Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here on this roasting hot day to bring you up to date on everything that’s been happening. You may remember me from such heat-related posts as “Super Extra Totally Roasting Hot”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
It got up to 96 degrees Fahrenheit (35.5 C) today. I was roasting.
The last time I posted, it rained that night. Kind of a lot. Remember the backhoe dredging out the creek, north of the canal? The people who did that did a pretty good job, so now the creek doesn’t back up right where it leaves the culvert.
This is what the field looked like that day. That’s my yard in the upper left. You can see the poles for the owls; the phone camera makes them look slanted.
We even saw a mushroom on my morning walk along the canal road a couple of days later.
So it was all rainy for a few weeks, and now it’s roasting hot and windy. That’s quite a change.
I think there are some creatures that don’t get hot. Maybe you can see the mother mallard and her ducklings in the canal. They were paddling as fast as they could, because they could tell how fierce and deadly I was. I have that look about me, you know. Protecting the guy I live with from ducklings.
The guy I live with counted seven ducklings, the first time we saw them. He told the neighbors about the ducklings, and said that he would always say there were seven. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, and he didn’t tell me.
The grasses in the garden, along with the weeds, of which there are a lot, have been growing like crazy because of all the rain.
I’m in this picture, to add a special excellence to it.
Like most people who have gardens, the guy I live with sort of wanted to order some plants, but when he went online to look at things, almost every plant he wanted was out of stock. He was pretty disappointed, but said that for people in the nursery business, this was probably a good thing. He did manage to order some plants from Digging Dog.
When plants arrive here, either from local nurseries or by mail, they’re almost always repotted into larger pots, then watered, and stay on the patio for a while so that the plants will grow more roots, and be planted out in the garden later.
The guy I live with also ordered some roses, from High Country Roses. Most of these aren’t for him, but for his friend and her daughter.
The guy I live with also went to a local nursery and got a few plants. The nursery was oddly empty, but the owner told him they were downsizing after one of the other owners passed away. That made him pretty sad; he used to go there with his wife, a lot. But I guess things change.
That’s about all that’s been happening here, I mean besides the guy I live with fighting with his email program on the laptop, finding so many plants out of stock online, and also wondering what to have for dinner.
We lead very exciting lives, don’t we?
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Is is just me, or do you also think that ‘Digging Dog’ is an odd name for a nursery? I mean, your people do so much more than merely dig. They bark. They play. They take care of their people. Some chase squirrels. There are a few who should be President.
We think it’s a nice name.
I suppose that it is better than ‘Digging Kitty’. If a kitty seems to be digging, it is probably just burying something unpleasant. Besides, kitties are . . . well, not dogs. Rhody says that stripped kitties are fun though.
Plants, plants, plants and more plants! Gardeners are always bringing in more plants. Our outings and purchases have been curtailed by Covid restrictions but we have used online mail-order from a few nurseries and always do so for bulbs. We placed an order for tulips and alliums yesterday which will be delivered in September. No dog in this house but I went across to my neighbour yesterday – I took in their grocery delivery as they were at a hospital appointment – and received a great greeting from Dusty, their labrador. I walk him when our neighbours are away. Keep an eye on himself!
Dogs are mostly excellent, if you didn’t know.
The guy I live with says there used to be a nursery here that had all kinds of wonderful things, but the property was sold.
I guess everyone is buying plants as a response to the pandemic. Even plants the guy I live with would like to grow …
Yup: “Dogs are mostly excellent, if you didn’t know”. See: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-55935911
The guy I live with read this to me, and now I’m afraid I might be sold. I’m worth a lot.
Mee-yow THE Dredger Dudess did a furabuluss job on THE canal Mani! An yore garden lookss lovelee deepsite THE *HOT* heet!! 96 EFF iss just too *HOT*!!
It iss hot an hue-mid here an sum dayss wee can brelee move~~Wee furinallee outta lockdown so Aunty Sheila iss goin to take LadyMew shoppin tomorrow….fore clothin sn lippy-flopss an pawss crossed a floor fan!!!Wish her luck~~her 3 unfave werdss are “out of stock” two Guy!
Is so frustratin issn’t it???
Butt mee thinkss wee tern a corner as you Hu’manss meow; wee sure hope it iss a nice one!!!
Mani yore lookin gorgeeuss purr usual…. 😉
***purrss*** BellaDharma an **wavess** LadyMew
Thanks. We wish lucky to LadyMew.
It’s hot here, but not humid.
Thanx Mani an Guy…THE seerch fore a mew fan iss on inn an hour….
An mee know you not get hue-midity like wee due. It iss UCKY!!! 😉
Good luck. The guy I live with was having trouble with the internet, which accounts for the brevity of his responses yesterday.
Mee-yow wee hope Innty net iss back werkin rite!!
LadyMew bott a floor gan..it was a peece of sh*….garbage an LadyMew took it back an got a reefund….seemss efurryone who bott any one of those brand of fanss have reeterned them.to store fore reefnd!!
So much fore Made in China…
**sighss** BellaDharma
We have a Lasko WindMachine. It works pretty well. It wasn’t hugely expensive, I think.
I really hate hot weather, but it cools off nicely at night.
Wee nevurr herd of yore Windy Masheen an will check it out online!
An it kewlss off at nite here two! Iss lovelee Mani 😉
The fan works pretty well. We have a lot of fans in the house.
You do have the ferocious look about you, so it’s no wonder those ducklings paddled off. You can’t ever be sure about ducklings either, they can be tricky. The Canada geese hang around the park near me. I hear they like new grass shoots. They are gigantic. My not-purebred Border collie pretends not to see them. It’s raining here right now.
The ducklings are pretty interesting, but they paddle out of the way before I can get a close look at them.
Mani you lead an exceptional life style. Gorgeous gardens and fields to wander, an interesting owner (tell him from me how much I am enjoying his book), and much to report on the state of the ducks and weather. What more could you want?
I pretty much agree, though the guy I live with says he’s not all that interesting. (Lol.)
You’ve had an interesting past few days. I like the rain keeping everything green and keeping the ducklings afloat, but that heat does not sound like as much fun.
I’ve been adding new plants and some have finally been planted, but so often I look around and wonder what happened to all of them. I have a lot of labels, but the only thing which really seems to grow here is the shade… and I really didn’t plant (too) many trees…
The big trees here are mostly dead.
It’s 95 here right now, with 19 percent humidity, which is kind of high, for us. It’s supposed to be a hundred degrees tomorrow, so there will be very little gardening going on here. Possibly some complaining, which can be a part of gardening, as maybe you know.
We purebred border collies absolutely loathe weather like this.