Hello everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to tell you all about my day. You may remember me from such posts as “Cabin Fever”, among at least a few others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
It was really melty and drippy today, and I got to play out in the slushy snow and muddy mud, and that was fun. I went over to another neighbors’ house to introduce myself, took some naps, and played with my toys. The toys were left by the purebred border collie who lived here before me, and it was almost like he knew I would be needing all these toys. I like them a lot.
I also like chomping on the guy I live with, which is why he now calls me Mighty Bitey. I know I’m not supposed to be doing that, but when I see him, it seems like he’s one of those people who’s here just to be chomped. Maybe you know what I mean. His shoelaces come untied about once every minute, and that’s surely an invitation for me to pounce.
Stuff is happening. That’s about how I can sum it up. I don’t find it all that exciting, but he does, and so I’m going to talk about it now. He sowed some seeds of Titanopsis calcarea (you know, the plant that looks like a rock) a couple of days ago and look what’s happened. The seeds didn’t get as evenly sown as he thought, I guess. 
And bunches of agaves are coming up too. This picture was taken through the plastic of the “nanodome”, which is why it looks weird. The seeds come up in a couple of days. “Very gratifying” he says, and since I know I don’t like waiting for anything, I think I can sympathize. 
Out in the garden, there are some irises in flower. The first one is from a mountain in Iran. The guy I live with says we aren’t going there to collect seed, even though the climate, in parts anyway, is similar to this one. I was glad when I heard that. I don’t think I would be very good at collecting seed. The color, by the way, is a little off. He doesn’t know why the point-and-shoot camera does this, but it does.
Iris reticulata Kuh-e Abr
Iris hyrcana
There’s other stuff going on, but I wasn’t much interested in it. One thing that happened today was pretty interesting, though. 
The guy I live with said we might meet some time, not getting too close, but I’m not so sure. The guy I live with said that was either Pearl or Merle; he wasn’t sure. She was really angry that I was looking at her.
Oh, and see how scratched the sliding glass door is? That was done by the first border collie who lived here. He would get scared by thunder or fireworks, which I hear can be scary, and would scratch at the glass to get in. There’s no point in wondering why the door never got replaced. The guy I live with says it’s called “shabby genteel”, which sounds to me like an excuse for never having done something about it.
A friend came over to meet me, and I got lots of cuddles and attention, and when we all went outside, I ran around, and didn’t come when I was called, which, if you didn’t know, is what you do when you’re little.
It was actually kind of an exhausting day, and so at the end I found a chew stick and chewed on that for a while. That’s a new toy I got, there next to me. It has a squeaker at each end. Pretty deluxe. 
I’ll let you go now. I have much more chewing to do. 
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 