Everyone should have someone who looks at them with adoring eyes. If you’ve been following this blog for over a year, you’ll recognize this picture from last Sweetest Day … yes, I could not help myself and had to use it again.
I’ve got a few new squirrel photos to share though, and, on a lark, I decided to use some of these fun photos with Parker’s input for this Sweetest Day post. After all, the title of this blog suggests “whimsy” right?
Now, I know Sweetest Day is not celebrated everywhere – just a handful of states across the U.S., not in Canada, not overseas and basically, it’s a Hallmark holiday that’s guaranteed to get you into the store for an expensive card, or to buy chocolate or flowers … but all these trappings really aren’t necessary. Spending time with your significant other, growing together, never apart and reaching the golden years is the best testament to a perfect relationship.
At the risk of getting too schmaltzy, I promised Parker he could be a guest blogger today for Sweetest Day (but only if he asked first, which he did). So here goes nuttin’, er … nothing.
What Sweetest Day Is All About. – By Parker the Squirrel
First of all, I’m a one-girl squirrel.
Sure, Linda and I have a special relationship, but nothing like what I have with the little woman, a/k/a my mate. We’ve been together for a few years now. Linda understands completely how she ranks in my world.
When I first saw my main squeeze Penelope – yikes, it was like a thunderbolt hit!
I was awestruck by Penelope’s beauty … such delicate ears, soft whiskers and big dark eyes. I knew right then and there, she was the girl squirrel for me.
She gave me a second glance and my heart just soared.
Penelope made me giddy just to be in her presence.
I was at a loss for words sometimes when she batted those eyelashes and oh, those big brown eyes.
I went and introduced myself before she was “taken” by one of my buddies.
Man, I was just smitten. I even shared some of my choke berries with her – they are just delightful and my favorite treat (besides peanuts of course).
We played hide-and-go seek and I chased her up a few trees and wore her out – she was breathless (of course, I’ve always had that effect on people to be honest).
Even I was worn out and I always have lots of energy.
Then I invited her to go nuttin’ with me. I wanted to show her what a good provider I was by scoping out peanuts. I knew she was impressed.
But, I felt the need to impress her more … hmm, what to do? Hang upside down by my feet, now that was a good idea. Anything to grab her attention.
But no, I decided I’m not a gimmicky kind of guy, so I played it cool and just asked her to be my mate on bended knee(s). Girl squirrels like it when you get all mushy and sentimental.
She said yes! I was over the moon.
Once you’re an item, you can relax a bit. Hang out with your friends sometimes … you don’t have to sit in the nest on each other’s tail for goodness sake – a little space apart is okay.
Soon the kids arrive and the years becomes a blur. If you’re smart, you never stray far from the nest. And you simply must have the occasional “date night” to keep your relationship fun and lively, especially with the youngsters around. For our “date night” we love to play hide-and-seek.
So that’s how it’s done mates … enduring love; no seven-year itch for me. Well maybe once when I got a bad case of “the mange”.
Sure, there are gray days, but there are sunny days too and they outnumber the gray days. These are the times when you go roaming around the Park, oblivious to the rest of the world, just the two of you. Love at its finest.
And when you get a little older, sure you can’t climb the highest tree at the speed of sound, and occasionally you make a misstep and fall off a low branch and fall on your noggin, but it’s all good.
And you know what else? Even though you wake up with bed head and spikey-looking fur sometimes, or your formerly slim physique may have packed on a few too many ounces (blame that on Linda with her M&Ms, Nutter Butters and peanut butter sammies she used to feed us all the time), love handles ARE acceptable because she looks the same … ya, you’re both fat and sassy! Tee hee!
To the world you may be one person;
but to one person you may be the world. ~ Dr. Seuss
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Awww! How sweet!
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We have many squirrel photos here and thus had to share. 🙂
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I didn’t know anything about Sweetest Day, but I am going to show this to Bill and ask him where my flowers/candy/champagne are! 🙂 Parker and his mate are just too cute. They have the right idea – you have to play together sometimes to maintain a good relationship!
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It is a big deal here in Michigan Laurie, but is only celebrated in 10 states and parts of two states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and areas of both New York and Pennsylvania west of the spine of the Appalachian Mountains). (Wikipedia). Bill may be off the hook – I’ll bet he Googled to find out. 🙂 The weather was just perfect a week ago and I got out every day and got lots of photos and decided to do a funny one for Sweetest Day. Yes, the couple that plays together will maintain a good relationship – “date night” is a necessity too, especially if you have kids.
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Haha! Yes, Bill is off the hook! 🙂 Today was a beautiful day. We took our grandkids to a corn maze, then Bill took them to Target and bought them each a toy. He is not usually that generous! 🙂
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We had a beautiful day yesterday and today will be as well – to 70. I might do a few things in the yard while it is nice outside. Very few leaves have fallen in the front and back yards, despite two days of very gusty winds. The grandkids must have been on their best behavior at the corn maze. Did you get some pics there?
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I did get some cute pics. Maybe I will have to post some of them sometime. It was a beautiful day yesterday, but it rained all day today here.
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That would be cute for harvest/Halloween time.
I went on a cruise on Saturday (a Fall color cruise, but we are not at peak color yet, but who knew that would be the case in late August when I booked it? We had a lot of rain and that slowed down the process.) I spent Saturday afternoon at Lake Erie Metropark and yesterday was gorgeous as well. I spent hours at Council Point Park in the sunshine and the warmer weather … I am savoring every day as you/I know full well what is on the way – ugh, no make that double ugh!!
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Double ugh is right! I am no fan of winter.
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I am right there with you! We’ve already got some power outages with tonight’s wind event. I’m hoping to get through Reader before our storm comes through this evening.
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What a fun post, Linda! I’ve never heard of Sweetest Day! I’ll have to google it! 😉
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Glad you liked it Sabine. When we had that run of beautiful and sunny weather, I got a lot of squirrel photos and decided to have some fun with them. I still have some more and also the mischievous squirrel series of photos as well. Sweetest Day is big here in Michigan, but otherwise is celebrated only in ten other states (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and areas of both New York and Pennsylvania west of the spine of the Appalachian Mountains).
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I wonder why it didn’t catch on anywhere else?! Sounds like there are more squirrel posts coming! 🙂
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I don’t know why Sabine -it’s a fun little holiday but maybe people said Valentine’s Day was enough? It was a chance to show off Parker and his main squeeze. There are more squirrel posts and I didn’t want to inundate everyone with nothing but squirrels so I’ll space them out over the next few weeks instead!
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I look forward to those posts, Linda! Your posts have been fun and have helped me appreciate these rascals a bit more. 😉 I noticed that I had several of them cleaning up under my bird feeder yesterday.
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I hope to get one more done this week Sabine. I was late getting back from walking today and yesterday I took a two-hour cruise on Lake Erie which I’m going to write about tonight after I sort through my pictures. I was hoping it would be a color tour and it was not – we are not at peak color for two weeks (we are usually at peak by now; evidently all the rain this year hampered that).
They can be destructive though – I will give you that. And I squirrels ravage birdfeeders and Birdola blocks for years, so I like them better in the neighborhood and at the Park these days. 🙂
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Sounds like you had a fun weekend! The color changes started off slow here, but suddenly it seems like everything’s starting to turn. As to the squirrels being better at the park, I totally agree!
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That is the same here Sabine. My neighbor’s maple tree is just starting to turn and it seems within ten days’ time, it will turn completely red and the leaves come down – you cannot see the grass when that happens and for me it is usually a 12-14 bag clean-up
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Awww they have such a cute story! I’ve never heard of this sweetest day though
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Thanks AJ – glad you liked it. They don’t have Sweetest Day in Canada for some reason. I don’t think they have Grandparents Day either (or they didn’t used to).
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Nope we don’t have either of thise
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Hi Linda
I was in the library reading your post and I laughed out loud at Parker and Penny’s tale.
Does he really have a wife and kiddos ?
That’s do sweet and is Parker old now ?
Thanks for making me laugh Linda.
Susie
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Hi Susie – You are supposed to be quiet in the library. 🙂
I knew you’d get a kick out of Parker and his mate. I have never seen him with a specific mate all the time, but they all run around the trail and run up/down the trees, so it’s hard to tell which squirrel is with whom. And the young squirrels I only know as they have skinny tails (not bushy like the adults) and they are very apprehensive, and smaller.
I have not seen as many squirrels at the Park the last year – I worry it might be the hawk or hawks and hope it is just because they have found a different place to hang out. Fingers crossed it is not the hawk. I am not sure how old Parker is, but I have been interacting with him at least three, if not four years.
Glad I could give you a smile Susie. (P.S. – I was kidding about laughing in the library … maybe that is not a “no-no”!
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Parker, you are a stitch! I enjoyed your story.
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Thank you Anne – it was fun writing my story about Penelope. I remember how much you liked my last post. I think I’ll get a blog of my own sometime. 🙂
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I would read every word, Parker.
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Thank you Anne – If I do it, I’ll tell you so you can be my first follower.
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I’d stand in line for you, Parker.
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I think I’m going to subscribe to your blog Anne, just so I can give you nice comments too.
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How sweet! Thank you, my favorite squirrel.
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Hugs to you Anne!
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Happy Sweetest Day, Parker! You are very lucky to have Penelope and Linda in your family. And you are very lucky that i don’t live where you live; otherwise, i’d be eating some of those peanuts for myself. I too used to climb trees a lot but those days are long gone. But you never know, i may start climbing again soon! 🙂 (Yeah, right!)
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Thanks Tom!!! I remember you from the last time – you said nice things then too. Linda does give me lots more peanuts than the other squirrels and yesterday she passed out apples … she showed me where she hid mine so I could have it when I’m ready. You can start out slow climbing trees … smaller trees, then graduate to the bigger ones later like you did when you were little. Don’t let your pain hang you up – my foot still hurts where I fell out of the tree.
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Parker, my neighbors already think i’m nuts when they see me often bending down with a camera, taking pictures of what looks like the ground. If i start climbing trees, they’ll call the straight-jacket people. 🙂
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That is really funny Tom. I have no doubt what the neighbors or the other walkers think, because I see people scratching their heads and hear them wagging their tongues when Linda talks to us or wiggles her Ziploc bag of peanuts in our direction in case we don’t see her. People were watching when Linda was taking the Woolly Bully caterpillar’s picture the other day. I never tell her that she looks silly as she may cut off my peanuts and treats. 🙂
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Beautiful squirrel photos, Linda!
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Thanks Rebecca. We had a string of beautiful and sunny mornings and all of the squirrels were out and about so I was able to get some cute shots of them.
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Is there going to be little Parkers running around this spring?
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Ah, you are back Diane, so WordPress must have corrected the glitch. 🙂
I can only tell the young squirrels apart from the older ones because their tails are not very bushy and they are skinny; other than that, you don’t see them down on the ground until they look like an adult. I have hoped to see babies for a while but I’ve read that they stay in the nest until they are almost three months old. They are coddled, unlike goslings, ducklings and fledglings – once those baby birds fledge, they are getting their own food. That would make a great picture though, wouldn’t it?
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I was only able to get one comment go through and this one one…lol You are a genius!!!! I switched to safari and went to my reader and it is working so far! Thank you SO MUCH!!!!!
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That’s great – a Mac does not usually fail and I wish I could have a Mac, but must use Windows for our Windows-based system at work. When I no longer work, and need a computer, I will go to a Mac as everyone I know is a fan! I am glad this worked for you!
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Yes me too and I can’t thank you enough!
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You’re so welcome – I am glad it worked out!
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Hey Parker it is good to hear from you again. It sounds like Penelope is very accepting of your relationship with Linda. It’s great that she does not get jealous. It sounds like you celebrate Sweetest Day every day. I like that better than just having one special day to celebrate.
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Thank you Ruth – this time I asked instead of barging in and hijacking Linda’s blog. She gave me “guest blogger” status. I told the other squirrels and they were jealous. Yes Penelope is understanding … I told her that sometimes you have to “work the crowd” but with Linda I don’t have to try too hard. I agree with you – you should treat everyone you love the same all year around and a special day is not needed. You are very smart Ruth – is it because you’re from Michigan?
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Hi Linda…..just checking in here….everything is ok, but I can’t seem to load your gmail message even though it is there, when I click on it’s it’s just blank and doesn’t load. Will check in when able. Joni
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Thanks for checking in Joni – I wondered how it was going since we last communicated. I really don’t like Gmail and I have found with another Gmail user that my e-mails starting displaying very oddly and I had to switch browsers so I use that same browser (Opera) for you as well. I wonder if it is Comcast. I got an e-mail from Comcast saying they are tweaking web-based e-mail at 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. on Monday, 10/21. Perhaps it will correct the problem? Take care Joni.
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Thanks Linda…..I was able to get into gmail today…..I should have thought of trying the Firefox browswer as that sometimes works for me, switching browsers. Everything is fine. I don’t know when I will ever get on here to read though and get caught up!
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Diane (In Diane’s Kitchen) replied to a comment I made on her site that she could no longer post comments on my blog. But it was happening with other bloggers too. So, I suggested she switch browsers and it cleared up the problem for her. Glad it worked out for you re: Gmail.
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Thanks Linda!
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I adore this. So sweet ❤
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Glad you liked it Zena – I couldn’t resist using these whimsical photos and stringing them into a special post.
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Miss Linda……………………………….I just love how you write …………………you’re a talented and gifted writer…………………….AND……………………………the close-ups of Mr. Parker are adorable……….
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Thank you for saying that Ann Marie – I was lucky to get a lot of squirrel photos the week before last when we had that beautiful and sunny weather and I thought I would do something fun with those shots for Sweetest Day. I am glad you enjoyed this post … Parker is such a sweetie isn’t he?
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your posts are so much fun
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Thanks Barb – I’m glad you liked this post. I had a lot of cute squirrel shots and I thought I’d string them together with a guest appearance from Parker himself. 🙂
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I love this! Parker is very wise indeed. 🙂 xxx
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Never underestimate the wisdom of your sidekick – you know that even better than me Heather! 🙂
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Well, I never heard of Sweetest Day, Linda, but I sure did like The Squirrel’s Tale. xo
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It is not in many states Pam and I thought about saving Parker’s thoughts and pictures for Valentine’s Day, but by then we are knee-deep in snow here in SE Michigan, so I just went with Sweetest Day instead.
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Lovely. 😊
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I loved loved loved this! I know you knew that before I read it 🙂 I think you should do a parker series… maybe once a month?
I’m looking forward to catching up with the rest of your posts… heading off here for now I think. I hope you get some warm weather back. You said something about snow?
Love, light and glitter
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I have really written a lot of posts the last several weeks … but we had that one really nice week of weather, maybe the first week you were gone – I took a long walk everyday and lots of pictures were taken, so I still have some photos about Autumn I haven’t used yet – they will be over the next few weeks. Yes, they are talking about snow … it won’t be measurable, but it is still snow showers, maybe sticking, likely not. And we had an entire day of rain today and likewise for Halloween with very high winds. Bad weather for sure. I knew you’d like Parker giving his opinion on the subject of love. 🙂 That would be a fun idea to him keep popping up occasionally to give his opinion. Love, light and glitter back at you Ellie.
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Yeah, do. You can make a book by him if you have enough posts. Of him with pictures…
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I have lots of pictures of him for sure Ellie!
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😂😂😂😂😂I can’t stop laughing 😂😂😂 I so much love the conversation
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Glad to give you a smile to end your week Vincent!
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Glad to receive it 😊
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That was so cute! Very well done! Glad to know Parker has found true love!
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Thanks Joni – glad you liked it. Parker and a friend were hanging around me one day and that gave me a good opportunity to spin a story and use it for Sweetest Day – do you have Sweetest Day in Canada? I know you didn’t/don’t have Grandparents Day, so not sure. And it is not an event celebrated in all states either. Parker has a second name – it is “Precocious”. 😉
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I think Hallmark tried to promote it years ago but it flopped. We had rain overnight, can’t believe the grasscutter is here?
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We had rain this morning – a gulley washer as they say in the South. We broke a record for having over an inch of rain on this particular date. It always amazes me that the grasscutters will be there just hours after a significant rain. I have an electric mower and a push mower, neither which I’d attempt to use the same day it rained.
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Thurs is grass cutting day, come rain or shine!
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