Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the not so small, yet not so huge, purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to bring you up date on the news from our garden and about life in general, on this, our seven hundredth post. You may remember me from such posts as “The Cone Of Silence”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. I wasn’t standing perfectly still, like I was supposed to. 
Here I am in a three-quarter pose, I guess they call it, just to make the post seem a little longer.
I like the second one because I look so wolf-like.
Well. I’ve been gone for a while, and that’s partly because our internet has been so iffy, especially at night, and partly because the guy I live with said he couldn’t do much of anything until he got his hair cut. I didn’t understand that, but I think you know by now that he is kind of nut, and so the other day he went out for a while, and came back with a hair cut. And so now things are pretty much okay. And the internet is working, at least right now. 
Not only was there a big crisis about the hair cut, but there was also an enormously huge horticultural crisis which originated with the plantings in the central bed, that is, the one right in the middle of what passes for a lawn here. The guy I live with fretted about this a lot, and hemmed and hawed, and thought and thought, and eventually removed most of the plants in the central bed and replanted them with native grasses. So that’s what happened. Sideoats grama, mostly. There’s still plenty of room for me to race around, which I appreciate. You can see where I walked, in the lower left there. 
I guess it looks better. The guy I live with is a bit obsessed with finding grasses that will do well in this ultra-dry garden. I’ve shown some pictures of one, not a native, which has done very, very well this summer, but maybe not this close up.
Achnatherum calamagrostis
And, I guess the hummingbirds have left for the year. The guy I live with says “probably”, but we still have lots of plants flowering just for them. Of course these come from much farther south, or west, where the hummingbirds would still be humming. There hasn’t been any freezing weather here, and only three-tenths of an inch of rain since July 11, so the weather is pretty weird (at least that’s what I keep hearing), but the are still flowers to look at.
Zauschneria ‘Etteri’
I think that’s about it. Oh, there was a planting of snowdrop bulbs a few days ago, and a hawthorn tree got moved today, and one of the branches whipped against the guy I live with’s face, and he got all bloody, like happens pretty much every single day here, with one thing or another, but the hawthorn did get planted without anything else happening.
I also forgot to say that another reason, and apparently a good reason, why I’ve been so quiet is that the guy I live with has been raking up honey locust pods every single day. That’s mostly what he does, in between getting whacked in the face with a hawthorn branch and planting bulbs. There’s a steady rain of pods from the tree because squirrels are eating them, and dropping the pods on the ground. He says this is “extremely annoying”, but what can you do.
Time to let you go now. I’ll leave you with a picture of me, “getting all velociraptorish” on the guy I live with, a few seconds before I flew into the air and gave him a fairly good chomp.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Hi Mani. Love keeping up with your escapades. Tell the guy you live with to watch those Hawthornes. And keep those cards and letters coming.
Thanks. Our internet decided to go somewhere else for the rest of the evening, but I guess it’s temporarily back. The guy I live with says he should have someone else do the tree moving, but of course for free, so that’s not going to happen any time soon.
Wow, Mani, better take it a little easier on the guy you live with, right? He is the food-bearer after all. You must launch yourself with considerable force for those chomps. You certainly are beautiful though, with your wolfy eyes. Those Zauschnerias are great this time of year. Aren’t they trying to stick them in with some other plant name now? Maybe I’m confused but any name and they’re still nice in the fall. A lovely time of year. Do you have fall color to look at yet? We haven’t had rain either and it’s going to be ninety tomorrow or the next day. I hope the warm weather door doesn’t slam shut suddenly and surprise plants that are still growing. Was it extra fancy snowdrops that got planted? With better dots?
Thanks, but the guy I live with is what you might call extra-chompable. I agree that I’m quite attractive. The guy I live with says that zauschnerias have been Epilobium canum for quite some time now, but we still call them zauschnerias, or so I hear. I don’t care all that much, if you wanted to know. There is some fall color here, though red is not a color we see a lot of here; the guy I live with says that’s more characteristic of flora growing on acidic soils, which we don’t have much of here, except in the mountains, and even there, not always. They were fancy snowdrops, from Far Reaches Farm, which the guy I live with likes a whole lot, and mostly late autumn-flowering ones, to boot. (I’ve wanted to say “to boot” ever since I knew I could day that.) I think there were some with dots, but I don’t know. One autumn flowering one he planted was called (get this) Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus Hiemalis Group ‘Donald Simms Early’. Isn’t that silly? It’s pretty chilly here in the morning, which I like, because we purebred border collies are more misty-chilly-weather kind of dogs, but it’s been unseasonably warm here lately, though not unseasonably dry, since with autumn we enter the dry season here.
I forgot, congratulations on the 700!
Thanks; it was a long haul, but worth it, I think.
It’s sure worth it to me!
Thanks. I do think the blog has improved when written from the point of view of purebred border collies, rather than the somewhat mopey person who started it in the beginning.
Congratulations on your 700th post! Whatever mind meld you got going on here, whatever human/canine/velociraptor POV you’ve invented — it all makes for a delightful and moving reading experience. I’m not a gardener and I don’t have a dog so this blog is my holodeck, it’s the space where I roam the xeriscape with a gardening dog. Thank you.
Thanks. We try to be delightful and moving, sometimes at the same time. The guy I live with says that’s why the pictures of me are rarely in focus. I say it’s because he’s not in focus. At least he got his hair cut, huh.
Oh, right: Congratulations on the hair cut, too!
Thanks. It was important to at least one of us. The guy I live with got a trimmer; you know, one of those buzzy things, but he discovered he couldn’t see the back of his head. It was like, you know when there’s something you need to do but keep putting it off, and then eventually, it just becomes too much to bear.
You, Mani, certainly capture *exactly* a state of mind. Much gets put off around here and then becomes too much to bear. Speaking of bearing – or even baring – the guy you live with sports a fullish, thickish head of hair and should be suitable grateful. When I read the title of the posting, I was afraid the hair cut had something to do with you. *You* should be grateful, Mani, that the guy allows velocirapting. Around here, that sort of behavior would be barred. Licky terrier kisses are, however, encouraged. Love the light in the last photo and the backlit grasses are a wonder. Previous post, however did the guy get his camera so close to the ground for the crocus portraits and still keep the shot straight? If you or the guy have suggestions for a small oak tree that likes growing in beach sand, please tell. Native plant sale is this weekend, and we need some leaves between our house and the sun. Our zauschnerias and sages are in bloom and the hummers still hovering. 700 congratulations!
Thanks. I was kind of worried about the hair cut, as in, to whom was that being directed. The guy I live with allows velocirapting because he has no choice. Large deadly vicious gnashers flashing at him from, well, basically, above. Oaks that grow in sand. Hmm. There’s one from Texas, the shinnery oak (from the French chene, oak tree, and a shinnery is a thicket of oaks; maybe Quercus gravesii?). Or check Las Pilitas’ website. The crocus pictures were taken with the DSLR, 85mm lens, and a tripod. Since it’s a “crop” camera, equivalent of about 128mm lens, so the tripod legs all the way out, and about four feet from the flowers. (The zauschneria picture was taken with the 50mm lens, no tripod; the rest were taken with the point-and-shoot.) Oh, that sounds like the guy I live with knows something about cameras. He tends to do that fairly often.