Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here yet again to bring you up to date on all the latest news. You may remember me from such posts as “The Night Rain”, among at least a few others like that.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
You can see that we have a lot of cowpen daisies. They’re a native annual and seed all over the place, and this year the guy I live with didn’t feel much like pulling out any extra seedlings since it’s been so roastingly hot for so long.
As you may be able to tell, it rained here. The guy I live with has been moping kind of silently about his upcoming anniversary, and also moping about the lack of rain, but a couple of days ago they predicted rain “for sure” and when nothing happened, he really started moping.
I went out to check, and there was nothing. This is me checking.
You can see that it sprinkled a little, but that was all.
The next morning we woke up and it had rained that night. We got three-quarters of an inch of rain. Rain at night is not all that usual here. The guy I live with was very pleased, and relieved too. This has been such a horribly hot and dry summer. I guess I should say “was”, because now it’s autumn.
So he took a few pictures of the garden after it was soaked.
This one has me in it, and the cowpen daisies.
There are a lot of colchicums in flower, though they were mostly knocked over by the rain.
This is Colchicum autumnale ‘Album’.
You can see that one flower has fallen apart.
The guy I live with said we get our word “album”, like a picture album, from the white slate notices were posted on by the ancient Romans.
The hummingbirds haven’t left for Mexico yet, and we have flowers for them.
This is Salvia ‘Raspberry Delight’, which he’s grown before, but never survived longer than a year or two. It seems happy now. Kind of a garish, unfocused picture, I know.
And Zauschneria ‘Ghostly Red’, just starting to flower.
The big buffet for hummingbirds is in the south garden, with Salvia greggii.
Speaking of birds, we have blue jays in the garden now.
They’re really noisy.
So that’s all I have for now. I’ll leave you with a picture of me patrolling along the path on the south side of the garden.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Thank goodness for rain. We have needed it also though were not in such dire straits as you have been. It has arrived here also – and the salvias and Zauchnerias are in flower here also.
We’re done with rain for at least a week, but it was very welcome.
Yeah, Mani, I’ve been moping some here in Texas, too. A few anniversaries, but also Autumn is teasing us. A “Now you see me. Now you don’t.” sort of game. Ah, well. Thanks for the flower pictures. Our chickens ate all our green stuff.
You’re welcome. The guy I live with said it’s supposed to be dry again for a while–this is a dry climate, after all-but the rain was so welcome it hardly matters.
It does feel like the beginning of autumn here.
Xceelent reeport Mani!! Wee furry happy youss’ got rain furinallee! Wee have had more than enuff heer! Hard to beeleeve it is end of Seppytemburr all reddy Mani an Guy! Where did THE time go? Mani you look lovelee among THE Cow Daisiess. An yore Colchichumss are furry purrty two! Wishin you an Guy a guud rest of THE month.
~~~head rubss~~~BellaDharma~~~ an {{{huggiess}}} BellaSita Mum
Thanks, and same to you. The guy I live with said no rain expected here for the next ten days, but that the rain we had will do quite nicely, for now.
It’ss been a busy butt guud month…BellaSita had a Seezure back on THE 3rd an nothin since 😉 3 weekss Seezure-free has been grate!. Iss litelee rainin heer as wee type…Can we due an “Uno Reverse” an send rain to youss’?
We could use more rain, for sure.
Seizures? The guy I live with’s father had those, from being wounded in the Korean War. They sometimes lasted forty-five minutes.
Slipper and Chess, the two purebred border collies who lived here before me, had them too. They were cousins. Slipper, only when he went to the doctor’s office. Chess had two of them and then took Zonisamide after that.
Mee-yow Guy’ss PawPaw had Seezuress from THE War?? That musta been hard to deel with! 45 minutts! CATFISH! BellaSita’ss last from a few minutess to 10 minuttss….butt if shee hitss her head she can bee out of it fore 1-2 hourss…Wee sorry about yore PawPaw Guy. An wee sorry Slipper an Chess had Poochie Seezuress. Wee have herd guud thingss about Zonisamide. Sadlee Dockturss heer are NOT helpin BellaSita Mum
Yes. It was difficult for everyone, though the guy I live with was shielded from all that when he was little. It was only later, here in Colorado, that he witnessed one.
He took Dilantin and Phenobarbital (a lot of the latter), but still had seizures from time to time. Still, he held down a job for thirty years. Coworkers drove him to and from work.
Mee-yow Guy’ss PawPaw was a Eppylepsy Warrior fore sure!
Yep.
150% purr cent Warrior!
Glad you received some rain-it always makes the garden look so lush and beautiful compared to all the supplemental waterings we’ve had to do. Even when it’s not nearly enough.
It was very nice, and at night, too. The guy I live with says that hopefully the ridiculously hot weather later this week won’t dry everything out again.
He’s been watering more this year than I’ve ever seen, for sure.
Oh, it must be nice. We have not gotten ours yet, but that is actually normal.
It was very nice.
The garden looks great despite the dry and hot summer. I like those cowpen daisies. They kind of suit the end of a season garden. Glad you got some rain. We have had a bit here too. It’s been a challenging growing season here with hail, wind and drought. Kind of done but so nice to see things rebound and flower. A nice send off before the heavy frost lands.
Thanks. The cowpen daisies are very easy to grow from seed, all you do is sprinkle the seed in the garden. The only issue is with them getting so much water that they fall over, which is what happened here with some of the plants. They’re still very cheery and as a dog I can see the color yellow.
The super weird thing here is that the guy I live with didn’t worry about hail one little bit this summer.
And no one around here is thinking about frost. Well we don’t have frost, per se, it just goes below freezing.
On our walk this evening the guy I live with stopped and talked to his neighbor who had a vegetable garden in his front yard, and he told his neighbor he’ll probably be getting tomatoes at Christmas, the way things are going.
I am shocked by how much still looks green (and alive) in your garden despite a summer of terrible weather and a plague of grasshoppers. But, as you mention, there has been more watering than ever. Is it just me, or do the pictures that feature you make the garden look even better?
Thanks. I can’t help but agree that my presence takes the garden to another level entirely.
The guy I live with says that’s immodest but what does he know?
All the watering has made things look better and I think the guy I live with may draw conclusions from that.
He also said grasshoppers are less likely to attack well-watered plants.
I’m not sure history favors the immodest and a fact is a fact. You can’t help it if your presence improves every scene. Some would call that a gift. I feel fortunate to have seen you first hand last summer, which was even more impressive. Maybe he is envious? I wonder what would happen to readership if more photos featured TGYLW?
Let him know that I’ve noticed that grasshoppers are less likely to attack dead plants too. So, he can always try that route. Less work, you know, for those special days when he is exasperated and such.
Thanks. I suspect that if more posts featured the guy I live with and less of me that the blog views would drop to about zero.
He isn’t envious at all; he’s aware I’m totally charming and even when we meet people on our walks and I turn to follow them and the guy I live with says “Don’t follow people” and then explains that I’m a purebred border collie the people smile and keep walking.
The guy I live with said the idea of having a bunch of dead plants in the garden might indeed deter grasshoppers, and that maybe a garden of mostly dead plants might start a fashion trend in horticulture. You may know how subject to fashion trends horticulture is.
For one thing, you wouldn’t worry about dead plants and rush out to water them.
There HAVE been a lot of blue jays around this year! I’m getting them on Lookout Mtn in my birdbath, and haven’t seen that before in my 15 years living here. In the South where I grew up, they were as common as Steller’s jays are here.
The guy I live with said there weren’t any blue jays when he moved here in 1961. Apparently they expanded their range and the birds here are slightly larger than the ones in the East.
We hadn’t seen any for a few years but lately they’ve been squawking all over the place.