Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, Mani the uneasy border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here today to talk about why I’m so uneasy. You may remember me from such posts as “Nature Is Icky”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
I was staring at an owl in the honey locust. I barked at it, later. The guy I live with said not to bark at owls, but I like to. It eventually flew off. I could tell it was terrified of me.
It rained a little, yesterday. There was a downpour for a while, but I think we only got about 0.15 inches of rain. The guy I live with said that was better than nothing.
There were some bulbs in flower before that. The guy I live with said it was surprising that these were flowering despite only half an inch of rain in the last month.
This is Colchicum autumnale ‘Nancy Lindsay’. You can also see some cyclamen leaves.
This is Cyclamen hederifolium ‘Tilebarn Helena’.
And this is Cyclamen hederifolium ‘Corfu Red’. It’s actually redder than the picture suggests.
For some reason, there was a small pot of crocus corms in the “bulb frame”. These are Crocus tommasinianus. When a crocus flowers, that’s from the “mother corm”, and it produces “daughter corms”, or cormlets, which can take a long time to grow to flowering size, particularly in a very dry summer like we had. So you might think that the crocuses have died, when in fact the corms are taking their own sweet time to get larger.
These, at least, will come up and flower in the next couple of years, unlike some of the rare and expensive ones he got some years ago that either never came up to begin with, or flowered and then never came up again, because the “mother” corms died without producing cormlets.
He said that spending money on plants that die wasn’t his idea of fun.
A lot of gardening was done today. As has been happening, the guy I live with realized he’d made a couple of mistakes in choosing places for plants, so he spent a few hours moving five plants.
Then he planted two grasses, which took a few more hours because he had to fiddle with the roots.
Then he dug all the seakale, Crambe maritima, out of the garden, because he said the big blue-green leaves “looked stupid” in a bed of mostly smaller plants.
(In this case, he only bought one plant, but it spread, which he didn’t expect.)
You can see the crambe in this picture. All those big leaves on the left. This picture was taken yesterday, before it rained, and now the buffalo grass in the paths is a little greener.
The guy I live with admitted that the seakale was a very attractive plant, and very nice in flower and seed, but it didn’t belong there. He also said it would come back, from the huge roots it forms. But it’s gone for now.
So you may be wondering why I’ve put off talking about what’s made me so uneasy. That’s because it’s worth putting off.
Today, I overheard the guy I live with, on the street talking to some neighbors who were walking by.
They talked about the thing I don’t want to hear about. Or see. They said there was more than one.
Great. Just great. More than one. Two is more than one. So is three. So is a hundred.
I didn’t linger on my evening walk, that’s for sure.
Until next time, then.
! The suspense! What was it?!
Check out the post for September 8.
Well, I should have guessed that; but it did not seem like something that you were too unsettled about back then.
It’s way too scary to talk about. They’re way too scary to talk about.
Inquiring minds what to know…what was it that is making you unsettled, Mani?
Well, it’s the b word…
That’s what i was afraid of. I think one has been wondering close to our house lately too. Stay safe.
My evening walks are going to take place in daylight, until it gets much darker earlier.
The guy I live with said he might get some bagpipes and play them on my evening walks. He said everyone will love that, and marvel at his talent.
Well, Mani…so long as it keeps the b-word away, I’m sure he’ll be heralded as the neighborhood hero.
Being a purebred border collie, I tend to turn and follow people I meet on our walks. The guy I live with says not to do that, but following people is in my nature; they need to be herded, you know.
He said if we meet a little blonde girl to just keep walking, since her name might be Goldilocks. He said there was a story about her.
I suspect if he tried the bagpipes he’d probably pass out, and that would be no help.
I can guess what you are uneasy about, and I don’t blame you. But I’ll bet there are not a hundred, if that helps any.
After talking to a couple of neighbors, the guy I live with looked up the word “porridge”.
I mean he’d heard of porridge, but he wanted to know exactly what it was.
I didn’t want to know, but I overheard him say something on the phone about “a big one, a medium one, and a little one.”
Well, three’ll do. In fact, three is quite sufficient! Yikes.
I certainly think so. On our evening walk we met one of our neighbors who has a beehive.
The beehive was raided last night.
Due you mean B-E-A-R-S-S? Mani!?!?!?! EEEKKKKKKK!!!! Pleese bee carefull Okay? You two Mistur Guy. Wee due not want anything bad to happen. There has to bee sum Wildlife place that can TRANQ an reelocate THEE you-nose-whatss’!!! Wee glad you got a bit of rain. Yore Cyclamenss are so beeuteefull. Pleese stay safe an nose wee thinkin of youss’!
~~head rubss~~BellaDharma~~ an {{hugss}} BellaSita Mum
Thanks. Yes, there’s a big one, and medium one, and a little one.
Neighbors said they won’t relocate the bears until they try to get into someone’s house.
This isn’t a very big neighborhood but we’re in the northwest corner so most of the houses are east and south of us.
WHAAAAA??? They won’t reelocate THE 3 Bearss until they brake innto a house? An pawssibly hert sumone?? 2 legged or 4 legged?? Mani an Guy this iss reediculuss!!! Wee are furry angry on yore beehalf!! Pleese bee carefull. Wee nose youss’ love yore walkss… butt bee carefull….
The guy I live with says apparently not, but this is second- and third-hand information.
He also has a loud whistle, which he now carries on our evening walks.
Wee will continue to purray fore yore safety Mani an Guy. Guud you has THE Whistle. If needed (all tho’ wee nose you are Peece lovin) carry Bear Spray if needed, Safety ferst….
I think we’ll be okay.
The guy I live with said to Google “Greg Warren Bear Spray”.
Wee will check it out fore sure Mani an Guy!
Okay.
Mew mew mew what a wacky video Mani an Guy!! MOL/LOL!!!
The guy I live with thinks he’s really funny.
Mistur Greg iss purrty funny fore sure!!!
He is. Check out “I was a big deal in the peanut butter game.” It’s kind of long though.
haha those cormlets are money in the bank! Be careful out there. They’re not that unusual here, kids tell nice bus stop stories where they have to hide behind a car until the bus comes to scare them away.
The guy I live with says they are unusual here, but the drought in the mountains has caused them to come down to the foothills, and father east, to look for food.