Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Chess the excellent purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to bring you the latest news about me and our garden. You may remember me from such white posts as “White Fever” and “Mostly White”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. (With a characteristic pea on the floor, too.)
It was 70 degrees Fahrenheit here today (that’s 21 C). Pretty delightful, though it’s supposed to get colder by the end of the week. (That’s where the “things change” that the guy I live with says all the time comes in handy. Things change.)
I thought this was going to be the week where all these scary things got done to me, but instead things have taken a different turn, and I’m supposed to start a new medicine.
The guy I live with went to the Chinese herbalist place here, and got some for me. The guy at the herbalist said this has proven very effective for dogs, which, as you know, I’m. 
He said that, according to Wikipedia, baiyao means “white medicine” in Chinese, and so that ties into the gardening part of my post in what I’m sure you’ll agree is a most elegant way.
See?
We think that’s the one called ‘Theresa Stone’, but can’t really be sure because the label disappeared when the fence behind the snowdrops was built. (It got stepped on.)
The guy I live with took a bunch of pictures, but it was pretty damp over there and he didn’t kneel down to take the pictures, and so most of them turned out not to be in focus. This one is, at least part of it. 
Well, that’s really all I have. Both of us have our white medicine. The guy I live with says to imagine drifts and drifts of snowdrops instead of just the couple I showed, and I have a whole bunch of things to do, so I better let you go and start doing them right away.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Hi there Chess. What is wrong with the pea, don’t you like peas, too much like little round pills for your liking? I hope the new ‘white medicine’ is good for you and your guy. My mum started ‘white medicine’ and acupuncture three weeks ago but had to stop as it was disagreeing with her in a major way. Same thing happened a few years ago when she tried chinese medicine, so she has confirmed that it was not something else coincidentally last time as she thought possible.
I just love snowdrops so I am imagining drifts of them. As for weather, we had really hot days again and yesterday returned to 13C which it is also today (and ping down with rain), going to continue all week, groan… mud, mud, mud… I can see you are busy so I will go and let you get on with it.
Thanks; actually, I get green peas (with a little cheese) for my breakfast and dinner, to go with the steak. Peas turn out to be pretty good, but one must have flown off the plate, the way they do. What he does is mash them before they get microwaved, and then the cheese gets melted, so I can eat it very easily. The steak is cooked on the stove, of course. Steak is really excellent. Mud is pretty good too. There isn’t much of it around here any more, though when I was little there was a lot of it out in the way back, and I and my buddy Slipper would come into the house totally muddy, and my mommy would get mad, and wash our paws. But of course if our undersides were dripping with mud then it was too late.
Hi Chess…Ted the Cat, who runs the joint here, has been on antibiotics for quite a while, so he feels sympatico with you—even though you are a dog. He didn’t mind dogs when he was younger. I hope your new Chinese meds help because your blog is my favorite.
Thanks. I’m on an antibiotic, which is for chickens and turkeys, but this is to help with the anemia. The guy I live with has told me how serious this is, but I guess we’ll just take things a day at a time. The steak certainly helps.
Oh, the flowers are beautiful, Chess, popping up through earth and lingering snow. Tell me, are there likely soon to be drifts and drifts of snowdrops? How many bulbs has the guy you live with placed? Happy for the Chinese herbal approach. I myself drink an excellent tea for lowering cholesterol which comes from China. I do know one has to be on the lookout for *adulteration*. The guy you live with is so good about taking pains with your diet, I’m sure he is on constant lookout for many a thing. Couldn’t possibly have been his foot which trod on the snowdrop label when the fence was built because he so wonderful a looker-outer. Lots of rose labels get trodden on in my garden. Right now there is also excellent mud too because it has rained just enough to create the stuff. Feet need to be scraped and paws need to be wiped.
Thanks; the whole garden is filled with bulbs. The snowdrops are on the north side of the house, and they get watered all summer, because snowdrops continue to grow all year long. Without going into much detail, there has to be a reason for the anemia (it wasn’t an autoimmune thing) and the white medicine has been shown to help, so my doctor suggested it. The guy I live with says the Chinese herbal place is “totally cool” with piles of ginseng and all kinds of bottles and stuff. It’s been there for quite a while. He got some “special gunpowder” green tea, too; that was my mommy’s favorite. He wasn’t the one who stepped on snowdrop labels, though.
Wow, I’m glad you have a vet who prescribes Chinese medicine, Chess. I was reading up on that stuff and it seems to do many wonderful things. Did you know it’s helpful for gunshot wounds? Nice to know. I got a little scared reading about the ailments dogs might have that this product helps and so I’ll say I’m glad each of your days you take one at a time include steak and other good things. Do you still take any walks? I thought of buying snowdrops after this post, but instead I ordered some Sparaxis, due to my lack of sophistication.
Thanks; my doctor says it’s worked on many dogs. I don’t go for walks any more because I get tired so easily, but maybe the white medicine will help. Snowdrops are really excellent (he says). His car was named Snowdrop. After my mommy died he gave the car to the Rescue Mission, and it probably got another name, like “the car”. It was white. The English are crazy about snowdrops. Totally and completely crazy about them. Look here. http://www.dryad-home.co.uk/gallery/GALANTHUS/index.html (Just one nursery.)
Oh, my gosh the subtle differences! We have “My Garden in Spring” by E. A. Bowles and the way he goes on about them, whether there is a dot here or a spot there on the petal of this or that one, well it makes you love them even though you don’t have any.
It got to the point where E.A.B. had to give them secret coded numbers, to prevent them from being lifted. I guess snowdrop theft is somewhat common in that part of the world, and gardens that open to the public have to have the rare snowdrops fenced off, and guarded by snowdrop dogs. The subtle differences seem to be the thing, too. One bulb of a very rare variety sold for something like $1200 US a while back. One bulb.
Wow, snowdrop guard dogs!! That is really interesting. That’s why I just have the couple of cheap kinds of snowdrops, even though I’d like to have all kinds, just to say I did.
Though there are a couple of small nurseries that sell named snowdrops in the U.S. (make that three, with Far Reaches Farm selling a few), there’s a quite different situation in the U.K. Here’s another website that’s worth looking at: http://www.judyssnowdrops.co.uk/index.html (They don’t ship overseas.) And it’s dedicated to a dog. Like Reginald Farrer’s In A Yorkshire Garden was, too.
Oh, thanks! And I did not know Farrer wrote a book about a Yorkshire garden. Must read.
Sure. Very funny book. Laugh out loud type funny. Like when he collected a bunch of Anemone nemorosa in his handkerchief and then realized he had to blow his nose. Oh, spoiler.