Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to bring you up to date on all our latest news. You may remember me from such posts as “Up The Creek”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
Today, I got horribly stuck with needles. Not acupuncture; I went for my annual physical. I guess everything is okay.
Things here have been weird, as usual. We had “fire weather” warnings last week, and then it rained and snowed all day the next day. We didn’t get a lot of moisture out of that, about five millimeters, but it was enough. (A millimeter is about the thickness of one dime, if you didn’t know; the guy I live with says there’s no point in measuring in inches any more.)
This is it snowing. I’m not in this picture. The plastic things are “personal greenhouses” for bulbs.
We were under a “winter storm warning” for that night, but nothing happened.
The guy I live with said they must have mowed this hill. His powers of observation are really amazing.
This hill, which is artificial, is to the north of us, across the canal, and is mostly covered with weeds. There are a few native plants growing there, though.
You can see how green the field is, now.
Plants are stirring in the garden. The sempervivums in the pots are growing again.
Yesterday we did some gardening. This is me, eating grass. Someone has to do it.
In that border there are a couple of seedlings of Orlaya grandiflora. The guy I live with was hoping for more, but a couple are just fine. This border might be too dry for them.
The guy I live with planted out all the cyclamen that were in pots upstairs. He said they do better in the garden than in pots. He also said it’s time for him to stop ordering cyclamen. There are a lot in our garden. A lot.
The main “crop” of Corydalis solida haven’t really started yet, but there is this seedling, growing in plain old dirt.
We have “fire weather” warnings tomorrow, and then rain and snow forecast for the next few days after that, though how much rain and snow, if that even happens, is uncertain. The guy I live with said this is becoming extremely tiresome. He doesn’t know why it can’t just rain like it did in “the old days”.
He said something about “El Niño”; the last years we had that were 2018 and 2019, and there were a lot of thunderstorms, which the guy I live with used to hate, but not any more. I don’t like thunder at all.
So that’s what’s been happening. “Fire weather”, snow, “fire weather”, snow, over and over again.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
That 50 cents worth of moisture seems sooo inadequate in NW Denver too. It’s already dried out. Sigh.
I know. The guy I live with says they’ve downgraded our chances for precipitation starting on Wednesday.
The guy I live with has been watering, to make up for the lack of rain. Spring is supposed to have rain.
Gee, it is worse than here. While in Washington, I wanted to burn debris that I generated from pruning apple trees. The debris was, of course, too fresh, and I was not to be there long enough for it to become more combustible. Nonetheless, I wanted to burn it while I could. It did not occur to me that burn season is longer there than here. It takes longer for fire danger to develop.
It’s pretty bad. We’ve had a little rain and snow, but spring is supposed to be wet here, not endless “fire weather” warnings ahead of almost no precipitation.
It kind of takes the fun out of everything.
Well, not everything. You still live with the guy you live with. That must be fun.
It can be, sometimes.
The fact that your characteristic photo is especially nice must be some compensation for being horribly stuck with needles, dear dog. And thank you for identifying the pot plant I bought at this weekend’s big annual Flower Show, now in its 101st year. Sempervivum it is for the win. I read today that the El Nino that we flip to, the one that’s coming, is supposed to be an especially fierce Super El Nino. So all the cyclamen, corydalis, orlaya and such have that to look forward to. Perhaps your weather, if more Super, will be more consistent. We can but hope.
Thanks. I knew eight away when the guy I live with fitted me with the Ruff Rider Roadie that I was in for a road trip today. (The Roadie gets attached to something called a “carabiner” in the back seat.)
Yes, sempervivums;those are what are in the pots you see in almost every picture of me surveying stuff. There must be a hundred different kinds here.
We don’t get a lot of rain here, about half what they get “back east”, if that, but we do get some rain. Enough to keep the native plants in the garden happy. But last year, and, so far, this year, not nearly enough.
The guy I live with said that every morning he wakes up and thinks “She’s not here”, and thinks “It’s not raining”, and he doesn’t want to get out of bed, but does, because I need to go out, and I need my breakfast. And he needs coffee.
While the ground underfoot here, southeast Ireland, remains squelchy and messy to work.
The wind is really scary here today. I wonder if the guy I live with is going to lose his mind.
This isn’t spring as we know it. Or knew it, maybe.
All has improved here; pleasantly warm sunny days though the ground is still wet but not so bad. We garden all day everyday.
The guy I live with said he used to be able to garden almost every day, but with the weather having changed so much, not any more. He also gets tired easily.
He has actually been looking for some help, someone who actually knows stuff, but that’s not very likely.
Nobody will do the garden as the gardener wishes it to be done!
The guy I live with says that’s right. His wife loved to weed, and would spend hours in the garden, with Chess, the purebred border collie who lived here before me, right at her side.
But one day she did accidentally rip out Carlina acaulis. He forgave her.
Nice to see some greenery again. Wish I had your luck with cyclamen. Very hard to overwinter here. We do have some lovely clumps of pale yellow Iris reticulata ‘Katherine Hodgkins’ and snow crocus blooming. Nice to see some colour too. eThe weather here has been odd too. Thunder flurries, sleet, beautiful and sunny all within an hour or so. We are supposed to go down to -8C (17F) Thursday night. Yeash!
Cyclamen are pretty easy here. Several species in the garden.
It’s supposed to get cold here, too. Tomorrow night I think. Apparently there’s a front coming in, which is why we have all the wind. Nothing ever happens here gradually.
Mee-yow yore on “Rain/snow, Rinse an Repeet” two Mani an Guy!
Wee have a few dayss all warm an Sunny an Summery even an then WHAMO it iss so cold an rainy wee are shivurrin……today wee are gettin wet snow…..iss not stickin around tho’, butt it iss only around 32 F degreess….
Did youss’ see how Minny-soda an Whizz-consin an I-Oh-Wa got hit with LOTSS of wet snow??? It was sp00ky watchin Falcon Cam at GREAT SPIRIT BLUFF @ Le Crescent as snow pelted down! An foggy two!
Now to yore flowers~~~wee LOVE Cyclamen. Can you REELLY have two much?
An wee like THE Sempurrivvumss…..furry kewl lookin plantss!
Guess what iss bloomin here?
Absolootley NOTHIN! 😦
Our Snowdropss nevurr reecovurred an shrivelled up….only slender leevess left….
You look so cute surveyin yore yard an eatin grass…those new bladess are so tasty rite?
Pawss crossed no wind of fire fore youss’!!
~~~head rubss~~~BellaDharma~~~ an (((hugss))) BellaSita Mum
Pee S: Mani are you OKay from all THE needless??? Wee hope so 🙂
I am okay, thanks. I slept a lot after I came home from the doctor’s office.
Mee does two Mani…goin to THE Vet Dogtur takess alot of energy doessn’t it?? 😉
Thanks. We wouldn’t mind wet snow. It’s really windy here today, and dry.
April is usually a fairly wet month for us, but not this year.
Efurryone’ss weather iss all messed up Mani an Guy!! Wee were hopin you wuud get more rain or snow….. **sighss**
It is sort of snowing right now.