Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here, on this chilly day, to bring you up to date on all the latest happenings here. You may remember me from such posts as “Horticultural Invective”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
It was chilly today; freezing, actually. They said it might rain last night, or even snow, but I think you can tell that neither of those things happened. So we’ve gone 110 days without rain.
Mostly all we did today was make a quick survey of the garden.
There were still some crocuses flowering.
The ones in the last picture look kind of frazzled, and maybe they might be, but some years we still see one or two in the middle of December.
Here I am, returning from the survey.
I had to make sure there were no squirrels stealing sunflower seeds from the feeder, which is supposed to be for the chickadees.
You can see the feeder here. I guess the hose can be put away for the winter.
You can also see it from here, and also how we can now see the “way back” from the main garden. The guy I live with said when the lilacs are removed, he might put up a fence there, like the one in the left of the picture.
Maybe the main thing that’s gone on here is seed sowing. The guy I live with got a bunch of seeds this year. Some were sown directly into the garden, on the days when rain was predicted that night or the next day (and nothing happened), but he decided to do the rest in the usual way, by sowing them in pots, and putting the pots into the frames.
These are all native plants. Dryland plants. The guy I live with likes other plants, of course, but getting the seeds requires more effort than it used to.
And if it’s going to be this dry, maybe these plants are a better choice.
Of course it needs to snow for any action to take place; the snow will keep the seeds from drying out, and cool temperatures will cause the germination inhibitors in the seeds to degrade, so that, eventually, the seeds will be ready to germinate. Warm weather in spring will take care of the rest.
The gravel on top of the pots, if you didn’t know, is called “squeegee”, for reasons I don’t know. I know I’ve mentioned this before. It’s becoming harder to find. There used to be a couple of nurseries that sold it in big bags.
It prevents the seeds from drying out.
The dishpans are important too. “A valuable addition to our modern lifestyle.” The dishpans have been here for about thirty years; they sit out on the patio. That was the only color he could find, at the time.
Anyway, since it’s been cooler, some other things have changed. I wanted to go look at the cottonwood, and so we did.
You can see its huge roots, growing into the creek bank.
Another thing that happened was that the water in the canal stopped flowing. This may be the latest that’s ever happened. I’d have to look through my records.
There were fish in the canal, but I think someone, or something, caught them. And we also saw crawdads. There were a lot of them in what was left of the water in the canal.
The guy I live with said he thinks the crawdads burrow into the banks of the canal and go dormant in the in winter. We saw these two days ago. But today we didn’t see any at all in the water.
When Chess, the purebred border collie who lived here before me, went on walks by the canal, he used to scare great blue herons fishing in the canal; maybe they returned for a crawdad snack, but the guy I live with said the crawdads probably went into their winter homes. They probably don’t have TV or Wi-Fi.
So that’s it for today.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
There is not much to a crawdad. An big pot full is like a snack. Sometimes when it rains, they come up out of the creek!
The guy I live with has tried crawdads. I almost got my nose pinched once, too.
There was one of those Chinese buffet places, a really good one called Great Wall, where he and his wife would go all the time, usually for lunch, but sometimes for dinner, when they had crawdads, which I guess you would call crayfish when they’re served for dinner.
They were okay. Nothing like the mussels or oysters there.
In spite of the fact that the guy I live with can cook anything, they went to this buffet. Great Wall is gone now, replaced by another buffet which I guess hasn’t opened thanks to stupid Covid, but every single time he drives by there he says “Great Wall?” to his wife, who isn’t there. Because that’s what he used to do, and she always said yes.
Wow, mussels in Colorado. That is a long way from home for them. I have heard of the Rocky Mountain oysters, but I do not think that they are really oysters who live in the Rocky Mountains.
Yes; in a restaurant.
Oh, yes, . . . oysters who live in restaurants, . . . of course. Did they guy you live with explain that?
He didn’t.
Well, they must have lived happily ever after, without getting eaten or anything so unpleasant.
I guess.
No rain for 3 1/2 monthss Mani an Guy???? Are you ternin innto a Dessert…ummm no that iss not rite… ummm ….Desert???
Yore Crowcussess are simplee amazin holdin on so long!
Those Craw Daddy’ss are sorta cute…due they nip Mano?
Have youss’ seen on THE Mewss ’bout parts of British Columbia?? They got their own rain an yore rain an sumwhere else’ss rain an iss a CAT-astroffee…
Wee had to check on BellaSita’ss Steppy Sonss….
Tommy an furanillee are Okay an took inn 4 frendss who are now homeless from floodin. Wee still waitin to hear from Joey….(they are grown-upss now butt BellaSita thinkss of them as Kittss!)
Wee sure hope you get rain soon!
***purrss*** BellaDharma an reegardss BellaSita Mum
Thanks; we’ve seen the news from British Columbia. Pretty horrific.
The crocuses you saw pictures of are done now, but there may be others.
It’s terribly dry here, and next week is supposed to be dry too, though there might be some snow later.
Bee Cee iss a REEL mess Mani an Guy! BellaSita Mum an Tommy bin chattin on FaceBake which iss grate. Butt still not a peep from Joey to BellaSita or to Tommy so now they ALL are wurried ’bout him…
Wee amazed Crowcussess lasted so long without rain…still NO rain r snow???? Thiss iss wurrisum two. Pleese bee safe OKay????
The crocuses don’t seem to need a lot of rain. I think they’re mostly done here, though, now. Maybe not.
The thing in B.C. is pretty scary.
Yore so rite Mani an Guy….wee gettin’ too much rain here…
Wee shuud have snow bye now. An wee live FURRY close to 2 Riverss…fore reel, so wee wurry ’bout floodin two! EEKKKK!
And here we are worrying about how dry it is.
Things are really weird.
Wow that’s a long time without rain. We did get 3″ of rain around 5 weeks ago but when planting bulbs the ground was still super dry. Will be planting seeds here soon too. Always the eternal optimists.
It rained here last night. About two hundred drops.
There’s another chance for rain or snow Tuesday night, but the guy I live with isn’t counting on anything. He’s been setting the sprinkler from time to time.