Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to talk about the wind. You may remember me from such posts as “Smoke And Wind”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
If you’re wondering what all that stuff is, besides the puschkinias, from left to right there’s a dwarf ponderosa pine; Cercocarpus montanus in front; the yucca-looking thing is Nolina greenei; the cactus is Cylindropuntia whipplei; the oak, with its brown leaves, is Quercus undulata. The big branchy thing I’m lying under is Cotoneaster multiflorus. It smells awful when it flowers.
What I’m relaxing on will be a new bed for, well, mostly bulbs I guess, so I won’t be able to lie right on it, according to the guy I live with, but of course I will anyway.
You can see how the path on the north side of the garden looks now, with the frames gone.
Lots of planting spaces again.
The lilac, ‘Annabel’, framed by the arbor, is about ninety feet away.
The big green thing, to the right of the trap (which isn’t set), and a bit closer to the camera, is an Eremurus robustus. The guy I live with was surprised to see it there. (All that other green stuff is Allium aflatunense, which his wife wanted, but the guy I live with didn’t, and still doesn’t want.)
He planted half a dozen Eremurus robustus in the “way back” garden, in a place where he thought they would do well, and all of them rotted last winter. He was pretty put out about that, but decided to plant more in the open area on the right in the picture above. Eremurus do very well in the garden here.
I guess he miscalculated just how wet the “way back” gets in the winter; all the melting snow drains down there, because it’s lower than the main back garden by at least three feet.
It’s been windy for the last several days. We were under “fire weather” warnings every day. I didn’t worry about that, but the guy I live with did. He says he does the worrying for both of us, so I can lead a happy, carefree life.
Even with the wind, there are things in flower.
This is Fritillaria raddeana.
There were other, older, and larger bulbs in the garden, close to where these were, but the guy I live with sliced through the bulbs with his trowel, thinking they were in a different place. I guess I wasn’t supposed to talk about that, but the language I heard when that happened was something else.
This is (maybe) Fritillaria nigra. Some people say it should be called F. pyrenaica.
There are dozens of other “frits” about to flower here, but it’s supposed to get colder and maybe even snow this week, so who knows what will happen.
Some other things. The guy I live with went to the Asian market. He likes that store, a lot. It was one of his “safe places” to go, after his wife died. I’ve probably talked about the way he feels about Asian things. He said it was kind of weird going there in the new car, partly because it’s been strange for him to go there by himself for all these years, but also because of the automatic transmission, which he’s figured out, and not having to take a key out of the ignition (which he says is “beyond totally weird”).
He got some important household items.
Thai chilies, which he can’t live without, and kimchi. (Oh, and you can see dumpling wrappers; he makes jao tze every now and then, and wontons, too.) There was already a jar of kimchi in the refrigerator, and so I wondered, but he said this was even better, though not quite as good as the kimchi he can get at H Mart, but that’s a long way away.
He also got some sriracha sauce.
The bottle on the left. I hear that if you really know your sriracha sauce, you call the sauce on the left “rooster sauce”, for obvious reasons, because it isn’t quite like the real thing from Thailand (bottle on the right).
He likes rooster sauce the best.
He went to the health food store after that. He told me that at the Asian market almost everyone was wearing a mask, but at the health food store almost no one was.
That was something he thought about for quite a while.
The other news, which isn’t about food I’m not allowed to eat, has to do with the canal.
It has water in it.
No one removed all the dead grass from the banks, so it looks very different this year. Last spring was very wet, relatively speaking, and the grasses grew like crazy; there are even some clumps growing in the canal.
But it was very pleasant to see water flowing. And as soon as the water started to flow, other creatures noticed it.
Well, that’s it for today. We’ve been able to do some gardening, even with the wind. I like gardening as much as the guy I live with does, though of course my approach to it is very different, and mostly involves watching.
I’ll leave you with a picture of me, taken in the morning, while I was still in the ancient, creaky chair I like to sleep in. After we’re done watching “Q.I.” at night, and the guy I live with switches the program to one that helps him sleep, I like to go down and sleep in the chair that, so I’ve heard, all the other purebred border collies who’ve lived here have slept in, too.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
I think we are settling in for a day in the chair here also as rain is just about to start and is forecast to last the day. Time for reading!
All we’re getting is wind. I guess they’ve reduced the chances of rain this week. But not the chances of nights below freezing…
It’s an all day rain here today.
No rain, no snow here. Nothing but wind.
If you spell it with a ‘z’ rather than an ‘s’, ‘Fritz’ rather than ‘frits’ is a good name for a kitty.
Fritillaria raddeana is more impressive than a kitty though. You know, I have never grown a single Fritillaria. I just never got around to it.
There are lots of them all over the Northern Hemisphere. The guy I live with’s wife really liked them, and the collection has now increased substantially. They require nothing, here, except to be planted.
Yes, they can naturalize if their situation resembles what they are native to.
Mew-yow wow Mani it tooked us about 4 minutess to find you inn 1st foto!! You are cammyflaged well mee frend.
All yore Fritss Flowerss are so purrty. THE dark purpell oness are REELLY snazzy!
Our Snowdropss are utterly worn out an dun….they never gotted to REELLY bloom an they lyin on THE ground…Wee wish wee cuud have helped them!
Innterstin foodabullss you bott there Guy. BellaSita Mum can not have any spice or *hot* so shee enjoyss reedin ’bout diffyrent foodss.
An you know Mistur Guy this hole “no need to mask” deel iss wrong! Look at poor BellaSita Mum! Shee was xposed to THE ‘Rona 3 timess b4 end of March. April 1st shee woked up so sick. Shee spent 9 dyass inn isolation doin Rapid Testin an beein so sick mee thott shee not make it!
Shee iss doin bettur an not got THE ‘RONA. It was Sinusitis an Influenza A combo! Yesterday shee tried to due laundry an asked a tenant to pleese mask up an hee was rude an reefused! Shee was a wreck.
About 8 peepss here ARE maskin inn hallwayss an common spacess; THE other 54 peepss are not maskin an coff-inn an sneezin an breethin all over each other. It iss so UCKY!
Lucky fore us, all our storess reequire maskss on to enter an that iss a BIG comfert to BellaSita Mum! An mee two!
THE Canal lookss diffyrent this yeer…nice to see sum Duckss! Are THE Owlss still around yore place?
***nose bopss*** BellaDharma an ((hugss)) BellaSita Mum
We haven’t heard the owls for a while now.
I don’t know about this mask business, since I don’t have to wear one, but the guy I live with does, wherever he goes, even if he’s the only person wearing one. People are weird, and selfish, too.
It was good that Lady Mew didn’t get the virus. All of the guy I live with’s family has had it. All vaccinated. His brother-in-law has lupus and so the doctor gave him some special medicine for it.
The canal doesn’t look right to either of us, but the water is nice. One day, a little while ago, we met the “canal guy” on our walk, who asked us if we’d seen kids playing in the canal when it was dry (we had), and then the guy I live with told him this story, about some kids who were picking up dead fish and putting them in a plastic tray, the year before last. (When the water is shut off, there are fish that are left stranded; the guy I live with feels sorry for them.)
The kids said they were taking the fish home to cook them. The guy I live with told them they couldn’t eat those fish because they’d been dead for about ten days… Kind of gross.
But anyway we were both surprised that no one had trimmed back the grasses. I supposed the water, flowing past them over the next weeks and months, will take care of that.
Wee have seen so much meenness an selfishness inn our builidin to last a lifetime Mani an Guy! Reememburr when unmasked peepss were shunned when THE RONA was ferst around? Now if you go sumwhere masked peepss are shunning! What iss wrong with Hue-manity?
Yeah eatin fish that deeded iss not a guud idea! UCKY! Wee hope you can enjoy THE Canal an that Spring iss furinallee there. Today iss a purrfect Spring Day….’bout time rite?
Guess yore Owlss ree-located to their summer place? Mew mew mew…..
**purrss** BellaDharma
The guy I live with said he doesn’t understand people at all.
No perfect spring day here; just cold wind. The forecast for tomorrow and the next day is wind. It’s pretty awful.
Us eether Mani an Guy!
So far inn Common Room there was Tenant meetin Monday nite; Easter Tea Tuesday afturnoon; Coffee Mornin Wwdnesday an furinallee tonite Bingo!!!
An guess what?? Covid Chick is up an about NOT WEARIN A MASK!!!
Housin sayss they can not put outside lock on patio door. BellaSita Mum said if shee getss THE ‘RONA it is on Housin an shee will “Raise THE Roof’! **sighss**
I don’t know about some people.
Still windy here. Windy tomorrow, windy the next day.
Same here about peepell Mani!
An same same same about THE Wind! Iss scarey an mee hidinn inn mee pillow aka sleepin bag on BellaSita’ss bed!!!