Nature Friday ~ January 13, 2022

Welcome to the Friday the 13th edition of Nature Friday where we join our hosts over at Adventures of the LLB Gang for their weekly blog hop.

ElsaHey everyone, it’s me, Elsa, your world renown blog correspondent and gorgeous Ninja dog model, sharing some sights from around our neighborhood this week. But first, do you consider yourself superstitious when it comes to Friday the 13th?

As you may know, Friday the 13th happens when the 13th day of the month of the Gregorian calendar falls on a Friday, and that can happen at least once a year but can occur up to three times in a year. This year will have two-today and again this October, which both me and that oaf of a brother of mine think that month is spooky enough without a Friday the 13th on top of it. I dug around to find out more about the background surrounding Friday the 13th.

According to folklore, the number “13” is considered unlucky. Based on a Norse myth, 12 gods met for a dinner party in Valhalla. That mischief maker, Loki, who had not been invited, arrived as the 13th guest, and arranged for Höðr to shoot Balder with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. After Balder died, Earth became dark, and mourned and the day was thought to be a bad, unlucky day. Norse mythology believed the number 13 to be unlucky and both Fridays and the number 13 are considered unlucky in Western superisition.

But we’re not here to talk about superstitious days, we’re here to see what Nature looked like around our ‘Hood this week. It’s been fairly chilly this week but Mom met up with a friend and they strolled over to her favorite place, Sloan’s Lake for a nice walk around the lake.

Sloan's Lake

The lake was pretty solidly frozen and looking west you could see the beautiful, snow-capped Longs Peak, the 14,259-foot mountain located near Estes Park off in the distance. Did you know Longs Peak is the tallest point in both Boulder County as well as Rocky Mountain National Park?

Sloan's Lake

Looking east,. you can see the Denver skyline as well as critter tracks. I think the Canadian Geese were looking for potential breaks in the ice so they could paddle about in the water. The very thought that any living creature would actually want to get into the lake on a cold day seems insane to me. Heck I don’t like to get wet on warm days {shudder}.

As Mom and her friend rounded the lake, they noticed the boat ramp had partially collapsed in the frozen water. Mom didn’t know what happened, but figures once the ice melts, the city will be out to reset the pylons for the many boaters and paddle boarders that use the lake.

Sloan's Lake

Well that’s it for me this week. Mom is still trying to decide if she’ll continue blogging so I’m not sure when or if I’ll be back. She said she’s lost her mojo but I think she just needs a break. I’m always up for blogging and even Norman would happily pitch in. Maybe we should just stage a mutiny and take the whole thing over. What do you think?

We hope you can safely get out there to enjoy all the wondrous sights of Nature and don’t forget to check out what others shared at the link above. Have a great weekend and don’t walk under any ladders.

Nature Friday

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Nature Friday ~ December 30, 2022

It may be the last Friday of 2022, and even though we haven’t posted much lately, we could not let this week’s Nature sights not be shared. As always, we’re joining our pals from the LLB Gang.

We hope you had a lovely Christmas celebration. Returning home, I noticed what might have been a few bargain hunters lining up early at a local WalMart probably waiting to make returns.

Birds

Once back at home, Norman did his last visits for 2022. The big guy was quite grateful that the days he visited early in the week coincided with the top end of the extremes we encountered. This graphic taken from last night’s weather showing the high and low temps. Understand this turn-around happened in a mere 24-hour period. We’re still recovering from the whiplash.

Weather

Once again I headed down south to spend the Christmas holiday weekend with my Dad and other family members. It’s always a good excuse for all the good cooks in the family to showcase their skills. From brisket to lasagne and everything in between, we had quite the feast.

Christmas Dinner

The sunrises this past week have been beyond incredible. Rising early to catch up on computer work before the others rose, I was blown away by the vibrant colors shining in the living room. Adjectives seem totally inadequate to describe them.

Sunrise Sunrise

Then yesterday Winter tapped me on the shoulder and said thanks for holding my beer and promptly dumped over 8 inches of very wet, white stuff. It was more like a Spring storm than one that is typical right now. There were lots of fallen branches around town though my street was luckily unscathed.

Snowstorm

It also took hours to plow the sidewalks. While this time of year often becomes reflective on all that’s happened throughout, the top question of my introspection continues to be: “remind me again why I bought a house on an oversized corner lot?”

Despite several hours of shoveling, it was a beautiful sight. Not sure if it was beautiful enough to warrant a repeat performance but the weather folks cautioned residents to not put the snow shovel away just yet. A fresh storm is forecasted to welcome the New Year.

Snow

While I’ve often shared how Norman isn’t a fan of cold or snow, no one can say this boy doesn’t know how to effectively deal with it…as in stay inside no matter what. Elsa may go bouncing outside in deep swirling snowflakes like a loon, Norman is more low keyed and prefers the warmth of the sofa. With blankets.

Norman

That’s it from us for 2022. We want to wish you all a safe and very Happy 2023. Stay warm, hug your loved ones and don’t forget to enjoy the amazing beauty Nature provides.

Nature Friday

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Nature Friday ~ December 16, 2022

With just nine sleeps until Santa Paws arrives, we’ve been busy trying to get ready for the big day but not so busy we couldn’t find at least a couple of pics for this week’s edition of Nature Friday. As always, we thank those furry pals over at LLB Gang for hosting the blog hop.

Winter officially arrives next week but it seems to have already arrived here in the 303. Not in the form of any white stuff, mind you. This week’s forecasted Snowmageddon completely fizzled with only six tiny flakes falling. Temperatures however did fall and the dogs’ daily walks have been limited to quick trips in the dog run in order to preserve achy joints. Luckily those trips coincided with some winter beauty.

Red sky

The old saw says ‘red skies in morning, sailor take warning’ so this early morning scene left me hopeful that we’d receive some white stuff later in the day, but it was not to be.

Red skies

Apparently that other part of that old saw, “red skies at night, sailor’s delight” prevailed. Not sure if sailor’s would want to be  sailing in the low temps, but it certainly seemed to apply on the prediction of a storm. Cloudy, cold and windy are the watch words controlling weather conditions for the foreseeable future.

Cold temps mean both dogs are getting cabin fever. With Christmas preparations in high gear and little opportunity for the releasing of any pent up energy physically, that means boredom. I’ve had to rescue more than a few items from the jaws of death. Hopefully Christmas preparations will be wrapped up this weekend so I can concentrate on stemming any excess energy mischief this next week. Fingers crossed.

Well that’s it for us. Sorry for the lack of images this week. Hopefully we’ll do better next time when things calm down.

So what plans do you have this last full weekend before the big day? Whatever you do, I hope you’ll have the opportunity to see some slices of nature in between. Have a ‘wagnificent’ weekend.

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Monday Musings ~ December 12, 2022

It’s a two-fer today for smiles. We figured everyone could use a double chuckle, I know I needed it after yesterday’s holiday preparations. Nothing like trying to get a bunch of baking done and a full berry smoothie gets knocked over spraying the entire kitchen with reddish blue goop everywhere. I’m still finding splooges on surfaces. Sigh.

So…are your stockings hung and the tree all trimmed? Have you finished making your cookies for Santa?

Smiles

I always wondered if Santa conformed to social norms or if he did his own thing?

In an age where more and more vehicles are heading toward being electrical, this one seemed pretty in line with current trends. Snorf.

Smiles

We hope you have a super-duper, two-fer Monday. Yikes…just realized there are only thirteen days until the big day. We tried to finish up and complete the shopping over the weekend since a large storm is expected to arrive tonight and I am not a fan of being on icy streets with all the crazy drivers around here. They’re bad enough on dry streets, add snow and ice…well…no thank you. We’ll see if the hype matches the reality on the weather forecast. Happy Monday.

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Nature Friday ~ December 9, 2022

Well, well, well…it’s Friday and you know what that means-it’s time for us to join our pals over at Adventures of the LLB Gang for their weekly Nature Friday blog hop.

Greetings, fellow Nature Lovers, ’tis I, Norman bringing you a few scenes from around our urban ‘Hood. Mum has been busy trying to catch up reading all your blogs while working at  holiday preparations like decorating (I do say, I’m rather embarrassed at her pitiful attempt and not convinced at all it should even be considered decorating but we’ll let her have that mantle if that makes her happy). She did put up a teensy little tree on the table and other than showcasing the special ornaments for me and my sister, you gotta admit it’s pretty dismal when it comes to Christmas decorations. I’ll give her credit-she’s been busy trying to catch up from being sick. But I hope she doesn’t tell anyone she’s decorated the house. Just say you’ve been busy, Mum and leave it at that, okay?

Christmas tree

Notice the little sock monkey she recently ordered for us me. Umm, I’m afraid I was so excited at playing with the little guy I ‘might’ have poked out a spot next to one eye. Mum said she’s transferring him to the toy hospital for repairs but she said because the hospital is full of other toys and sewing projects it may be awhile before I actually get to enjoy him again. {Sigh.} Fortunately there are enough other toys I can play with until monkey-boy is well enough to play with us me.

Christmas Ornament

Notice the handmade ornament made by Mum’s friend with my name on it. She is an artist and hand painted it just for me-isn’t it adorable! Mum dug out the felted poodle ornament so the Ninja would be represented on the tree as well. It’s kind of hard to see, just like her. Black dogs pose all sorts of visibility issues for human eyes. Sigh. It reminded Mum she’s going have to spiff Elsa up so she doesn’t look so much like a furry Muppet. I think she needs a bath in the worst way but she said she’s trying to dissuade Mum about that. It’s bad enough losing one’s furs let alone having to deal with water torture on top of that.

Christmas Poodle

Mum’s Christmas cactus seems to display more holiday spirit than Mum, bursting into full bloom even before Thanksgiving. The color is so welcome on these drab days heading toward winter.

Christmas Cactus

One of the first walks Mum was able to make after recovering from COVID was to a favorite neighborhood spot, Sloan’s Lake. It was a chilly day, there was a thin layer of ice on the water and even the normally sure-footed Canadian Geese were slip-siding around. Mum said they looked a bit like her hockey team who is struggling with gobs of injuries. Although it’s technically a color pic, it looks more black/white with shades of grey. That’s the way things look like this time of year unfortunately.

Sloan's Lake

Some people get into decorating their yards. Mum passed this house on the way to the lake. We’ve seen those giant guys and both my sister and I don’t get why they constantly make noise. We prefer a quiet neighborhood. Mum just shakes her head and whispers…”pssst’ whenever we walk by and then laughs loudly.

Christmas Yard Decor

Even the little shops nearby have gotten into the spirit. I always enjoy walking past the flower shop-they always have holiday decorations outside. We didn’t go inside which was fully decorated but I did do a full sniff around this guy. Mum made sure I didn’t ‘water’ him though. COVID seemed to make her extra grumpy about that. {huff}

Christmas

A couple blocks away, a historic church always puts up a 12-ft.  tree in their parking lot. It’s tastefully decorated with ornaments and lights and brings more holiday spirit to  the neighborhood. The snow is real but the tree is artificial.

Christmas decor

A bit of snow looks pretty but it makes a fair weather boy like me move slower. Mum said I’m getting older and she has to make sure I don’t spend a lot of time outside when it’s cold. You won’t get any arguments from me but I feel like I’m missing out on time spent with her even though she puts a coat on me to keep my hip joints warm.

Well mates, that’s about it for our look at nature in the city this week. We hope you are enjoying this magical time of year. Stay warm and enjoy seeing all the holiday sights in nature. Do you have special plans for the weekend? Mum said she’s going to start her baking. For my part, I plan on helping her by laying at her feet in the hopes of dropped morsels of tasty treats. She may even make some special treats for Elsa and me-won’t that be grand? Whatever you do, enjoy spending some time taking in the sights Nature gifts us.

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Monday Musings ~ December 5, 2022

Hiya, remember us? Today is the first day I’ve actually felt well enough to post. Man, oh man…that COVID bug sure leveled me and once I got over it, I had no creative juices. Enter Dogtor Norman to provide relief to me as well as others.

Norman

We didn’t get a chance to visit at the hospital in November so when we were asked to provide a bit of stress relief, e.g. a spot of pet therapy for shoppers at our favorite store, Orvis, well we jumped at the chance. Since I’m über sensitive about all the assorted bugs/viruses floating around these days just waiting  to muck up the holidays, I masked up like crazy, used plenty of hand sanitizer and brought a nice batch of treats for Dogtor Norman for our visit with customers and staff. The manager had specifically requested that Norman be one of the canine attendees and…well I mean, who are we to not want to make that happen, especially when we totally love the store? This lady was particularly taken with Norman and after she and her husband shopped, she returned multiple times to spend a few moments with the big guy. It’s always inspiring to see folks with physical limitations make special efforts to administer a few tender ear rubs particularly in jammed retail spaces. Making the effort to navigate around store’s that are filled with merchandise and customers, her attention was especially touching.

Norman

With COVID, RSV, flu cases and inflation putting a damper on holiday festivities, folks are beginning to realize there are less than three weeks until Santa makes his midnight run to houses all over the world. Shopping for the holidays can be stressful for some folks but ever the professional, Norman knows just how to fix holiday stress for young and old alike.

Norman

When taking pics of kids with Norman, I’m extra sensitive about posting them online without obscuring their faces. Alas, with the latest update to Apple’s OS, I’ve been  experiencing some issues with the photo editing process. This was the best I could do for this sweet little girl’s face. She told me they had two mastiffs at home and totally loved big dogs. Norman was equally smitten with her-giving her a nice hug while she laid on the floor next to him while her Dad shopped. He kept checking on her to make sure she wasn’t a problem. I love it when parents are attentive to their children’s well being as well as Norman’s. We don’t mind being an unofficial ‘kid wrangler,’ but feel like too many folks are more than happy to simply dump their kids on complete strangers. This kind of thoughtful parent ranks right at the top of the “good’ list and I genuinely hope their holidays are very merry and bright.

What’s a Monday around the Ranch without a smile to start out a busy week during the holidays? I’ve always enjoyed the Marmaduke cartoons and hope this one makes you smile like it did me. Smile

We may not have been to the North Pole lately, but finally feel well enough to get cracking with holiday preparations. With time being of the essence, it’s time to get cracking. While I no longer put up a tree, a few holiday embellishments will come out of storage to brighten things up. And I did manage to even knock out the Christmas cards. Yay.

Here’s hoping life has been treating you well and your stress levels are low as you head toward the big day. Make it a ‘pawsome’ week.

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Monday Musings ~ November 21, 2022

Greetings, mates. Norman here. Welcome to Monday of Thanksgiving week in the US. Remember us? We apologize for being absent for so long. Mum decided to get sick with COVID so I’ve been busy making lots of hospital rounds to make sure she gets well. She finally turned the corner under my and Elsa’s special care though she’s still very tired most of the time and it will likely take some time for her to get back to full strength. At least she no longer sounds like a barking seal coughing so there is that in the plus column.

Here I am this morning during one of my many daily rounds, taking her vital signs.

Norman
“Ah, let’s see, while your blood pressure looks good…just remember I haven’t released you for work yet, Mum. You need to go back to bed and continue to rest. Dogtor’s orders!”

May I just say, we’ve missed you all and hope to start visiting  all of your blogs and hope you’ll be patient as we catch up. Any comments will likely be small, but our Thanksgiving week wishes will be huge as you celebrate the howl-iday with your friends and family. We’re so grateful for you all.

As you can see Mum finally opened her computer, and lo and behold, she found out I’m the Pet Therapy Dog of the Month at Lutheran. Too bad we won’t be able to visit my hospital friends this month until Mum is cleared to go back to work. I was so hoping I’d be able to hear all their congratulations but hopefully they’ll still be glad to see me the next time we go back to visit. As this is my first time being honored, I’m quite chuffed.

Norman

And lastly, in other news, we’re pausing for a moment of respect to honor Mexico’s beloved search and rescue dog, Frida, the Golden Lab, who recently passed away. Frida worked earthquakes and natural disasters in Mexico, Haiti and Ecuador. You may recall hearing about her brave rescue work during the Mexico City earthquake in 2017. You can read a bit about her amazing rescue work here. We’re sure our beloved Sam greeted her at the gates of the Rainbow Bridge with a furiously wagging tail, welcoming this amazing dog whose work brought respect to dogs throughout Mexico. Well done, Frida. Good girl.

With that, we wish you a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday week.

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Nature Friday ~ November 11, 2022

Norman & ElsaWelcome to this week’s edition of Nature Friday which just happens to fall on Veterans Day in the US. An official public holiday celebrated in the US annually on November 11, we  honor military veterans, that is, anyone who served in the United States Armed Forces. Also known as Armistice Day and Remembrance Day in other countries, it marks the anniversary of the end of World War I when the major hostilities formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the Armistice with Germany went into effect. Prior to 1954, it was known as Armistice Day in the US and still is known by that name elsewhere. The Ranch Hands and I tip our hats to all veterans today so that we may be free. Red poppies are frequently worn to commemorate today but without any blooming poppies, we’ll serve up as different kind of flora and hope you don’t mind.

As always, we’re joining those fur-kids from Adventures of the LLB Gang for this weekly blog hop where people from around Blogville share slices of Nature.

This nimble little dude pretty much describes how the weather has been again this week. Up, down and all around throughout this week. It’s enough to make you dizzy.Yo-yo
We’re now well into the season of brown with countless leaves raining down on the landscape pretty much nonstop. Bags and bags full of leaves are primed to be recycled into luscious compost at the city leaf drop. But first, my back needs to chill after all that raking, which still isn’t complete but at least people can see the sidewalk once again.

With the up and down temps, imagine my surprise at seeing some colorful roses when visiting a friend yesterday. I can’t help but wonder how they fared overnight. When we woke up this morning it was a brisk 18ºF degrees. Brrrrrrr. Norman looked at me with an expression that suggested I was out of my mind. That may well be ole chap, but the truth remains, you need to make a pit stop. An audible harrumph may have been heard as he slowly meandered out to the dog run.

I’m always drawn to vibrant hues of pink in roses and this one punched my dance card nicely.

Flowers

Coming in on the beauty pagent of beautiful roses comes this peachy orange colored one. The fact that it was nicely highlighted in the autumn sunlight also made it worthy to share.

Flowers

But of the three, I think this one is my absolute favorite. Those beautiful shades of peach, pink and yellow spoke to me, saying it was the belle of the ball. And I had to concede that fact.

Flowers

Well that’s it from us. Do you still have roses blooming in your garden? What’s your favorite color of rose?

We hope you have a wonderful weekend but ask that you stop for a few moments and think about honoring veterans in some special way. After all, they are what makes our freedom possible. Whatever name you call it, we hope you have a safe and reflective Veteran/Armistice Day.

Nature Friday

Live, love, bark! 🐾

 

 

 

 

 

Few Words Wednesday ~ November 9, 2022

Pelican

Need to head south now.

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Monday Mo(a)nings ~ November 7, 2022

We’re now back on standard time but there’s nothing standard about the overabundance of political ads currently being broadcast. I don’t know about you but the midterm elections can not be over soon enough. The endlessly redundant ads have had me screaming whenever the TV is turned on. It’s gotten so bad I haven’t been able to enjoy any sports; in fact while trying to watch a hockey game over the weekend, there were so many consecutive ads for nearly every state candidate running back to back to back, for one brief moment I thought one of the dogs may have inadvertently changed the channel. I was beginning to think maybe those &#@% gambling app ads (that I absolutely hate and which are played far too often), aren’t all that bad. The worst one that sends me into orbit shows a particular athlete smiling while on the ‘can’ as he’s placing his bets. Seriously. Argh!!!

When looking for a smile for today, this one seemed timely and made an accurate statement about the current state of politics these days in the US. Whichever way you lean politically, we hope you exercise the fundamental right to vote. In Colorado voting is done through mail-in ballots; the system is simple, convenient with no excuse not to vote, but honestly I still think pets would choose far better candidates. Where in the world do they find some of these candidates…under rocks?!

Smile

Live, love, bark! 🐾