the miserable gardener

Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the reasonably large, yet not gigantically huge, purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to bring you a short, sentimental post. You may remember me from such posts as “Cabin Fever”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristic pose. I’m not really asleep; just pretending.I would have done a short post about how I met Norm, the coyote, today, on my morning walk, but the guy I live with didn’t have his camera, of course, and I was so excited about wanting to meet Norm (which the guy I live with said I couldn’t really do) that we had to cut the walk short so the guy I live with could recover from the strain.

I was on the north side of the canal, on the canal road, and Norm was on the south side. He didn’t like being looked at, at all, and walked away, and went down to where he came from, walking along on the other side of the fences. I could have met him there, but the guy I live with walked home too slowly, as usual.

Anyway that was the big thing today, me not getting to meet Norm, though we were very close to each other, only separated by the canal.

Of course, Norm was really wary of the guy I live with, who is, if you didn’t know, a super tough Hemingway kind of guy, scary if you’re a coyote, and so I was safe from any kind of coyote attack, because Norm was a little bigger than I am. (The guy I live with is enormous, and walks on two legs.) Norm’s friend Celeste is much smaller, according to the guy I live with. He says I might see her some time, but again not actually get to meet her.

Well, so, even though the guy I live with is super tough, he can also be extremely sentimental, which is why he said to do this post, because, even though after he retired he lost track of what day it is, he did know what day it was today, and thought a lot about his buddy, whom he lost, one year ago today. I’ve heard a lot about him, so I thought this sentimental post was a good idea, too. Sometimes it’s good to remember those we’ve lost, he said, and I think I agree.

Chess, with Ambrose

Until next time, then.

Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the somewhat small, yet not totally miniature, purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to bring you up to date on the news from our garden. You may remember me from such posts as “One Hundred Snowdrops”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristic pose.I realize it’s been a while since I posted, but that’s because it’s been “so horribly icy” that the guy I live with has been all discouraged and bent out of shape. Even though I got another excellent report card at Day Care, just like I did the week before that, he still complained about the ice. I didn’t. I guess I’m just excellent, and that’s all I can say about that.

I mostly did things like this while he complained about the ice.But as he keeps telling me, everything changes, and things have indeed changed here. The guy I live with remarked today that the garden was “mostly iceless”, and in fact, the last four walks have been the best, and least icy, in the last sixty-eight days. This is a sunset picture, as you can maybe tell. It’s been sunny and warm here since I last posted, even though the paths, and a lot of places on my walks, were treacherously icy. The guy I live with now has a pair of those ice trekker deals that fit on his shoes. His friend gave those to him. I didn’t get any, but that’s because of my totally superior coordination.

Here’s a picture taken from the back yard on a sunny morning. But now, almost all the snow, or what the guy I live with calls “the white horror”, is gone, and the garden is, in fact, mostly iceless. Things are still delightfully muddy, though. You may not believe this, what with me being a purebred border collie and all, but I do like a bit of mud, especially if I can track it into the house. It’s especially good to do it right after the carpet has been shampooed. Well, of course, to the guy I live with, none of this would mean anything at all, except maybe more complaining and sighing and moaning and groaning, but look what’s happened in just the last few days.

That’s a chunk of dirt in the picture above, by the way, and not….anything else.

Today is Valentine’s Day, of course, and his friend came over (the guy I live with said not to give her a velociraptor chomp, and so I tried not to). They went out for sushi, but not before he showed off his snowdrops to her. There isn’t anything that spells a relief from the clutches of winter like bunches of snowdrops. “Look”, he said, “snowdrops”. He’s pretty eloquent.

I got a “bully stick”, to chew on, and a new blanket for my downstairs fort.

These snowdrops here sowed themselves. Well, ants did the real work.And remember the “one hundred snowdrops” that were planted last fall? Here they are. Not all one hundred of them, of course, but some of them. The guy I live with said (yes, I know, I couldn’t believe my ears) that we had to be patient. There are also some things coming up from seed. The dasylirions, for instance.So that’s pretty much it. Mostly iceless, and snowdrops. Of course the guy I live with had to say something about the snowdrops being “later than usual”, but never mind that. I’ve been able to walk all the way down the creek path four times in a row now; that is, twice a day, and that’s the best thing of all.

I’ll let you go now, with another picture of me.

Until next time, then.