Serene Scenery Sunday

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  How about a stroll through our gardens to get our serenity fix this week?  Who's ready to walk around Ao4 Headquarters to see what we can see?  We'll start out front.

The Mums are still in full bloom:

Me and my mum's Mums

I like the white ones. We also have sort of rust ones and pink ones. Here's a collage of all the colors:

The Purple Love Grasses we showed you last week are super purple now - especially at dusk. Check them out:

Putting the "purple" in Purple Love Grass

Mom loves them! And they don't get much taller than a foot or so!

We have one last Gerbera Daisy over here in the mailbox planter:

"I wonder if I could ..."

I was going to pick it to send to a friend of ours, but she lives in Florida and Mom didn't think it would look too good by the time it got to her. I hope that old "it's the thought that counts" thing is true!

Here's a close up:

This one's for you, Chris!!!  ❤

Let's see what's buzzing out back. OH! Actually ...

"Things are REALLY buzzing in the Bee Garden!"

The bees had a lot to say!

"Oooh, seriously?"

Speaking of which, check out Mr. Bumble Bee on the Blanket Flower:

I know there is a lot of talk about the decline in the number of bees around, but you sure couldn't tell that based on our garden activity! They're all OVER the place!

Some of our Coneflowers are still blooming:

Beth Coneflowers, complete with bee

Some people don't think of ornamental grasses as "blooming", but we love their "flowers"!

"Very nice!  Oooh!  That tickles my nose!"

We love the movement they give to the garden all year long!

That's a wrap for this week! Thanks for walking around our gardens with me.  We hope you feel nice and serene now!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Aircraft Carrier Landing Practice

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  I haven't shown you this for a while, but I still like to practice my aircraft carrier landings - it's just that (1) I'm really fast and (2) Mom isn't usually on the far side of the bedroom with her iPhone.  Everything fell into place the other day, so ...

"ZOOM!"

Gotta be faster, Mom!  Try again!

"Touch and GO!"

She was even worse that time!  Not only do I need to keep practicing my landings, but my mom sure needs to practice getting a shot of me!  Let's go again!

"ZOOOOOM!"

Getting better!  Maybe if we go again?

"Now, Mom!  NOW!"

Not too shabby!

"Who's ready to go again??!?"

What great fun! It lets me practice my landing and "touch and go" skills, lets Mom practice shooting a moving target, AND lets her practice making the bed again! All kinds of good stuff!!!

I am a professional, do not try this at home. Well, no ... DO try it --- and have a BLAST!!!!!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Flower Friday

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  We are teaming up with our friends over at Dory's Backyard for Flower Friday again this week.  We thought we'd see what was blooming along our walk this morning - are you ready to go?

Mom let me choose the route today.  She thought we were going to go through the neighborhoods, but I chose this way instead:

"Oh, excellent choice, Cam!"
"Thank you, Maggie.  I love going this way!"

I do!  We get to go through the shopping center parking lot (where we ALWAYS engage in Crazed River Otter Games -- it's a tradition!) then we get to go into the woods!

"Do you see that, Mags?"
"Yeah.  I think there's something up there."

We kept seeing things that Mom didn't see today.  As we walked through these woods, I kept turning around, looking back.  Mom thought it was a bunny or a squirrel or a turkey or something, but I wouldn't show that much interest in something like that.  The last time I turned to look, she looked, too; there was a man standing in the brush, about 15 feet off the trail.  Just standing there, looking at us.  It was odd.  I stared at him, so he knew not to mess with us.  There's a chance I got an extra treat when we got home.  Especially because it happened again on another part of our walk.  Odd.

Moving on to the flowers ...

Here are some beautiful Kansas Sunflowers!!!

We keep thinking they're done for the year, but then we see more.  We love our sunflowers!

Mom thought we should pose at the Kansas Ocean.

Me and Maggie

We had other ideas.

When we headed up the water tower path, we saw these beautiful NonoMaggienono Berries all over the place:

Latin name:  Berrius Nonomagusnono

For the record, Maggie was very good about not trying to eat any. This time.

"Oooh, what's that red plant?!?"
"I think that's NonoMaggienono Sumac."

That's a wrap for this week! We hope you enjoyed walking with us!

Cammie!

Watch Dogs

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  The other day, Cam, Mom, and I were out on the deck enjoying a lovely day.  Cam and I were engaged in a business meeting ...

"Ha roo!"
"Ha roo to YOU!"

... when we heard something next door!

"Oooh, look!  It's Yuntao!"
"I love that guy!  Ha roo, Tao!"

It was our favorite next-door neighbor with a bunch of his friends.  They've been painting his house; we thought we should watch.

"Please be careful!!"
"I think they're going to need a bigger ladder!"

Anyway, I know a lot of people - to include the "breed standard" - say that Siberian Huskies aren't good watch dogs.  Not true!  We love to watch things - especially people working!  We don't bark at them or anything ... but we do watch!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Wordless Wednesday

Mags and Cam

Focus!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  You know, the other day when we did our photo shoot out front, Mom kept saying someone was having a hard time focusing.

"Oooh!  LEAF!"
"Sigh..."

That's funny, because I didn't think Mom had to focus the iPhone.

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Spice Girl?

Hello, everyone.  It's me, Cammie.  Try as I may ...

"Hmm..."

... I don't quite get this whole "pumpkin spice" thing.

"I'm kind of underwhelmed, I must say."

Don't get me wrong, I love playing with my stuffie, but the "pumpkin spice" thing is lost on me.

Cammie!

Serene Scenery Sunday

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie, here with some scenes from right here at Ao4 Headquarters guaranteed to add a little serenity to your Sunday.  Let's start out front by the Mums!

"How's this, Mom?"
"Hey.  There's some guy across the street."

Maggie was right - there was a guy across the street, but Mom had TREATS!

"You should have said that to begin with!"
"Show us the money... errrr, treats, Mom!"

They were yummy!

Here's a shot of the moon!

Hunter's Moon

Mom took that this morning from the back deck.  It was a beautiful moon-set.  We also see pretty sunsets from the deck - here's one from a few nights ago:

Sunset over the hills

Back to the front yard ... the ornamental grasses by the driveway are very showy right now!  Here we are by the Maiden Grass:

"I think he's going to finish painting the house, Mags."
"Yeah.  I think so..."

What can I say?  There was a guy across the street; we HAD to stare at him.  It's what we do.

You can see the smaller Purple Love Grasses in this shot:

"Oooh.  He's staring at us now!"
"We should have a staring contest."

I don't mean to brag, but let me just say this:  never get into a staring contest with a Siberian Husky.  You won't win.

Anyway, I hope you feel more serene now! Have a great Sunday.

Cammie!

Life Savers!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Wowzers, what an exciting walk Cam and I took Mom on this morning!  It started out like any other ...

"Hey, Mom, we should jog!"
"Yeah, Mom, we should do some jogging!"

We had fun weaving through neighborhoods, meeting and greeting lots of different people. It was great. We also saw about 752 squirrels ... but I digress. We had reached about the halfway point, when Cam and I spotted it!

"Cammie!  Look!"
"Oh, my!  It might be hurt!"

The poor thing!  Laying there, right on the sidewalk.  It couldn't even move!

"Are you alright?!?"

It was a butterfly.  A rather large one.  And despite the smile on its face, I could tell it was hurting.

"I've got this, Cam!"

I tried a little CPR while Cam stood by, ready to assist.  That seemed to help.  But I couldn't just leave it there - right?!?

"Come with me, Butterfly!"

I thought I'd take it home and set it free in our Butterfly Garden!  Mom thought its family might be missing it though, and she suggested we leave it there.  After I administered CPR, it seemed strong enough to make it on its own, so I figured it would be OK.  

Cam said I probably saved its life!  Isn't that cool?!!?  What an exciting walk that turned into!  I can't wait to see what the rest of the weekend holds!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Flower Friday

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  We're teaming up once again this week with our friends at Dory's Backyard to bring you Flower Friday!  We thought we'd see what we could find our on one of our morning walks!  How about you suit up and come with us?

Before we get to the flowers, we'll do a bit of this:

"Just up this first hill, everybody!"
"Just past that tree line is Little Kitten Creek, if anyone is interested!"

And, naturally, a bit of this:

"BOOM!"
"Ack!  A crazed river otter got me!!!"

Then we'll be ready to look at flowers!

Here in Kansas, there are still plenty of sunflowers around - and that's what we saw! This one was hanging into the street:

This sunflower was housing some funny bugs:

"Hey, what do you call a fly without wings?"
"A walk."

THAT kind of funny bugs!

And this one just plain made us smile:

We hope you enjoyed seeing some of our Kansas Sunflowers!

"Who knew bugs told jokes?"
"I know, right?  What funny bugs!"

Please hop on over to Dory's blog for more Flower Friday!

Cammie!

My Anniversary Present!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Thank you SO MUCH, all of you, for the wonderful wishes yesterday on Adopt-a-Maggie Day.  What a wonderful day it was!  I wasn't sure what all the day would bring, but it started out GREAT with a walk, some cool weather, and Crazed River Otter Games.  After lunch, Dad said something about a FedEx delivery, and I heard Cam cry out, "It's here!"  WOW!  A surprise gift?!?  For me?!?

Dad and Mom brought it into the garage, then said Cam and I could come out.  I couldn't wait!

"Oh, CAM!!!  You shouldn't have!"
"I didn't think they'd just use clear wrapping paper ..."

Dad helped me unwrap it and got some stuff out of it - then let me have my present!  It was the biggest, the best box I've ever seen!  Check out how roomy it is:

"Hey!  All the neighbors can see my cool box!  Ha roo, everybody!"

Can you SEE all the space in there?!?  Plenty of room for anyone to join me - right?!?!  And then it finally happened!!!  It was what I'd been hoping for for so very long -- CAM BOXED WITH ME!!!

"Mom!  You've GOTTA get a picture of this!!!"
"I can't believe I'm doing this.  Only for you, Mags."

Now THAT'S an anniversary wish come true!  Cammie and me boxing.  WOW!!!

"Am I dreaming?"
"Happy anniversary, little one!!!"

"I'm getting choked up, Mom."
"One more photo, then I'm outta here."

It was so magical. So wonderful. It was the best box EVER!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher