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 today mostly to talk about our recent weather. You may remember me from such posts as “Stuff And Nonsense”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
This picture was taken today.
Well, things were moderately intense over the last couple of days. On Monday, we had a “red flag warning”, which meant a lot of wind and “critical fire danger”.
It was kind of scary, but it didn’t get as windy as they said it might.
When the day was over we both breathed a sigh of relief, but then we had another warning yesterday.
There was more wind, but, again, not as much as they said, and after a while the sky got darker, and then it started to rain. And then something the guy I live with said was “sleet” began to fall. And then it stopped.
And then it started again. The guy I live with said he could see snow blowing horizontally out in the field, but I was upstairs in my fort, because it was thundering. There was also lightning.
This is what it looked like outside, but I didn’t know it.
Eventually all of this stopped. The guy I live with looked at the radar and said the storm, which went on a very narrow path north to south, had moved south, and that it was safe for us to go on my evening walk, which we did.
The guy I live with took this picture of the willow.
The next day, I mean today, things looked like this:
That’s Crocus ancyrensis, with the purplish C. atticus behind it.
There was a colchicum, Colchicum soboliferum, looking very chilly. This is a little spring-flowering colchicum.
On my morning walk, I climbed down to investigate the canal bed. The guy I live with said water could start flowing any time.
The snow is mostly gone now.
As I said before, the guy I live with has been painting. He finished the living room the other day. He’s an obsessive painter. To the point where he touched up some spots with his wife’s art brushes, believe it or not.
He took down the swag around the divider; it’s been there as long as I can remember.
It was really dusty and falling apart, so he’s thinking about not putting it back, and tossing it. It was very difficult to clean.
All the books were dusted and put back in their proper place, so I thought I would show you a few more of his wife’s illustrated books, and maybe I’ll make this a semi-regular feature until there are no more books to show.
The guy I live with still has a difficult time looking at her books, even after all these years.
But here they are.
That’s all I have for today. We could do with a lot less excitement in our lives, that’s for sure. Maybe no excitement at all would be best.
Even though the guy I live with said something about what I’d done to the couch last night, I’ll show how I dealt with all of this.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Fire danger seems early. Was that last scary fire that was too close for comfort during December? That was even two and a half months earlier. Fire season lasts a long time here, but has not started yet. Things do not dry out as quickly here.
That fire was three years ago, and up north near Boulder.
It’s been pretty dry this month; the guy I live with says we’ve only had a third of our normal precipitation. But most places in eastern Colorado didn’t get the precipitation we did night before last.
Just lovely. It’s good to hear from you. That’s some wild weather you live with. Cheers from Portland
It was pretty strange, that’s for sure.
We had quite a few Arthur Rackham books around, but I don’t remember Walter Crane. Those illustrations are wonderful! And the man himself had a rather nice moustache. I love beautifully illustrated books for children and I don’t know how I could have missed those. Apparently there were a lot of them.
Those yellow crocuses (croci?) look strange coming up out of the snow. Kind of like a Chihuly glass art installation.
And who is responsible for the hole in the couch cushion, Mani?
The guy I live with says the plural is “crocuses”, though some people do say “croci”.
The guy I live with’s wife was especially fond of the work of Walter Crane, as well as that of Rackham, William Heath Robinson and his brothers, Kai Nielsen, and many others.
I can’t really say who chewed the hole in the cushion. Someone when they were a puppy, I bet.
I love the colchicum!
The guy I live with says it’s a small one, and being soboliferous it pops up here and there.
He was surprised but the color; the others here are pink, and were planted some distance away.
Not one I’ve grown. Must watch out for it.
The guy I live says this sed to be in the genus Merendera. He’s struggled with colchicums that have soboles, wondering which way to plant them, but if they asrrive with the remnants of roots, that’s not so difficult.
He’s struggled with quite a few spring-flowering colchicums, like Colchicum hungaricum, szovitsii, kesselringii, and who knows what else. The flowers usually aren’t very large.
They probably want a wetter spring. The guy I live with said we used to have wetter springs until he started trying spring colchicums.
They are not easy to source here in Ireland. I have had some from nurseries in Holland in recent years and am adding a few each year as they provide a show late in the season which is very welcome.
The guy I live with says there are a lot of named varieties of autumn-flowering colchicums here; maybe too many.
He would like to acquire more species but those are super difficult to find.
The spring-flowering ones are even more difficult to get and don’t always do well in our garden becaue, he says, springs have become so dry compared to previous years. We have another “fire weather” watch tomorrow, with maybe some rain after that.
Rain here today…reading time!
Windy here all day. The wind was not warm.
Thank you for sharing pictures of the beautiful books. They made me smile.
You’re welcome. The guy I live with’s wife was really into books like this at one time.
She had excellent taste. I am glad y’all have kept them.
She did. After all, she asked the guy I live with out on a date, not the other way around, and she loved purebred border collies.
As a child I had a “Wind in the Willows” illustrated by Arthur Rackham. I loved it beyond reason. Thanks for prompting the memory!
The guy I live with had that book, and maybe he still does.
What erratick weather youss’ ahve had Mani an Guy. wee reeleeved THE wind was not as bad an NO Firess! Wee ARE happy you had purrcipitation…alltho wee sorry all THE flowerss got snowed on…It’ss still Winter heer….wee just due what you due Mani. Pull THE covurss down an nap!!!! THE bookss are amazin…so beeuteetfull an charmin……
***purrss*** BellaDharma an ((hugss)) BellaSita Mum
We had the same “fire weather” warning today. It was windy, but not as windy as they said it might be.
The guy I live with told me our part of the state is about the dampest of any place east of the Rockies. We had that snow, which had no effect on plants, and a whole bunch of snow last month, that most places didn’t get, so, for now, it’s like we’re favored for precipitation.
Still, the wind was pretty annoying. We did some gardening after I watched the guy I live with paint.
There are a lot of very nice books in our house; the guy I live with’s wife liked them a lot.
Yore weather iss wild an so iss ourss…wee have 2 inchess of snow again! Wee new this wuud happen….iss so chilley out tho’… BellaSita has a bookcase inn bedroom with sum futty kewl bookss two. Hu’manss sure like to reed don’t they Mani?? Stay warm mee frend…..
It’s supposed to snow for the next four days here. I don’t think any of it will stick, though.