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 to talk about our latest news. You may remember me from such posts as “A Bit Chilly”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
This is me gardening, if you didn’t know. The guy I live with was doing some gardening too, in between the endless painting, but he was having issues with arthritis, which he said was very frustrating.
I know we dogs, which I’m, can get arthritis too.
A couple of days ago we saw the cottonwoods in flower along the canal. These were flowers similar to the ones I walked on in my last post, but a different species.
There are quite a few plants in flower here, but I’ll just show you a couple.
This is Iris chrysopetala, with Iris bucharica behind it:
This is Fritillaria pallidiflora:
The guy I live with said this is grown for medicinal purposes in China, where it’s known as yi bei mu, used for coughs and things like that.
A few days ago, on my morning walk, I saw a turkey. I’ve seen turkeys before, as you know if you’ve been following my posts for a while, but it was still very exciting.
The guy I live with said this was a female turkey. We watched her fly up to the top of the fence there, and then fly into the yard behind the fence, and she strutted around the patio with the dogs in the house barking like crazy.
I of course remained calm and detached, because I’ve seen turkeys.
And then just today, on my evening walk, there was a fox running down the field. I didn’t see it, but the guy I live with did.
You can see it in the field by the shed on the left.
So that’s all I have for today.
Aside from watching the guy I live with paint things, which is extremely boring, you can tell I’ve had a pretty exciting time in the last few days, even if I didn’t actually see the fox.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
What is that Big Bird doing so far from Sesame Street?!
The guy I live with was surprised there was only one.
Now that you mention it, that is rather odd.
They usually come in groups; I saw some winter before last, on one of my walks.
The irises are fabulous!
The guy I live with likes juno irises a lot; there’s a small hill by the back fence devoted to growing them.
Unfortuntely this spring started out too dry for most of them to do well. Maybe next year.
Only commenting so I can change my new posts/comments preferences/settings but there was a small flock of male wild turkeys in the field yesterday at dusk and the dog was very barky.
The guy I live with said there was like a county bulletin about all the turkeys here. I’ve seen them before, but not hopping into someone’s back yard.
Thanks for the update, Mani. It’s been thunderstorming here in North Texas since about lunchtime. And our prickly pear cacti plants are blooming now, but I don’t have a picture for you because I’m not going out in a thunderstorm with my phone.
Until later, y’all enjoy yourselves.
Thanks. We had some rain last night, and some this evening too.
We’ve only had thunder once this year, I think. It’s a bit too early for that here, even though they keep suing the word on our forecasts.
Your patch of iris and frittalaria are outstanding. Iris bucharica is one of my favourites but I like your combination so will have to look for chrysopetala to pair with it. Wild turkeys and a fox. Spring is happening. Things are walking up early this year. Fingers crossed no freak snow or ice storms.
The yellow iris came from a mail-order nursery in the U.K. The guy I live with says you’d probably never find it or seeds on this continent.
We wouldn’t terribly mind snow, but the guy I live with says he’s never seen an ice storm here. He saw the effects of one on Long Island one January, years ago.
Plenty of turkeys here, meandering across the road at a sedate pace even with cars approaching at 60+ mph. Some didn’t make it across. Your irises were amazingly floriferous this year. I am tempted to try those in my own home garden, but need to give some thought where they might thrive. Not sure if I should give up on Fritillaria or not. My Fritillaria acmopetala disappeared over the winter and many other species seem to do the same. Not sure if it is rodents or the winter icks.
Could be rodents. We have a lot of rodents here.
Most juno irises are easy to grow but we don’t know anything about “winter wet”.
Iris bucharica, aucheri, and magnifica are the easiest to grow. And to find.
The guy I live with says the irises weren’t nearly as floriferous as they usually are, especially the ones growing on the Hill of Junos by the back fence. Too dry in April, he says.
Flowerss an Turkey’ss an Foxess oh mye!!! THE Yellow Irises are so purrty! An wee reelly like THE Fritillaria pallidiflora. They are sorta like Snow Dropss or Blue Bellss…..they are purrty two. Mr Guy pace yoreself with yore painting. Wee not want you to hert yoreself. BellaSita has arthritis an mee has seen her over due thingss alot 😉 Happy May!!
**purrss** BellaDharma an ((hugs)) BellaSita Mum
Thanks; same to you. We even had rain yesterday. Not a lot, but enough.
The guy I live with inherited a tendency to arthritis and he had a couple of bad days early this week.
I think the painting is getting close to mostly done, unless he decides to paint the outside of the house.
Wee had MORE rain today! This is gettin’ old! THE ground iss water locked? !ater logged?? Furry wet! Same with BellaSita…her Meowmy an Gran-Meowy had Arthritis. BellaSita has had Arthritis since shee was 25. Pawss crossed all THE paintin will bee dun soon rite Mani??
We wouldn’t mind more rain. Within reason of course.
The guy I live with’s mom and her mom both had arthritis.
The downstairs bedroom will be done eventually, but then there’s the other side of the hallway to do.
This arthritis seemss to bee jenny…ummm genetick Mani! Sum dayss BellaSita iss furry slow walkin! Mee-yow Mistur Guy sure iss gonna bee busy with paintin….
Arthritis is certainly no fun.