Wednesday, November 20, 2019

The Dark Days

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


So now we're into the depressing days of the late Fall here in WNY. The snow has mostly melted, and we have mud. Instead of sun and pretty leaves, we have dark clouds and bare trees. 


Canada geese fly over every day, sometimes in huge flocks, but usually in small family groups like these below. They're still foraging the harvested fields during the day, and then going to find the ponds and small lakes that aren't frozen over yet at night. Once we get a big freeze, they'll finally leave for warmer places.


Those geese are pretty noisy, and you can hear them coming from a long way off.


Oh oh oh oh! I treed that dummy squirrel again! Hehehe! This time he went up the linden tree.


The only snow left is what has been shoveled into piles along the streets and our driveway.


There is still a bit of color left in the fallen hawthorn berries among the oak leaves and last of the tiny mushrooms on the grass. Thank goodness the grass is still green!


We spied a tiny spider, crawling lethargically in the doorway to outside. 


Don't be afraid! It's only a little spider! It was so cold it could hardly move. Ghostwriter tried to brush it gently aside so it wouldn't get smushed by the door, and it just rolled up into a ball and fell to the garage floor. We hope it finds a safe place to spend the winter months. 


By five o'clock it was almost dark! 




We did get a bit of brightness in that our friend Sunny sent us a few amazing pictures of her incredible artwork characters.










Hmmmm … I wonder if Sunny would do a picture of me?








We have also been watching an animated series on youtube called "No Evil." Here is a link to the first episode below. It's a good idea to watch these with the closed captions on so you can understand some of the unusual character names from Aztec mythology, like Chalchiutlicue or Calamity the lizard spirit (our favorite character.) It also mixes in all kinds of American folklore stories and wonderful folk music. Most of the episodes are only five to ten minutes long.



If, by the tenth episode you're completely lost, watch this video that gives a critique and an explanation of the plot. But don't forget to go back to the rest of the episodes!  



Have fun!

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Hey Winter

A chilly hello to everyone! I'm your hardy doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel, and this is 
The Daily Bone. 


No, it's not January. No, it's not February. No, it's not even March! In fact, it's not even officially winter yet. But here I am, standing in the snow in the middle of November. While snow this early is not unheard of here in WNY, we feel kind of cheated out of Autumn. 

Of course, you know, my ghostwriter is still clinging to her belief that it's never actually winter until we either get a big blizzard, or it's Christmas, whichever comes first. Was this not a big enough snowfall? She was just grumbling about her horrifying drive home from work on unplowed, icy, slippery, snow-covered roads after leaving work at 3am Monday night. She says she saw a few snowplows along the road, but they were just ditzing around, deciding if they should start doing their job or not. 


Well, I'm not complaining! Here are some pictures of our winter wonderland:

Icicles and snow clouds

A leaf

Birdie footprints

Snow capped sedum

Ghostwriter saw this when she ran some errands today:

A parking lot snow plow

Parking lot snow mountain with two crows on top

Looking for a hand-out

Yesterday afternoon, I chased a squirrel. You can see his tail sticking out of the snow a few feet ahead of me here.


He scurried up the pear tree. 


But then, he had no place else to go!  Bwahahahahaha! 


Anyway, I wonder how long this snow will last?


I'm going to enjoy it while I can. 


Stay warm everyone!
















Monday, November 11, 2019

Mr. Bones Daily

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


Now that Halloween has passed, Mr. Bones Daily is resuming his job keeping watch over Dad's garage workshop. 

Oh hi everybody!


I still don't know why that's considered work.


So you're just going to sit on a bag of birdie seeds all winter? 

Hey, it's work! Oh, and I'm practicing a little song too.


Um … do I dare ask?

♫ A hundred bottles of beer on the wall, a hundred bottles of beer … ♪

Well, that should keep him busy at least until Thanksgiving.



Thursday, November 7, 2019

First Snow

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


Look look look lookie look! It snowed today! It started around noon and stopped about 3pm. We used our "look up, look down," strategy for finding the nicest pictures in our yard.


Look up at the beautiful trees through the snow-coated bushes! Look down at frosted chives.


Look up at the pretty red berries of the burning bush under a blanket of snow.


Look down at a lichen covered rock surrounded by fluffy white.


Despite the covering of snow, we still found some vibrant Fall colors.












Our garden Buddha had a blanket of golden leaves, under a canopy of sedum.


I'm wondering how long this snow will last.


By 5 o'clock the clouds were clearing and the sunshine was peeking through.


A little later the snow clouds slid away to the east.


Then the moon came up.


See you  later!