Locked And Loaded

Hello. This is The Daily Bone and I’m your enthusiastic doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

Spring is well underway, and soon it will be Summer. In fact, here in Western New York, the unofficial start of Summer is Memorial Day, even though the calendar says otherwise. You see, we really, really love Summer around here after the dreadfully long months of gray cold dark miserable drab dismal—well, you get the picture—weather we have for more than half of the year.

We looked up at the silver maple tree and saw that it's full of seeds. Ghostwriter said the term locked and loaded came to mind. 

Many of them were already falling like a snow storm of little whirling helicopters. My esteemed colleague Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel is on location under the tree and confirms the yearly deluge of maple seeds has indeed begun. Not to worry, though. Dad just mows over them and eventually they decompose into mulch for the grass. We have also witnessed squirrels eating them, which keeps those miscreants out of the birdie feeders. 

Look, squirrels: it's a smorgasbord!

We thought more about the term locked and loaded and found it could apply to other things. For example these flower buds are locked, loaded, and ready to burst open!

Iris.

Blam!

Poppy.

Ka-pow! 

Clemetis.

Boom! 

Rain clouds.

Whoosh! 

Even the creepy crawlies are getting ready for the big Summer ahead. Here's a tiny little spider mom clutching her egg sack full of her future babies. She's been in this same spot, in her little nest under a rock, for the last three days now. 

A few feet away the ant colony is running at full capacity, getting ready for Summer foraging.  Look at the different sized larvae! 

These are the harmless little black ants who have lived under the same rock in our garden for a long time. Here they are helping this peony bud to open. 

Summer time fun: here we come! 

Poof!