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 almost nothing at all.
You may remember me from such posts as “The New Arrivals”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
It’s been really dry here. We had a little rain yesterday.
That amounted to about two millimeters, bring our total since the first of June to 14 millimeters.
And we had some rain today.
You can see how dry the grasses in the field are.
Our garden is just to the left of that little tree in the center of the picture.
Some of the native plants don’t care at all, though. This is Grindelia squarrosa, growing in the canal road.
The other thing that’s discouraging to the guy I live with is the infestation of grasshoppers. They’re bad all over the eastern part of the state right now.
This is an echinops.
This is a different echinops. Maybe it’s time to remove these.
So this is just gross.
It’s also been super hot, except for the last two days. The titlle of my post refers both to the temperature (after it was almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit this last weekend), and to how old the guy I live with is now. Super ancient.
The guy I live with decided to order me a portable air conditioner. It’s pretty noisy, but drowns out thunder when I’m taking refuge in my Upstairs Fort.
At least that’s something positive.
That’s all I really have for this post. Incredible heat, drought, millions of grasshoppers, and a new air conditioner.
And even when it’s hot, it cools off nicely at night.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Happy birthday to the guy you live with, Mani! I hope you got an extra treat to celebrate.
He says thanks. I did get extra treats.
Happy Birthday to your guy! It has been very hot here too. 119 degrees was our highest but most days were 112 to 115. We are having a cooling spell right now of 100 degrees. I hope your new airconditioner works well for you and you get some relief! We also have grasshoppers her too. They ate their share. the good news is they ate all the star thistle. So that in itself was worth having them come for a visit. Now if they will all leave I can get back to enjoying my garden! Enjoy your week Mani!
Thanks. 119 degrees is an awful lot of degrees. It doesn’t get to 100 here very often, but, if you ask me, it was super hot for a long time last week and especially this weekend.
I guess there’s a grasshopper infestation all along the Front Range in Colorado, and maybe elsewhere. I hate being landed on by them. The guy I live with’s wife was in charge of spreading NoloBait, but she’s gone and the factory supplying it burned down. No way is the guy I live with going to spray poisons in the garden. He says “That’s so 1950s”. In other words we’re just going to live with this. The grasshoppers are mostly devouring non-native plants, which the guy I live with says is “instructive”.
But there are thousands and thousands of them.
Best wishes to the old man!
He says thanks.
Best wishes to your Dad, Mani. Rain in our NW neighborhood has been quite elusive, I think 16 drops fell yesterday. Only 66 days until the official arrival of autumn. Maybe then we can cool off and the ‘hoppers can hop away. Between them and the doggone wasps, we’re starting to feel like we’re in some bad horror series. Hang in there, buddy.
He says thanks. This lack of rain is pretty distressing. It has happened before, though, in 2002.
I don’t think we’ve seen many yellowjackets this year (maybe the decoys worked), but now we’re getting bald-faced hornets at the oriole feeder, eating grape jelly.
Tell him happy birthday and sorry about the grasshoppers.
Thanks, I will. The grasshoppers are horrible here.
COOL! (The air conditioner, not the grasshopper damage. Those Echinops are not even recognizable.) Did the guy you live with just have a birthday, or has he been seventy-three for a while? Was it on the twelfth? I could say to tell him “Happy Birthday!”, but that would be weird from some random person who reads your blog that he does not write.
He did, on the fifteenth.
just three days after mine.
Happy belated birthday, then.
Thank you.
YIKESS THE grass iss NOT greener on THE other side Mani! It iss suppurr dry out there! Wee have had so much rain…wee waterlogged! Wee treid to send you sum butt it did not werk! THE Ecinopss due look sorta BLAH! They probablee thirsty two!!! It was hot an hue-mid heer too an felt like over 100 F deegreess…UCKY!
Guy wee think 73 iss a nice numburr! An what a nice gift for Mani….you are such a grate “Pup-Pawppaw”!!
***nose bopss*** BellaDharma an {{{hugss}}} BellaSita Mum
Thanks. It is horrifically dry here. But not so hot, now.
Wee so are purrayin fore youss’ to get RAIN Mani an Guy!!!
Thanks.
Bald faced hornets… nasty, aggressive creatures. Careful if cutting down shrubs or trees as they may have a nest. We have a healthy crop of grasshoppers here this year. They tend to be cyclical and 2023/24 was a good year for overwintering.. Happy b’day to TGYLW.
Grr…. bald, not blad.
We can fix that, using the miracle of mordern technology. As you can see.
He says thanks.
He’s often accompanpied by clouds of bald-faced hornets when he takes the feeder in to rejellify it. They haven’t bothered him yet. (He does use one of those long-reach grabber deals to take the feeder of its pole.)
Third year of grasshoppers everywhere, but this summer is very bad.
Yore both furry wellcome 😉