Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here today to bring you a short film about bats and some other stuff. You may remember me from such posts as “The Green Horrors”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
Okay, maybe a slightly silly pose.
So it’s August now. The guy I live with said that could be the whole post. It seemed to me that would be pretty ridiculous, especially with all the work that was done in preparation for this post. There were probably about a dozen movies made, none of which turned out to be entirely satisfactory, even the one that took hours to upload.
Fortunately no caterpillars have fallen near me, like they did on the post mentioned above, which took place about the same time of the year, though I am really beginning to dislike having so many flying things land on me, and crawling things crawl on me. The guy I live with said winter would be here before we knew it. “It can snow next month”, he said.
Some work was done yesterday, which was kind of interesting. A small area in the “way back” was renovated, with some expanded shale dug in. This is the first time expanded shale has been dug in; I’d never even seen it before and don’t know what it’s used for. I guess it’s shale that’s been expanded. 
The digging didn’t take very long at all. Some Yum Yum Mix was added too. This little area was the site of the old compost pile and there are still some charcoal briquets from when the barbecue used to be emptied into the compost pile. One time the compost pile caught on fire and the guy I live with thought that was hysterical. He said he was the only person who thought it was funny.
Anyway, it got later, and eventually the guy I live with noticed that the bats were out. You can see one, there, in the distance. 
This is a bit better. Possibly even a bit scary, especially if you embiggen it.
That’s really all I have for today. There were a whole lot of bats out tonight. It is odd that the high point of summer is next week and yet at the same time it can, as I noted above, actually snow in five or six weeks. The guy I live with has always hated that about living here, but there’s not much that can be done about it, and hating weather seems pretty pointless. Though I did hear something today about the fact that it was sunny all day, which it was. For the first time in weeks and weeks.
I’ll leave you with a picture of me lounging in my fort.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Looking good as usual, Mani. Lots of bats here also. Expanded Shale! TGYLW is truly on the front lines of garden experimentation.
They say it holds water, or something. We’re not really interested in holding water so much as opening up the soil so that water can go down into the soil, to the roots.
I agree totally with you about critters landing on us. Butterfly landings are the exception. Bats are wonderful. You’re lucky to have them nearby. They are stunning creatures. You look very content in your fort. Perfect!
I’m not sure which I like least: things landing on me, crawling on me, trying to jump on me, or slithering by me. Maybe a butterfly has landed on me once or twice. Really large moths fly into the kitchen all the time. In the summer, I mean. The guy I live with catches them, either with the net, or with his hands, and releases them outside.
Yes, it’s good to catch the moths and other insects gently and send them back outdoors where they belong. Try not to eat them, Mani, although I know you’ll be tempted. Like us, they just want to live and explore the world!
They are pretty tasty, actually.
Oh, Mani, you and your moth-eating proclivities, and just when you have us convinced you are such a sweet dog, if maybe *slightly* silly-looking from time to time. Or perhaps the silliness purely comes from the lens angle of the camera held by the guy you live with. The renovation with EXPANDED shale is pretty interesting because, you know, improvement foretold. That development, of course, will have to happen quickly because of imminent snow. The bat in the still photo? a dust speck on my screen. I embiggened and embiggened, and, voila!, a bat. I especially like the bats in graceful flight against the beautiful dusk blue sky, and with sound track. Well worth the price. You lounge very handsomely, dear Mani.
Thanks; the guy I live with is very much against me eating anything that flies near me, but I can’t help it. Today I tried a wasp. Not so good. I hear there’s a new box of Benadryl in the linen closet (which has no linen in it), just in case, but I don’t think I’m allergic. Pooka was, though; the guy I live with told a story of a swollen-lipped dog who had to be rushed to the vet because there was no Benadryl. Stung by a bee. We don’t really think it will snow any time soon. It can, of course, but it’s not very likely. Even the first frost date has been pushed back from what it was years ago. But at least when autumn comes we might see the sun.
You must really be short on the sunshine to be digging beds in August. Hope things clear up some day soon!
Right now it’s 71F, 22C, 53% humidity, with almost no sun. The light is on in the kitchen so the keyboard is visible. The guy I live with says we’ll start to see the sun when we see the first snowdrops emerge…..