Smurf City and Other News

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

Sorry it's been a while since we last posted. But I have a lot to report today, so I'll get right to it!

We have had a lot of rain lately, plus cooler weather. Those conditions are perfect for mushrooms! Thousands of them! I know there is a scientific explanation for all those mushrooms growing, and it involves fungi eating the buried roots of the old silver maple that got cut down in 2020. But I'd rather have a little fun and pretend this is a Smurf City. 

As you might know, the Smurfs are fictional cartoon characters who live in mushroom houses. The real estate business has been booming around here, and the Smurfs have built a huge city just since last night's rains. 

Check out this sprawling suburban landscape! 

Not all of the Surfs could afford to live in the suburbs. So they also built these high rise projects:

Beyond that are the slums. Can you see how the ones on the right are decaying?

On the other side of town live the rich Smurfs in their fabulous estates. 

Wow!

I think that was a better story than just a bunch of toadstools popping up from the ground. 

Moving on, as we continue to look for interesting things, we've been seeing a lot of these spindly crane flies. Don't worry. They're perfectly harmless. 

While digging in the yard we found these huge grubs. We think these might be some kind of June bug grubs. 

Here's a katydid. It looks just like a leaf!

We don't have many flowers left. But here are some:

We had to put this pumpkin in the house because the Evil Squirrel Cartel was showing an interest in it. We were lucky to open the door at just the right time, and catch one of those tree rats about to take a bite out of it! Rotten squirrels! 

Now here's my next story. As you know, my ghostwriter is supposed to be retired from her job, and spending more time at home with me and Dad. But guess what? She's still been going to work! 

She says the staffing has gotten so low at the nursing home that her boss asked her to please fill in for a few days. She also says that staff shortages have become a huge problem for nursing homes and hospitals everywhere since the covid pandemic, and it's even getting worse! Hopefully my ghostwriter won't become this unfortunate soul: 

My kitty cat cousins Tibie (aka Tiberius) and Hanni (aka Hannibal) reminded me that their human is going to nursing school right now. 

While they sometimes get a little upset at the amount of time she spends at class, and at her new CNA job, not to mention the homework, they support her efforts for the greater cause.

For my last story, I'd like to show you some pictures of our ever-changing skies. Here they are in no particular order:

We interrupt this program for a fast breaking news story! I'm your doggie reporter on the site of the mass destruction. 

Hurricane Gargamel has just passed over Smurf City, causing widespread devastation. 

Many Smurf houses were totally flattened.

Some were completely shmushed.

The high rise Smurf housing projects were obliterated.

However, many other abodes were relatively unharmed. 

Spokesbirdie for the Smurfs, Mr. Redson T. Cardinal, made a statement that all the residents of Smurf City had early warning and took shelter. 

Rebuilding will commence immediately. 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled sunset already in progress.

Changes

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

It's hard to believe it's already September! It seems like August went by way too fast. 

 My ghostwriter is now officially retired! Everyone keeps asking her if she's going to have a big party, or go on a trip, or something like that. Problem is, she's actually sad about it. She says, while she doesn't miss the hard, and often nerve wracking work, she does miss her team, and her patients. 

So this week, she's just taking it easy, and not rushing to do any of the myriad of projects that need doing in the house and yard. 

In other news, our backyard pear tree is loaded with fruit! We must have picked, and picked up, 100 pounds so far! Ghostwriter has been sorting them out for the last few days. Many of them are too small, or have damage from the recent hail storm, and from the tree branches rubbing against them. Those that fell to the ground were quickly attacked by ants, wasps, squirrels, and even the bunny. 

All of those pears were gathered up and dumped into the compost. The better ones were put into 8-quart baskets and set at the bottom of our front yard for the neighbors to take for free. (There were a lot of takers!) There are still plenty of pears on the tree, but we're going to need a ladder to reach them. 

Here's an old picture of my late, great doggie brother Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel doing his favorite summer time activity: laying in the grass eating a yummy pear. 

In case you're wondering, I am doing better. I'm still only eating canned doggie food that ghostwriter feeds me with a spoon. But I'm starting to get more interested in my dry kibble. Although I'm still limping around on my arthritic legs, I do enjoy going for very short walks just to check out the pee mail. 

Now here are the amazing things we saw from our own yard just by looking up, and looking down.

Flying photo bomber

Sunset

Moon rise

Ant nest under a rock

Little purple mushrooms

See you later!

Wow!

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

 As we say here at The Daily Bone, "always remember to look up, and look down to find amazing things right in your own yard." 

First I'd like to show you some pictures of the sky from yesterday. It seemed like the clouds were changing almost every hour! 

Well, that's not too unusual for early August in Western NY.

This morning, it was kind of cloudy and gray, and not very picturesque other than a jet flying over. 

My ghostwriter decided to go grocery shopping. As she got out of the store, it started raining. She got soaked while loading groceries into the car. By the time she was almost home, it was raining so hard that some of the roads started getting flooded! Oncoming traffic threw waves of water over her car, and it was hard to see. A few blocks from our house, she started seeing patches of white on the ground and thought the wind must have blown somebody's trash around. 

Meanwhile at home, Dad and I were watching it turn into winter in August! This is what our back yard looked like:

It's a good thing I'm not afraid of storms! This was insane!

My ghostwriter finally got home, and backed the car up the driveway. She had Dad got the groceries unloaded as the storm abated somewhat. 

Finally it passed, and I got a chance to go out to see our August "snow."

Hey, this is not snow! It's hail! 

 I was very surprised the storm didn't knock all the pears off our tree.

Other parts of the yard were covered with leaves the hail had literally torn from the trees!

There was no damage to the house, so all's well. 

Oh, in case you're wondering, I'm feeling much better. I'm all finished with my antibiotic. I still don't have much of an appetite, but I'll eat canned doggie food. I think my humans should get me some of this to eat: