Welcome to another edition of Nature Friday where we join our pals Rosy and Sunny from LLB in Our Backyard. Don’t forget to click on the link to see other photos from nature.
Elsa: 🎵 🎶 Do, dee, do, dee, dee, dum. 🎵 🎶 {then switching to humming}
The Mom: Whatcha, doing, Elsa?
Elsa: Just looking something up. Umm, let’s see now…
The Mom: Er, wha…{stuttering}…what evermore for?
Elsa: Just wanted to see what the definition of au pair was…
The Mom: {interrupting} Au pair? Why in the world would you need to know the definition of au pair?
Elsa: Well, since it’s my blog now, I thought I should give out titles and didn’t think “Staff” was enough. From what I can tell, au pair seems like a better term. After all, I mean you’re from a foreign country, you’re living here in the States, and you have the responsibility for childcare, housework, you know…all the things an au pair does…so I thought you’d like something a little dressed up instead of just “Mom.”
The Mom: Umm, that’d be a hard “NO!” You’re getting a bit out of control since I said it was your blog.
Elsa: Moom…I’m trying to do you a solid and you get all bent outa shape. Sheesh. I mean if I’m supposed to be in charge, I need to organize and prioritize. We needed titles, that’s all.
The Mom: Um yeah, no. As in no titles, got that?
Elsa: Phooey. I don’t think I like your tone here so let’s just move on with this week’s post, shall we? {muttering under her breath…man SOME people!). Oh, before we (as in I) get started, I just want to give a huge Ninja birthday shout-out to my favorite Grandpa who turns 93 years old today! Woo-hoo, Grandpa. Well done. You look amazing. I mean I thought I looked good after my dreaded pawdicure and groom this week but man, oh man…you look fabulous! I thought I looked good for being in my 60’s in dog years but with your good looks and my intellect, we definitely make a pawsome team. Hmm, maybe I should give you a special title. I’m really looking forward to spending a few days celebrating with you. We could even do a ceremony whereupon I bestow a special title and…
The Mom: Elsa!! Enough with the titles.
Elsa: Oh alright. Sheesh. Moving right along…so unless you were hibernating, you may have heard about a ‘little’ celestial happening this week. A super blue moon event occurred on Wednesday night. None of Mom’s cameras did as good a job as one of the local TV channel’s website. She especially liked the downtown skyline view. I kept telling her to go to Sloan’s Lake but she wasn’t keen on walking that far in the dark so I needed to make concessions for the au pair. Maybe there’s a language barrier, you being foreign-born and all…?
The Mom: ELSA.
Elsa: Sorry Mom, I was just hoping you might have a change of heart. Clearly I misread that. Once we’re finished with this post, Imma gonna have to check to make sure your heart is working.
The Mom: {interrupting} ELSA!!! Knock it off.
Elsa: Um…sorry, I was just kidding. Mostly. {snickers}
The Mom: Oh for heaven’s sake. This nonsense has to stop. As in NOW.
Elsa: My, my…a bit touchy, aren’t we? It’s ok, I still love you Mom, even if you’re grumpy. And to make it up to you, I’m going to let you post one of the pics you took. Well done. You even managed to capture a helicopter that probably was also trying to snag a pic. Wouldn’t it be funny if you took of pic of a reporter taking a pic?
The Mom: {chuckling at that thought} Yeah, it was buzzing overhead and kind of annoying with all the frap, frap, frap noise hovering over the park. I took another photo on Thursday morning while we were out walking and it’s still a cool view a day later. So big and bright. And it was a whole lot quieter. I love our quiet, early morning walks.
Elsa: Yeah, me too. And I’m sure the wildlife appreciates it as much as we do since the zoo was apparently closed this week-as we only saw flashes of foxes escaping, and cottontail backends of little bunnies. Definitely not shareable. But in the critter category, you can count this dude enjoying a nice day sightseeing via his moonroof.
The Mom: Yeah, there hasn’t been much to capture critter-wise this week. But we did manage to see a few other things. How about you share them?
Elsa: Hang on to your knickers, Mom…I was getting to that. I wanted to showcase a different lake in our ‘Hood…Lake Berkeley. Located near Lakeside Amusement Park, Berkeley Lake is located a couple of miles from the Ranch and includes a nicely paved path surrounding the 34-acre lake. To our surprise, water lilies were blooming in three different spots. It’s not easy getting close enough to the water’s edge but it was kind of cool trying. Just glad you didn’t fall in around those marshes.
The Mom: It sure was…in all the years I’ve been walking around that lake, I’ve never once seen water lilies before-only cattails. It was really exciting and I had to check them all out as closely as I could.
Elsa: Good thing you didn’t get wet. Leave it to you to find something like that. Well done, Mom.
The Mom: Thanks, Ninja. It sure was a great find as was this white rose. After July’s hail storms, it’s taken things a few weeks to recover. This one was a tad past its ‘best by’ date, but pretty nonetheless and appeared to have been chewed on by some bug, most likely Japanese Beetles who have been relentless for the third year in a row. They may only have a 40-day life cycle but they are voracious pests and can turn even the loveliest of plants into a hideous skeleton.
Elsa: Eew, just thinking about those nasty bugs gives me the heebie-jeebies. Looks like that’s it for us this week. We hope you have a terrific weekend; be sure to enjoy getting out to enjoy some Nature. September is starting out right where August left off, hot during the day but cool enough at night. Autumn’s coming. Have a great weekend and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. That should leave you with ample opportunity for some Ninja fun.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
I’ve fallen behind but had to tell you your images are wonderful. Water Lilies! I am so jealous! And yeah, those beetles are the bane of my existance. They destroyed my rose bush. Hope you’re having a fabulous weekend and a big happy birthday to Grandpaw!
No worries, we’re behind again/still ourselves. Thank you for the birthday wishes and kind comment. The appearance of those lilies at that park lake just blew me away. Here’s to a terrific rest of your weekend.
I am happy in my kitchen making and canning salsa and tomato sauce and tomatoes….
Happy Birthday to your Grandpa! Beautiful photos.
Thank you…for the lovely birthday wishes as well as the comment on the pics. Have a great weekend.
Happy birthday to Grandfather….93 and still going string. Hint to Elsa…he doesn’t need a title….
Thank you for the nice birthday wishes. Yes, he is in amazing shape for someone his age. Elsa thinks a title will make her posts ‘more interesting.’ Little does she know. 😆
Nice pics of the blue moon – we saw it loud and proud in the sky because thankfully there was no cloud cover hiding it. That first photo of yours looks like there may be an alien spaceship near the moon – some would say it’s just a plane or something but I’m thinking SPACESHIP! EEK! Anyway, we loved the water lilies on the lake – so pretty. Japanese beetles are pestful but we haven’t seen even ONE (at least yet) around here!
Hugs, Teddy
Thanks Teddy. A spaceship? Yikes. Now that would have been something. You guys are lucky, those Japanese beetles have become a real nuisance here. Seems like everywhere there are those bags to capture them but they still manage to do so much damage. We hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Well, I guess I must have been hibernating since I forgot all about the moon. I think mainly because I don’t get out for our morning walks as often as I did. Also, I guess I fall into the category of ” foreign born” since although I live in Australia I was born in Scotland. Anyway, all that aside, I really enjoyed this post, particularly the Water Lillies and the White Rose. I have weeds, lots and lots of weeds – must try and get on top of that sometime.
Thanks, I was blown away by the water lilies-have never seen them in the ‘Wild.’ Normally I don’t get too wrapped up in eclipses and the like but the moon was so bright I just couldn’t resist. 😊
Mew mew mew mew Elsa you are heelareuss!! “Doin Miss Monika ‘a solid’ ” iss priceless!!!
Miss Monika you must wunder if yore Poochie girl iss inn sum sorta Ninja gang?!?!
THE Moon fotoss’ ARE lovelee…..wee saw THE BEEG orange Moon inn our sky last nite an it was still ginormuss!
Luna came to patio 3 timess fore suppurr an snax!!! Shee iss aptly named 😉
An HURRAH fore yore GranPaw ternin 93…that iss pawsum….
Miss Monika you not innto beein called an AU Pair?? Mee getss it…aftur all, AU Pair of WHAT mee meowss???
Elsa iss just tryin to bee fancy wee think. Shee meenss well. Reememburr mee had 3 or was it 4 diffyrent titellss fore BellaSita until shee was reenamed ‘BellaSita Mum’….
All beecause of her Purrfessor thinkin of THE titel an mee loved it….
THE Rose iss still furry purrty. Our sad littel Rose Bush iss bloomin 2 teeny rosess again! The plant iss amazin; just like youss’!
Happy Laburr Day weekend to youss’!
***nose bopss*** BellaDharma an (((hugss))) BellaSita Mum
Thanks dear, BellaDharma for your lovely comment. Elsa is coming into her own now that she’s been a solo dog. Forever scrappy, she’s a funny ninja. She’s probably love being the boss of a gang but does more than well enough on her own. 😆
Mew mew mew Elsa sure does well on her own Miss Monika!!! Shee iss heelareeus! 😉
TeeHeeHee…You are too funny Elsa!!
Such beautiful nature today, we love the water lilies, and the moon was gorgeous!
xoxo,
Rosy & Sunny
Thanks, Rosy & Sunny. Those water lilies were such a pleasant surprise. Mom wants to go back and check them out some more. Have a super ‘howliday’ weekend.
Elsa was being particularly sassy! I love it.
Here’s to birthdays and September and (fingers crossed) more agreeable weather and adult beverages and the weekend!
Here, here. On all of it! Happy September.
And salud!!
🍹
I have a resident blogger. They are hard to keep under control sometimes! Happy birthday to Grandpaw! (that is the correct spelling, right?) 🙂
They can be interesting to say the least. Yes! Grandpaw…love that.
Happy Birthday to Grandpa. Glad he is doing well. Lovely tour. The water Lillies are spectacular. The white rose was beautiful even with the petals munched. I hope you both have a lovely weekend. I was wondering what Elsa would name your readers.
Thanks for the nice comments and birthday wishes. Very kind of you. You could have blown me away when I came onto those water lilies! Enjoy a lovely weekend.
I have not seen any for a while, myself. We have pads that don’t bloom.
I’ve never seen anything in the ‘wild’ just a bunch at the Botanic Gardens. They blew me away and they were so many of them!
I just passed a pond this morning with tons of pads and no blooms.
Maybe it’s been too hot for the pads to bloom? They need their energy just to stay alive.
That could well be. Thanks, Monika,
it would be a challenge to paint the last flower pic… white, cream, tiny bit of gray… how to shadow a white flower? LeeAnna
I use dark blue for watercolor shadows.
Yep, we saw that same moon while we were driving (well, technically we were riding in the car) very, very early Thursday morning. Mom called it a “werewolf moon.” LOL, there aren’t really werewolves…are there?
We’re glad you found a pretty rose. Mom found some pretty roses in the store for our grandma’s 93rd birthday. She’s one day older than your grandpa, Ninja…er, Elsa! Your friend, Lucy
Happy birthday to your Grandma, Lucy!
A werewolf moon, eh? {shudder}
Your fur-iend,
Elsa 🐾
Lulu: “Ooh, when Mama and Dada went out to look at the blue moon, they also saw a helicopter flying around! But that one was shouting through a loudspeaker that it was looking for a felon, so they decided to go back in the house …”
Good plan, Lulu. Always best to make oneself scarce at times like that. Have a good weekend.
Elsa is definitely finding her own voice and energy! And it’s quite fun. Lovely pictures as always. Enjoy your weekend.
Thank you. Elsa may be a ‘still waters run deep’ kind of gal but she definitely has definite ideas about the world around her. 😊
First of all, Elsa, Happy, Happy Birthday to your Grandpa! 93 is quite a milestone!
Secondly, I love all the pix! I just don’t understand why they call it a blue moon – it’s no more blue than the Z Kids’ furs. 🤔
We never understood why they called it a blue moon either. So weird. Have a great weekend with the Z-kids. Hope you didn’t get too much rain.