Hello everyone; yet again it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, here to bring you the latest news from our garden. You may remember me from such posts as “More Far Niente Stuff” and “The Happy Elephant”, among others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. I admit it’s quite similar to yesterday’s pose. It was kind of a lot of trouble to get up to have my picture taken, so I just lay on the floor, looking charming. And close to both the refrigerator, where the Brie sleeps, and to the cabinet with the biscuits. 
It’s October already. Can you believe how quickly time passes? It probably won’t thunder much more this year, and the mornings are pleasantly chilly; the grass out in the field is still damp enough that I can track stuff into the house.
I’m supposed to show this picture of Salvia darcyi. Yes, again. The guy I live with thought it was cool how the sun backlit the flowers, and the thing has been growing by leaps and bounds lately. I can still leap, and bound, but lying on the floor is a lot easier. The salvia, though, just appeared where it’s growing, maybe from some roots he dug up, or maybe just by magic. There are other plants of this in the garden but not growing as happily.
I think the hummingbirds are gone now. There was a lonely-looking one humming around the garden a few days ago, but maybe that was the last one.
The owls are gone, too. We haven’t seen them in the back yard for quite a while, and haven’t heard them hooting out in the field. I don’t know where they are or what they’re doing. So ….
The bunnies sneak into the back yard by going under the gate. The guy I live with keeps blocking the area under the gate and every day there are new entrances. They can push aside a 4×4 with no problem at all. He says these are probably super rabbits bred by a secret government program like they talk about on TV all the time.
And now for some more flowers. I don’t find them so interesting, but the guy I live with is obsessed by them, which, really, is a good thing.
Here’s Crocus banaticus, which he forgot to take a picture of when it was open, but don’t worry, there will undoubtedly be more pictures later. It has a strange, un-crocus-like flower, but not right now. The fuzzy leaves are Papaver apokrinomenon. (Cool name, huh?)
And the first of the Crocus speciosus. There are “supposed to be hundreds of them, not just one” according to the guy I live with, who tends to jump to conclusions a lot. Not as much as most people, but still a lot. Just because I assume that every morning he’s forgotten that we go on our walk doesn’t mean I jump to conclusions too, of course.
So there you are. When there are “hundreds of them” in bloom, I’m sure I’ll post a picture of that, too.
Time for me to go now. Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Oh, I want to see that poppy in bloom!
Your person found the right back-lit moment to photograph salvia darcyi. He must really contort himself, Chess, to get your floor portraits. Worth it, though. You look soulful and seductive.
That is one powerful bunny, bulging with muscle. Determined look too.
Poppy is pale orange.
The guy I live with lay on the floor with the camera resting on the floor, just like me.
Powerful super bunny.
Oh! Baby Bunny pictured in July is all grown up! Has been eating all your special grasses and “unusuals” eh? Now a ‘Super Bunny Rabbit’! Must be the plants ‘super ingredients’ bred by the who?
I haven’t observed our baby bunny recently. Hope he/she didn’t consume any secret adverse ingredients in my nibbled off campanulas and ornamental cabbage. Where is that rabbit?
All grown up, and ready to start looking for places in the garden to build a winter home. Which, by the way, is forbidden.
A bunny’s gonna do what a bunny’s got to do.
So they claim. Someone is illegally digging in the back yard, too.
Talk about illegal digging, today I discovered that a family of skunks has established themselves in the irises below the bird feeders. This was always my favorite place to pounce on squirrels. Oh! The fun I used to have when Grammy and I would do squirrel checks together! Suffice to say, this afternoon’s squirrel check turned into a very rude and unwelcome surprise for both of us. Fortunately, the skunk was so discombobulated by my sudden pouncing into his munchies that by the time he had gathered his wits enough to let loose, I was long gone, since clearly my wits are sharper than Mr. Skunky’s. Grammy, being not as fleet of foot as moi, got to savor the olfactory offering. She may need to sleep with her windows closed tonight, since our little adventure took place right outside her bedroom.
Some days are just fuller than others.
Some days are fuller. I, however, do not care for skunks much, since I once got sprayed right on my own patio. There I was just minding my own business, and ptthththt, I got sprayed.
My mommy gave me a tomato juice bath and I turned orange. Too bad it wasn’t right before Halloween.
Saw a few hummingbirds yesterday, so the feeders are still up. They are leaving right on schedule, as the trumpet vine drops its final flower. ‘Til next spring, little dynamos, I shall miss ye.
I think they’ve totally gone here. Sigh.
I, too, like to lie on the floor and keep watch on the fridge (it takes about three hours for a room-temperature Pinot G. to “ripen”) and the cabinet (that’s where the Oreos are harvested). It gives you a whole different point of view on the existential issues of life. I was lying on the floor just the other day and I had an epiphany: if I switched to Fresca I could cut down on my floor-lying time.
It’s 80 degrees F today here on the shores of the Long Island Sound and the wild roses are re-blooming and the fat red berries dropping from the Japanese dogwood tree are covering the patio and fermenting. Ew.
About 60F here today. Oreos and pinot don’t mix, really.
The Crocus speciosus is so beautiful, it doesn’t even look real.
There should be hundreds here. And the white one, too. Oh well …