Namaste, everyone; once again it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with. I’m here to bring you the most memorable posts a border collie can provide. You may remember me from such posts as “A Beautiful Day” and “Border Collie Weather”, among other delights. Here I am in a not wholly characteristic pose, since I’m being forced to have my picture taken against my will (I would rather have been eating right at that moment), and so my ears are way back.

Anyway, today we decided to do a post about the place where we live. The first thing you may notice is that there are quite a few pictures featuring me, so this is a guarantee of excellence. Here I am on my morning walk, going along the canal road, heading west.

Here I am again. The canal is on the left.

This is the Turkey Creek Canyon Canal, right where it comes out of a big concrete culvert, which is why there’s riprap. The water comes from melting snow several thousand feet higher than we are now, which is kind of cool to think about.

Here I am on the path I blazed all by myself. Heading south, wondering if you can really blaze a path like you blaze a trail. Maybe it doesn’t matter.

Further south, the grasses grow even taller, and there are willows, too, so I almost disappear.

Here I am again, if you were starting to worry.

That’s our walk. We turn around and go back the way we came.

Well, then, so just when I thought we were done, the guy I live with left me alone, and walked down the street to the little mesa, to take pictures. He said this was a journey he had to take alone. I guess he thought that was a metaphor. Metaphors can be pretty tiresome.

I’m in pretty good shape but I am eleven, and the slope is really steep, as you’ll be able to see, and at the top there were younger dogs who were really out of breath, so it’s probably just as well I didn’t go. That’s what he says, anyway.

There’s some vegetation here, too. Needle-and-thread, Heterostipa comata. Helianthus pumilus in the lower right. You can see how steep the path is.

Seeds of needle-and-thread. If the seeds are moistened sufficiently, they’ll drive themselves right into the ground, with the thread part supplying torque.

The ubiquitous Yucca glauca.

Opuntia polyacantha, blue grama, and sideoats grama.

Looking through sideoats grama to an opuntia. Or looking through the grass at something. I’m not sure what he was thinking here.

Whatever. He’s back now, and everything is all right in my little world.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour. See you again next time.