Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the tiny, but less tiny than before, purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to thrill you and chill you with the latest, most exciting news from our garden. You may remember me from such posts as “Naughty Noodle”, among at least a few others.
Here I am in a characteristic, rather self-satisfied pose.
You wouldn’t know how naughty I was today just by looking at the picture there, so let’s just pass over that and get to the interesting part.
Not very much has been happening, really. The guy I live with has mostly been moving gravel back and forth, as much as he can without hurting his already-hurt knee, and there was some extra gravel which went into the tubs. The tubs are really inserts for a half whiskey barrel, like if you wanted to grow a miniature water lily or something. Not half whiskey, I guess, but a half barrel. Just to clear that up. 
You can see that the bird bath has been removed, temporarily. The piles of gravel are for “new rock gardens” and I am assured they will be attractive. Eventually. 
There are lots of things flowering, but I only have a picture of this iris, Iris bucharica. 
While the guy I live with was taking the picture, I tried to help by straightening out the camera strap. The guy I live with said that “wasn’t helping”, but I disagree.
He also said I wasn’t helping when he tried to sweep the flagstone after the tubs were emptied and put back into the shed.
I had fun, as you can tell.
So, now, I have something rather different for you. Call this an experimental film, if you will. The light was pretty weird, but we decided to walk around the garden, so you could see what it was like. Sort of. If it looks like there are toys and old shoes strewn all over the place, well, I guess there are. And also, the buffalograss hasn’t really turned green yet, and the guy I live with is all huffy about the cool-season grasses showing up, but I’m not going to weed them out, unless I feel like it.
I guess that’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed our two movies. I have stuff to do. 
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Hi Mani, I think the guy you live with is enabling your bad broom behavior. You have him well trained so far ! I enjoyed your garden walk movie. You were very mature and well behaved in that one. Early on I saw a Havahart trap –what are you hoping to capture ?
The guy I live with can’t sweep unless I’m locked in the house, which he says isn’t all that fair, so there’s a moratorium on sweeping. I don’t know what a moratorium is. It sounds like a place you go to. But anyway, the trap is there just as a fake-out sort of thing. It isn’t set, just to show whoever might sneak into the garden what might happen. The trap, I guess, has been there for years, never set, just faking out garden intruders, and then, of course, I came along, and all the intruders have been banished, so maybe the trap can be put into the shed, though it does look sort of quaint, doesn’t it.
You have quite a talent for finding ways to play with everyday objects, Mani. I admire your tenacity with the broom, but you must remember to use it for good, not naughtiness.
Use it for good. I guess. I got into some real trouble today, when I chewed through the electrical cord for the humidifier. I got yelled at, since I was caught in the act. The guy I live with used to work in telephone repair, and he learned a tone of voice that would back down very aggressive dogs, and he used it on me, and it was scary. He said if the cord had been plugged in, I would have been fried. I went out to the “way back” and hid, holding my Lamb Chop toy. I got cuddled afterwards, of course.
I know that tone of voice because I have to use it on the Dogs I Live With every once in a while. I remember one of my first dogs chewed through the phone cord — way back in the day when all phones were corded. It was A VERY BAD THING. But I guess everything looks like a potential chew toy to young pups. It’s a learning curve — for pups and their people.
Yes, I know I did a bad thing. Like that cartoon bear. You know, the bear family. “I did a bad thing, I did a bad thing.” The guy I live with bought a new plug and some armoring, a wrap-around corrugatey deal type thing.
Both those movies were super! I loved the tour! I was trying to recognize plants, was that a Crandall Current? The yellow flowered shrub? I need to watch it again. Perhaps commentary, or you could hold little identifying cards in front of the camera? Too demanding I know. You give us a 3-minute video and we just want more. My girls were scared of the broom from the get-go. I used to play with other dogs by kind of lunging at them with it, but not these ones. They are still scared three years later, and run when I sweep. My mistake. Watch those cords, please, Mani.
Thanks; I knew I was in serious trouble, and there was a lecture. The guy I live with says we purebred border collies really don’t respond to be punished, but we take lectures to heart. Mostly. I know I’ve had to be lectured repeatedly about some thing. The currant was Ribes aureum; they’re kind of all over the place here, very clove smelling, he says. I don’t know about cloves. If the light is better some time, we might do more tours. I guess I’ll have to pick up my toys. The broom is actually a new broom. It got left outside, and Earl, you know, unraveled the string that binds the broom, and the guy I live with got really mad, but now the tables are turned, because Earl doesn’t get to do anything in the yard, now that I’m around. He makes this chucking sound, but I stand my ground, fierce as ever. And, I’m getting my real teeth now. So he better look out.
What a great walkabout, young Mani. Your garden is fascinating. So many places to play. So many places to hide. Now when you talk about different parts of the garden, we can picture you there. Please thank the guy you live with for doing all that walking, with his bad knee.
You’re welcome. I understand that the garden was very different about fifteen years ago, with lots of greenery and plants almost everyone knew. Then his lady friend died (and she went quite suddenly, which is why things are the way they are), and so he decided to make the garden look totally different. I don’t know about the piles of gravel, though. I really liked them when they were sandy loam; soft to lie on and survey stuff from. You may have also noticed some fences. Those are for me. The guy I live with says that there were things here, like “anti-Pooka fences”, when Pooka was a little puppy, so I guess this is just déjà vu all over again for the guy I live with. When the first border collie, Flurry, was a puppy, there were …get this…fences made of string. You also may have noticed how dry it is here. It’s been very dry. It’s supposed to snow at the end of the week.
the addition of your videos to this blog is wonderful!! mani, you are quite the “helper” in that interesting and varied garden. thanks for the tour!
You’re welcome; maybe we’ll do another one when everything is leafed out.
Honestly, Mani, with all that interfering rearrangement of garden furnishings and gravel, and all that intrusive sweeping, it’s a wonder that you get anything done.
The mental picture of you, hiding out with your Lamb Chop, is really too much (if I think about for more than three seconds I get a tear in my eye), but if it keeps you from ever chomping on electrical cords again then it’s worth it.
The guy I live with bought me a new Lamb Chop, so that the old one can be retired. I think I learned my lesson about cords. Being a purebred border collie puppy, I find a lot to do, and some of it makes the guy I live with totally flip out, but he says it’s no different from the other purebred border collies who were here, when they were little, and that eventually I’ll settle down. A little, anyway. I like the paths. I can run at top speed down on path, then across the way back, then up the other path, and so forth.
Can’t wait till Mani meets the vacuum cleaner. Cords and hoses and nozzles…oh my.
The vacuum cleaner is indeed super scary. There’s one of those hand-held ones here, an old Kirby, that the lady of the house used to use to vacuum the stairs, and there was this one time, when she was doing that, and the bag was really full, that Flurry, the first border collie who lived here, got so excited he grabbed the bag and pulled it right off, and dust went everywhere. I might try that some time, because I guess you can do it.
Oh, the blessed golden light you are privileged to live in, sweet little Mani, how fortunate you are! Of course, there is always The Guy You Live With and his demands. Good thing you have Lamb Chop to cuddle (a tug at our hearts, that image. So is the image of you chewing on a live cord. Remember, border collies are best not fried). Being cuddled is fine too, and I guess The Guy is reliable there. Such a fine tour you led us, Down All The Paths, over and yon. What a revelation to see. This post is a keeper for placing your further adventures, dear dog. Looks like both you and the garden are still a few years from maturity.
Thanks; I guess I agree that we are best not fried. “Steps have been taken.” There’s something about the Lamb Chop …it was the only toy that hadn’t been washed, and I could tell it had been loved, a lot, though now it’s rather in disrepair, so I have a new one, which I’ll get after it’s washed. The guy I live with never wears anything until it’s been washed first, and new toys are washed, too. Just one of those things. The garden was mature at one time, but now a lot of it is new. The guy I live with started to wonder if this wasn’t all a little manic, but then realized they do that in other gardens too, like at DBG. Redoing stuff is what gardeners do, and people visit, and say they liked it the old way, and the gardener just thinks, huh, and keeps on going.
Gardens, Mani, are about all kinds of renewal. Sometimes I get renewed by my garden, sometimes I renew the garden.
Now I’m going to look for an on-line Lamb Chop for my own cuddlers.
I’m too little to know much of anything about cosmic stuff, like gardens and renewal. What’s driving me crazy right now is my new collar and the metal thing hanging from it, that makes a dinging sort of sound. It’s my rabies tag. The guy I live with got the new Lamb Chop at Mickey’s Pet Supplies. I guess this is a plug. My doctor said that Wholesome Hide chews were good and so I get those, and they come from there too. The guy I live with saw Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop on TV for the first time in New York City about 1957 or 1958, while on vacation (he got to take the train from Los Angeles), and while he liked Lamb Chop, he really liked Shari Lewis. He said she was cute. Anyway, the new Lamb Chop is exactly the same as the last one. I hear there are other Lamb Chops, but this one is the same.
Another busy day! I almost thought there were two cats in the garden at the end of the video and was about to be very disappointed but then realized the were cut outs. Good thing.
Yes, I am very busy. Those are French scare cats. They scare away rodents and things (not the French). However, I’m supposed to say that apparently only a couple are real French scare cats, and the others are faux French scare cats. They’re real ones, I mean, real scare cats, but not French. The real ones, which you might see at some time, are all kind of rusty, and were here first, then the faux ones were added later.
Mani, tell TGYLW to stop putting off fixing his knee. Knees don’t get better by themselves. He will be able to do more things with you in the future, like longer walks. Speaking from experience…
Just so you know you are not the only reprimanded critter, my cats get criticized too, only they don’t care like dogs do. Keep up the yard patrols.
Susan Hunter
The guy I live with says they don’t do much of anything for this; sciatica plus inflamed ligament. He talks about pain-killers a lot, but hasn’t gone to get any. The last time this happened the doctor said “take it easy for a while”, which is like telling me to be slightly cute. I get in trouble, a lot, and get cuddled, a lot, too, but that’s because I have so much to do around here. I didn’t get in trouble for pulling moss out of the trough and eating it, or for grabbing one of the roosting pockets hanging in the lilac and tearing it to shreds, but I do get in trouble for stealing plastic plant tags. They’re almost all gone now anyway. Buried, or removed. (He said he’ll just memorize all the plant names.)
Excellent post. Especially loved the walkabout. Your garden is je ne sais quoi, and it was nice to get perspective on the whole. I think the strewn shoes are fitting for such a tiny-but-not-as-tiny-as-before pure bred border collie’s garden! Sweet!
Thanks; we could do another walkabout today, but it’s snowing. And snowing a lot. I think that’s excellent. The guy I live with has other words for it.