Hello again everyone; yes, it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, here to show you what’s been going on in the garden, which really is hardly anything at all but I bet I can make it seem like a lot. You may remember me from such posts as “Before Dawn” and “The Sand Man”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic, pathetically hopeful pose. I’m suffering from the effects of falling back to regular time, when my tummy thinks it’s time to eat, but the clock says an hour earlier than usual. I guess I’ll adjust eventually. 
If this is way too pathetic looking, try this one instead. Rather raffish, don’t you think?
You may indeed wonder about cinder blocks in the kitchen. They support a big aquarium, in which there was a turtle, once upon a time. The aquarium is empty now, but it’s still there, for reasons I’m not sure of. Maybe mystical ones.
Anyway, we have a variety of things to show you. Here’s one of our guests keeping warm, on a slightly chilly day, under the Ephedra torryeana. 
Cute, huh. That’s Cabot, if you didn’t know. The guy I live with says he has to fill in that hole, though, to save the ephedra. Cabot will have to find another place to stay cozy. The guy I live with says that makes him feel mean, but he has to consider his plants, too.
Let’s go into the front yard for just a minute. Not for any really good reason, just to go. Well, there are pictures, so I guess that’s a good reason. The guy I live with put up a fence for Halloween so the trick-or-treaters wouldn’t impale themselves in the cactus garden. You can see a Certain Someone looking out of the window if you look just right.
The trick-or-treater fence will probably stay up there all winter, knowing the guy I live with as I do.
Look, here’s Titanopsis calcarea, with a flower bud in the lower right. It can flower any time from now on. The plant has been slightly nibbled on (not by me), but maybe the plants can live out here in front and not get eaten to the ground like they do in the back yard. We’ll see.
And Aloinopsis spathulata. No buds yet. This blooms in the spring. 
And then, because the guy I live with wants to try to fit in as much as possible, some ornamental kale. He says you don’t see this grown as much as you used to. Maybe people are suspicious of plants that stay green until at least Christmas. 
Although, fitting in ….I don’t know. These pots are on the driveway, after all. He says with only one car, there’s plenty of room for pots. Well, whatever, huh.
Now back in the back yard, with a picture of me.
Why not another picture of me to interest things up a bit? (The guy I live with disapproves of this use of the language.)
Okay, so, now we’re out in back, and ….oh, I remember. Crocus. It’s been kind of windy to really windy the last couple of days, and the guy I live with said he was going to take crocus pictures, but forgot yesterday, and so now they’re all tattered. I never put anything off, so this is a lesson for him.
Crocus hadriaticus forma lilacinus. 
Crocus hadriaticus.
Crocus hadriaticus ‘Purple Heart’.
The guy I live with isn’t entirely certain that Crocus hadriaticus is completely hardy here, but then, as he would say, what really is?
Well, I guess that’s it. A bunch of pictures of me, that can’t possibly be bad. They (you know, “they”) say it’s going to snow tonight, not much, but some, and it certainly looks like it. Some snow would be okay. Precipitation of any kind would be welcome, but I do like a bit of snow under my paws. 
I think that’s it. There might have been something else, but if so, I’ve forgotten what it was.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
To me you just have a look of starving on your face Chess, it was just dinner time for me, yum vegies and chicken wings. Cute little bun, keeping warm in the garden, he’s going to be cold if it snows tonight. I’ve never seen snow but I am seeing lots of rain the last few days and I keep having to get wet going outside and I don’t like it. Nice ornamental kale, we have some, it is an interesting plant to have in the garden don’t you think. What is the plant to the left of it, now that is an eye opener, very nice specimen. Lots of pictures of you are always good Chess.
I definitely agree, lots of pictures of me are good. Not like the world doesn’t revolve around me or anything.
It didn’t snow last night. It didn’t even freeze, really. Silly weather people.
The plant next to the kale is Opuntia santa-rita. The colder it gets, the purpler it gets. To a point, after which, the deader it gets, so it needs to come inside sometime soon.
How can anything so destructive be so darn cute? And you too, Chess!
Maybe it’s an evolution thing. Evolve to be cute, and humans won’t want to dispatch you. I think it doesn’t work that way, in real life.
The biggest damage rabbits do here is burrowing. Most plants can take being eaten to the ground, though it is extremely irritating.
A bit of trivia Chess. I didn’t mention the other day the cat who was visiting me is named Chester and we call him Chess for short. He’s all black no white, but maybe he is an acceptable cat to have as a friend, after all he is almost the right colour and he has a great name.
I don’t know ….a smelly old cat with the same name as me…..
Anyway the back door is open all the time, except when we’re asleep, so the guy I live with can rush out into the garden and look at things, then rush back in for more coffee.
I adopted a dog last week, a rescue cocker spaniel — my first dog ever. I’m a cat person but I saw this dog on the local Sunday morning news because that’s where the NY Humane Society shows off its hard luck cases and I saw this 17-year old girl and knew I could give her the good retirement she deserves after a hard life. The point to this story is: I also have many cats (5 indoor, 7 in the backyard feral colony, all trapped and neutered and released) and this dog smells worse than all 12 cats combined. I’ll get used to it, but trust me: cats smell like sunshine and warm slippers and brown paper packages tied up with string…dogs smell like tooth decay.
I don’t know ….cats have litter paw, and cat food breath…. The guy I live with says I’ve become rather smelly lately, but I’ve entered my senior years, and so that’s to be expected.
At least I don’t smell of fabric softener like so many humans do.
I am fascinated by the camouflage . . . of Cabot the rabbit and Titanopsis calcarea. And the purpleyness of the kale complementing (or is it accenting?) the purple of the Opuntia (although thinking about the prickliness of Opuntia makes me wince). The trick-or-treating fence was something I’ve never seen before. And Chess, I think I noticed in the 2nd photo of you that you have both clear nails AND black nails?! How very exceptional. The reason I don’t try to trim the nails of the dogs I live with is that they all have black nails & I can’t see the quick. I did trim the nails of a dog I lived with who had the see-through nails, though.
p.s. When I go out of town on dam business, I miss the dogs I live with, so it’s very nice to see photos of you.
The camouflage, on plants, is indeed weird. The kale thing was just an accident. The guy I live with believes this is the only use for kale, ornamenting the driveway. He’s tried to eat it.
I do have clear and black toenails. It was a black one that the guy I live with cut too short, with the resultant bleeding all over the place.
I understand that lots of humans have issues leaving their dogs. Dogs are truly excellent companions. The guy I live with says I spend an awful lot of time snoring, but he likes me just the same.
I guess I need a daily dose of being stared at, as only dogs can, to make me real.
I stare at the guy I live with all the time. He’s not very interesting. But he is an excellent hunter. Brings me back all sorts of good things.
Chess, the guy you live with deserves a MacArthur Genius Award for Best Bunny Photos EVER.
We have pretty good bunnies. Reasonably well behaved, and they sit still for pictures.
Too bad, chess, that the other guy living there doesn’t add more potted or in-ground flowering kale, Opuntia macrocentra, and even some green yuccas in the area at a safe distance…that looks great even once it gets colder there.
Yeah, the macrocentra is on the other side of the front stoop.