Happy Doggie Day

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

My ghostwriter came down with a horrible, terrible, nasty, rotten cold yesterday. She had to do something she would never ever want to actually do: call in sick on the weekend. She feels bad that because she's sick, somebody else was probably called in to cover for her and got their weekend ruined. She spent most of yesterday moping around, coughing, and sniffling. This morning she was a little better, but still super tired with ribs aching from coughing. She says, though, if she had gone into work and passed this virus on to her little old people at the nursing home, it would probably kill them, or at least land them in the hospital. I think she did the right thing. I hope she doesn't get in trouble for it.

So I went out in the back yard with Dad and helped him cut down some branches from the lilac bush. 

Look look look lookie look! (Do you see me behind the sticks?) Wow! Here are some prime sticks for any doggie to chew, play with, or fetch (if you cut them shorter.) They all have rough, peeling bark, and lots of interesting insect holes in them, along with scraggly half dead branches growing out of the ends. Despite of the insect damage, the wood is very strong and heavy, and should provide years of enjoyment. When you're done playing with them, you can toss them into the fireplace. I usually charge the low, low price of two yum yum doggie treats each. But in honor of National Doggie Day, for one day only, they're buy one, get one free! But you have to hurry. Dad will be putting them through the screaming dragon, noisy, screeching, scary machine stick shredding monster thing soon and turning them all into mulch. 

That's it for today. We hope you all have a great time on National Doggie Day! My ghostwriter will be going to bed early tonight and hopefully will feel a lot better tomorrow.

Summer Time Report

Greetings friends and fans! This is The Daily Bone and I'm your diligent, wide awake, observant, and scientific doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel.

As my good friend Cobi said in her comment on my last post, it's been 11 (now 12) days since I wrote anything. (Sorry, my ghostwriter has been extremely busy lately.) So today I have a comprehensive report on everything happening in my yard.

This is a great time of year in Western New York! Summer is in full bloom and noisy bugs are making a racket. There's a cricket symphony every night. The katydids are starting to make noise too. In the daytime, cicadas are singing in the tree tops. The other day, ghostwriter was doing a little gardening when one flew out of the tree, swooped down, binged her on the head, and then landed on a flower. She caught it and brought it inside for a photo session. 

Wow! That's a big bug, but it's completely harmless.

Now here's an evil looking bug that we should be sure to stay away from. This horsefly was on the outside of the window, thank goodness!

Here's a nice moth sitting on a leaf:

My ghostwriter found these two beautiful bumblebees on the pear tree after a heavy rain.

She says there aren't enough bumblebees around this summer. I wonder where they went?

The gigantic hydrangea bush is still blooming. Now the flowers are starting to turn pink.

With all the rain we've been having, mushrooms are popping up everywhere.

The garden Buddha has been getting showered with flowers.

Baby sparrows have been visiting our window birdie feeder. This one said his name is Mortimer Seedcruncher IV. Maybe he'll grow up and take over Sparrows Inc. like his namesake. But he has an army of cousins to compete with for that title!

You'd better be careful, birdies. We saw Cool Beans Cooper the hawk zoom by this morning!

Birdies are always up to some kind of drama!

We've had some very changeable weather lately with thunderstorms, and flood warnings. But most of the time, the sky is filled with big puffy clouds that sometimes look kind of like our angel doggies and kitties checking in on us. Do you see any of your angels in these pictures?

Sometimes it's hazy too. This is actually a picture of the sun going down.

Of course we have a scientific explanation regarding the haziness in our sky lately.

ghostly_white_sky_in_upstate_ny_comes_from_california_wildfires

The days have been getting shorter, and the nights are getting cooler. Now here's the moon!
(Hello Princess!)

My crazy ghostwriter let someone talk her into working from 11pm until 3am tonight. I could never do that. Nope! No way! I need my 16 or 17 hours of sleep. Good night!

16 or 17 Hours of Sleep

Flower Friday and Mathematics

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

Today is Flower Friday. So I have some pictures of the amazing hydrangea bush in the front yard. This huge plant was once a little stick that one of the siblings bought at a flea market around 20 years ago. 

Since then, it's grown into a massive bush that produces hundreds of white flowers that all kinds of insects just love. Everything from flies, and bees, to wasps, and butterflies buzz around it all day long. I imagine moths visit it at night too. 

As the summer progresses, the flowers on this bush slowly turn color from white to pink and then purple. We'll show you more photos later in the season. 

Now for something totally perplexing: my ghostwriter stumbled across a video that's based on mathematics, fractals to be precise, and a special equation that results in amazingly beautiful patterns when the solution is put on a graph and then loaded into a computer. But after watching it a few times, we thought it kind of looked like endless flowers. 

(I think the best thing about it is that it's set to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Hi Princess.)  

For the best effect, watch this video in a dark room, and set it on full screen. 

Mandelbrot Zoom

If you want a scientific explanation, please check out this video: 

Explanation

Lighthouse Day

Hello. This is The Daily Bone Happy Lighthouse Day edition, and I'm your doggie reporter 

Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

Neither I nor my ghostwriter have ever been to a lighthouse, even though we live not far south of Lake Ontario. I was beginning to think I would not be able to participate in today's Blogville Lighthouse Day blog hop. But then, to my surprise, I found a great picture from my archives. 

My Jason human playing his trumpet near the Oswego Lighthouse. 

There is a lot of history to this lighthouse, and it is well summed up on this site below: 

oswego-west-pierhead-lighthouse

Lake Ontario can get dangerously stormy at times. Because of one big winter storm that caused the death of six men in December 1942, this lighthouse is said to be haunted, as the whispering voices of these men can sometimes be heard in and around the site. (I hope they enjoyed Jason's trumpet playing!) 

haunting-legend-oswego-lighthouse

Road Construction Season

Greetings loyal readers! This is The Daily Bone and I'm your doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

As you may know, here in Western NY there are only two seasons: winter and road construction. The other day my ghostwriter had to see a new dentist that was located right near some major construction. She couldn't exit on the correct road because the exit ramp was closed for construction. So were the next two exits! She had to take the fourth exit and then back track back to the correct road. Then she had to creep along in a big line of backed up traffic before she could get to the place she wanted. She said she was glad she headed out an hour before the appointment!

But as she crept along, she was able to take a few pictures of the construction equipment and the guys working in the heat.

Look look look lookie look! It's my favorite super hero, Ironing Board Man! 

I bet he's working hard this summer! 

Oh, and ghostwriter got home pretty fast after her appointment. Even though all the exit ramps from the main highway were closed, the entrance ramps weren't. You can get on, but you can never get off!!!! Bu-waaaaahahahaha! 

Well, there's one good thing about this time of year: 

Yummy! Grilled steak, fresh tomatoes, and corn on the cob!!!! 

Gorillaz

Cool Beans Cooper Strikes Again!

This is a TDB Fast Breaking News Flash. I'm your doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel live and on location in my back yard. 

Loyal readers may remember me talking about our resident Cooper's Hawk, Mr. C. B. Cooper who's been living somewhere in our neighborhood for the past several years. This morning I found clumps of feathers scattered all over one section of the yard.

Naturally I did a careful investigation of the evidence.

Sniff sniff sniff sniff …

Sniff sniff sniff …

No, I am NOT eating the birdie feathers!

After painstakingly examining all the feathery evidence, I can say the victim was a mourning dove, but hopefully not one of Debbie Dove's close relatives. I can also say without doubt that the perpetrator was Mr. C. B. Cooper. He must get up pretty early in the morning because we never actually see him make the kill or pluck the feathers before carrying off his victim. Most likely, he has a family of his own to feed at this time of the summer. We find this kind of evidence every so often through out the spring and summer months. Here's a link to a previous find from July of last year:

2017/07/poor-birdie

That's it for this report. If we happen to see Mr. C. B. Cooper, we'll try to get an interview. However, he tends to do a good job of hiding. I will say, I wish he'd catch some of those crummy squirrels or chipmunks instead of the nice birdies!