Happy Spring

Greetings friends and fans. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your earnest doggie reporter 

Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

Today was the Vernal Eqiunox. That means the day and night are of equal length. In the Northern Hemisphere the weather will generally start getting warmer now. We actually did have a nice sunny day for a change, with temperatures in the 50s. The only flowers we have so far are the puppy willows. I did some running on the flattened grass littered with old leaves and sticks.

However, we're not getting too excited yet. The weatherman says we're getting snow this weekend. Blah! Yes, even I am getting tired of snow!

Oh, and tonight a super moon will be coming up. That  means the full moon is at it's closest distance from Earth and may appear a bit larger than usual. (I'm hoping it won't cloud up again so I can have a nice conversation with my dearest Princess Leah.) 

We had a nice sunset.

Oh, here it is! Happy Super Moon Spring!

Below is a scholarly treatise on the Vernal Equinox and the Super Moon

full-supermoon-on-march-2019-equinox

Don't Blink

Greetings friends and fans. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your devoted doggie reporter 

Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

As you can see, there is snow on the ground. Ten minutes ago, there was none!

We've been getting snow flurries on and off all day. But that's typical for the middle of March here in Western New York. 

Here's the sun going down.

Blink!

Now, surprise! A sunset with snow falling!

Then it cleared up. 

And then, more snow flurries.

Check out our weather map at 6:45pm:

All the blue areas are patches of snow moving over WNY.

I got a quick glimpse of the moon from the window. But it disappeared within a few minutes as the clouds drifted by.

A little bit later, there it is again!

So I went outside to howl at it. But it soon disappeared again.

It's kind of cold and dark and scary out now. The wind is humming ominously through the tree tops. I'm going back in. Good night. 

The Grackles Are Back!

Hello everyone. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your distinguished doggie reporter 

Chester L. W. Spaniel.

This morning we heard a horrible screechy sound like fingernails on a chalkboard. Looking out the window, we saw the Great Grackle Flying PTA (Poop Tosser's Association) had arrived. Long time readers will remember our yearly rants about these annoying birdies. They bully the other nice birdies, fling big slimy poops on your car, house, windows, and outdoor furniture, and eat all the birdie seeds. In early spring, the males arrive in big flocks and make a terrible racket as they squawk and puff their shiny feathers trying to secure real estate deals from the Evil Squirrel Cartel. They are very vainglorious and tend to have pompous names that describe their favorite attributes. For example, here, from left to right, we have Messy Poopitcher, the illustrious grackle boss Effluvium Scatterstool, and his lawyers Shiny Sournote, and Huffy Meadowmuffin. 

As you can see in the picture below, old Bubba Dingleberry is knocking seeds out of the birdie feeder for Black Friday the squirrel in an effort to negotiate a choice nesting site on the top of the big arbor vitae. On the left are two red winged blackbirds, who sometimes migrate along with the flocks of grackles. They're OK and will probably proceed to the local ponds and wetlands for the season.

Here's alias Twinkletoes the squirrel snarfing up seeds, while Cocky Turdflapper chases the sparrows away. Up on the feeders is Snobby Slimysquirt and his brother Bob.

Needless to say, Sparrows Incorporated CEO Mortimer Seedcruncher III was not amused, and asked me to meet him ASAP at the Sparrows Inc. Winter Lodge in the Sticks. I told him I'd do the best I can to chase those big thugs away.

Even Sid Starling was angry, and worried they would eat up all of the suet, and take all the best nesting sites. (Behind him are Chucky Schitzle, Greasy Takadump, and Stinky Purplehead, plus an assortment of disgruntled sparrows.)

What the *#%*! Chester?

Hey, I didn't invite them!

There goes the neighborhood!

I'll continue to report on the progress of the grackle invasion. Thankfully, they usually disappear at the end of June when they're done raising their families. Here's a link to a video that shows a bunch of grackles and the atrocious noises they make: 

Crazy Puffing Grackles

I can sing a lot better then those obnoxious grackles!

National Napping Day

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

The weatherman said it was supposed to warm up this weekend. If you call 40º warm, then he was right. There was also yet another high wind alert. Frankly, we're getting tired of this same old, same old, same old weather. 

So I'm standing in what's left of our snow. Now it's nothing but frozen spots and globules stuck to the flattened grass mixed with  last years leaves. 

Fortunately, today is National Napping Day! Hooray! Sleeping is our favorite sport in this house, and has been for a long time. Here's an old picture of nap time with our patron saint Old Charisma and puppy Joey dog:

So I think I'll be doing just that. 

Tales of Old Charisma

Greetings friends and fans. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your creative doggie reporter 

Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

I don't know about you, but it seems all there has been to talk about lately, is snow and wind and cold. So I decided to add a section about our patron saint, Old Charisma. 

Way back before I came into this world, my family adopted a one year old cocker spaniel, named Charisma. She wasn't wanted by her original family because she got car sick. Unfortunately, we don't have many pictures of her because that was back in the day when there were no cell phones with digital cameras on them, and computers were much more bulky and hard to use (especially if you're a luddite like ghostwriter.) 

Anyway, Charisma was instantly loved by all the four siblings. Here she is with sibling #4 of 4.

She was a good doggie, and always came running no matter which one of the siblings ghostwriter called for. Charisma helped raise all the siblings, and always knew when someone was feeling a little down. She was a team coach, psychotherapist, cheer leader, class clown, and an excellent  homeland security agent.
She also lovingly helped raise Miss Ginger and Joey dog, whom I've heard, were quite bratty puppies! I even heard that Miss Ginger used to wait on the stairs for Charisma to go by and then pounce on her. But Charisma got even by taking all the squeaky toys and piling them under the coffee table and then taking a nap on top of all of them. 

Can you believe it?

Ghostwriter says she'll try to find some more pictures of Charisma, and remember some more stories about her and the four siblings.

In other news, as you can see, we still have snow on the ground. But the sky is sunny, and the wind not so bad, and it's supposed to warm up a bit. A couple days ago, we saw two of the Evil Squirrel Cartel operatives chowing on the birdie seeds in the yard. 

The back door of the garage was open, so I could sneak outside in stealth mode. Wow, did they ever run fast when they saw me!

Crummy squirrels!

One more thing: ghostwriter and I got a quick glimpse of Cool Beans Cooper the hawk this afternoon. He landed in the silver maple tree for a few seconds, and then flew off. He has a big long striped tail! I hope he decides to catch some of those rotten squirrels rather than the little birdies!

Snow For Sale!

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

As you may know, we had a big snow storm for the last couple days. Today my ghostwriter finally was able to get out and do some shopping. She took pictures of the gigantic snow mover machine monster thing that clears snow off the BJ's plaza parking lot. 

The mountains of snow it made were as big as a house! 

But check this out! 

This snow mountain is for sale or lease! 

Wow! I'd like to buy that enormous pile of snow and have it dumped in my back yard. Imagine the fun we could have sledding down it! It probably won't melt until the middle of May!

I'm going to run back into the house and call them right away before anyone else buys or leases this snow mountain. 

"Hey Chester, come here pup!" (Oh oh, I don't like the sound of that! I'd better stick my head in the snow and pretend I didn't hear it … )

Well, it would have been a great day, except for one thing. Unbeknownst to me, I had an appointment with the vet! Yes, that's right! I was unceremoniously put in the car, driven over the big hill, and after checking out all the pee mails outside of the office, I actually had to go in! I had a routine check-up, and three, count 'em, three shots!!! Plus I had a blood draw. And that's not all!!!! They stuck a needle into that big lump on my belly to see what it is. Harumph!

At least I got some yum yum treats there. Oh, and they called me a little while after I got home and said they looked at the stuff from my lump, and said it was just another benign lipoma like my other lumps. But it is getting rather big and getting in the way of my walking. Other than that, I'm in pretty good health. Now about that snow mountain …

Oh, there is one more story from today. Dad, who is half Finnish (he says he's always half finished, hahaha) says today is Kalevala Day. Here's some information about it below. Please note, the Finnish mythology and folklore, as written in the Kalevala, is completely different than the better known Norse/Viking mythology. And after that is a link to some wonderful music by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It's a bit long, but totally worth listening to! Please enjoy!

Kalevala

Pohjola's Daughter by Jean Sibelius