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 the exciting things that happen to us almost every single day. You may remember me from such posts as “The Ghost In The Grapevine”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
You can see that the leaves on the birch are turning yellow.
It was pretty windy today and all sorts of stuff blew onto the patio and everywhere else. I think the wind is because it might rain some time this week, but the guy I live with isn’t very confident about that.
Things have been a little unsettled here for a while now. I’ve had some issues with eating, even after I stopped taking the antibiotic for my cut paw, and that’s upset the guy I live with no end. We had an argument about breakfast just yesterday.
Maybe I’m back on track now, with regular eating, though.
I know he worries about me, just like I worry about him.
He was summoned for jury duty, something he said he’s been dreading for years now, and he’s not sure whether just to leave me here at home for hours (longer than I’ve been left at home before), or have me go to a day care place. I’d have to spend the night.
He said he thought about trying to fake his own death to get out of this, but I think that wouldn’t work. I can tell he’s stressed out.
And it’s October. Not his favorite month, because it was his wife’s favorite month, and he said he can feel that. Her birthday is this next Sunday. I know he misses her terribly, and especially now, because she could stay home with me while the guy I live with did his jury thing.
He says it’s very hard to talk to people about that, because most people don’t want to talk about death, loss, and grief. They can’t relate at all.
The colchicums are almost done here. This is Colchicum ‘Pink Star’. The guy I live with was given some corms to try to determine what they are, and this is what he decided it was.
The first crocuses have appeared. These are Crocus kotschyanus, the one called ‘Reliant’, though I guess it isn’t, totally. Sometimes crocuses form all these little cormlets which take a few years to grow to flowering size again.
These were named for Karl Georg Theodor Kotschy, an Austrian botanist in the nineteenth century.
This seems to be mostly a month for yellow flowers, like the cowpen daisies, which I can see, and red flowers, which I can’t see. I can’t see the color red, I mean.
Salvia greggii is doing very well. We had a little rain a while ago, but everything seems pretty dry nonetheless.
That’s a seedling, from the original planting of ‘Furman’s Red’.
This is ‘Furman’s Red’.
The hummingbirds have all left, for Mexico, which is kind of sad, because we have all these flowers for them.
This is Zauschneria ‘Ghostly Red’. It’s just starting to flower.
This is native to California, where they have hummingbirds year-round, and the salvia is native to Texas, where the hummingbirds would find them on their journey south.
So the salvias flower here after the hummingbirds have left, but are still flowering much farther south. Like at least 800 miles (1278km) farther south.
The guy I live with says that’s the way things go.
The last red flower for today is one that the hummingbirds might look at, but not find interesting. This is Cyclamen hederifolium ‘Corfu Red’.
The guy I live with says there aren’t any hummingbirds on the island of Corfu. He knows that without checking.
The last time we had any rain worth talking about was about two weeks ago, but now we have these coming up in my Private Lawn, which is buffalo grass.
These are mushrooms, if you didn’t know.
The guy I live with said he would have to spend “some time thinking” as to why there are mushrooms in my Private Lawn and nowhere else. It could very well be that something was added to the soil back there at one time, because the garden has undergone so many changes in the last thirty-five years or so. Things didn’t work out, the guy I live with changed his mind, plants died, all sorts of things like that.
Anyway, there are mushrooms. The guy I live with removed all of these the other day.
So that’s what’s been happening here. Not really a whole lot. I mean if you don’t count all the stressing out and stuff. The guy I live with was very good with functioning under stress, when he worked for the phone company, but it’s been a long time since he did that, and maybe he’ll have to get used to doing that again.
I would be very upset if he tried to fake his own death, or if we had to head to Mexico because of all of this. I don’t speak Spanish. And it would be too hot for me.
I guess that’s all I have for today. A bunch of stuff that’s maybe too weird for me. I’ll leave you with a picture of me sleeping on the patio, which has been swept repeatedly in the last couple of days, and needs to be swept again.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Mani…please tell your guy not to stress out too much about the summons. I live in Douglas County and have been issued summons at least 3 times. When I call the day before the trial is to start, I find I don’t need to report because the issue that caused the trial has been settled out of court. So there is always a very good possibility that your guy won’t actually need to report. I hope he can relax a little bit about it!
I was checking today watching for hummers and down here we still have at least one hummingbird using our feeders. But I do expect all of them to be gone in the coming week….the south is calling them! I hate to se them go because I know their going signals the end of the growing season.
The guy I live with is still going to stress out about this, even if I don’t. Partly because he has no one here to talk to about it.
Having to be some place at a quarter to eight, when we get up at a quarter after nine, is very daunting indeed. It’s 11:55 p.m. right now and he’s still up. He worked the late shift for the phone company and got into the routine of staying up late, which he kept up when Chess, the purebred border collie who lived here before me, slept in the bed upstairs and the bedroom had to be cooled off by the window fan in the evening.
The hummingbird feeder was taken down last week and we haven’t heard or seen one since.
Linda is right, Mani. Often times jury trials settle-I worked for the clerk’s office and in the legal field for years. You are allowed an excuse but would need to appear for the next one. If you needed someone to look in on you, I’m sure there is someone in the neighborhood who could let you out. I’d happily volunteer if you were a bit closer. As fore the grief, I fully understand. It’s hard for people to comprehend grief and loss. Please know Elsa and iI send our best tender thoughts of comfort to the man you live with. We hope you’re back to feeling 100%. It’s no fun having digestive issues-take it from Elsa who is currently in a cycle of tummy upset. Despite their athleticism, standard poodles freqently have sensitive GI tracts.
Thanks. Yes, I’m totally back to normal. I guess antibiotics can affect my appetite.
The guy I live with may have found a place for me to stay overnight, so I won’t have to be at home by myself for so long. I’ve stayed at places like that before, and they were nice.
He has something called “separation anxiety”, though, and I think I know about that.
He did get out of jury duty once, because he got the summons right around the time his wife died.
Jury duty is a nuisance but mainly, from my experience, of being called and then told to go home again because you are not needed. My wife did have to sit through a trial on one occasion and I was called as a witness on two occasions. Re loss, death, upsets in life etc – yes, people don’t want to know. Your story is news on the first occasion of its telling and moaning after that. It is something we carry alone for the most part. I grow Zauchneria californica ‘Glasnevin’ here – indistinguishable from yours, I think. It’s a pretty if invasise thing.
The main objection here is that we stay up very late for gardeners. Midnight, at least. And he has to be there at 7:45 a.m. He’s afraid he’ll be so dizzy from lack of sleep that he’ll drive off the highway or something.
He is constantly taken aback by the fact that people don’t want to talk about the basic facts of life and death and would rather talk about something stupid. He says that’s no way to live, at all.
The idea that there’s a zauschneria named for a botanic garden in Dublin is even stranger. We can’t get that one here but it would probably do well in our garden.
Re the Zauchneria: I don’t think it is in any way particularly different!
A lot of them aren’t, though there’s ‘Etteri’ and some others that are different.
The guy I live with once had one with gray leaves fuzzy like lambs’ ears (really and truly), but then he decided to transplant it, and that was the end of that.
I don’t know your age but our state exempts residents at age 65 even though a summons is still mailed. No offense intended of course.
The guy I live with is 72. That’s a lot in dog years. But he’s not exempt, even though I sometimes wonder about him.
Here one is not obligated to serve as a juror after a certain age – 65 or 70. For health reasons I decided I needed to withdraw from the jury pool at that point. Every time I was called before that I was not needed. So it might be a non-issue, in the end. Lovely red flowers – we still are seeing hummingbirds – probably migrants at this point – and work hard to keep all the feeders up and running for them. Sadly we don’t have any red flowers to offer, just zinnias and butterfly bush, which they also seem to enjoy.
Cheers,
Ceci
The guy I live with says our state doesn’t allow an upper age limit.
We haven’t seen or heard any hummingbirds for about a week now.
The forecast here was for some rain, but now it’s nothing by cold, dry weather with temperatures getting close to freezing at night. The guy I live with is not terribly happy about that. The almost-freezing business isn’t an issue, but the no rain definitely is, for him.
Jury duty would not be so dreadful if canine people could attend. Besides, canine people are much more qualified to judge people than human people are.
Zauschneria californica (which has a new name) was popular among the natives fanatics years ago. It is not so easy to work with within refined landscapes though. Ours got too much water from the automated irrigation that satisfied the exotic vegetation. It should be happier in your garden, since you can give it the attention or neglect that it prefers.
I agree that I should be able to go. It would probably be boring, though. The guy I live with’s wife went, once, and she really enjoyed it, which he thought was weird.
Las Pilitas no longer ships to our state so our choices are pretty limited. Mostly plants grown in peat moss and vermiculite, which makes them very hard to establish in an unwatered (mostly unwatered) garden.
Mello Mani! Iss lovelee to see you again. Purrty Colchium flowess an Crocusess. Iss funny yores come out now an up heer ourss come out inn late March or early April. So many red flowerss! An so many Mushroomss!! Are they eddybell?
Wee sure hope you are feelin bettur an back to eatin propurrly Mani. Mee nose BellaSita has ‘Kitten Fitss’ iff mee goess off mee foodabullss 😉
~~~head rubss~~~BellaDharma~~~
Hello Guy! BellaSita here. I want to say I DO understand from my won experiences how different times of year & subsequent ‘anniversaries’ can cause stress & tears…. Today in 1995 my beloved Nanna passed away (89 yrs old). I still miss her.
Oct. 3rd, 1999 I married my husband Kevin. 4 years later he took his own life.
I always find October a month of emotions & memories. I think people get caught up in their own lives & lose touch with how we are feeling. I send you (((hugs))) of understanding & empathy.
As for Jury Duty, if you do not want to roll the dice about having to serve; could you see your Family Doc & have a letter written to excuse you? I was called twice & with my Anxiety, my Doctor was more than happy to have me excused!
Sincerely, BellaSita Mum (Sherri-Ellen)
Thanks. The guy I live with has a lot of anxiety, but he lives with it. He’s already done some stuff with the vet, tests and things, in case I have to spend the night at a place for dogs, not very far away from here.
But of course what really hits him is that his wife isn’t here to take care of me.
I ate my breakfast and my dinner and the guy I live with was pretty happy about that. And my various treats too.
Same heer Mani! Eatin my suppurr an snax an treetss or else a sirtain BellaSita Mum startss fussin over mee an meowin “Maybee wee shuud go to THE V-E-T???”
Show mee THE food rite?
Iss guud Guy has looked innto boardin you if hee has to…..
Wee hope hee does not have to due Jury Duty…..pawss crossed 😉
The guy I live with said he thought I was back on track now, with the food.
In Oregon, we are exempt once we reach 70. We can report if we want to, but we don’t have to. After all, there are many infirmities which make it hard for us to sit all day. The last time I had to report, I called every day but was never asked to appear. Speaking of infirmities, Mani, I am sorry about your tummy. Daisy, the dog of 1000 ailments, has a lot of problems in that department. However, when I removed chicken from her diet, she improved greatly. Many dogs don’t tolerate chicken well, and yet it is in most of the food. I hope you get better. Food is important. And tasty.
I keep trying to dig up the rooting sections of my Zauschnerias, especially “Select Mattole” but they are very touchy. Any hints?
I hope to hear that you are much better.
Thanks. I think I’m okay now because I ate my breakfast and my dinner. And I really like the Ark Naturals “toothbrush deals” and the Whole Paws chicken strips.
The guy I live with said he wasn’t sure about digging up zauschnerias. There used to be a whole bunch of them here but they all died except for the ones from Las Pilitas, two of which are in the front yard and don’t get any water at all, except when it rains.
There isn’t any age limit in our state for jury duty. The guy I live with is pretty intimidated by the idea of sitting all day long.
Hey, Mani, please to let your guy know that after the pandemic, when summoned, I wrote a note saying I was old and feeble–kinda true then, not so much now–and have not been called for assignment since. Figured I’d done my civic duty having served on half a dozen juries. Advise your guy to hang loose. Do dogs, especially pure-bred border collies, eat yogurt? Settles my tummy after a course of antibiotics. About death, loss and grief: all folks have to do is listen, that’s all. No comment called for. I think that’s what scares people, the thought they have to comment. Salvia greggii, why don’t I have it in my garden, especially since I am a native fanatic? Looks so pretty in your garden, Mani, as do you on the patio..
Thanks. The salvia has even seeded around in the little garden on the south side of our house. It doesn’t flower without some water; we thought it was going to rain this week but the forecast was changed, much to the guy I live with’s disappointment.
He says that people don’t want to hear about death, grief, and loss at all. Not even one little bit.
He also said he might fake insanity. If you ask me, it wouldn’t be that hard for him.
I am sorry to hear you have been under the weather Mani. Hard to heal if you won’t eat. I am also sorry to hear about the sadness the guy you live with goes through a this time of year. Grief is a difficult thing to cope with so you will need to be extra supportive to help him make it through. I find wandering around the garden while having a conversation with a missing loved one can be therapeutic. My Zauschnerias are flowering like crazy. Walking by yesterday it sounded like we were in the middle of a bee hive. Apparently the honey bees find it attractive as well.
Thanks. About five weeks ago the guy I live with noticed I was licking my paw a lot, so he took me to the doctor, because this had happened before. I guess there was a big cut on my paw. So I got antibiotics. (And a whole wedge of Fromager d’affinois and a whole wedge of Delice de Bourgogne to help wash down the pills.)
I stopped the antibiotic about two weeks ago but have had a difficult time getting back into regular eating, though the guy I live with says I’m fine now.
It is a rough six weeks for the guy I live with, too, and he’s having anxiety about being able to find me a place to stay if that becomes necessary. Uploading documents and stuff like that.
We don’t have as many zauschnerias as we used to but some are flowering now, even though the hummingbirds have left the building.