Cool and Refreshing

This is The Daily Bone. Welcome one and all. I’m your humble doggie host Chester L. W. Spaniel.

Yesterday it was very hot and humid out. Then the thunderstorm hit and we had lots of rain. After that, my ghostwriter said that the wet roads were steaming as she drove to work.

But today something called a cold front moved in. It’s 60 degrees (around 17C) here now, with a nice breeze. It feels great! However, the Evil Squirrel Cartel, perhaps thinking autumn has come and it's time to fatten up, started a vigorous pear stealing campaign. They've been climbing around in our pear tree all morning. Our ghostwriter finally left the back door open so we doggies could run out the  minute we see one.

Grrrrrrrrrr, evil squirrels! 

Bark bark bark bark!

And now we'd like to present a new segment to The Daily Bone: The Science Geek Chronicles.

Whenever there’s a cold snap in the middle of summer, go outside early in the morning and take a careful look at the ground underneath your big trees. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a cicada. These are the big giant bugs that make a loud buzzing noise in the tree tops during hot weather. When it gets cold suddenly, they die and fall off their tree branches. We couldn’t find any this morning, but here’s one from last year.

It's as big as Joey's nose! 

These giant bugs live underground for a long time. When summer comes, they emerge from the ground, climb up a tree, shed their skin, and fly away. This is an empty skin of a cicada. These are a lot easier to find than the full grown bugs! Just look at the lower trunk of your local trees. Have fun!

And now it's time for Joey's Yum Yum Report.

Here we have a lovely lunch with palak paneer, sliced fresh tomatoes,
and basmati rice, along with chai tea
and  kesari bhath for desert. 

Some delicious greens from a friend's garden. 

What the heck is that thing?

And now for a fast breaking news flash. The squirrels are back! Time to go to work!

Zoom zoom zoom! 

And that's a memo.

Oh, here's a great video about cicadas. Ours are not the 17-year kind, but they look similar.