Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to talk about the changes in the weather. You may remember me from such posts as “Our Winter, Thus Far”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. 
You can see that the sun was shining, and things were pretty good. That was a couple of days ago.
Even though there was still ice on my walks.
Yesterday it was seventy-one degrees. A typical temperature for this time of year, but it used to happen more often.
There were snowdrops in flower out in the garden. “Finally”, he said. 
It started to snow last night. We’re supposed to get about a foot of snow, and by Tuesday night the temperature will be about five below zero. So a seventy-five-degree drop in temperature in three days.
The guy I live with is not at all happy about this. He said he was so tired of winter and being cold (except for yesterday) he could scream, but he didn’t.
I could end this post right here, but the guy I live with said we should show some more of the children’s books that are in the bookshelves upstairs, so that’s what I’ll do.
The guy I live with said that this was his mom’s book. 
He remembers looking at it, as a kid in Los Angeles, because he knows that’s Constable Noakes, who got his thumbs caught in his belt. He has quite a memory, though he never read the book.
Then a couple that were his wife’s. She probably bought them at a used book store here.
Then a bunch more of the little books like the Uncle Wiggily books. These were his mom’s.
Then there are some books by Anne Ophelia Dowden. Not children’s books, I think, but good introductions to the lives of plants and pollinators. The guy I live with’s wife really admired her work. 
H
His wife went up to Boulder to visit her, with a friend, one year. She got some hand-made watercolor paper, as a gift from Anne Ophelia Dowden, which she treasured, and used to for the watercolors for the books the guy I live with and his wife did.
So now that really is it for today. Not much, but, after all, it’s snowing.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
What lovely books for reading on a wintery day.
Indeed. I might get a story read to me, since the guy I live with says (with a very heavy sigh) that it will be snowing all this week and into next.
Mee-yow wow Mani yore temmyturess are all over THE place!!! Wee hover ‘roind Freezin point an wee have had sum snow. Nothin major.
LadyMew has struggled with her Viral Sinusitis an sum ucky Flu buggy THE past two weekss. Mee iss tryin to do Purry-medic thingss like makin biskitss on LadyMew an doin **purr** therapee fore her.
Now to all yore wunderfull bookss!! OMC Mani there are so many!!! Say can you ask yore ‘guy’ if hee has a children’ss book called “Mrs. Wiggs of THE Cabbage Patch”? Iss ritten by Alice Hegan Rice….back inn 1901 butt LadyMew’ss copy iss from 1962 an iss hard covurr. It iss werth quite a bit of $money$ butt shee wuud not part with it….iss a guud story!
Wishin both of you a guud week (even with snow!)
***purrsss*** BellaDharma
We have a lot of books, but not that one.
There’s snow on the ground and we’re supposed to get the coldest temperatures of the winter tonight. And then it’s going to snow almost every day for the next week. I hear this is not “normal”, but what can I do?
Something interesting happened today. Some people came and went downstairs into the laundry room, and ran this kind-of-noisy thing called a “snake”. Not the snakes I’m used to. I lay on the bedroom floor and watched carefully. The guys were really nice, and then they left.
Someone is coming tomorrow with a camera “snake”. The guy I live with tried to explain what a “colonoscopy” was, so I would get the idea, but I didn’t get it. He thought it was a super funny comparison.
He said this might cost a whole bunch of money to fix, but he has been worrying about it for several years now, so if it does get fixed, that will be another thing to cross off the list, like the roof was.
Wee hope maybee yore ‘guy’ will find this book…LadyMew has red it to mee an it iss a charmin story!
as fore snow wee were told “BIG’ storm comin fore today….wee got 42 flakess!
Oh mee knowss THE plummin snakess! Plummerss use them to loosen stuff cott inn pipess an get it out….
Yore ‘guy’ iss heelareeuss…THE colonoscopy parrylel made LadyMew laff out loud. Shee has had THE procedure dun too so shee got what yore ‘guy’ meaned!
An iss guud to get plummin fixed…Hu’manss can not just do their busyness inn a field like us!!! (Or a litturbox, mew mew mew…)
**purrsss** BellaDharma
The guy I live with said he’s going to have to dig up some plants in the front yard, but others he’ll probably just have to say goodbye to. Rare oak trees (shrubs, really), and some other things. It’s going to cost a lot of money, but when it’s done, it will be done.
He said he’s going to go to the used bookstores along South Broadway (I’m not sure where that is) and maybe he’ll find that book.
Ah, I had all the Thornton W. Burgess books read to me as a small child – wonderful illustrations! the stories were a bit slow for my 1980s kids, however. Good luck with the plumbing; our old 1930’s cast iron pipes had a sudden catastrophic failure and I can guarantee that fixing ahead of that is a better approach!
ceci
The guy I live with said he probably just looked at the books, at his grandparent’s house. If they’d had stuff about dinosaurs, or oil refineries (he grew up in Long Beach, California, and still remembers the Sign Hill refinery fire), he might have been interested. Or gardening; he liked that, back then.
(He also says that gardening there was “funner” than gardening here.)
The clay pipe going out into the street is what has to be replaced. The pipe is full of roots. Some of the sections have shifted slightly so the roots were able to enter. It was kind of cool to watch the video screen and see the roots everywhere.
I suppose if he hadn’t planted a bunch of stuff, and just had a lawn, that things would be different, but there aren’t very many front lawns at all in this neighborhood.
We are the neighborhood oddballs with no lawn at all, just shrubs and plants and paths, with a “larger” mulched area for the dogs to play in in the back, and a vegetable garden where an alley used to be. Everyone else has lawn, but no one complains to us about our lack of it, thankfully (it would test my “love thy neighbor” tolerance to have to explain very often how environmentally bankrupt I find current local lawn care practices).
ceci
The front yard here is mostly scrub oaks, yuccas, and cactus. It’s never irrigated. Some people have said nice things about it, though others seem to prefer the dead grass that’s in most front yards here.
I get the idea that a significant portion of it will be destroyed when the sewer drain is replaced. The guy I live with is partly freaked out about it, and partly doesn’t care. (I’m not sure how he balances those two things…)
It’s snowing here. We have about a foot of snow on the ground now. I learned a new word, “claustrophobic”, which doesn’t sound like a happy. word.
I like the snow, though I know the guy I live with has hyperextended both of his knees trying to walk on the ice and snow every day for 14 or 15 weeks.
Oh wee hope yore ‘guy’ findss a copy of “Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch”…it iss such a furry sweet story Mani!
An mee hopess yore ‘guy; pacess himself with gardenin there. Wee have more snow so no gardenin happenin here!!! Mew mew mew….
More snow here, too. But there is some gardening going on….