[New Post] Grateful and Guilty

Leave it to Ruth at Ruth Hentrick’s Photography, to leave the orples confused, feeling both grateful and guilty, rather cannibalistic, if you will.  We will need to write her a ‘thank you note’ for her generosity in sharing her snack with Olivia and Oscar.  They aren’t quite sure whether eating that apple is appropriate, or not. I guess so. When you start out as a fruit, I would say eating other varieties would be debatable.

The orples snacking at Ruth’s place. They are debating the idea of eating an apple.

While these two are busy thanking Ruth, we can visit the neighbors and see what they’re up to. Drop me a line if you’d like to join in the fun and participate in our Orple Adventures.

[New Post] Bloggers inspiring other bloggers

The orples and I are exhausted from inspiring other bloggers.  They were going to sit this one out, but being good little orples, decided instead to take a break.  Thanks to Uncle Spike, they have a place to sit and rest on this visit.

The Orples taking a break on Uncle Spike’s blog.

While they are resting, please feel free to stroll through Orpleville and see what they’ve been up to in their adventures,  including our fellow bloggers, using their material to travel the world through.  Feel free to come along.

[New Post] A Pop of Color

For today’s Photography 101 theme from Novermber 16—A pop of color, this background is perfect!

Colline’s daughter drew a lovely little street scene, which the orples couldn’t resist. They love cruising through those black and white settings since they show up so well against the neutral background.

Olivia and Oscar love strolling down the street, admiring the scenery.

While these two browse through Colline’s blog, you can check out the rest of the neighborhood. If you’d like to add your name to our list of blogs to explore, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know.

[New post] The Daily Post . Achievement

I just fell into the coolest blog, traveling around in Orpleland.  If you are not familiar with Sylvia’s blog, anotherdayinparadise, then let me introduce you to her granddaughter, Tamsyn, and her achievements. How she and Oscar don’t break their necks, or pull a muscle (a twig, in Oscar’s case), is beyond me.

That looks like it might hurt. Ah, to be so lithe. 🙂

Olivia is smart, sitting this one out. While the kids are playing, feel free to check out what the rest of us are up to as we visit the neighbors. Let me know if you want to play. 🙂  This post will come up first, so keep toggling down. To open an individual topic, should you like to leave a comment, just click the title.

[New post] Photography 101, Weekend Two: Play With Light

Say ‘Thank You, Dolly’, for providing a photograph for this challenge. While Dolly (allaboutlemon.com) is playing with lighting effects, the orples and I are swimming in the Red Sea.

The Orples swimming in the Red Sea.

These two will swim anywhere. Olivia, being a lady, didn’t want to start without her hostess, but Oscar didn’t want to wait. I think we should go visit the neighbors until Dolly shows up to swim with us. If anyone else would like to come along, let me know and I’ll add your name to my ‘to go list’. Remember when you go into the archives from here, this will be the first post you see, so please keep toggling down to see what comes next. For those of you who don’t already know, if you’d like to leave a comment, just click the title to open an individual post. Happy blogging, everyone. 🙂

[New post] Photography 101: Mystery

I don’t know who comes up with these challenges, but the orples and I came across a mystery just the other day. Madhu is always shooting off really, really interesting subjects during her travels in her blog, theurgetowander. Being the sweetheart that she is, Madhu invited the orples and me to come play in her domain. We came across this sleeping leopard. It’s a mystery to me as how that poor cat can sleep with those noisy orples chattering away.

How does that leopard sleep with all of that chatter going on?

I think Olivia is more mystified by the size of the huge feline. And Oscar is wondering if Olivia is brave enough to wake the leopard up. I certainly hope not. I don’t think Olivia would stand a chance if he’s not a happy camper when he opens his eyes. If you want to see what other adventures the Orples and I have been up to, come with us to visit the neighbors. Today’s post will be the first subject you come to, so just toggle down to see our previous postings, from the newest to the oldest in this category. Enjoy your travels. 😉

[New Post] The Daily Post . Trio no. 4

I think we should have told Jo we were coming sooner. I called her, yesterday, as it was such a crisp, bright morning, to see if she wanted to meet us at the caves. But then when we got in our speeding car, rushing to meet her, because we were behind schedule, we got stuck in the rocks on the other side of those caves in Carvoeira.  Maybe we should have picked another Daily Post Challenge, where we get better cell phone reception. I’m not sure if we’re meeting Joe in the right cave. There are so many around here. Oh, Jo, where are you?

Olivia and Oscar waiting to meet Jo in the caves in Carvoeira.

While the orples are trying to find Jo, feel free to visit the neighbors, and if you’d like for us to come visit you, please be sure to tell me through a comment. I’ll add your name to my list. The orples are thrilled to have the opportunity to travel the world through other people’s blogs. We get to meet new friends, and so do you. And don’t forget, if you love orples be sure and grab an Orple Keepers Badge.

[New post] Ready, Set, Done

Come join us as the Orples take the stage. and meet the challenge for Ready, Set, Done … ha,ha, This little ditty had been set up ahead of time, so it is perfect for today’s entry.  Plus, maybe Ralph will make new friends, too. We can never have too many friends. Like the orples, Ralph has a sense of humor, so come out and play with us. We will have fun. 🙂 Today, Olivia is visiting Ralph again over on Bluefish Way. This time, she was snooping around, and saw those bright red curtains. She just had to take center stage. So all I can say is, “Watch our Ralph, here comes Olivia.” It’s a good thing she didn’t read the accompanying blog post first.

Olivia takes center stage.

I don’t think she’d be too happy if she knew about Mrs. Nosegay’s murder, or that the killer would simply walk away while the party resumed. She believes in justice, you know. If you’re not sure what’ I’m talking about, go see Ralph. Maybe he’ll re-blog this silly post to enlighten Olivia before she gets too carried away, and if anyone else would like to re-blog, please do, “The more the merrier”, as the orples and I always say. 🙂 The orples have been getting around lately. You can check them out while Visiting the Neighbors, if you’d like to take a stroll with these two clowns through other people’s blogs. If you would like to be included here, and possibly in a coffee-table book later, prey tell. In the meantime, please enjoy your travels, no matter where they lead you.

Blogging 101: Be Inspired By the Community

First off let us say this, I already feel blessed to be a part of a spectacular community that is quickly growing, as the orples and I keep stumbling on new blogs, and wonderful people. As we travel through cyberspace, we find ourselves exploring the world, tromping through the wilderness, visiting our neighbor’s domains.  Sometimes, I find it hard to squeeze in my own adventures. Believe me, Inspiration is not a problem for us—by any means. The world is at our ‘twigtips’.

One of Sonel’s lovely friends meets the orples.

The above conversation came about as the result of a delightfully surprising ping-back my friend, Sophia (in Africa), created on a thread I began, involving a fly. Mr. Fly looked so cool sitting on that beautiful flower in ‘Sonel’s blog‘.

Meet Mr. Fly. This is where this story started.

and then, this happened ….. After Sophia invited us to come and stroll through her blog, the orples met Mr. Fly (above), only to be told to go away.  Sophia stepped right up to the plate in the orple’s defense. She and her friends told Mr. Fly a thing or two, as you can tell by the conversation in the first picture with Ms. Barbet. I’m suspect this story isn’t over yet. No matter, while we waiting for that tale to unfold, if you would like to visit the neighbors, to see what our friends are up to, you’ll find the orples have been globe trotting, enjoying a variety of adventures, worldwide.

Someone please tell Mr. Fly that he might actually have fun, if he’d relax long enough to stop and play. He seems to be so serious.

Anyway, back to our original story; Sophia told the story of Mr. Fly and his bad manners to the fine folks at Michelle’s Pet Challenge, and wha-lah! Sophia not only honored me with mega-links—I might add—she fulfilled her weekly critter challenge—two birds, one stone. Sophia really outdid herself, too.  I am still awestruck, and grateful for the effort she put into her beautiful post. I suspect she had fun doing it on her end. I know I’ve enjoyed the conversations on our end. If you would like to join the orples as they explore our world, prey tell through a comment on my of my blog posts. Leave me a link to your blog. Introduce yourselves. Check out what we’re doing, already. Read my other posts to follow the conversations, through post content, and comments to find out what we’re up to. Be nosy. All are welcome. Grab a badge and be an orple-keeper, too. As Olivia and Oscar always say, “The more, the merrier.”

[New Post] Photography 101 . Landmarks

Okay, so the orples and I cheated to fulfill today’s post. But really, this is Orpleville, and not all landmarks are captured by photography. Take the Treasure Tree, a place sometimes referred into in our blog posts. Then, I thought, hmm, maybe my followers aren’t familiar with ‘our’ landmarks. So to keep you people in the loop, here is what we’re talking about.  Before the orples were orples, they were oranges, then through miraculous transformations, and big dreams coming true, the orples were freed from their tree. My book, “How Orples Came To Be” tells their story, while including the story of Jack, and how they accidentally helped their human friend rekindle his relationship with his father, after his mother died. If you want to know more, I’ve included links on my home page leading to various areas of my blog.

The Treasure Tree in Orpleville

Once the orples were no longer oranges, their needs changed, so they transformed their orange tree into the Treasure Tree, shown above. And then, in book 3 of their trilogy, Olivia learned to read. She has so many books, Jack had to bring her a cooler to serve as a  library so her books won’t get wet when it rains. Olivia loves to learn. And she loves to travel. If you would like for us to travel through YOUR blog, let us know. If you’d like to stroll down memory lane with us and some of our friends before you decide to join us, please feel free to check us out by ‘Visiting the Neighbors‘.