the miserable gardener

Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, back after a longish absence. You may remember me from such posts as “The Haunted Toaster”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristic pose.

Things, you know, like just things, have been pretty hectic around here lately, what with a letter to the estate attorney with a bank statement being stolen from our mail box, to more snow, to a mysterious gigantic black RV parked down the street, to a weird late-night phone call.

Not to mention that I now get to have the run of the house when the guy I live with leaves the house, which is pretty good, since I get to show off my fierce and deadly house-guarding prowess. The guy I live with said that Chess, the purebred border collie who lived here before me, was like “a total marshmallow”, but when someone walked up to the door, he transformed into the epitome of ferociousness and chomp-your-pants deadliness.

So that’s just excellent.

Anyway, the guy I live with went to the bank today, and the bank account number got changed, so that was a relief, and the mysterious RV (which he said looked like something out of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”, but sprayed-painted black) disappeared, so it wasn’t like the government checking up on how he was coping with all the melt-proof snow, which melted anyway, and now it’s warmed up enough that it isn’t freezing at night, and things are flowering. There are even snowdrops in flower, in April. That should be included in the weird stuff that’s been happening.

Oh, and the phone call. The guy I live with has been getting dozens of spam phone calls a day on his cell phone, but the other night the land line phone beside the bed upstairs rang, which it hardly ever does, and someone asked if he was the author of High and Dry. The guy I live with said it was midnight, which it was, and the person hung up. What a really bizarre thing. “It’s midnight” wasn’t an answer to the question, but we had just tucked ourselves into bed, and so it was a good enough answer.

Why someone would ask about a book that’s been out of print for ten years is something he didn’t know. He has certainly moved on from that.

In fact a new bulb frame is being constructed, out of “found lumber”. Wood that was lying around the yard and in the garage. Some of the wood is a bit warped but that doesn’t matter.

It snowed about a week ago and I got to look at ducks, on my walk.

The guy I live with said they were waiting for water to start flowing in the canal, but that hasn’t happened yet. I forget when this does happen, but it will be soon.

Speaking of water, it rained day before yesterday. The guy I live with said that three drops fell on the windshield as he drove home from being radiated. I guess three drops counts as rain.

And I had to check this out.

The guy I live with said this was called a hydrant. I thought the name of the manufacturer was pretty apropos.

It would be cool to have a hydrant in the back yard. Imagine the watering fun I could have.

Anyway, here are a couple of garden shots. Three, really. Not all of the pictures are in total focus, but the guy I live with says that makes them “artistic”. It’s a fine line, if you ask me.

There are kind of a lot of puschkinias in flower. But you see the pot there? I’m not sure I’ve ever talked about it before. It’s called an olla, and is really old. Say ninety years old. The guy I live with’s grampa had it in his garden in Los Angeles, and even though it’s flaked a bit from cold weather here, it’s still intact.

There’s a tiny little fritillary flowering, probably Fritillaria crassifolia. 

And the equally tiny Hyacinthella glabrescens, which is super blue. This flower is about an inch tall.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m sure more stuff will be happening later. I am fine not going to Day Care, because I get extra cuddles, two extra walks, and more food.
And I get to guard the house in true purebred border collie fashion.

Until next time, then.

Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today with some possibly spring-like thoughts. You may remember me from such seasonal posts as “The Terrors Of Spring”, and “Much More Springy”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristic pose. 

A couple of not-so-great things have happened recently; one was that we had a blizzard last week and so I didn’t get to go to Day Care and there was no radiation for the guy I live with, which means an extra day at the end, for him.

And after Day Care the other day, the veterinary technician took the guy I live with aside and said that I had been a bit too aggressive, herding the little puppies around, and that I had probably outgrown Day Care, so I won’t be going any more. It is Puppy Day Care, after all, and I’m no longer a puppy, as maybe you’ve noticed.

The guy I live with has told me many times that going to Day Care was kind of making up for me not having someone else in the house to cuddle me, but he also said that he and Chess, the purebred border collie who lived here before me, had a very good life together, even when Chess got sick, and so he saw no reason why we couldn’t have the same thing too, just without Day Care.

So that’s an abrupt change. I suppose we’ll deal with it like all the other changes have been dealt with here.
Anyway at least I’m not the one who has to go to their sixth appointment with a tax person. The guy I live with said there would probably be a couple more after that. He hasn’t said anything about it being fun.

Also, even though there’s still a little bit of snow on the ground, things have been happening in the garden. Some of these pictures are strangely focused.

Crocus alatavicus.

Galanthus ‘Wasp’.

Crocus korolkowii.

Crocus sieberi ‘Firefly’.

The little mugo pine, ‘Carsten’s Wintergold’ (or maybe just ‘Carstens’), is still golden, so it’s not like totally Spring here. 

Today it got cloudy and dark for a while, and I thought some geese were going to land in my yard. But they changed their minds and flew off to the south.

Then I went on my evening walk. I spent a lot of time hunting for voles. I didn’t find any, but it was fun to look, like it always is.

First I went into the creek bed to look. It was pretty sandy there, as you can see.  Those paw prints are not all mine, by the way. They weren’t made by dogs, either. 

Then I decided to hop back up into the grass. There were lots of tunnel entrances close to the creek bank.

So that’s the news from here. Not a whole lot, I know.

Until next time, then.