Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the not-completely-enormous purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to bring you up to date on the latest news from our garden. You may remember me from such up-to-date posts as “The Blizzard”, among so many, many others. True, “The Blizzard” was my last post, but it was definitely up-to-date.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. 
If you’re thinking that this was taken during one of those dumb biscuit-on-the-head episodes, then you would be right. You can also see that I’m somewhat damp. More about that later.
The reason there haven’t been many posts is that the guy I live with was so grumpy about the two times it snowed after the blizzard that I couldn’t print anything he said about it. This is what the back yard looked like on the thirty-first, last Thursday.
That’s because it did this the day before.
It turned nice again and the guy I live with says it’s spring now. It could still snow, but he says he refuses to think about that.
This is what it looks like now. You may think this is awfully brown, for spring, but the guy I live with says it’s mostly brown here in spring, until the warm-season grasses start growing. 
All the broken branches were taken care of, and the patio cover has been repaired. 
He did that all by himself. Well, there was kind of a lot of swearing and stuff to go with it. But it’s done.
The 1970s screen door, this “tacky aluminum piece of …aluminum” was also fixed, so now I can do serious guarding, and look outside too.
Lots of stuff is flowering now. The mahonia, which we guess is Mahonia aquifolium, just appeared here many years ago. The spots are from anti-rabbit spray. The guy I live with says the camera must have focused on the spots.
Lots of bulbs, of course. The blue chionodoxa, which has seeded everywhere,
and the pink, which hasn’t yet. 
The best thing of all, if you ask me, and I’m the one worth asking, is that I got to go to Day Care last week (another excellent report card, of course), and I can go on my regular walk now.
The green here is from non-native grasses, mostly smooth brome. The guy I live with is not a huge fan of smooth brome. Anyway, this is me, if you couldn’t tell, heading south toward the willows. This path was made by Norm and Celeste, the coyotes, and improved on by Chess, a border collie who lived here before me, and I’m trying to make it even better.
The big scary willow, which is a different kind of willow from the ones growing along the creek, had a big branch broken off it, but it was carted away today. 
There’s water in the creek. It comes from a lake to the south of here. It’s not what you would call warm. There are water striders striding on it, and little fish swimming in it. That’s me there, again. 
Of course I had to sit in the water. It was indeed pretty chilly. 
The guy I live with mocked the appearance of my hindquarters, afterwards. Like his would look any better.
I guess that’s really all for today. I don’t think this looks too bad at all. 
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
I guess damp hinderquarters will have to do until the garden hose comes out again. Then all of the Guy You Live With’s fellow Front Range Gardeners will be able to complain about the lack of moisture instead of the late season snows. Gardeners appreciate complaining about things we can’t do anything about, I think.
That’s completely true, though the guy I live with rarely complains about lack of moisture. He complains about snow, rain, thunderstorms, all of that stuff. He explained that it has already snowed enough here to get the garden completely soaked for the rest of spring, and as for summer, well, most of the summer-flowering plants here have been given away. In favor of grasses, I guess, or something.
Did you stand next to him and shake the water off after he mocked you, Mani? That’s what mine would have done. They always have to stand next to a person. Good to know the chionodoxa (chionodoxi?) will spread around because we have a few. Is there a screen in that door? Or maybe the bugs are afraid of your climate and you don’t need one. You look very fetching gazing out. Fetching ha ha. In the snow picture is there a big tent over something in the background? I guess I prefer our weather, but it’s going to be 87 here Wednesday. Kind of hard on the spring flowers but perhaps not as hard as heavy snow would be.
How come you haven’t replied to me lately, Mani?
Oh my, you do look *serious,* Mani, guarding through the aluminum door. I did a pretty good job of filling in the missing wordage in the phrase, “tacky aluminum piece of …aluminum.” I’m guessing the fuller sentence was pungently descriptive. That is an impressive bit of workmanlike repair the guy you live with did on the patio cover. We attended a lecture this morning on the Golden Age of Flemish art, mostly having to do with floral still life and frozen winter landscape. The flowers you show would fit right into gilded frames, especially the mahonia berries. The photos of your garden and walk paths depict exactly the snowy landscapes on exhibit, with a bit of a japanoise twist for which your guy seems to have a talent. Sadly, the painters of the Golden Age neglected to feature dogs contemplating in creeks or wet canine rumps. I myself think you show very well. Those artists missed an opportunity. Again, I tell you you live in a beautiful garden, Mani.
Thanks; well, wet canine rumps are pretty much totally excellent, if you didn’t know. I personally was very fond of all the snow. Nice to race around it, and sample, of course. It got pretty cold here one night, week before last, I think; possibly as cold as it’s gotten all year, since, you know, despite the snow lying on the ground “forever”, we didn’t have a very cold winter at all this time.
Love the pic of you sitting in the water.
Thanks. It was fun. I got to do it this morning, too.
Ciao Mani, penso che tu mi capisca anche se parlo in italiano…Ti dico subito che mi sei molto simpatico e che sei senz’altro un bellissimo border collie di razza purissima! Anche il giardino del “guy you live with” è molto carino. Vi saluto entrambi.
Mille grazie! Il Guy I Live With ha tradotto per me.