Serene Scenery Sunday

Hello, everyone.  It's me, Cammie.  Mom and Dad have been doing lots of exploring, kayaking, and birding in the afternoons lately.  It's too hot for Maggie and me to go with them, so we stay here and  take wonderful naps  guard the house while they're gone.  We love sniffing them all over when they get back and hearing about their adventures.  Mom was so stoked after one of them that I thought I'd tell you about it today:  they went to the Milford Nature Center.

The Milford Nature Center is located on the other side of Fort Riley from where we are, right by Milford Lake.  They have all kinds of wildlife exhibits there.  Mom and Dad's favorite was the raptor exhibit!!  Before I get to the photos, please understand that Mom had to shoot through a fence and wire "cages".  Mom's camera has a fixed lens, so she cannot override the point of focus that the control-freak camera choses.  (Her words, not mine.)  I'm sharing the best ones she took.

OK!  Let's look at some raptors!!  Here are some of the birds Mom and Dad saw:

Bald Eagle

Great Horned Owl

Barred Owl

Krider's Red-Tailed Hawks

The Krider's Red-Tailed Hawks is a sub-species of the Red-Tailed Hawk.  They also saw a Golden Eagle, an American Kestrel, an Eastern Screech Owl, and a Turkey Vulture.  And a Bobcat.  A Bobcat!!!  Mom needs to go back and get better photos!

There was a short trail by the Nature Center, so Mom and Dad hiked down it a bit.

Nature Center Trail

Here's the view from the trail:

Isn't that a pretty pond?

After their hike, they walked over to the Fish Hatchery!  It is one of only a few warm water, "intensive-culture" fish hatcheries in the country.

Fish Hatchery Raceways

Here are some fishies:

Colorful baby fishies

Just when Mom started wondering out loud to Dad about whether they have a problem with herons stealing the fishies from the raceways, this guy showed up!

"I wonder if they have a problem with herons stealing the fish...?"

A Green Heron!!!  She thought it was funny that he chose to pose on that sign!

"It's not stealing!"

Mom has only seen one other one in real life, and it sure didn't come this close to her.  She was thrilled to be able to watch him for a while.  He flew a couple times, but stayed close by.  Clearly, he wanted to do some fishing!

"Here, fishie, fishie, fishie!!!"

That was Mom and Dad's trip out to the Nature Center and Fish Hatchery. Mom is already planning to go back, so it had to have made her all kinds of serene! For more information, please click the links above and for more photos, please visit our album on Flick at this link.

Have a wonderfully serene Sunday!
Cammie!

Wanna Play?

Greetings to all.  It's me, Maggie.  I'm sorry to be so late posting today.  Mom  abandoned us  went out birding with Beth and the Border Collie boys this morning, and we've been playing catch-up ever since.  Or trying to play something.  I mean, after my morning walk and breakfast, I spent the entire morning (or at least a couple hours) in my private retreat and now I'm ready to GO!  Perhaps I should just show you ...

"Hey, Cammie, wanna play?"
"Zzz..."

"Hey, Cammie, wanna play?"
"Zzz..."

"Hey, Cammie, wanna play?  Hey, Cammie, wanna play?  Hey, Cammie, wanna play?"
"Zz--wha..."

"Cammie?  You're not asleep are you?!?"
"Maggie?"

"Oh, good.  You're awake.  Hey, Cammie, wanna play?"
"Sigh."

Cammie had whole-house Guard Duty while I spent time in 10 Downing Street, so perhaps that's why she's so tired. That's a huge responsibility.  Do any of you want to play!??!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Yesterday's Walk

Hello, everyone.  It's me, Cammie.  Yesterday we had a big ol' Kansas thunderstorm roll in at about 5:30 or so.  We were able to go outside for a quick trip before it hit, then us girls snoozed for a while. Not only did the storm bring us some much needed rain (almost two and a quarter inches!), but it was cool enough when the storm ended for us to all go on a family walk!  Everyone wins!  Anyway, Mom took her camera on the walk, so how about you come with us?

Because of all the rain, Little Kitten Creek was overflowing its banks!

Little Kitten Creek - muddy, but FULL!

We are still in a drought, so this is really great news and will help a lot.

We went up and around a bit, then down the path where we often see wildlife. Guess what was there yesterday?!?

"DINNER!"

Can you see him up there? Let me have Mom zoom in for you:

"Uh-oh!"

He saw us coming and kept running away from us.

"Quit following me!!!"

He eventually figured out that if he got off the path, Mom and Dad wouldn't let us follow. He slipped into the prairie grasses and made his getaway. We don't get to go into the prairie grasses - it's part of that whole "Let's Avoid Ticks" campaign our mom is on. Whatever.

Here's a shot of Mags once we got back up on the road:

Maggie - and Dad's legs

We heard Meadowlarks calling to each other. Mom spotted one of them, high up in this cedar tree:

Western Meadowlark in an Eastern Red Cedar

For some cool info on the cedar, please click here.

After the storm, as I mentioned, it was nice and cool for a little while -- and we also had some high winds (that's why you see Dad wearing a wind shirt).  When Maggie reached the bridge over the Kansas Ocean, she paused to enjoy the ocean breeze:

"Ahhh!  Smell that breeze!"

Both of us girls held onto Dad for a quick photo by the KSO:

Dad and I are standing; Maggie is sitting

Please note we are all smiling and looking in the general direction of Mom.  More or less.

OK - let's head up the hill by the water tower!

Me, heading up the hill

You can see the water still running down the hill. It was a couple inches deep in some places and was fun to splash through!

Mom and I stopped to shoot a picture of these wildflowers:

Western Horse Nettle

The bad thing about stopping for photos is this, of course:

"Hey, come on you guys!!!"

That's OK. The good part is what was all over the path!  MUD!

Anyway, we were so happy to get some much-needed rain AND to be able to go on an all-family walk!  Thanks for coming with us!

Cammie!

Giving Thanks On Thursday

Greetings to all, it's me, Maggie.  Today Cammie and I would like to tell you about a very special gift we received in the mail the other day!  It was very exciting and came as a total surprise!  It was from our very special friends, Frankie and Ernie!

Mom helped me unwrap it, then I took a look.

"Oooooh!  It's so beautiful!"

Can you see it?  It's a coaster from the Wendell August place!

"It reads 'For All Who Served - United States of America'.  Oh, I love this!!!"

"Is this not the most beautiful gift?!?!"

Let me have Mom go in for a close-up:

Military Veterans Coaster

While Mom took another photo of it, Cam came over and we both admired it:

"I can't believe Frankie and Ernie sent this!  They are SO thoughtful!"
"Dad's going to LOVE this!  We should share with him."

Frankie and Ernie wrote a very nice note that was enclosed with the gift.  They said that when they saw it, they thought about our Veterans Day and Memorial Day posts.  They understand just how much our veterans mean to us - especially our favorite veteran -- our dad!!!

"This is so very special!"
"Oh, it is, Cammie!  It really is!"

We were very gentle with it.

"Don't get nose smudgies on it, Maggie."
"OK.  What if I just nibble the wrapping paper a little bit?"

This means so very much to us!

"Thank you, Frankie and Ernie!!!"
"Thank you from our mom and dad, too!"

Sincerely yours,
Margaret Thatcher

Wordless Wednesday

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

We Looked!

Greetings to all, it's me - Maggie.  As Cam told you yesterday, an upload/download of our photos got zapped into cyberspace due to a short power outage.  Lest there be any confusion - they disappeared into CYBERspace, not SIBERspace.  I had nothing to do with this.  Really.  It's not like they were those crunchy things on the end of shoelaces or one of my mom's buttery silk scarves or anything.  Moving right along ...

Mom liked our idea of going on another walk to look for the photos.  Here's how that went!

We checked out front right away:

"Do you see those photos anywhere, Cam?"
"Not yet, Maggie.  Let's keep looking!"

Nowhere in sight. We gave the yard a good going-over:

"Any luck?"
"Found a smooshed crabapple!"
"Score!"

Mom thought we should get walking.  I came up with what I thought was a great idea!

"Let's check the Hudson Trail!!!"

You never know WHAT you'll find on the Hudson Trail - so why not, right?  Mom said we could take the segment off to our left!

"Vehicle coming, Mom."

Notice I sat and waited for the road to be clear.  I'm always real good on walks like that.  No, really.

OK, maybe not.  But I was yesterday!  We were on a mission - we HAD to find those photos!

We crossed after the SUV passed by. I went first:

"All clear!  Let's go!"

For the record - I like walking in the lead. In fact, if I don't get to be in the lead I'm not a happy camper. It's part of who I am; I'm a born leader!

Me, leading the way!

Sorry for the fuzzy photo. If Mom has our distance-tracker going on the iPhone, the pix aren't in good focus and she was too lazy didn't want to carry the camera.

"Wait!  I see something up there!"
"Really?"

"It could be the photos!"
"I'm pretty sure it's a birdie, Maggie."

Cam was right, it was just a birdie.  It could have been the photos, though - you just never know!

We kept going, looking everywhere for the lost photos.

"They aren't over this way."
"Not over here, either."

So ... we didn't find the photos that were zapped into cyberspace, but we did find some new ones!

"That's cause to celebrate, right, Cam?!!?"
"Ha rooooo!"

Cam, Mom, and I had fun looking for them.  Mom thought that was good enough!

Thanks for coming with us!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Searching

Hello, everyone.  It's me, Cammie!  This morning, Mom downloaded a bunch of new photos from her iPhone to the iMac, then deleted them off the phone, just like always.  We picked out the ones we wanted to share with you today ... then our power went off for about 30 seconds.  When the iMac came back on, the photos were gone.  We looked all over for them!

"They're not in here!"

Maggie helped, too, of course!

"Not over here, either!"

We're fairly sure our dad will be able to find them when he gets home later.  In the meantime ...

"We could always go for another walk to look for them!"
"Yeah!  We should go for another walk!"

We'll keep looking!

Cammie!

Serene Scenery Sunday

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie, here with Serene Scenery Sunday.  Now that Cammie showed you some scenes from our walks and what we (eventually) do after a walk, I thought I'd show you some of the pretty things we see on our walks.

While we're out in the open fields, we see and hear a lot of Western Meadowlarks.  We see them poking around in the prairie grasses:

... and perching up in trees:

Sometimes, we see Kingbirds. Here is an Eastern Kingbird:

And here is a Western Kingbird:

Sometimes we even see Red-Winged Blackbirds! We heard this male singing and singing to his mate:

Can you see his red wing? Mom looked around and eventually saw Mrs. Red-Winged Blackbird!

They look a lot different than the males, don't they?!?

Here's a clover blossom that Mom liked for some reason:

I can't explain it.

Oh. And since all of our walks start by us going out in front of Ao4 Headquarters, here are a couple shots of our Peonies:

If you'd like to see more shots of the Peonies, please visit our Garden 2014 album at this link.

Unless Cam has anything to add, I think that's a wrap for this week.

"I've got nothing.  Mom, on the other hand, seems to have cantaloupe."
"Mmm... cantaloupe!  Now THAT'S a mouthful of serenity!"

Have a wonderful Sunday - and remember to enjoy the serenity all around you!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher