Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to bring you up to date on the news from our smoky garden, and some other stuff as well. You may remember me from such posts as “The Night Rain”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. 
This is mostly what we do, if you didn’t know. It’s a busy life, with a lot of responsibilities.
It’s gotten cooler, finally, so the fan you see in the picture above has been retired, at least for a while. Maybe until next year.
We still have the fan in the bedroom window, though last night it wasn’t on, because of all the smoke coming in the bedroom.
Last night, on our walk, there was ash falling. It was almost like snow. Not as bad as on the west coast, though.
The night before, on our walk, we had to turn around, because of a striped encounter.
This is a pretty spooky part of our walk, anyway; the land on the right falls away to the creek (the same creek as the one behind our house), with trees and a whole lot of underbrush, and sometimes loud rustling noises there, so turning around was okay, and it made the walk longer.
There are more things in flower now than there were. I’m supposed to post a picture of the white colchicums (Colchicum speciosum ‘Album’) because they’re been in flower longer than any other colchicums here.
There are some salvias flowering in the side yard (Salvia greggii). 
I think there’s a vegetable garden on the other side of the fence and sometimes water from the sprinkler comes through the fence, which helps the flowering. Otherwise they just sit there doing nothing, like the one near the watering can. They don’t die, but they don’t flower.
Rain from the Mexican monsoon triggers the flowering, which coincides with hummingbirds migrating to the south. The hummingbirds selected red-flowered plants, so that’s mostly what there are, though in the horticulture trade you can find white, pale yellow, pink, and purple.
There are cyclamen, too. This is Cyclamen coum, which doesn’t flower at this time of year. It makes leaves now, that overwinter. 
And the cow pen daisies, Verbesina encelioides, are flowering, but they would like a little more water than they get here.
You can also see someone trying not to be seen.
The bare area on the left is where the backhoe came through, when the sewer drain was replaced.
Nothing really got done there this year. I guess that’s obvious.
The guy I live with said that he was going to order seeds of native annuals and grasses to sow there, though it’s not always easy to get plants from sowing seeds directly into the ground, because there are mice and birds that like the seeds, too. But it’s worth a try, he said.
There were supposed to be hundreds of California poppies in the front yard but either not many germinated or it was just too dry for them.
And Sternbergia lutea. This isn’t always easy to get to flower here, because it likes to be rained on, too, in order to start flowering. Maybe the snow helped, though the guy I live been has been watering, some, as well.
Oh, and the other thing. The title of my post. The guy I live with and his wife loved both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, like most normal people, and he used to read it to her, doing the characters in different voices, but this isn’t about that.
This is about going to the store.
Now, last year, say, he would have just gone to the store. But this year, things are different. He kept saying he was going to the store, and then put it off for another day. He doesn’t usually put things off, but he said he couldn’t think of anything to have to dinner. That was a pretty big deal because he likes to cook. A lot. Though cooking for one is not always easy.
Yesterday he went to the store. It was just a regular trip, like always, but it was only the second time he had been to the store since March. Naturally, he didn’t get “enough food” and is now talking about going again, but the moral of this is, I mean if there even is one, is that he made a really big deal out of something ordinary.
He said we’re not living in ordinary times.
The guy I live with made some Korean pickles, with the cucumbers, onion, and jalapenos he got at the store.
He usually gets these at H Mart, which is a pretty long way away from here, but he thought he’d try making these himself, to have something to do. And of course eat.
Well, so, anyway, that’s what’s been happening here. Not much of anything, but a little excitement here and there. Like this:
I’ll leave you with a picture of me walking near a very familiar garden.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 