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 the lights and some other stuff. You may remember me from such posts as “Cats In A Basket”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. Maybe not quite a pose.
This is one of my favorite games.
November is one of the best times for excellent sunsets here.
The snowdrops are still flowering.
And some of the sphaeralceas decided to flower again.
Mainly, though, the theme here is fallen leaves, and the work the guy I live with has been doing.
There’s a maple in the garden here that doesn’t have much autumn color (the guy I live with has no idea what species it is); the leaves just fall, but they make a good backdrop to the dwarf conifers.
This is Pinus strobiformis ‘Coronado’, one the the late Jerry Morris’s conifers.
The enclosure is full of leaves, too. A lot of the leaves were raked into this little garden.
You may notice that more cedar slats were removed from the fence. The fence needs to be replaced (yes, I know…) so he made “the gesture” of removing the slats to make the low fences you’ll see in just a bit.
The area behind the fence there is kind of brown and desolate now.
That green clump is Jasminum fruticans (it has no scent) and then a dwarf culinary sage in front of it. There are also Egyptian walking onions there.
The silver thing is a rabbitbrush.
This is a long way from the house, about a hundred feet or more. The guy I live with does drag a hose to the enclosure but, really, this part of the garden, from where I’m standing to the stock tank in the distance, never gets watered. It’s just too much trouble.
That picture of me was taken from the trough patio, which the guy I live with’s wife built so that there could be a bunch of troughs back here.
There were a bunch of troughs, for years, but eventually, for a few reasons, most of the plants in the troughs died, so the troughs were given away, and the patio was used for seed frames. The guy I live with would sow seeds in pots about this time of year, put them into the frames, and there would be seedlings the following spring.
For the last two springs, germination was, mysteriously, really poor, so the guy I live with decided mostly to give up growing plants from seeds and clean up the patio, since this has been bothering him for quite some time.
The low fences hide a bunch of cinder blocks on which the troughs sat. You can see that there are still two troughs, on the right. There are two eriogonums in the closest trough, but the farthest trough has no plants in it. For now.
All the dirt is from the soil-less mix from the seed pots. When this is all swept up it will be apparent that the narrow triangular pieces of flagstone are laid out like the rays of the sun.
The guy I live with said he thought about planting thymes between the flagstones; thymes often fry in our hot winter sun but the patio is in shade all winter, so it might work.
So that’s the gardening stuff.
Yesterday evening, the guy I live with got a text from his neighbor to go out and look at the northern lights. He went out and didn’t see anything.
Then he got another text, at a quarter to ten, to try again, and he got this picture, looking through all the light pollution of the Denver metro area.
This was the first time he’d ever seen such a thing. I of course was sleeping on the couch, but the guy I live with said that the sun was going berserk.
I didn’t like the idea that there’s this gigantic ball of plasma a long way away controlling almost every aspect of our lives; I certainly do know about the sun, but I definitely prefer just taking it for granted instead of thinking about it.
Like, for instance, here.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
The lights! Breathtaking! I could not see them at our house (or maybe didn’t stay up late enough, or we are too close to downtown Denver lights…). Glad TGYLW saw them.
Sounds like much garden work is happening at your place, Mani. I have done some leaf work but there is more to do.
Each time I see a dwarf conifer photo from you, I want to get more for our garden. We have two ‘Blue Jazz’ piñons but I want to find some other interesting dwarfs to add.
The guy I live with was just lucky with the lights, thanks to his beighbor texting him.
Those dwarf conifers are all from the late Jerry Morris, mostly obtained at his nursery. He had hundreds of selections, but unfortunately most have disappeared from the trade.
There are usually some (not just Jerry’s) for sale at the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the rock garden society plant sale in April. You don’t have to be a member to go. Usually at Jefferson County Fairgrounds. There’s a cactucs and succulent sale at the same time.
The Ego leaf-blower does a great job; battery-operated, so hardly any noise.
Thanks for the tips!
The guy I live with says you’re welcome.
He also checked, and next year the sale will be at Tagawa Gardens, a long way away for the guy I live with. The rock garden part is members only the first day, though maybe that’s changed. April 10 and 11.
What a spectacular photo of the northern lights. I know a lot of folks around the metro area were able to view them but alas, I think the canopy blocked them in my neighborhood. I went out several times to seer if I could see any evidence but no such luck. Still, it must have been quite the sight!
Thanks. This was taken looking roughly toward north Denver, a bit northeast of here.
If the guy I live with’s neighbor hadn’t texted him there would have been no picture.
Mee-yow what FAB sunsetss an last nite’ss foto iss speck-taculur. Yore flowerss look so purrty. An Mani yore video iss pawtastick! Wee MOL/LOL over yore last foto…..purrfection… ~~head rubss~~BellaDharma~~ an **blowss kissess** BellaSita Mum
Thanks. I do like playing that paw game with the guy I live with.
That old creaky couch is so, so comfortable.
Mee wuud play that game with BllaSita butt mee putss clawss out sumtimess an scaress her…mew mew mew…..sumtimess mee wishess mee was a Poochie like you Mani!
I have toenails, but I never use them. I like to play this game for a long time.
Mee gotta leern to bee more gentell with BellaSita Mum 😉
I think so.
I am happy TGYLW was able to see the lights! I went out at 9 pm and saw a faint glow. Then, sadly, fell asleep and missed the rest. That is a lot of brown back in the back lot, but it is lovely in its own right. At least there is some progress in removing slats and maybe in planning as well? I struggle with overthinking situations (like your trough patio) and end up not doing anything at all, except maybe puttering anxiously and ruminating about it all. Accomplishing the first step is better than having done nothing at all, I hope. I am also struggling with getting rid of things from my previous life (now 20 years ago!). There are so many memories attached to that stuff – I am afraid to let it go. But, I am feeling more and more that I want to let something new in.
It was all thanks to his nice neighbor that he got to see the lights.
The guy I live with said that maybe nothing is going to go on the patio, except some rocks. The two hypertufa troughs will have cactus planted in them next May or June.
Like maybe it’s time to give some activities a rest, like fretting about what to put on the patio out in back.
I was left alone for a little while because the guy I live with took something like a hundred DVDs to a donation bin; he said he would never watch them again.
The solar storm was huge and we were really looking forward to seeing the lights (it’s been a while) and then just as the sun set clouds rolled in. Typical! You didn’t seem all that disappointed to miss them Mani but glad the guy you live with did. They can be quite spectacular as they snake across the sky.
The guy I live with had never seen such a thing, though of course he had heard of the aurora borealis.
(It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that he read there was also an aurora australis.)
By the way, the guy I live with thought he had responded to your comment but things are kind of weird here now; he’s had to change his email on a couple of dozen sites and unwanted things have been happening.