Welcome to another edition of Nature Friday where we join our pals Rosy and Sunny from LLB in Our Backyard. Donāt forget to click on the link to see other photos from nature.
Elsa: šµ š¶ Do, dee, do, dee, dee, dum. šµ š¶ {then switching to humming}
The Mom: Whatcha, doing, Elsa?
Elsa:Ā Just looking something up. Umm, letās see nowā¦
The Mom: Er, whaā¦{stuttering}ā¦what evermore for?
Elsa:Ā Just wanted to see what the definition of au pair wasā¦
The Mom: {interrupting} Au pair? Why in the world would you need to know the definition of au pair?
Elsa: Well, since itās my blog now, I thought I should give out titles and didnāt think āStaffā was enough. From what I can tell, au pair seems like a better term. After all, I mean youāre from a foreign country, youāre living here in the States, and you have the responsibility for childcare, housework, you knowā¦all the things an au pair doesā¦so I thought youād like something a little dressed up instead of just āMom.ā
The Mom: Umm, thatād be a hard āNO!ā Youāre getting a bit out of control since I said it was your blog.
Elsa: Moomā¦Iām trying to do you a solid and you get all bent outa shape. Sheesh. I mean if Iām supposed to be in charge, I need to organize and prioritize. We needed titles, thatās all.
The Mom: Um yeah, no. As in no titles, got that?
Elsa: Phooey. I donāt think I like your tone here so letās just move on with this weekās post, shall we? {muttering under her breathā¦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 manā¦you look fabulous! I thought I looked good for being in my 60ās 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. Iām really looking forward to spending a few days celebrating with you. We could even do a ceremony whereupon I bestow a special title andā¦
The Mom: Elsa!! Enough with the titles.
Elsa: Oh alright. Sheesh. Moving right alongā¦so unless you were hibernating, you may have heard about a ālittleā celestial happening this week. A super blue moon event occurred on Wednesday night. None of Momās cameras did as good a job as one of the local TV channelās website. She especially liked the downtown skyline view. I kept telling her to go to Sloanās Lake but she wasnāt keen on walking that far in the dark so I needed to make concessions for the au pair. Maybe thereās a language barrier, you being foreign-born and allā¦?
The Mom:Ā ELSA.
Elsa: Sorry Mom, I was just hoping you might have a change of heart. Clearly I misread that. Once weāre finished with this post, Imma gonna have to check to make sure your heart is working.
The Mom: {interrupting} ELSA!!! Knock it off.
Elsa: Umā¦sorry, I was just kidding. Mostly. {snickers}
The Mom:Ā Oh for heavenās sake. This nonsense has to stop. As in NOW.
Elsa:Ā My, myā¦a bit touchy, arenāt we? Itās ok, I still love you Mom, even if youāre grumpy. And to make it up to you, Iām 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. Wouldnāt 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 itās 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 Iām 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:Ā Yeah, there hasnāt 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, Momā¦I was getting to that. I wanted to showcase a different lake in our āHoodā¦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. Itās not easy getting close enough to the waterās edge but it was kind of cool trying. Just glad you didnāt fall in around those marshes.
The Mom: It sure wasā¦in all the years Iāve been walking around that lake, Iāve 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 didnāt 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 Julyās hail storms, itās taken things a few weeks to recover. This one was a tad past its ābest byā 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 thatās 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. Autumnās coming. Have a great weekend and donāt do anything I wouldnāt do. That should leave you with ample opportunity for some Ninja fun.
Live, love, bark!Ā š¾
Iāve 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 youāre having a fabulous weekend and a big happy birthday to Grandpaw!
No worries, weāre 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. Hereās to a terrific rest of your weekend.
I am happy in my kitchen making and canning salsa and tomato sauce and tomatoesā¦.
Happy Birthday to your Grandpa! Beautiful photos.
Thank youā¦for the lovely birthday wishes as well as the comment on the pics. Have a great weekend.
Happy birthday to Grandfatherā¦.93 and still going string. Hint to Elsaā¦he doesnāt need a titleā¦.
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 āmore interesting.ā Little does she know. š
Nice pics of the blue moon ā 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 ā some would say itās just a plane or something but Iām thinking SPACESHIP! EEK! Anyway, we loved the water lilies on the lake ā so pretty. Japanese beetles are pestful but we havenāt 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 donāt get out for our morning walks as often as I did. Also, I guess I fall into the category of ā foreign bornā 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 ā must try and get on top of that sometime.
Thanks, I was blown away by the water lilies-have never seen them in the āWild.ā Normally I donāt get too wrapped up in eclipses and the like but the moon was so bright I just couldnāt resist. š
Mew mew mew mew Elsa you are heelareuss!! āDoin Miss Monika āa solidā ā iss priceless!!!
Miss Monika you must wunder if yore Poochie girl iss inn sum sorta Ninja gang?!?!
THE Moon fotossā ARE loveleeā¦..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 š
An HURRAH fore yore GranPaw ternin 93ā¦that iss pawsumā¦.
Miss Monika you not innto beein called an AU Pair?? Mee getss itā¦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 āBellaSita Mumāā¦.
All beecause of her Purrfessor thinkin of THE titel an mee loved itā¦.
THE Rose iss still furry purrty. Our sad littel Rose Bush iss bloomin 2 teeny rosess again! The plant iss amazin; just like youssā!
Happy Laburr Day weekend to youssā!
***nose bopss*** BellaDharma an (((hugss))) BellaSita Mum
Thanks dear, BellaDharma for your lovely comment. Elsa is coming into her own now that sheās been a solo dog. Forever scrappy, sheās a funny ninja. Sheās probably love being the boss of a gang but does more than well enough on her own. š
Mew mew mew Elsa sure does well on her own Miss Monika!!! Shee iss heelareeus! š
TeeHeeHeeā¦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 āhowlidayā weekend.
Elsa was being particularly sassy! I love it.
Hereās 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!!
š¹
I have a resident blogger. They are hard to keep under control sometimes! Happy birthday to Grandpaw! (that is the correct spelling, right?) š
They can be interesting to say the least. Yes! Grandpawā¦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 donāt bloom.
Iāve never seen anything in the āwildā 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 itās 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 picā¦ white, cream, tiny bit of grayā¦ 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 āwerewolf moon.ā LOL, there arenāt really werewolvesā¦are there?
Weāre glad you found a pretty rose. Mom found some pretty roses in the store for our grandmaās 93rd birthday. Sheās one day older than your grandpa, Ninjaā¦er, Elsa! Your friend, Lucy
Happy birthday to your Grandma, Lucy!
A werewolf moon, eh? {shudder}
Your fur-iend,
Elsa š¾
Lulu: āOoh, 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 ā¦ā
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 itās quite fun. Lovely pictures as always. Enjoy your weekend.
Thank you. Elsa may be a āstill waters run deepā kind of gal but she definitely has definite ideas about the world around her. š
First of all, Elsa, Happy, Happy Birthday to your Grandpa! 93 is quite a milestone!
Secondly, I love all the pix! I just donāt understand why they call it a blue moon ā itās no more blue than the Z Kidsā furs. š¤
We never understood why they called it a blue moon either. So weird. Have a great weekend with the Z-kids. Hope you didnāt get too much rain.