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!  🐾

Howdy sports fan, Elsa here with another edition of Nature Friday, hosted by our pals Rosy and Sunny from Adventures of the LLB Gang. Don’t forget to click the link to see what others shared. Since today is the opening of the new Barbie movie, I thought I’d go back to the pink accessories. Mom is scratching her head about all the hype to the release of this movie. I guess she never chewed played with a Barbie doll as a kid. I, on the other hand would have loved to have gotten my jaws, erm, I mean my paws, on one of those toys. I’ll bet they would be quite tasty to my poodle taste buds. But enough of the cultural balderdash, we’re here for nature.

Elsa: Moooom, oh mooom…bark, bark, bark!!

The Mom: Yes, Ninja?

Elsa: Oh there you are, let’s get this post started. This week I thought we’d go on ‘Sniff-ari’ and check out some of the flowers we encountered on some of our crack of dawn walks. Waddu say?

The Mom: Sure…what would you like to share first?

Elsa: Well about those Sunflowers against yesterday’s cloudy sky? With all the rain received over this Spring, it looks like there’s a bumper crop of those cheerful blooms.

Elsa: {continuing} Hmm, seems like you managed to capture some sort of flying insect here with these flowers. Did you plan that?

The Mom: I had tried to capture him with his wings opened but he always seemed to be on the down beat when the shutter went off so I couldn’t capture him in winged flight. Rather sad but, it is what it is.

Elsa: Harumph…you just need to anticipate better. But let’s move on to something you did manage to capture better.

The Mom: {blushing with embarrassment} Ahem…well how about this colorful batch of Ice Plant?

Elsa: Mmmm,…I took a sniff at those things. Nada, nothing. Where’s the fragrance? I thought we were on a “Sniff-ari.” How can I go on “Sniff-ari” if there’s no scent?

The Mom: Umm, it’s not “Sniff-ari.”  It’s safari, which means “a travel or journey.” Scent can be an element of that journey but it isn’t an absolute given.

Elsa: Boy, you can say that again. I wanted to sniff things-you know that’s how us dogs process our world. We’re not just about ‘seeing’ things. We want to smell them. It tells us who was here before, if they left us a message and all sorts of data about their gender, their general overall health…

The Mom: {interrupting} I understand, I was just explaining what a safari is…

Elsa: {pouting} Whatever…let’s move along, ok?

The Mom: Fine. How about you share the first Gladiolas we’ve seen this Summer? I think this one is is known as ‘Atomic’ – sometimes called a Sword Lily. This species is apparently fairly hardy and originally from Africa.

Elsa:  I suppose since it’s originally from Africa, it’s part of the ‘safari’ and not my ‘Sniff-ari.’ I noticed this one didn’t have any fragrance either. I’m getting the feeling we’re not going to be experiencing a whole lotta scents on this walk, Mom.

The Mom: Erm, sorry Elsa. I apologize for not being more sensitive to your nose.

Elsa: {clearly miffed} Well, you should be. Nothing we saw was very fragrant. I feel gypped. Big time. I mean you went to the Lavender Festival last week and there was plenty of fragrance there. How come not here?

The Mom: I’ll try to do better next time. At least we can share some of the pretty blooms, even if they aren’t fragrant.

Elsa: {grumbling} I guess when you don’t have thumbs, you just have to go along with the thumb carrying person holding the leash on this here Nature walk. Got anything else? Fragrant or otherwise?

The Mom: Clearly I’ve misjudged this week’s focus. There are still a lot of things to enjoy. While this next flower doesn’t have and discernable scent, I recall you didn’t object to sniffing around its base on the ground. I’m guessing there were some messages that other dogs had left.

Elsa: Yeah, this batch of Hollyhocks and Sunflowers did have a LOT of messages…I’d have lingered longer but got bored. Some dogs just blab on and on. Jeez.

The Mom:  {ignoring Elsa’s commentary} Just look at this Rudbeckia, commonly referred to as Black-eyed Susans. Did you know they are also part of the Sunflower family?

Elsa: Nope, didn’t know, don’t care either. All I know is they also didn’t have any fragrance.

The Mom: Ugh…still complaining about the no fragrance? Can’t you just enjoy the visual aspect of pretty flowers?

Elsa: Well I thought we were going on a “Sniff-ari” not some shallow beauty pageant strut. Sheesh, Mom…come on.

The Mom: I give up. Will you just allow your mind to be open and appreciate how lovely these flowers are? I mean…look at the first Dahlia we came across yesterday morning. Come on, tell me this isn’t pretty. I dare you.

Elsa: Well if Dahlias are the end all be all of flowers, how come you haven’t planted any? Huh, huh?

The Mom: {stammering} Uh, well, I…er…the garden just doesn’t have sufficient light for them to thrive, yeah, that’s the ticket.

Elsa: Uh-huh. Yeah, I know you like planting flowers that smell nice. You’re not fooling me one bit.

The Mom: {realizing the folly of arguing with the Ninja} Ok, you got me. I do like fragrant flowers but in my defense, I also don’t want to have to dig Dahlias up and store them over the winter either. You happy now?

Elsa: I’d be happier if there was something that smelled nice.

The Mom: Oh for the love of all that’s holy. Let’s just share one more pretty flower, ok?

Elsa: Hey you’re the one driving this post with these non scented flowers, not me. What else doesn’t smell that you’re just dying to share? Well come on. Share it!

The Mom: Fine, I’ll just share one more non-fragrant flower from our walk yesterday. I thought these daylilies were quite lovely. It’s true, many Hemerocallis, aka lilies, do not have a fragrant scent but their looks rather make up for it, don’t you think? They come in so many different colors, you gotta admit they’re worth sharing.

Elsa: Meh…I don’t have to admit anything when I thought I was going on a “Sniff-ari.” Which reminds me, I think I’ll just go on a face rub wander so I can actually smell stuff since everything you shared is decidedly NOT fragrant. This grass smelled great and I managed to capture all the stinks smells all over my face.

The Mom: Sorry you feel that way-perhaps a bath will improve your mood. Maybe you’d feel better if you realized that fragrant plants can affect people’s allergies-in a bad way. Think of this as providing a public service for everyone who is negatively impacted by scented flowers.

Elsa: Not. a. chance. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide if we should have actually gone on a “Sniff-ari” like I wanted to or some lame safari like you ended up taking us on. By the way, the grass smelled sweet and was just fine by me.

Elsa: {continuing} Anyway, what’s up on your weekend? Doing anything exciting or will you just try to get through this dog-awful heat dome that’s impacted over 100 million people for the past 39+ days? Whatever you do, we hope you can stay cool, dry and safe. Stay hydrated and enjoy…especially something with  great scents. Remember…there’s ‘just’ 63 days until autumn officially arrives. I’m hoping things will smell better then.

Live, love, bark! 🐾