Wordless Wednesday

Mags and Cammie!

Movie Day!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Today, Mags and I thought we'd share a short movie with you of us enjoying some time relaxing on the deck together after our morning walk.

"Let's do it, Cam!"
"On your mark..."

Who's ready?  Let's GO!

If for some reason that doesn't play, please click here to view it on YouTube.

Do you feel more relaxed now? We sure do!

Cammie!

Ocean Walk

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  The other morning, Maggie and I walked Mom past the Kansas Ocean.  There has been a lot of construction near the boardwalk, so we haven't walked that way lately. It's one of our favorite routes, so we were glad Mom said we could give it a go!

Here we are, about to cross the trans-oceanic bridge:

"How exciting is this, Cam?!?"
"Isn't it great, Maggie?!?"

I was so excited, I lost my head!

"Mags!  I've lost my head!"
"I'll look for it!"

Just kidding.

Mom asked us to sit and pose nicely on the boardwalk.

"Hey, Mom.  That stick you always think is a bird is still out there..."
"Hi, Mom!"

Mom said that was nice, but could we please both look the same direction?  Oh.  OK.

"How's this, Mom?"
"Yeah, how's this?"

She said that wasn't quite what she had in mind, so ...

"Do a 180, Cam!"
"I'm on it, Mags."

It was about then that Mom said maybe we should call it a wrap and get going.

"Now you're talkin!"
"Let's GO!"

"This is so much better!"
"Yeah.  It took her long enough to get the hint, didn't it?"

It was a great walk - and it was nice to go past the Kansas Ocean! Do you have any favorite routes for your walks?

Cammie!

Serene Scenery Sunday

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie, here with Serene Scenery Sunday.  This week, we'll concentrate on scenes from right here at Ao4 Headquarters that made us all feel serene.  Ready to take a look around?

Let's start with a shot of Cam and me on the front porch.

Cam and me!

Well, some of us were sitting on the porch; others of us thought they might get jumped by a Crazed River Otter. Go figure.

Anyway, the porch plants are all doing great, and that makes Mom happy. In fact, the Electric Lime Coleus was doing so well (in the pot on the right) that Mom cut it way back and stuck the tops in another pot. She didn't root it first or anything; she read that you can just stick the stalks in the dirt.

Electric Lime Coleus

Apparently, it works. This, too, made Mom all kinds of happy.

Here's what is really making us all feel serene! Take a look at who was in the Butterfly Garden this week!

BUTTERFLY!!! 

An Eastern Tiger Swallowtail! (More photos of him here and here.) 

Another thing that made us feel serene was getting some much-needed rain! And with the rain -- a COOL FRONT!!!!! Here is a panoramic shot of it, coming in over the Flint Hills:

Would you like to see a video? Mom and I shot this out front - we did a full 360-degree spin.

That is from our FlickR site. If it won't play there, please click here to view on YouTube.

Lastly, here is a shot of me checking out the mammatus clouds out front:

Weather Geek-in-Training

We eventually got over an inch of rain -- and we're out of the triple-digit temps!!!  Now THAT'S serene!

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Pawlympic Smilies

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  Today, Maggie and I are participating in the Pawlympic Smilies event Arty is hosting over at Dory's Backyard!

We gave this one our best shot --

Maggie and me - all smiles!

Arty recognized us for our "Team Twisted String Smiley"-- and we raked in another gold medal!

The Pawlympics have been so much fun! We congratulate ALL the pawlympians and would like to thank all of the event hosts! We know it wasn't easy!

We won't be able to make the closing ceremony, but did want to take a moment to pose with our medals:

I won the gold in Smilies and perhaps in Sitting Pretty.  If, indeed, that was me.
Maggie brought home the gold in Boxing, Smilies, and quite possible Sitting Pretty.  We will not confirm if it was her.

In other news, we have no idea who these Sibes are, but they posed with our medals, too.

Secret Agent Sibes won the gold in Sitting Pretty.
They also are posing with our gold medals for Smilies and Boxing.

The Pawlympics have been a blast! Many thanks to all - and congrats again to the Blogville pawlympians!!!

Cammie!

Photo Finish Friday

Hello, everyone! It's me, Cam. Mom snapped this picture of me yesterday ...

Are you smiling back?

Cammie!

Not Right Now

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  The other day when we took Mom and Dad on our really, really long walk, Mom stopped to shoot some of the wildflowers.  When she was done, she asked Dad to hold our leashes so she could get a picture.

"Yeah, so then what, Cam?"
Dad:  "I don't think the girls want to do this right now."
"And so then..."
Mom:  "Girls?  Look this way!  Mags?  Cammie?  Hello?!?  Girls?"

"Just ignore her.  Keep going with your story, Cam."
Dad:  "...whatever..."
"Can I get back to you, Mom?  I'm in a meeting with Maggie and Dad."
Mom:  "Sigh."

I mean, it just wasn't a good time for me right then!  She should have had her people call my people to set something up well in advance.  Don't you think?

Cammie!

Wordless Wednesday

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Secret Agents

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!

"Ha roo!  Just me.  Maggie."

Hey, did you see those two Sibes in yesterday's post?!?  I wonder who they were!  I ... just ... wonder!

" 🎶 Secret ... Agent Sibe!  Secret ... Agent Sibe!  They've given you a number and taken away your name... 🎶"

Yep.  No idea who those two Sibes were.

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Pawlympic Sitting Pretty Event

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Today, Maggie and I are participating in the Pawlympic sport of Sitting Pretty over at Dory's Backyard.  Please click on that link to see all of the great contestants!

Now, Dory said, "Maggie and Cammie are surely doing the best "Secret Agent Sit" I have ever seen! That is you Maggie and Cammie, right??" She then posted this picture:

Two contestants in the Sitting Pretty event

Obviously, I can't answer as to whether or not that might be us.  You know:  "secret" agents.  Ahem.

In case it was us, we have been awarded this medal:

Congratulations to of the Pawlympians who took place in this very fun, highly competitive event!  And thank you to Dory for hosting!

In addition to Boxing, Maggie and I will be in one more Pawlympic event - be sure to tune in on Saturday for that one!

Cammie!

Serene Scenery Sunday

Hello, everyone.  It's me, Cammie!  For this week's look at serenity, we thought we'd share some photos Mom took out at the Manhattan Community Gardens.  Dad was taking care of a friend's garden (he did this last year, too), and Mom tagged along to  screw off and take photos  help.  We helped by staying home to guard the air-conditioned house.

Let's look at a few of her photos and get all mellow, OK?

A lot of the people plant Zinnias around their garden plots.

A few have Sunflowers.

Incoming!!!

And a few also have Black Eyed Susans.

Over to one side, there is a Butterfly Garden! There is a sign, in case the butterflies aren't sure where to go.

And for the really lost ones (like if Mom was a butterfly), there is another sign:

We should think about getting one of those signs for our Butterfly Garden -- maybe more butterflies will show up!

Anyway, Mom did see a few enjoying the garden!

Mom loved walking around the gardens!  We'll leave you with one last Zinnia:

We hope these photos make you feel nice and serene!  Have a great Sunday!

Cammie!

This Morning's Walk

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  This morning, Maggie and I took our mom and dad on a big, totally all uphill (right, Mom?  wink, wink) walk.  We've been this way before and it's really fun! I thought I'd show you where we went and what we saw, OK?  Get a drink of water and come on along!

We started out on a long uphill stretch.

"I can't wait to see where we're going!"
"Me, too!"

Then continued on an uphill stretch.

"Oooh!  Up, up, and away, Cams!"
"I love going this way!"

Mom brought the camera, instead of just the iPhone, so she could get some good bird shots in.

Mr. Killdeer says, "No pictures!"

Yeah. Moving right along ...

It was relatively flat here:

I stopped to admire some Verbena:

"Look, Mom!  Verbena!  Isn't it pretty?!?"
"Oooh!  Cicada!"

Maggie came mighty close to getting the cicada, but sadly, Dad was watching her like a hawk.

More uphill:

"Another hill!"
"So awesome!"

We did see lots of pretty wildflowers:

Snow On The Mountain

Western Ironweed

Blue Sage

Sunflower

We got back on one of the main roads, and guess what? More uphill:

Maggie and me

That bridge goes over the cart path for Colbert Hills Golf Course.

When we were almost at the clubhouse, I stopped to admire the Snow on the Mountain:

"Sigh.  Snow on the Mountain.  So lovely!"

If only we had real snow. And real mountains.

We also saw some Thistle:

Thistle

Let's zoom in and check out Mr. Bumblebee!

Bee on thistle

How about more uphill climbing?

"YAY!  Another hill to climb!"
"Isn't this great, Mom?  ...Mom?"

After we got to the clubhouse, there was a little downhill stretch, before we had to walk up the hills to get to our house. Here we are, striking a pose; that's the clubhouse in the background:

"Thanks for coming with us, everyone!"
"Let's stop in the clubhouse and see if they have any cold beverages!"

We hope you enjoyed our walk as much as we did!  Last one to the water bowls has to buy a round!

Cammie!