Thursday, August 31, 2017

Last Day of August

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


Yet another month has flown by. We saw a lot of things today. We're going to start off today's report with an array of arthropods. 

Great big bee.

Wasp

Tussock moth caterpillar on a milkweed leaf.

We found this poor old bumble bee on the ground. She must have worked herself to death. Her wings are all worn at the edges. 


Since the weather has turned so cool, it's a good time to look for fallen cicadas. But ghostwriter usually doesn't get up early enough in the morning to find them before the ants eat them. However, today we were lucky and finally found almost a whole one! What a strange and interesting creature! 


We also did some looking up today.


The sky was bright with only a few clouds. Here's what we saw: 

Helicopter.

Jet.

Vulture.

Moon.

I wonder if my dearest Princess Leah saw the moon too.

Here are some summer flowers a day early for Flower Friday:

Stonecrop.

Perennial bachelor's button (I think.)

The hydrangeas are turning pink now.

The milkweed pods are opening.

Don't worry. We didn't get any good spider pictures today, although there is a big one in a web behind the bushes. 


Finally, here's the beautiful purple sunset on the last day of August.


It's going to be a good night for sleeping! 



Sunday, August 27, 2017

The Yum Yum Report

Hello fellow foodies! This is The Daily Bone and I'm your food-watching doggie reporter
Chester L. W. Spaniel.


My humans continue to be quite boring with their meals. I imagine you're probably tired of seeing the same old things over and over again with only slight variations. But ghostwriter made something a little different the other day. Ta-da! Turkey cutlets breaded with turkey stuffing, with mashed potatoes, gravy, and vegetables. Yum! 


Last Sunday we had a very special dinner. My Joanna human and her boyfriend John, brought over a huge pot full of delicious home made Sicilian meat sauce. It had "all the meats" in it, and I was honored to have been given a big chunk of tender, mouthwatering meat as a sample. Heavenly!


There were several other things on the table, like salad, and bread, but ghostwriter didn't take many more pictures because she was too busy eating. It seemed she couldn't find her cell phone for a while. She tried having someone dial her number so they could hear it ringing. But all they could hear was a muffled ring from the direction of Dad's chair. It turned out she had put the phone down on the chair and Dad was sitting on it! Good thing it wasn't on vibrate!   

Ryan and his Mom Cathy enjoying the dinner.

I received a picture from my Ryan human a few days later as he demonstrated his newest haute cuisine invention: grilled hot dogs (I think those are Zweigle's white hots, a local classic!) with strawberry yogurt. 


Wow! It looks yummy to me! 


Today it was kind of cool out. So ghostwriter and Dad decided to make one of their winter dinners: meat loaf and baked potatoes with butter, along with the usual steamed vegies. 


In case you're wondering, this is the almighty sacred microwave vegie steamer that gets used religiously almost every day. We put in carrots, a cruciferous vegetable (broccoli, brussel's sprouts, cauliflower, etc.) and beans, pea pods, or frozen peas. 


I can't forget to include a picture of my esteemed late colleague and food watching mentor, Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel, Doggie Chief Inspector, comestibles division, and founder of the Yum Yum Coalition admiring a grilled sandwich with roasted chicken and Swiss cheese, with roasted vegies on the side.


And now for the food related doggie funnies!

Mother Goose and Grimm

Dog Eat Doug

The Other Coast

Take it From the Tinkersons

Hey, I like carrots!

Finally, I found a new video all about someone who really loves his vegies! 



Bone Appetite everyone!


Friday, August 25, 2017

Flowers (And Bugs) On Friday

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


We've been having a lot of thunder storms lately. This has been good for the garden. So I have some nice flowers to show you. 

Rose

Mint

Thistle

Black-eye Susan

Sun flowers

A flower growing in Oma's yard.


It is now time for some science.


Here's something Dad found in the rafters of the garage:


Do you know what it is? 


This is the tubular nest of a mud dauber wasp. These wasps build them out of bits of mud, and then fill them with spiders they have caught and paralyzed. When the wasp larvae hatch, they will have a fresh meal ready to eat!


Kind of creepy, isn't it? But that's how nature works. And speaking of spiders …

SPIDER WARNING!!!!!  SPIDER WARNING!!! SPIDER WARNING!!! 


We check the milkweeds every day to see if we find any monarch butterfly caterpillars. None yet! But we did come across a clever spider who was using the milkweed pods for his web. He came out to say hello for a moment.


Then he retreated to his lair. Do you see him in there?  Ghostwriter dropped a Japanese beetle into the web which disappeared quickly.


I hope he had a nice dinner.


So now we'll look at a few more flowers.






 For our final flower picture, we have the hostas blooming by the back door.


These hostas are originally from our Oma's back yard, and are a very old variety. They bloom later in the summer than other hostas. The big white flowers smell sweet. However, they are also an attraction to slugs. Ghostwriter usually picks them off and flicks them out of the yard.


I do what I can about these pests by regularly peeing on these plants.

Hehehe!

We always like to watch this video during slug season.



Oh, and happy National Dog Day tomorrow!


Here's the poster that's up at the Nursing home where ghostwriter works. I wonder if I'll win as the cutest doggie???