Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to wish you all a Happy New Year. You may remember me from such posts as “A Chilly Interlude”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
I’m pretty sure you can see what happened last night.
And I think most of you heard the news about the terrible fires north of here. All those homes destroyed or damaged, from a grass fire. The winds were clocked at speeds of something like 115 miles per hour (185 kph) in the very northern part of the county we live in (near Rocky Flats), as the storm that brought the snow roared from the mountains onto the plains.
This is the second time this month we’ve had very strong winds, though it wasn’t nearly as windy at our house, day before yesterday. The guy I live with has been talking about the almost complete lack of wind, this century, and now this.
So it snowed. The guy I live with doesn’t much care for snow, but the alternative is much less pleasant. And all the emerging bulbs will be protected from the cold.
Right now it’s seven degrees (-14C), but all those snowdrops (maybe hundreds of them) will be snug under a blanket of snow.
It doesn’t equate to much actual water, considering how cold it is, but it was necessary, and so we’re pretty relieved.
I wore my boots on my morning walk. One of them came off, and I got ice in that paw, so the guy I live with cleaned all the snow from my paw, put the boot back on, and everything was fine.
Things are even better, now.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Long-time reader, never commented. Glad to hear you are OK. Glad to hear the guy you live with took such good care of your paws. Stay warm, stay safe…
As for me, I’m looking forward to seeing those 100s of snowdrops in bloom…
Thanks. I got ice in my paw just walking outside today, so the boots are a good idea, even though they take some getting used to.
You can see the snowdrops in the header on the blog; for some reason the header has stayed the same for months now.
Oh joy! Oh happyness!!! It iss so GUUD to heer from you Mani an Guy!!! Wee were mewoin to Miss Moika at her place inn what shee calls THE Mile High inn yore state an shee an Poochiess are all rite……wee mew you were south of firess butt wee wurried….HURRAH fore THE snow! An fore you both beein safe!! And Mani you look so comfy cozy inn seckond foto…iss that a Lammy Chop Sturrie?? Mee has a Lammy Chop stuffie that squeekss!! 😉
Happy 2022!!
~~head rubss~~BellaDharma~~ an ((hugss)) BellaSita Mum
Sorry mee typin iss off….”Wee were meowin to Miss Monika” iss what mee meent! 😉
That’s okay.
Mani an Guy wee hope Sunday findss you both safe an well. An iss si kewl wee both have Lammy Chopss!!!
Mee likess to ‘bunny kick’ mine….BellaSita sayss bettur than mee doin THAT to her arm! 😉
I have the idea that there are some new Lamb Chops in the closet upstairs, but they’re waiting for the old ones to be completely worn out by me.
Mew mew mew Mani too bad you cuud not liberate yore Clset Lammy Chopss!!!
The guy I live with said I have plenty of them right now. Like six, maybe.
Thanks; same to you. It is a Lamb Chop. I have several in various conditions.
The snow is nice, but it’s pretty cold here.
Rhody has a few Lamb Chop friends in various conditions also. Some are quite icky.
My Lamb Chops go into the washing machine when they get kind of icky.
Rhody’s do also, but Rhody very efficiently restores their grubbiness.
Time to get more, then. I have a lot of toys.
Oh, NO! There are too many here. It is so crowded that I could get evicted.
Uh oh.
Yeah, that would be bad. Dalra has no guest accommodations.
Oh my! I ignored the news about the fires at first. I figured that they could not be too bad at the end of December. By the time I looked, it was at its worst, and just finishing. Goodness! I could see that it was a short distance for your neighborhood, although I do not know exactly where your neighborhood is. It was aimed right at downtown Louisville, where some of my ancestors were from. (The lived in the Tomeo House.) It is so sad that so many lost their homes, especially in a situation where such fires are not expected.
It was horrific. The guy I live with said he couldn’t even look at all the pictures on the internet.
We’re sort of southeast of Red Rocks.
See the reply to Ceci’s comment.
We’re pretty much due east of Mount Evans; Morrison isn’t very far away.
I have been avoiding the CZU Fire area because I do not want to see it. I went to two of my properties that are on the perimeter, but should not have. Some of the neighbors’ homes are gone as if they were never there. I can do nothing for my neighbors. The fire in your regions is even more saddening because it was in a suburban region, where such fires are not expected. My neighbors know the risk of living where they do. Residents of Superior do not live in such a hazardous region.
No, I guess not, but there were wide-open spaces of very dry grass there. We have that here, but not as much.
I was worried about you all and the fires (my Colorado geography is non-existent) so glad to see that it was at least not where you are. Terrible times for those who were in the midst of things.
ceci
If you use Google, and type in Denver, it brings up a map, which you can enlarge.
We’re a little southeast of where it says Morrison. You can see Superior up at the top.
That area below the 128 highway sign is Rocky Flats.
The highest part of the Continental Divide is from due west of us (Mount Evans; Grays and Torreys Peaks) to Longs Peak, so the wind really swoops down from that area.
It was windy here, but nowhere near as bad as up north.
Im glad you guys are o.k. I saw the fire on the news. I know how scary that is. But the wind, OMG that is terrible. Glad the snow came. Stay safe. Happy New Year!
Thanks, and same to you. They’re saying now 991 houses. What a terrible thing.
The guy I live with said that the wind here was maybe forty miles per hour, though it lasted a long time and was still scary. I can’t imagine wind that strong.
I got scared when we had that wind a couple of weeks ago, and also on one of my walks that day, but the guy I live with said I was safe, and was holding tightly onto the leash.
Your present temperature are beyond our experience. We have had -10C on one occasion, the winter of 2010-11. Thankfully, conditions which would give rise to the recent fires in your area do not occur here. By contrast we have had persistent heavy rain and each step in the garden brings a squelch of water from the ground – so it would be wellington boots rather than ice shoes if you walked here.
Stay safe and best wishes for the New Year.
Thanks; same to you.
The guy I live with says it’s a balmy 4C right now. Actually it’s quite nice out; the sunlight here is intense (someone once said that expressed in calories received, it’s equivalent to Cairo) and it’s warm in the sun. It may be time to check on the frames to make sure the air hasn’t heated up too much.
Back in the old days, I hear we used to have fairly long periods of warm temperates (around 20C) at this time of year, but with things being the way they are, I guess we have to be grateful for the snow.
Glad you are both safe.
Thanks.
As others have mentioned, Lamb Chop was the first thing I noticed (after the snow)! My latest not-pure-bred Border collie doesn’t have a Lamb Chop, they make me too sad since the not-pure-bred Border collie before him loved them. And honking hedgehogs. He had stuffless foxes he dips in the water bowl.
Snow’s pretty, but I hate the cold and the mud it makes.
Those fires were terrible. I read that some people were actually setting off fireworks on New Year’s after all that loss. Sometimes I just don’t like people.
Chess, the purebred border collie who lived here before me, had a Lamb Chop, and it was the first thing I went to, the day I arrived here. Like it gave some continuity. So I still get Lamb Chops. I have hedgehogs, too, and I think some of those belonged to Chess. They’re all called Nedgehog the Hedgehog, which is kind of confusing, if you ask me.
The guy I live with doesn’t care for the snow (I like it), but after last week he would be constantly worrying about fire, so he accepts the snow as a necessary thing.
He didn’t even know until yesterday that the colder it is, the less water is in the snow, so we didn’t get much in the way of actual water.
The guy I live with also said there might be firecrackers on New Year’s Eve, but we didn’t hear any at all. That was very different.
We did hear the owls, this evening, after not hearing them for over a month. That was pretty cool.
Happy New Year Mani and the guy you live with. So very glad to see snow on the ground instead of charring. Was concerned you were in the midst of the fires. Very cold and incredibly windy here too so the snow is dry and fluffy. At least it does keep everything covered and warm. Keep those tootsies warm
Thanks; same to you. The Denver metro area is pretty large.
It was nice today, about 9C, and not windy. We didn’t do much of anything, except go for our walk. The boots keep my paws fairly dry, but even better, they keep ice out of my paws. It hurts to have ice in my paws.
It’s supposed to snow again day after tomorrow.
” So I still get Lamb Chops”. Lamb Chop was Shari Lewis’ alter-ego. Does TGYLW remember her show from the early 1960’s? She was multi-talented and a very nice person. Met her once about 60 years ago at the old New York Coliseum.
The guy I live with said he first saw Shari Lewis on the TV in New York City, either in 1957 or 1958, when he was visiting his grandparents. Maybe on Captain Kangaroo’s Weekday Treasure House.