Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today with some kind of interesting news. You may remember me from such equally interesting posts as “Muskrat Rambles”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristically horticultural pose.
The guy I live with was doing some sort of work out in the garden, so I was guarding the path. Just in case.
There are actually quite a few paths here. The one on the right, the one I’m guarding, and one that goes off to the left by the rock in the middle of the picture. That path turns and heads in the direction of the Russian hawthorn, but also breaks off and goes farther to the left, by the rocks in the lower left of the picture.
I mostly stay on the paths because it’s fun to.
Not much is going on these days. It snowed yesterday, a little. The guy I live with got a couple of oaks delivered. I know these don’t look like oaks, but they are.
This is Quercus hypoleucoides, from southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and around Big Bend in Texas. There’s already one in the garden, and the guy I live with thought we needed more. These are going to stay in the upstairs bedroom, watered, until next spring, when they can go outside.
The name hypoleucoides means “whitish underneath”.
And, the guy I live with suddenly remembered that he had a bunch of packets of cactus seeds from Alplains. All echinocereus. So he sowed these a few days ago, and look what’s happened. The pots are in propagators with a heating mat underneath, like we were growing tomatoes or something. 
Just like that.
He didn’t have anything else to do so thought raising some cactus seedlings would be mildly amusing. They’ll probably all be given away, eventually.
That’s pretty much it. My after-dinner walk is now in the dark, which is kind of weird.
Even weirder is that after my evening walk, it’s like six hours of darkness before my midnight walk. Which isn’t really at midnight, more like eleven, but you have to admit that midnight walk sounds a whole lot cooler.
I guess that’s it for now. Not much, as you can see. I’ll leave you with a picture of me and my toys.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Midnight walks sound rather creepy. I hope they’re not too scary
They’re mostly not too scary. Mostly.
Mani, that pic of you with your toys is smashing!
Thanks. I thought it was kind of cute, too. I know that’s immodest of me.
Mee-yow wow yore Guy iss doin a grate job with THE littel seedss!! Hee sure has a ‘green’ thumm!!
An yore garden lookss lovelee….even now.
It iss so weerd it gettin dark here bye 5:30 Pee Em…..LadyMew bringss mee suppurr an mee lookss at her like shee iss crazy! Mee eatss when it getss dark out,,,oh now mee understandss…shee seess dark an thinkss it iss suppurr time fore mee! Which it wuud be at 6-6:30 Pee Em….
Hu’manss sure have a ruff time of thingss don’t they?? 😉
An yore 11benty Pee Em/Middynite walkss sound kewl..Are THE Skunkss an other creeturess still out or are they hiburrnatin now??
Wee had a skiff of snow Novemburr 1st an then nice warm weather til today an now it iss cloudy an chilley once again…..
Wee ADOOR yore foto with toyss! Lookin guud there Mani!
***purrss*** BellaDharma an ❤ LadyMew
Thanks. The guy I live with washed all the toys, so that was nice, too.
The late-night walks are pretty good, though chilly. We haven’t seen any skunks for quite a while now; they must be hibernating, or in Florida.
We’re having a hard time adjusting to the time change. The guy I live with says it feels like ten in the morning but it’s really three in the afternoon. That might be an exaggeration.
Mee heerss you Mani!! LadyMew still can not firue out what time it iss an shee used to bee guud at it!! Iss only 5 Pee Em an LadyMew sayss it feelss like bedtime…At leest mee iss gettin DUBBELL treetss Mani!!! 😉
Double treats are good. It does seem like more than half of our day is actually night. But we do stay up late.
Mee-yow wee due only have ’bout 12 hourss of daylite…LadyMew sayss wee get less an less till Deecemburr 22nd which iss THE shortest day of THE yeer an then wee gain a minute or 2 efurry week or sumthin’ like that!
Wee stay up till 11benty:30 Pee em an sum nitess til mudnite…..
**purrss** BellaDharma
It sometimes seems like we only have about six hours of daylight here. Maybe if we got up earlier, the days would seem longer.
Mew mew mew same ehre Mani!! LadyMew getss up ’round 9 A Em an then wee have daylite til 5:30 Pee Em….if shee an mee getss up later THE day seemss to vanish quicklee!!! 😉
The sun sets here a little before five. I think. The days do seem awfully short.
Mee-yow Mani 5 Pee Em iss too soon fore Sunset…wee wish wee NOT have to change clockss efurry 6 monthss….iss sorta silly rite? 😉
It really is silly.
Wee agree 150% purr cent time changin iss silly!
Definitely.
Ah, glad you are brave about going out in the dark – our little dog doesn’t like it so her dinner time walk gets earlier and earlier. We have a security light out back for the last pee at bedtime; you can certainly see who runs things around here.
Hope to see the baby cactus as they progress – I’m surprised at how pale they are but perhaps that will change over time? Or I’m not focusing on the right things in the pot, of course.
Stay safe!
ceci
It’s not too totally scary to walk at night. About half of it is lit by street lamps and such. There is one really scary section, though, where there’s the path, and then it slopes down to the creek in almost complete darkness, with bushes and trees there, and always some loud rustling noise. I was pretty brave about it. In fact completely brave. But what I didn’t like was the sound of trucks shifting gears or whatever on the highway, because when we turn to go back home, and go through the dark part I just mentioned, we get really close to the highway.
Those white things are the baby cactus. They’ll turn green pretty soon. There are some kinds that are better with the seed coat nicked (like with nail clippers), but these just come up, as you can see.