Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, 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 our rather chilly garden. You may remember me from such rather chilly posts as “A Winter Wonderland”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. 
It’s been pretty icy and snowy here, as you can see.
This happening because the gutter is full of ice and so any melting snow has no place to go but over the gutter.
The guy I live with cleaned out the gutters, and I mean completely cleaned them out, just a while ago, but he claims to have no control over the formation of ice.
This could be why he decided not to make any resolutions this year, since there’s no control over anything that needs a resolution for it. I, of course, being perfect, wouldn’t even consider making any resolutions anyway.
However, the guy I live with is “extremely ticked off” by the events of the night before last.
We know exactly who ate all the leaves off the Mahonia fremontii, because they left traces, very visible in the picture above. Rabbits, of course, who must be desperate for food, because of all the snow on the ground. Would you eat this?
The mahonia now looks fairly hideous, and he said he’s going to have Tania, his gardening assistant, prune the mahonia when the weather warms. If you didn’t know about Tania, well, she’s imaginary. He said to close my eyes and try to imagine her, and that did work pretty well.
But anyway you can see how hungry the poor rabbits are. 
The guy I live with says the great horned owls aren’t doing their job, as though they had one, and that it had anything to do with him, but he also did say something about the edibility of rabbits. “They taste like chicken, though a bit hoppy, like people say about some beers.” I’ve had rabbit in a can, and it wasn’t all that great. It was kind of icky, really.
Nothing, of course, will be done about this, though I’m sure there will be a lot of complaining. This is in the front yard, by the way.
We’ll continue to feed the birds, according to the guy I live with, who likes birds a lot, even though it costs money and everything gets eaten up.
I’m not sure if this is what he means, but earlier it got really quiet out in back, and so we knew what was happening. You probably can’t see it here.
Maybe now, though. 
I guess this is a kind of bird-feeding.
All of a sudden the wind came up, and it was really warm, and all this melting is happening. It’s about 55 degrees (12.7C) right now, at 1:30 in the afternoon. The back yard is full of birds again, so the hawk must gave gone somewhere else. The patio is extremely drippy and slushy.
Oh, before I let you go. I do have one resolution after all, and that is to be less obvious when I think I need a biscuit. I’m working on it.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
So cuuuuuuute. Thy noble nose, I mean.
If, maybe, you put out a bowl of rabbit kibble, them rabbits won’t eat your Mahonia fremontii. Put out just enough to ease their desperate hunger pains, but not enough to make them want to celebrate with a little Barry White background music.
It might also draw them out of their lairs long enough to give the owls and eagles a shot at fulfilling their link of the food chain.
I must admit that I put out dry dog food for our raccoons in Winter because altho some people consider them interlopers, truth is that Earth is their world too. And they were here on the Isle of Long before I was.
The guy I live with thought he might buy some rabbit chow and put it out for the rabbits. Maybe in someone else’s yard, though. If there wasn’t so much snow on the ground, they could eat the grass in all the yards around here, and leave our garden alone.
I call Rabbitism! Food for the birdies, yes, but none for the desperate bunnies? Just enough to quiet the pangs, the pangs that drive a little bunny to denude a mahonia. More cold, Chess, is headed your way, I hear, so snow melting will stop. Your melting hearts – oh, your “imagining” look! – may continue. No one could resist that nose, hopeful and sweet, presenting itself. You know, just in case of biscuits.
Tania is outside in our sunny garden right this moment, watering in the newly-planted natives (the ones that feed birds and butterflies). Evidently, Tania travels.
Rabbitism indeed. They could always go into a neighbor’s yard and eat stuff there, instead of here. It’s supposed to be 50F here tomorrow, with snow at night. (That’s a real forecast, not made up.) Then warm up again.
PS: Can’t rid my imagination of the thought of rabbits swooning around your yard, Chess, to the crooning of Mr. Manilow. Since I can use a good swoon myself, I’ll see if I can dial up ol’ Barry on faithful Pandora.
That’s kind of scary, actually.
Scary Barry, I agree, Chess!
I like your less obvious pose for biscuit begging. Very subtle and evocative!
Thanks, I think being less obvious works, sometimes.
My brother, the St. Francis of Assisi of NYC, feed feral cats, raccoons, possums, squirrels and birds twice a day. He has a red-tailed hawk that shows up to eat the pigeons (maybe your predators are hunting in local store parking lots, the haunting ground of pigeons). He is a big fan of Costco pet and wildlife food. He also has some fruit trees chosen to feed the wildlife. Maybe TGYLW could put in a small critter-friendly garden by a fence for the critters. With a statue of St. Francis, of course.
You are adorably cute, Chess. I would give you a biscuit just because you are so honest about wanting one.
We are expecting snow today and it is very cold. We had light snow on Saturday but it turned into rain. Your winter is worse than ours here in NYC. I hope things improve soon.
Thanks; the guy I live with says our winters are worse than anyone’s, but I imagine he exaggerates. Statistically, we’ve passed the coldest time of year here, but then again you never know. Supposed to be 50F today. Toasty. The guy I live with also says it could be much worse; we could have deer. Or gophers. Worse still, I would be expected to do something about it, even at my advanced age. Like bark or whatever. He has also now been to Costco. He gets some of my pills there.
Glad I don’t have icicles or rabbits. This made me laugh: there’s no control over anything that needs a resolution for it. And then I downright guffawed at rabbits tasting hoppy like beer.
Rabbits are kind of a nuisance. A cute nuisance. There’s a spray called Rabbit Stopper that works pretty well. We haven’t made any resolutions after all.