Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to talk about something a little different. You may remember me from such posts as “A Discovery”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
Well, so, yesterday was my birthday, and now I’m seeing what it’s like to be seven. It seems pretty much the same as being six, if you ask me.
We did some work in the garden yesterday; more work was done today. It’s 60 degrees (15.5C) today and so the work was pleasant, though the guy I live with had to wear a mask against the strong laundry smell from next door. Good thing he’s used to wearing masks.
There was a bunch of sawing, and other stuff.
The enclosure now looks really different. I’m not sure what to make of it. This is the view from the north side.
The bird bath was broken some years ago, so now it’s just ornamental. The little garden there is filled with Geranium macrorrhizum.
All of the slats will be removed, eventually, and the lattice on top will go, too. You can see how much the section on the far right is leaning.
The guy I live with’s wife built this fence, but, as I keep hearing, nothing lasts forever.
And, it’s something to do, other than just wandering around the garden. That’s fun, but projects are even better.
This is what it looks like inside the enclosure.
You might say delapidated, though that really refers to stone. (“Lapis”, stone.)
The big metal chicken is facing the wrong way, which is weird. Maybe the wind blew it around, or something.
The whole whiskey barrel on the right has collapsed; something has to be done about that. The wood, which is oak, will be reused, somehow.
This is what the new fence will look like. The guy I live with did this part of the fence.
Since his wife built the enclosure (and laid the flagstone, and built the fire pit which is never used), there are all kinds of reminders of her in this little garden.
She bought the funny little raccoon to sit on the bench she built. The sundial was a gift, but the sickle belonged to the guy I live with’s grandfather, or maybe even his great uncle. It’s really old. Older than seven, for sure.
And, of course, the bats.
Hopefully everything will look spiffier by this time next year.
The area where the lilacs were (mostly) cut down looks pretty bad right now. But you can see that a path has formed; the guy I live with says it gives a sense of direction. We really like paths. And you can also see the slope I talked about just a while ago.
The guy I live with is fairly excited by the potential here. (From the blue ephedra you can see in the distance down to my Private Lawn is a drop of about three feet, maybe even more.)
The bench under the arbor, that straight piece of wood behind the thistle feeder, is perfectly level (his wife built it), so that may give a sense of how much it slopes there.
Then there are the troughs. As I probably said, most of the alpine plants growing in the troughs have died. At one time, there were three dozen large troughs in the garden, filled with saxifrages, androsaces, daphnes, and so forth. The troughs needed almost daily watering.
They needed to be moved, anyway, because the honey locust that was shading them has to be cut down, maybe some time early next year.
The troughs are going to the Chatfield Arboretum, part of Denver Botanic Gardens, and not very far from here. (See my post called “The Arboretum Again.”) I think about ten have already gone there.
After the troughs were emptied of the soil-less mix, they were carted onto the patio until they got picked up, for the Arboretum.
One time, the guy I live with was moving a trough from the dolly, to stand it against the shelves, and felt a sharp pain in his hip. He thought he’d broken something, but he could walk, so maybe just tore a ligament or whatever. It hurt for a couple of weeks at least, but seems to be better now.
You can guess how slowly and carefully the moving is done now.
Some troughs just broke when he tried to move them. They can be glued back together, but not if they’re being given away.
All of the troughs, except for four by the patio, will go to the Arboretum; it’s a slow process now that the guy I live with has realized he’s not nineteen any more.
I didn’t say anything about only being seven, because then I might have been put to work.
So that what I have for today. I hope you enjoyed this post, even though most of the pictures didn’t have me in them.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
There is a lot of work in the pipeline at the moment. I often have to work my way through “The List” – as listed by the Head Gardener here but the list never seems to have an end as more gets added to the bottom as I cross off those things at the top. It’s a never-ending list but it keeps me busy. And, yes, gardens hold lots of memories but most are good ones.
The list here wasn’t all that long, except for moving the troughs (and figuring out ways to protect the plants in the garden under the honey locust, when it gets cut down), but the guy I live with purposely made the list longer by cutting down the lilacs, and now with that section of fence gone, still more on the list.
Some help would be nice, though.
At present I am the lone gardener here as the Head Gardener does not enjoy wet cold conditions so my list goes on and on – but, by way of compensation, the snowdrops are opening!
Wet and cold sounds weird to us. It’s dry as a bone here. 13C, 18 % humidity, and sunny.
More work is being done …
That sickle should not be outside. It will not last much longer like that. Old tools like that are too important. I got a few old tools here from my ancestors, but I do not use many of them anymore.
This one isn’t worth anything.
Perhaps, but it did not get to be as old as it is out in the weather.
It’s been outside for decades. The guy I live with’s wife put it there, and it’s staying where it is.
Oh, that is very different. That is a good reason to not bring it in for him.
Happy Belated Birthday Mani! We haven’t been introduced but I’m Gemma “the very Best Roddy” The Guy who read’s your blog to me ( it’s one of his “Mostest Favorites”), thought I should send the wishes even though it’s late.
Thanks. It’s not all that late. We’re glad you like the blog.
I love the bats Mani! I bet you enjoy seeing them hanging too. Fence building/repair is going on here also. Had to stop last spring because a woodduck family were nesting in a box and they had to get out of the yard. Hopefully that fence gets finished sometime soon. I love old tools and yard creatures too. Hope you and the guy you live with have a Merry Christmas!
Thanks, and same to you.
More work has been done on the fence today. All the slats from the super-leaning section you can see in the second picture have been removed. So nothing falls on me, I mean.
This is slightly traumatic for the guy I live with, who liked the fence, but the replacement will be lighter in weight.
The guy I live with’s wife bought the bats, a long time ago. I guess you can still get bats like that, though they cost more now. Like everything else.
The new fence is elegant
Thanks. It was supposed to be like the ones in part of the Japanese garden at the Botanic Gardens, but making it exactly like that would have required a lot more work, and lumber, too.
Mew mew mew nun of us are 9teen anymore Mani…
Did you you know inn Hu’man yeerss you are sumwhere beetween 47 an 50 yeerss old…still inn yore PURRIME!!!
Guy you sure have dun alot of werk an thingss are lookin guud. Wee love THE Dragonly an THE Batss are adoorabell two!!
Sun sure lookss nice there; wee had cloudss an wind…nothin else…not even a snowflake!
An wee are goin back innto lockdown…..our Common Room an 2 Communal bathroomss are closed! Here wee go again…. **sighss**
~~head rubss~~BellaDhrma~~ an ((huggiess)) BellaSita Mum
Lockdown doesn’t sound like fun, but it looks like there’s no end to this. The guy I live with is hesitant about going to the store, but he does it anyway. Since he knows the store, he plans where he’s going to go when he’s inside, and so makes it a short trip.
The dragonfly (there’s another, larger one) had just been lying around for years. The guy I live with and his wife went to this place in Fort Collins where they have things like that. She bought a lot of stuff, which was okay.
They say it might snow this weekend …
Wee are purrin an purrayin youss’ bet snow there Mani an Guy!!! Iss snowin here an lookin Catmessy outside! Wee keepin bird seed tray stocked fore THE Sparrow Brigade (there are 30 of them!) an THE 6 Mournin Dovess an there are peenutss an piss-tachiosss’ fore THE Black Squirrelss Mimi an Macey…..
Guy yore wife had a good eye fore kewl itemss fore THE garden. Wish mee BellaSita was as savvy 😉
An it iss gettin hairy with Covid an BellaSita sayss shee iss not goin out til Mew Yeer!!!
The guy I live with went to the store today. He wore two masks, just to feel better about it.
They’re even saying rain for Friday. It never rains here in the winter.
I like pistachios.
YOU like piss-tachioss Mani??? That iss so kewl…Wee nevurr mew Poochiess wuud liek them…mee thott just Squirrelss an HU’manss!
BellaSita Mum sayss GUUD fore you Guy wearin 2 maskss just to be safe! 444 pawss up!
I was wrong. The guy I live with said it was Chess,the purebred border collie who lived here before me, who loved pistachios.
He would sit right next to the guy I live with and watch him peel them, and eat them, and he wanted all of the pistachios for himself. He did get quite a few, though.
Maybe I’ve had them,but I forget now.
Mew mew mew iss OKay Mani! So Chess like piss-tachioss?! Still innterestin as mee did not nsoe a Poochie wuud like them…mee can tell you Mimi Squirrel goes “nutss” fore them!! 😉
He really did love pistachios.