Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the very small purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to tell you all about my day, and to talk about some garden news as well. You may remember me from such posts as “The Infernal Machine”, and maybe a few others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. 
The guy I live with mentioned that this was the second Friday the thirteenth in a row, and that maybe all Fridays from now on will be the thirteenth, and, purely by coincidence, we have thirteen pictures today, hence the title of my post.
True, there are extra pictures of me, like this one
but we really didn’t add any to come up with thirteen, it just happened that way. Extra pictures of me are delightful, as I’m sure you will agree.
I had a pretty good day today. Shortly after these first two pictures were taken, I started looking all angelic
angelic
and then I sprang into action.
You can probably see how excellent the day started, just by this.
The guy I live with is pretty fun to play with, since he says I’m pretty much exactly like all the other border collies who have lived here, which is a compliment, of course, and it was really funny yesterday when I chomped on his rear end and nothing happened except that he said “Ow”, but being outside is very good, and we spent a lot of time out in the garden today. It rained a little last night, and so there was some mud, and that made it even better. I got to look around a lot. Here’s a picture of me investigating things.
The plastic thing, which I thought was pretty scary when I first saw it, is a cage to protect bulb flowers, so they can get their pictures taken.
We have bulbs in flower. A lot of them, actually.
Crocus ancyrensis ‘Golden Bunch’
Colchicum hungaricum ‘Valentine’
Crocus biflorus subsp. adamii
A mystery crocus appeared behind this one; similar, but with no stripes. The guy I live with thought about propagating it and calling it “Stripeless”, which is really original.
mystery crocus
There are a whole lot of cyclamen, too. These are Cyclamen coum. 
While the guy I live with was wandering around looking for things to take pictures of, I found something to chew. The guy I live with said it was a piece of a pine cone. Maybe I should ask for pine cones for breakfast. They’re good.
Funny thing: the guy I live with says I lose all sense of hearing when I’m outside, like if he calls my name or politely suggests that I not do something, but when he opens the bag of Newman’s Own treats, I can hear that from the farthest part of the yard.
So, see? A pretty interesting and worthwhile day. The guy I live with tried to take a nap on the couch this afternoon, and I jumped up on him, pretending I wanted to take a nap too, but instead I started chomping on him, which is a lot of fun. We played tug-of-chew-toy some, later.
I guess that’s all. I keep finding new places to curl up and take naps, and so I have to go look for a new one right now, so I’ll say goodbye for now.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Enjoy that hidey-hole, Mani. It won’t be long before you’re too big to fit in there. I’m envious of your blooms. I have daffodils in bud but no blooms. No snow, either, though.
Thanks; I might already be having a hard time getting under the couch. The rattan, though, is quite chewable. It’s really old. We have daffodils up, too, and almost no snow.
Love your angelic look, Mani. Use your border collie powers for good, and not for evil…! Not for too much evil, anyway :~)
Thanks; I think my job here is mostly to be angelic. Also to keep the guy I live with on his toes.
Were there no snowdrops hiding under all that snow? You haven’t seen them, Mani, but the lovely dog who came before you did. I am hoping you will ask the guy you live with to suggest a place to buy them, gorgeous ones but perhaps not $1000 a bulb. Then you can go back to rattan eating.
The snowdrops are on the other side of the garden gate, and I’ve been too busy exploring to look for them. I’ve heard about the dog who was here before me, and the guy I live with misses him a lot, which is one reason why he got me. We’re all kind of alike, and as you can tell, we talk alike. And we have the same interests. The guy I live with said that Chess was called “Mighty Bitey” when he was little, too. A thousand dollars for one bulb is a bit much for us, too. I have to have my Poultry Palooza, after all. (It’s really, really good.) And he has to have his Daz Bog coffee, which he says is good too. He stays awake, so it must be. But anyway, for fancy snowdrops, that you buy by the bulb, Temple Nursery (no website) or Carolyn’s Shade Gardens (too late this year for either, probably), and then Odyssey Bulbs where you can buy more; they have a few different ones, including some that bloom in November. The thing with the mail-order ones from regular bulbs suppliers is that they come fairly late, and so this year the guy I live with says he’s going to order some and plant them in a flat of, say, potting soil, water the heck out of them, and when they have roots, then he’ll plant them. Otherwise our autumns are too dry to start bulbs that normally have roots all year, usually.
I’m lost in the Odyssey catalog thanks! Chew all you like, I say, but go a little easy on the flesh…Oh, and I know so much more about dog noses now, and understand my own sniffaholic a little better.
Mani, you will have to explain to the guy you live with that once outside your nose takes over and your ears close up. There are so many wonderful smells and tastes to be investigated outdoors I can understand why he has to resort to Newman’s Own treats to get your attention.
Yes, he had to read this article, somewhere, about our noses and how we can smell different smells in each nostril, and have like 100,000 times the ability to smell stuff, and that also we exhale through the side flaps in our noses. If you wondered what those side flaps were for, that’s it.
Love that Chess was like you as a puppy.
I was going to say the same thing. We only got to know Chess when he was ten and a half years old already, so I love that Mani is explaining everything we need to know about being a tiny pure bred from working dogs border collie. But that pic of you in the garden, dear pup, shows that you are getting less and less tiny every day.
I was really bred from luxury companion dogs, which is kind of like a working dog, though they don’t have anything to do but just be excellent. The way he knew that we would like each other is that there were something like six adult purebred border collies in the house, and when he sat on the couch they all jumped on the couch for cuddles and hugs. Instead of like trying to chomp him to pieces, I mean. It’s okay to get bigger. I’ll get to sleep in the bed. Facing east, to greet the sun, of course.
We are kind of a lot alike, being purebred and all. Chess was called “Might Bitey, the rug shark”. We’re really intellectuals.
As I type this, our purebred border collie, Annie at ten years old, is bugging my hubby to get up and throw ball. What would we do without that effervescent energy you purebreds have to make sure we get exercise and be entertained? I see the snow has gone and lots of pretties are popping up in the yard. And yes Mani you are pretty too. 🙂
Thanks; I’ve seen a dog that looks just like me, out on the patio, and I would agree that I’m pretty. Though I’m a boy, so do I say that? I do have a lot of energy, but also enough energy for napping.
All your photos show you being working dog at having fun while also being all-around excellent. I’d say Your Guy got a lucky two-fer. Love all the bulbs in flower. The yellow is outstanding.
Thanks, yes, it’s finally spring here, and I get to spend a lot of time out in the garden. I saw a snake today. That was scary. I don’t really do much work here. I do make sure the toilet paper rolls don’t have too much paper on them, because it just looks wrong.
13 pictures = 13 treats for this puppy lover!! too adorable, little mani! and this farmgirl is a wee bit jealous that you can see all your spring blossoms already! here in the mid-hudson valley, we still have so much snow on the ground (although it is receeding, woo hoo!) we can’t see what wants to grow yet. SOON!!!
Thanks, I’m doing my best to be adorable, so I can get away with certain activities which the guy I live with frowns upon. It’s spring here now, but when we get two feet of snow in April or May it won’t seem so hugely spring-like. The guy I live with will get grumpy (he already said), but I’ll get to romp.