped to take a photo of him:

Mom took tons more pix.  If you'd like to see them, please visit our set on FlickR by clicking here.

We hope you enjoyed Mom's bird pix.  She hopes to go out again soon.  Oh, yeah.  Without us, because she "can't hold a leash and focus the camera at the same time".  I wonder if she'll come back smelling like Border Collies again...



It's enough to drive a guy to drink.

Have a great Monday!

Luv,
Dave

PS:  We didn't really mind Mom cavorting with Border Collies, but don't tell her.  Ha woo.

Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me, Zim, here with Serene Scenery Sunday.  One of the things I love best about going to The Top of the World is how incredible the view is up there.  Sure, there are great scents to sniff, fun pups to meet oftentimes, and all kinds of exploring opportunities along the paths, but the vistas!  Just incredible!  I thought I'd focus on that today!

Here's what we saw, heading up the hill:

Almost there!

Mom shot that through the windshield with the iPhone on the way up.  We're almost there!

As you can see, it was sort of a murky day, but that just added to the ambiance, don't you think?

"Ahhh!  Kansas!"

Let's look around!  We love the wide-open spaces, the warm, rich tones of the wild prairie grasses, the endless sky ... 

I think you can see clear to Nebraska!

Depending on where the sun was trying to break through, the prairie grasses were either a beautiful honey straw color like this:

... or a deep golden, like this:

See that tree out there?  Mom likes to focus on things like that.  Here's a series of different trees:

We always feel more serene after a little hike up at The Top of the World.  We hope we spread a little bit of that tranquility your way!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Play bows,
Zim