Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to talk about the snow, and the planets. You may remember me from such posts as “And So It Snowed”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose, even though I’m walking, coming back from checking out the snow.
The snow fell early yesterday morning; when I woke up there it was, on the ground. Neither of us could believe it. Only about an inch (2.5cm) fell, but maybe it will melt into the ground instead of evaporating, the way is often does. That’s called sublimation, if you needed to know.
The wrought iron furniture there is pretty ancient, but not as ancient as that big pot, which the guy I live with’s grandparents called an olla, though maybe that’s not really correct. It’s been outside for oh, about ninety years, fifty of those years here in Colorado, where some of the clay did flake off from the cold, but it’s still intact. His grandfather used to toss garden clippings in it, and empty it later.
There’s nothing in it now.
You can also see where Slipper, a purebred border collie who lived here before me, chewed the wooden railing, right by the lower of the two birdbaths. He was kind of naughty; he must have thought he was a giant rodent.
In the evening I did some more exploring. You can barely see me wandering around in the garden, making sure everything is okay. You might not believe all the things that need to be looked at.
Later that evening, after the sun went completely down (the guy I live with explained to me that it’s our planet that turns, not the sun, which totally creeped me out, even though he’s explained that to me before), we went on our walk. It was about thirteen degrees outside. That’s -10.5 Celsius. Not really cold, for us, but it was windy, and that made the walk not as fun as it usually is.
Almost at the end of the walk the guy I live with told me to wait, and he took a picture of three other planets (besides the one I was on at the time).
That’s Venus at the lower right, then, very faintly, Saturn, and then brighter, Jupiter.
He said that Jupiter was 493 million miles away, and Saturn was almost twice as far away, 978 million miles distant from us.
We went on a really long walk this morning, because I felt like it, but I don’t think we walked that far.
He also explained that no one lives on these planets; there are no cities, or houses, or music, or gardens. No beds with sheets from Pottery Barn and wool blankets for me to lie on, and no TV to watch “Q.I.” late at night, before we go to sleep.
So it really sounded like we both made a good choice to appear on this particular planet.
Anyway, that’s all I have for today. It snowed, we saw planets, and not much else happened.
I’ll leave you with a picture of me settled in on the couch, as ancient as the olla, but much creakier and cozier.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
That is a lot of wasted space. Each of those planets is bigger than Los Angeles, or Colorado, or Los Angles and Colorado combined! That is big! Did anyone ever tell you that dogs are from Mars and kitties are from Venus? I think that is silly. If kitties were from Venus, but so disdainful as so many of them are, they would just go back to Venus.
No; the guy I live with says we originated on the border between England and Scotland.
I don’t know where cats come from. Maybe Egypt.
Well, they did not originate in Los Gatos. They just came there later.
I guess, huh.
Well, actually, it was named after bobcats, who really were there before the town was developed. Fortunately, kitties do not use names. It would be very confusing if all kitties within a group were named ‘Bob’. Los Gatos really should be Los Perros anyway.
I guess.
Our late dog, Sid, used absolutely love the snow and his favourite spot during cold weather was to sit on the frozen pond. He unfortunately passed away in the service of humanity – trying to clear the planet of joggers by nipping them on the bum! They didn’t like that though I approved completely and think a plaque should be erected in his honour and to recall his great deeds.
I occasionally see people running toward me, and it’s kind of scary. I have nipped one or two people on the ankle, the way we purebred border collies do, but not enough to break the skin.
I love the snow, too.
It’s 17C here, right now, with 11 percent humidity, by the way.
You look very comfortable Mani. The best way to spend a cold winter evening after having fun in the snow.
I agree. The guy I live with keeps saying he’s going to order new cushions for the couch, but he’s not exactly sure how to measure the cushions. He could try some math, I suppose.
3 planets pic is great!
Thanks. I guess we’ll be able to see more, in a week or so. One time late at night the guy I live with carried binoculars on our walk, but wouldn’t let me look through them.
Mee-yow wow THE Planet foto iss speck-taculur!! Well dun Guy!!!
An Mani youss’ furinally gotted snow! Mee purrayed alot an hoped.
Did it sublime….subline…submar…..*sorry*….melt innto THE ground there?? Where mee Sweet Norman poochie Boyfrend livess inn yore State, THE snow melted an efurryone iss happy!!!…
Yesterday (Caturday) it was 57 deegreess. By nite fall it was 32 F an frigid chilley….wee had wind an rain; then wind an sleet an then wind an snow!!!
Today was only 25 F an BellaSita Mum wuud not let mee sit out inn Condo….North wind was still roarin thru’.
You look purrfectley reelaxed inn yore last foto! A job well dun an now a guud ‘happy nappy’!
**nose bumpss** BellaDharma an {{huggiess}} BellaSita Mum
Thanks; I am an expert at taking naps.
It was 65F here today, and the snow mostly did melt into the ground.
The guy I live with said he saw sleet once, when he was in Canada. We really don’t have that here.
We saw the planets this evening, too. And the star Altair, which the guy I live with said was 95,000 times father away from us than Saturn. That’s a really long way away, but we could still see it.
Mew mew mew mee iss a grate happy nappy cat two!
Mee not feelin 100 purr cent an mee mite have to go to V-E-T….**sighss**
Sleet iss weerd Mani. It iss sorta icey rain if that makess sense. Canada getss ALOT of sleet!
Yore so lucky to see THE Planetss. Wee have too many streetlitess to see much. An that Altair star soundss amazin!!!
***purrss*** BellaDharma
Oh, we’re sorry you’re not feeling well. Hopefully the doctor can make you feel better.
We do sometimes see what they call freezing rain here, but it’s really ice pellets, because rain never falls here in the winter.
You can actually see Altair in the picture we posted, in the upper right hand corner.
Guess what Mani & Guy?? Mee has sumthin called Coelye..Colee..Coal…wait…
“Can you type what mee has wrong BellaSita?”
“Yes, BellaDharma of course…”
BellaDharma has Colitis…..
“Thanx BellaSita!” “:No problem Baby Girl…”
Okay so mee has this Colitis inn lower bowel an Vet Lady iss sendin mee meddycin thru THE mail sumhow….
An mee has t stop Calmin treetss cause they upsettin mee bowel an mee iss on a strict dye-et…
**sighss**
Wee DID see Altair inn yore foto! Iss purrty!
Oh. We hope you get better. I got clostridium once, which is kind of similar, but the guy I live with knew what it was and got medicine from the vet. (Chess, the purebred border collie who lived here before me, got it all the time.)
I had to go on a weird diet too, but after a while I got to go back to my regular food.
Mee=yow Mani this feelin not well iss ruff. THE Vet iss apposta ahve mailed Probiotic to mee today…so mee still has no meddycin.
BellaSita Mum called a Vet place close to us an they due not have ANY inn stock an inn fact, are back ordered. So mee must wait fore meddycin….
Oh, we’re so sorry. Feeling icky is no fun at all.
Thanx Mani an Guy! Mee still doess not have Probiotic…this iss so reediculuss….
BellaSita Mum iss givin mee small meelss an no treetss an thingss have settle down inn bowel. Butt mee iss still furry tired an sucky…mee wantss to bee ON BellaSita Mum all THE time!
Hopefully it will come today.
I will give snow one thing. It’s pretty. Okay, two things. When it’s falling it’s quite, like muted, even the cars driving past. Pretty for a day of photos, then it can leave. I live in it one winter at 4,500 elevation. Sure, others get a lot more, but it was plenty.
I understand how much there is to check. Mickey checks every corner of the yard, and down each side to make sure no cats have come in and forgotten to leave again.
There is an awful lot to check. For one thing, the burrows. You might not believe how many we have in our yard. (There’s a large one in the front garden.) Mostly uninhabited, but they still need investagation.
Snow does mute things, like the noise from the highway to the north of us. I like the snow, and it does insulate the plants, but I also like it when it warms up here and the snow goes away.
The guy I live with has mixed emotions about snow. He sometimes talks about living in a gentler climate, but then he would have to be gardening constantly. On the other hand, more rain would be nice. Even Tucson gets more rain than we do.
Great pictures and a great post, Mani!
You do a have a fetching way about you (no pun intended, honest).
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks. And you’re welcome.
Wonderful planet vistas – it must be very dark where you walk!
I don’t care for joggers running toward me (especially up behind me) so I can sympathize with trying to herd them into a more appropriate formation – our border collie mix, and current Aussie, have tried to do the same type thing. No snow here yet but we are anticipating rainy days for the rest of the week. Warm rainy days, thankfully, not the greatly feared “wintery mix” which we get here a lot, especially during rush hour.
ceci
Thanks. We live right on the western edge of Denver, so it’s darker to the west.
It’s really windy here right now, and it rained a little this morning, which the guy I live with said was highly unusual. Like it almost never happens. (It snows, instead.)
They sometimes predict “wintry mix” here, even though we don’t have that. The guy I live with went to Toronto in April, years ago, and they had “wintry mix” there. He actually liked it because it was so different. Like when he and his wife went to Manhattan in January, and it rained. That was totally different.
We sometimes see joggers and people walking, sometimes carrying scary backpacks and stuff, but not very often. When everyone was staying home because of the pandemic, we used to see a lot more people when we went on walks.
Did ya get to “windwalk” when that recent front moved on by? 60 MPH?
More than that. See the new post.