Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the somewhat small, though not completely miniature, and most improved purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to bring you up to date on the very latest news from our garden. You may remember me from such posts as “My Walk At Dusk”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
I know it’s been a while since I last posted, but that’s because it snowed again, and almost nothing has been happening. The sun goes down later every day; I guess that’s something.
My walks are pretty icy and you should hear the complaining at the other end of the leash. We even go a different way, which is weird, but I do get to look at different stuff.
Oh, well, I did get Most Improved on my Day Care report card last time, and I thought that was pretty impressive. It is, you know. 
The guy I live with said I couldn’t do a whole post just about that; there had to be something else “to draw the readers’ interest”, but, really, what could be more interesting than being Most Improved? I couldn’t think of anything, but the guy I live with said that I ought to. So I did.
The guy I live with then pointed out that if I was at zero, and advanced to one, that that could be considered Most Improved even if the goal was a hundred. I had to admit that was true, but that it could have been left unsaid. Like so many things.
But, being all improved and everything, I felt that I should return to my duties as squirrel watcher. There are numerous things to being guarded against and patrolled for, and squirrels are just one of many. The fence, which the guy I live with says is “hideous”, was put up because I kept standing on the troughs there. It was so I could get closer to the squirrels, of course. 
Sometimes I try to fool the squirrels by looking at them from a different place in the garden.
You can see here that another bird feeder was put up today. It was just sitting in the shed, being un-put-up and unfilled, and so today both those conditions changed. That’s a dove there, on the new, well, not really new, but newly put-up, feeder. 
As you may surmise, the one with just the baffle can still be easily sat on, by sliding down the hanger deal, and then just sort of sitting on top of the baffle (I mean if you were a squirrel, which I know you aren’t, but try to picture it), and kind of shaking the baffle. The feeder swings a bit, and tilts and all, and seed falls out, and then the squirrels can get the seed. Which is reprehensible.
That’s where the need for a guard dog, preferably of course a purebred border collie, comes in. I’m not sure why I have to remind the guy I live with how lucky he is to have someone as alert as I am just sitting there looking at stuff, but he is. 
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 