Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to talk a little bit about weather which some of you might find pretty peculiar. You may remember me from such posts as “The Haunted Toaster”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
I guess I don’t need to say that the snow has mostly melted, much to the delight of someone I know. The garden looked like this, yesterday. Kind of brown. 
There’s a squirrel in this picture. I like to bark at them, a lot. The guy I live with says that can be annoying. Like he doesn’t make a lot of noise.
There are crocuses in flower now, too. 
But I should go back to the couple of days before Halloween, to show how much it snowed, and how cold it got. Down to one degree, the night before Halloween. Of course I am super tough and like the cold, though my paws did ice up once or twice on my walks. The guy I live with reached down and cleared the ice from my paws, and we kept going.
He got a shipment of cyclamen, too; the cyclamen were mailed on Monday when it was just pretty cold, and were delivered on Thursday, when it was less cold, but it had been super cold in between. The cyclamen were perfectly fine.
This is that willow that hangs over the canal road. 
Then, like I said, it warmed up. The guy I live with went to the local rock garden chapter banquet on Saturday, with his friend, leaving me at home for an awfully long time, but I know he’s really happy when he’s with her, and that’s okay with me.
The weather has been mostly nice, ever since. The leaves in the big cottonwood didn’t turn, they’re just dried, and rattle in the wind. The sound is so loud we can hear it in the kitchen, with the back door open, of course. Sort of a rushing sound, like water from the creek going into the culvert. 
We’re getting more aerial visitors, too. You can see that I notice such things. We purebred border collies are excellent noticers of things. 
This is what I was looking at, in the neighbors’ yard.
It was a nice sunset that evening, too. 
When the weather is pleasant, the guy I live with isn’t as sad as when it’s all snowy. But, and I thought this was pretty interesting, he realized today that a lot of this isn’t sadness, it’s what you might call left over anxiety from when he worked outside and had to drive on icy roads. He was sometimes stuck outside late at night, in below zero weather. Sometimes on telephone poles, even.
Maybe that’s one reason why he likes to be at home with me, all cozy and everything, lying under the covers in bed, with me right next to him.
I know that Chess, the purebred border collie who lived here before me, talked about the pre-bedtime nap, which is “a valuable addition to our modern lifestyle”, and I should explain that when we’re watching Monty Python, the guy I live with is lying on the bed with his clothes on, and a blanket over him, so it really isn’t bedtime, just the pre-bedtime nap, which is a preparation for bedtime. Like you get used to lying there, and warm up the bed a lot.
But sometimes he falls asleep, and then wakes up, because I have to go out, at Tinkle Time, and sometimes it’s later than usual. One time it was almost two o’clock in the morning. That was pretty weird.
Well, anyway. Today it started out nice, in the mid fifties, and the guy I live with went to the store, to get me some food, and to buy bird seed, too. Not at the same place.
When he went out of the store, the temperature had dropped twenty degrees, and there was a cold wind blowing from the north.
He came home, put away the groceries, put the bird seed in the cans out on the patio, hung the roosting pockets he got in the mail (these will keep birds warm at night), then I had my dinner, and we went on our walk.
In the mist. That was totally cool. It hardly ever mists here, but this evening was a misty one, and so we walked for quite a ways. I got fairly damp, but was dried with a towel when I got home.
The guy I live with took a bunch more willow pictures, but this time, of willows in the mist. Some of these are pictures of the same willows, but at different angles, especially of the one that hangs way over the path on the west side of the creek, and also the one with the big broken branch, which you can see quite easily. It’s kind of scary. We don’t walk under that tree.
These are willows to the south of us, growing along the creek. We follow the coyote path to where it stops, for us anyway. 
He said this next one was his favorite picture of the group. 
Well, that’s pretty much it. It got really cold, then warmed up, then got all misty this evening, but by the weekend it’s supposed to be seventy degrees. The guy I live with says that’s more like it.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Beautiful sunset photo. Lovely subtle colors.
How exciting for Mani to spot such a picturesque bird.
Thanks. We have owls here all the time, now, but a certain party messed up all the other pictures. Typical.
Holy Arthur Rackham, Batman! The willows in the mist are atmospherically perfect for Halloween. Just didn’t quite synchronize…
Yes, the guy I live with said the willows are very Rackhamish. His wife was very much into Rackham, and William Heath Robinson, and other illustrators. I guess you call them illustrators, though they were artists, too. We think these are Salix amygdalodes, but the shorter ones growing along the creek are something else. Salix exigua, maybe.
Mee-yow wow it iss like you had all 4 seesonss inn THE span of a few weekss Mani! An reememburr you woofed ’bout not gettin mist much…sumone musta herd you….THE Misty Willow photoess are so furry kewl. An Mistur Owl compleeted a sorta scarey theme to those photoess.
LadyMew’ss jaw dropped when shee saw yore crocus flowerss…wee not see ourss till April if wee lucky…..
An wee have a pre-nap rooteen here too. LadyMew iss inn Pee Jays’ tho….Ferst Pee C goess off an wee play toyss. Then shee takess her Bee P. 11benty o’clock Tee V goes off. Then shee ternss mee little ‘Twinkell Lite’ on an ‘angel’ Unkell Siddhartha’ss an singss “Twinkell Lite” song to mee. Then litess go off an shee totturss off to bed an getss all comfycozy. Shee reedss usin a small flashlite an mee snuggellss at her feet. Once shee iss sleepy, shee putss book down an ternss flashlite off an blowss mee **kissess** an sayss “Guud Nite Baby Girl…” Once shee heerss mee crunchin mee Greeniess Katnip treetss shee goess to sleep…that iss sum rooteen rite Mani?
**purrsss** BellaDharma
I think your routine sound totally excellent.
There are autumn-flowering crocuses, winter-flowering ones, and spring ones, though here all of the crocuses are done by the first or second week in March, so they’re really winter ones.
The same is true with cyclamen, snowdrops, and narcissus. The autumn- and winter-flowering narcissus aren’t hardy here, though.
Mee-yow you sure know yore flowerss Mani!! Mee not furry well versed inn flowerss. Mee knowss Dandylionss an Rosess an Black Eyed Susanss an Sunflowerss an Catnip too!
LadyMew sayss Cyclamen are one of her faverite flowerss…..
An mee likess our bedtime rooteen…it just werkss! 😉
Routines really are excellent. I’ve had a problem with daylight savings time, but I think it’s been worked out.
I know a lot about flowers because of the incessant talking about them, here. Constant chatter, you know.
Mee heerss you ’bout THE time change Mani! It shooked mee upss too. Mee not sure when it was brekkie or snack time or sup-purr. Butt LadyMew has a guud plan. So when it iss 4 Pee Em now that wuud bee 5 Pee Em other time so mee gets food an mee iss Okay.
An mee agreess ’bout ‘constant chattur’….mew mew mew….LadyMew chatterss ’bout a lot of thingss!
It’s been a difficult transition here, but I think the guy I live with understands it now.
I eat at 3:47 p.m. now. That was the standard dinner time for Slipper and Chess, the purebred border collies who lived here before me, and lived with the guy I live with after his wife died.
Not 3:46, though. 3:47.
Mew mew mew mee ‘getss’ it Mani! Mee likess breakfast at 5:28 A Em efurry mornin….LadyMew sayss mee can tell time guud. mee bin havin trubbell adjustin to time change so LadyMew offerss mee a lot of food a diffyrent timess so me can choose when to eat. Mee has her furry well trained!
The guy I live with hasn’t really adjusted to the time change, still. This morning we got up at 9:57 a.m. He said I should have said something, but I’m so good at sleeping that it was okay with me.
He was kind of tired because he went out at night, which he hardly ever does, to go to a nutrition and supplement lecture given by a doctor. It was sponsored by the urology center, which has been kind of his home away from home this year, and so he went. He said he learned a lot of stuff.
HURRAH fore yore ‘guy’ goin to THE talk an leernin sum more stuff. LadyMew sayss shee has to ree-main open to mew (new) inn-fo fore her health too.
An same here ’bout THE time change. LadyMew DOES get mee brekkin ’round 5:30 A Em so mee letss her sleep inn as long as shee wantss. Mee even snuggells her now inn mornin which makess her so happy!!
**purrsss** BellaDharma
Yes, the guy I live with learned a whole bunch of stuff. Whether or not he does anything about it is another story.
We tend to sleep in, at this time of year. Sometimes a lot.
Mew mew mew Mani mee heerss you ’bout yore ‘guy’ usin THE mew inn-fo…LadyMew sumtimess will lissen to what shee iss told an other times shee ignores what shee iss told.
Shee told mee “BellaDharma mee not gettin out of this (Life) alive so mee not goin to eat twigss an beenss fore rest of life!! Mee WILL eat meat an rice an potatoess an even poppycorn!”
Shee sure iss funny rite?
I get salmon. The guy I live with says I have cat breathâ¦. Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream, dry food, and a little canned on top. We went through all kinds of food and this is what I really like.
You’ve got a decent schedule there. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of pre-napping but i do like the idea, and will have to keep that in mind when I think it’s too late to still fit in a nap.
Snow, 1 degree F, and then 70’s. Hopefully it’s a sunny 70 as you’ve earned it after riding that weather rollercoaster.
The guy I live with says that the pre-bedtime nap isn’t trademarked or copyrighted, and so you can feel free to practice it.
There isn’t as much napping on the couch, as there was with Opera Day, like there was in the past, but I’m not ancient, like Chess, the purebred border collie who lived here before me, was.
It’s sunny, 66F, and 16 percent humidity right now. Supposed to snow tonight. But fortunately it will warm up again.
I’m sorry I missed all this. Instead of catching up, I get farther behind schedule. By now, it must be even more wintry there. Two weeks later our cottonwoods are starting to defoliate, but without much color. They didn’t freeze, but didn’t turn very yellow either. they are just sort of yellow. Well, they are pretty anyway. One of the dogwoods did what your cottonwood did. It is not pretty at all in its prominent spot in the landscape.
It’s been in the 60s for about a week here, almost 70 once or twice.
This has been a fairly typical autumn, except for the leaves getting frozen, though that happens every now and then, too.