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 once again to bring you up to date on our latest news. You may remember me from such posts as “The Fast Learner”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
Today I heard kind of a shout outside.
The guy I live with had walked into this.
He knew it was there, and he knew it was the reason why the shed, which is normally and disgustingly filled with flies, was now much less filled with flies, but it still startled him.
It’s an orb weaver web.
Here’s another picture of Solidago ‘Wichita Mountains’ because the guy I live with really likes this plant.
And here’s another picture of Colchicum speciosum ‘Atrorubens’ because the sun wasn’t shining on it.
He got this colchicum as ‘E.A. Bowles’.
Bowles has holes, as you can see. The guy I live with said this could also be ‘Benton End’; you know how names sometimes get mixed up.
And this is the ultimately tesselated colchicum, Colchicum variegatum.
The petals are kind of messed up because it was growing through this ephedra.
It wasn’t under the ephedra last year so it’s going to have to be moved, or be swamped.
This is from Greece, and is said to be difficult in cultivation because it needs a hot, dry summer. The guy I live with said he can provide those conditions without getting out of bed in the morning.
There’s a crocus that’s said to need damp conditions all summer, like a Romanian marsh since this is where it comes from, but it presents no problems here.
This is Crocus banaticus, and it’s really something, as you can see.
There are more of them than just these, some that are two-toned, but they’re not up yet.
And this is the white form of Crocus speciosus. The guy I live with was surprised to see it already in flower.
So those are the flowers for today. I mean the ones he took pictures of.
The guy I live with was pretty happy seeing everything in flower, and he actually did some work in the garden.
And then there was this.
I had to wait for my dinner because thunder is too scary an accompaniment for dining, but eventually the chef called me to dinner and that was indeed excellent.
I did take a look outside, though, just to see if everything was okay.
It was.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
We are always astonished at how you can grow so many Crocus out in the open garden sans serious rodent predation. All of ours that were in pots in the greenhouse were gone within weeks of moving them from CT to NC.
Well the guy I live with has to put cages around the autumn-flowering ones that have leaves, otherwise rabbits will eat the leaves right down to the ground.
We also had a serious infestation of voles last winter (Messina Wildlife Mole and Vole Stopper seemed to be an effective deterrent and safe for purebred border collies who like to catch voles) and so a lot of crocuses are now grown in pond baskets plunged into the ground.
What a beautiful spider’s web…to accompany the beautiful colchicums, especially that variegated one.
The guy I live with learned to sort of like most spiders because his wife liked them a lot.
One summer orb weavers came into the kitchen and there were 14 orb weaver webs in the kitchen. I know that sounds like some Addams Family thing.
The guy I live with wondered if we had that many webs in the kitchen this summer that he wouldn’t had had to spend so much time catching yellowjackets and putting them back outside. (We don’t have a screen for the sliding glass door because Flurry, the first purebred border collie who lived here, broke it trying to get into the kitchen because he heard thunder.)
Mee-yow wee has a WEBBIE like this heer two Mani an Guy!! BellaSita named Spydur ‘Clancy’ (after Clancy Brown THE Actor). Shee’ss even put food inn his web fore him. HURRAH fore THE RAIN!!! Wee **happy dancin** youss’ gotted rain furinallee!!
***nose bopss*** BellaDharma an ((hugss)) BellaSita Mum
Thanks; the rain was very nice. Rained a little yesterday, too.
The guy I live with said he saw a really big orb weaver in a dark corner of the shed. I mean you wouldn’t believe how many flies were in the shed a month ago.
Now there are almost none. I’ve tried flies myself and I must say they’re pretty good.
HURRAH fore more rain Mani an Guy!!! Pawsum newss!! Flies are tasty Mani??? Mee nevurr liked them much….Must bee a Poochie an Spydur thing!! Mew mew mew…..Wee glad you have a Spydur there. Has Guy named yourss yet?? 😉
The rain was excellent.
Flies are pretty good, actually. The guy I live with refuses to try them.
He hasn’t named the spider because it won’t be around for much longer… They don’t live through the winter.
Wee happy youss’ gotted rain….it iss not easy to live inn dry placess wee think…OMC!! Clancy will not live thru Winter?? YIKESS!! Wee did not nse this. Iss nice an warm heer dailee but furry kewl at nite. Clancy not furry active. We ekeep an eye on him!
No, spiders in cold-winter climates don’t survive the winter. Their offspring do.
Wee see a 2nd Spydur inn Clancy’s web…he iss inn crevice…wee not sure if hee nappin or sleepin fore guud…poor Clancy….
There will be a new generation next year.
That’ss guud Mani…. 2nd Spydur iss NOT in web? Wee wunder where it went….and if Clancy iss OKay?
The guy I live with said it’s probably the end of the year for them.