Hello everyone; once again it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to bring you the latest news from the garden; or, if there isn’t any news, like today, then a bunch of ancient pictures because the guy I live with was bored and decided to scan some. You may remember me from such posts as “The S Word” and “A Day At The Opera”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. Standing by the refrigerator, as usual. 
If I appear too jolly, here’s another picture of me, in a much more serious pose.
Nothing like starting out a post with two pictures of me. Anyway, as I suggested right at the beginning, nothing has really been happening in the garden, and so the guy I live with decided to scan some old negatives of pictures my mommy took back in the days when they used to take trips and she would take pictures while the guy I live with stared at stuff.
Some of the negatives were a little damaged, but he says to show them nevertheless. So I will. I’m supposed to say that if anyone cares, these were scanned with a Canon CanoScan 9000F, and tweaked a bit using Photoshop Elements.
The first ones are from Loveland Pass, taken in September 1992.
Then one picture taken at Guanella Pass in the same month. This is the Sawtooth, 13,766 feet (4196m), looking east. Mount Evans is behind this.
Then some pictures taken at Pawnee Buttes, maybe in November 1992.
Oh, okay, one thing did happen today. The guy I live with made what he claimed was “squirrel proofing” for the bird feeder, and then made another dumb squirrel movie.
The guy I live with says this film is “evidence” that he has won the battle. I’m not a gambler, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
I guess it’s time to go now. I hope you enjoyed the photographic trip down memory lane, and the movie, and especially the pictures of me, which, you’ll have to admit, really do make the post. I’ll say goodbye with a picture of tonight’s sunset.
the miserable gardener 
We had the pleasure of driving through Loveland Pass some years back, just as a snow storm was clearing. An amazing sight it was! Your mommy’s pictures offer a very different perspective. A most welcome one, at that.
Have you or the guy you live with ever heard of the Yankee Flipper Bird Feeder? To see one in action is squirrel amusement of the highest order. Until the battery totally craps out and refuses to recharge, that is. Which I guess is the way of all modern, techie innovations.
Seen the flipper things. The guy I live with wanted me to spend two thousand words complaining about the plastic spray bottle, and how no one has invented one that will allow you to spray all of the contents of the bottle instead of flinging the bottle and its unsprayable contents into the trash. Of course it could be a plot.
In the Loveland Pass pictures, almost all of them were of the pika, and the guy I live with decided that just one would do. The Pawnee Buttes pictures were mostly of the grasshoppers she caught.
Of course it’s not a plot. It’s our economic system. Oops! Sorry. Same thing.
Maybe it is a plot, huh.
Hi Chess, not really knowing, are these all desert plants. Such a variety of plants and flowers, memory lane is good. Looks like your guy has won one battle with the squirrels. Excellent photos of you as usual.
Excellent photos of me, thank you. No, the plants shown from Loveland Pass (11,990 feet, 3655m) are alpines. The guy I live with was too lazy to introduce them. The ones from the Pawnee Buttes, which are close to Wyoming, are high desert plants, or high plains plants, growing in loess. Eriogonum pauciflorum subsp. nebrascense (E. multiceps), and Arenaria hookeri, probably.
I’m not so sure the squirrel battle has been won. They don’t surrender very easily.
Just the first battle not the war…
There’s another front opened up, in the kitchen. Mice.