Hello everyone; yes, once again it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, here to bring you the latest and greatest news from our garden. You may remember me from such delightful and humorous posts as “Home Alone Once Again” and “In The Snow”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. The guy I live with, who was holding the camera, said I was “too close”. But I like being close. 
Here I am again, “too close”. 
Oh, why not one more?
You may wonder what all this me-centered activity is, so I’ll tell you. Tomorrow is my birthday. I’ll be twelve.
We’re not going to do any celebrating, or anything like that, but I wonder if these are for me?
Here I am again; this time in a focused, horticultural pose.
I suppose I should say some gardening-type things, instead of all this me stuff. I like the me stuff a lot, but the guy I live with reminds me from time to time that this is more or less a gardening blog, so here we go.
The emerging leaves of Allium platycaule. They really are this color. It’s from California, which might explain it. 
Crocus ancyrensis ‘Golden Bunch’. The guy I live with says ancyrensis refers to Ankara, in Turkey. I like turkey a lot. The guy I live with got some roasted turkey breast a while back, and shared it with me. It was good.
You can see a feather in one of the pictures. That’s because there are a lot of birds in the back yard. There’s also a bee. 
The extra purple pads of Opuntia polyacantha ‘Dark Knight’. They turn greener when the weather warms, the cells fill with water again, and the pads stand upright. 
Merendera (Colchicum) sobolifera.
The guy I live with took some pictures of “the three towers” last night. The cypresses in their personal greenhouses, I mean. They’re kind of spooky at dusk, don’t you think?
The guy I live with has been super-obsessing about “winter-quiescent conifers”, by which is meant that the conifers don’t form resting buds for the winter, but instead just stop growing. They get a little bit of winterburn because of that, and he doesn’t know why. If you feel like looking at his pictures, they’re in his bucket, here. (There’s also a picture of a cedar, which does have resting buds, and bunches of snowdrop pictures, and another one of me with antlers.) But that’s why the cypresses are in their personal greenhouses, in order to get a jump on warmer weather. So he says, anyway.
I guess that’s really all for today. I have to rest up for the festivities tomorrow.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
I hope you have an exceptional birthday — one befitting an exceptional border collie. You’re the same age as my Daisy, who turned 12 in January. I still call her a pup, though.
Thanks. I think I’ll be almost as old as the guy I live with ….
Happy birthday,Chess.
Thanks. This is the first year the guy I live with has remembered my birthday for a very long time. It used to be written down on the calendar.
Chess, dear dog, your birthday is now written on *my* calendar. This is the first time I think we’ve seen the full dimensions of your fort. You enjoy quite the sturdy space for yourself. Are you careful not to wander near the Opuntia? They look like they could do your toe pads harm. When the proper time comes, please show a shot of the fully emerged Allium platycaule – I’m almost certain the guy you live with will have taken the photo. In your “focused, horticultural pose,” Chess, you resemble a supermodel. You can also remind your guy how extremely lucky he is to have such a gorgeous, brilliant purebred border collie around to throw poses at him and his camera.
Thanks. I am quite photogenic, am I not? The guy I live with says that’s immodest, but who was it who made the whole world revolve around me? We purebred border collies have always assiduously avoided cactus and things like that. There have been incidents with pads of Opuntia fragilis stuck to us, but that’s a different story. The allium takes its time to bloom. Here’s a picture, though, that my mommy took https://paridevita.com/2013/01/15/below-zero/ It loses most of the red and blue and purple by then. It’s 47F here (8.3C), and supposed to be 50F (10C) tomorrow, but in between, tonight, we get five inches (12.7cm) of snow.
Chess, a very happy birthday to you. You deserve a long walk, and perhaps an entire baked brie in pastry. Also a day without rodents. Best wishes from your fans in NYC – even from the purebred rescue Siamese.
Thanks. Baked brie sounds mighty good to me. Funny thing happened this evening. The guy I live with went downstairs, and saw a mouse. “Mice run fast”, he said. He’s so observant. Then a few minutes later, a mouse walked into the kitchen. And then vanished, the way they do. So, he was working in the garage, and decided to put fresh peanut butter in the Tin Cat, which had none in it, and he put the Tin Cat in the kitchen, and went back out into the garage. Within minutes a whole herd of mice headed toward the corner of the garage, where it turned out there was a hole gnawed in the corner. he said it was mildly alarming to see all those mice racing toward him. They smelled the peanut butter. He plugged the hole with steel wool, but the mystery of how they’re getting into the house continues….
Dear Chess, I wish you the happiest of birthdays – only four days before my own. A Piscean purebred border collie, no less. We already know you like playing with water.
Have you thought of suggesting to the guy you live with that he puts the peanut butter in the tin cat and leaves it outside the back door, rather than in the kitchen? Then when they smell it, you might have a mass exodus. Or even a mouse exodus. (Sorry!)
I’m sure your day will be really excellent.
Thanks. The day started out excellent, anyway, and the snow is melting fast, so there might be a lot of mud to play in. Mouse exodus. Ha ha. The guy I live with says there will be one, when the garter snakes wake up from hibernation……
A very happy birthday to you, dear Chess! I hope you get to enjoy a nice walk with the guy you live with, a morning nap and an afternoon nap, and a terrific gnaw on one of those cow ears!
Thanks. It was fun walking through the melting snow this morning, and I got a cow ear. (I didn’t share.)
I can tell you are very excited looking forward to your birthday very hard to concentrate on the garden (which was very good today). I wish you many happy returns of the day and I hope you enjoy it, especially your treats. It’s hard not to be excited.
I find it hard to believe but I just had my 6th birthday yesterday. Have a great day Chess.
Thanks. So far it’s been quite delightful. I get to walk in a lot of mud later, and track a whole bunch onto the newly-shampooed carpet, and that will probably be excellent. It’s really melty and drippy here. People sometimes forget that in a semi-arid climate, this snow is what bring life to the spring garden. The guy I live with is all, like, “You’re twelve and getting old”, but my buddy Slipper was only nine when we lost him, and my mommy only 51. My grandpa Flurry lived to be 17, and was able to try to chomp me until he got really old. Life is pretty much mostly great.
I just checked: you, Chess, are the most wonderful and interesting and delightful person born on March 5. (It’s a really rag-tag list of D-listers — a purebred border collie outshines them all!) I have a soft spot for Pisceans. My favorite Beatle was a Piscean. In 1970 I read an article in Rolling Stone about George’s new album, All Things Must Pass, in which the writer described his “glowering Piscean eyes”. At the time I thought that was breath-taking wordsmithing. And a mere 32 years later I was at the wheel of a Buddhist boyfriend’s Jaguar and he put What Is Life on the CD player REALLY LOUD and it was a religious experience.
What Is Life? It’s having a 12-year old pure bred boarder collie for a soul mate. We should all be so lucky.
Dear Chess: HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY. (I hope you speak Pooh.)
P.S. That poem on the bag of ear candy brought tears to my eyes. Just like the time I went to my dog’s vet and she had a painting hanging in her exam room that said: Dog Is Everywhere.
Thanks. Well, it was an excellent day, pretty much, though there was kind of a lot of opera being played, and some hammering earlier (tacking on the hardware cloth), which I don’t care for much, but pretended to ignore. Though the guy I live with did hit his finger with the hammer, which he said was “obligatory”. The guy I live with said he is grateful for my companionship. He says it every single day, but especially today.
That Allium foliage is spectacular. It’s going on my list of must have plants.
Maybe Illahe Rare Bulbs sells it. You ask for the list; they email it back to you when the bulbs are ready. (No catalog, in other words.) Maybe Odyssey Bulbs too. They have an online catalog. Mine were grown from seed, Northwest Native Seed, but the owner retired and so they’re no more.