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 bring you up to date on all the happenings around here. You may remember me from such posts as “The Yellow Pigs”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
You can probably see how super-green everything is.
It’s been raining here. In fact, in just the first two weeks of this month we’ve almost received the average amount of precipitation for the entire month of May.
The seakale, Crambe maritima, is kind of stealing the show here, despite it not growing by the seashore.
The other thing that’s been happening is, of course, more painting.
The guy I live with paints at night, which I think is odd, but he says he can paint, and then use a flashlight to find the “holidays”, which show up better that way.
And there was one more thing. The guy I live with has been talking for years about draining the waterbed downstairs, and even though he isn’t the sort of person who puts things off, he put this off, not knowing exactly where to drain the water.
Of course there were people who said the water would smell really bad, since the waterbed hadn’t been heated for fifteen years. So he had to think about that.
He bought a waterbed pump, cut a hole in the screen to run a hose out into the front garden, and pumped the water out over a period of three or four days. (They make a screen-repairing tape which is easy to use.)
The water smelled like water.
Then there was the business of dragging the mattress and frame upstairs, and cleaning up the carpet.
He then thought he needed something in that space. A chair, a sofa, a futon; something. He looked at things online and suddenly decided to do this instead.
He dusted the table after he took this picture.
That’s what’s been going on here, and why I haven’t posted lately.
I’ll leave you with a picture of my enjoying my walk through the tall green grass.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Looking slim, dear dog. Possibly a quantity upgrade in your diet? And is that a newly painted wall? Love the new arrangement with table and *objects.* I’ve been contemplating putting in sea lavender into the front parkway, berm, hell strip, whatever. Now I think seakale.
Came home with ten new (well, old) roses from an auction, one of which you will recognize from your own patch, ‘Darlow’s Enigma’, also ‘Sparrieshoop.’ Both will go in the wilder part of the garden.
The guy I live with says thanks, it is a newly-painted wall. He also says that seakale gets bigger than sea lavender. It doesn’t need to grow on a shingle beach, like in pictures of Derek Jarman’s garden.
The big bluish leaves are pretty cool, and the plant is attractive after the flowers wither, too, if they’re not deadheaded.
‘Darlow’s Enigma’ is a very nice rose; scented. He visited his friend yesterday and her ‘Darlow’s’ is fairly huge.
Yellow pigs? “Holidays”? I am confused.
Yes, “The Yellow Pigs” is the title of a blog post, and “holidays” are spots where the paint didn’t cover well.
Oh, that is funny. I had never heard of ‘holidays’ in that context before. ‘Yellow Pigs’ are funny regardless. I do not even need to know what they are.
Yellow pigs are goldfinches, though they seem to have disappeared over the last years.
Holidays are a painter’s term.
Does the guy you live with remember green parrots in the Los Angeles region? They were loud and messy in carob trees.
He doesn’t remember that.
Well, . . . yellow pigs are likely more interesting anyway.
It is certainly unusual to see your garden green!
It’s unusual for it to be this green. The guy I live with said a lot of the green is from weeds, though.
Oh, we all have our weeds!
The guy I live with said we have more than our share.
Maybe not as many as the house two doors down, which has had no one living there since February before last. And no mowing.
That sure is a nice straight grass path you’ve got there, Mani.
This is a coyote path, really, but the guy I live with and Chess, a purebred border collie who lived here before me, improved upon it, ad now we do the same.
The downside of waterbeds is draining them, but it sounds like all’s well that ends well. We didn’t receive as much rain as you did and wish more would fall soon. Hope your Dad has fun painting.
The pump he bought worked really well, though when it go down to the last bit of water it made a horrible noise.
The guy I live with really does like to paint.
He said most of the rain, and the snow last February, has been south of Golden down to where 470 turns east, and west of Wadsworth. Kind of unusual, really.
We had some sprinkles today.
It looks pretty lush (and very pretty, too — the seakale is amazing) out there where you live. Bet there are lots of interesting new smells to discover! And the guy you live with is making some nice changes around the house, too. Just make sure he’s careful on any ladders! Looks like your summer is off to a great start — enjoy your summer trails!
The garden has certainly greened up substantially. It looks great. The crambe is spectacular. Mine is just showing new purple bud growth. You are way ahead. Nice to have all that rain as you know it will be hot and dry before long. Enjoy it while you can. I like the understated look of the table and ornaments. Simple but elegant.
Thanks. That’s how I describe the guy I live with: “simple but elegant”.
They’re already talking about “the monsoon” here, which we really don’t have, but we do get a bit of the tail end of the monsoon and some rain, so maybe this summer won’t be as dry as last summer.
Lovelee to see you Mani an so much green! Flowerss are lookin lovelee two. Mistur Guy WELL DUN!!! You tackelled a big job….love THE little table an green bottle….
***purrss*** BellaDharma an (((hugss))) BellaSita Mum
Thanks.
It really is very green here. Kind of weird, actually, but typical for this time of year.