Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to bring you up to date on all my trials and tribulations, as well as talk a bit about gardening. You may remember me from such posts as “Under The Weather”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose, enjoying the sun, before the weather changed.
Since I feel like talking about myself first, as some of you know I went to see the doctor the other day, on what was supposed to be a routine exam, but I wound up getting stuck with needles, even though the guy I live with promised me I wouldn’t be. He said he was sorry.
It turns out I have anemia, and I had to go back today and get stuck with needles again, which I thought was excessive. My doctor thinks this might be something which can be controlled with medication.
Here I am looking slightly anemic.
The guy I live with claims not to be terribly worried about me, but then, he wasn’t the one who got stuck with needles two days in a row, now, was he?
The weather, as I say, has changed. Two days ago it was all sunny and stuff. The paths were really icy, though, as you can see.
all sunny
There was even a snowdrop flowering.
I liked the weather pretty much. 
The guy I live with spent some time on the phone, which he hardly ever does, since he “spent thirty years talking on the phone”, and I could hear him say “No, not rare pants, rare plants“. I thought that was pretty funny. Rare pants.
It reminded me of a totally excellent movie, The Wrong Trousers, which if you haven’t seen, you ought to. But “rare pants” was really good.
Well, anyway, the weather changed. The guy I live with says “things change”, and he says that all the time. “Things change; things change.” That never changes. He hardly ever changes his rare pants, either. Sorry, I had to say that. 
Oh, the irises are still alive. Here’s an out-of-focus picture to prove it. The guy I live with looks at them all the time, and mists them once in a while. Some of them start to grow with their roots in the air, which I guess is dumb, and they have to be gently replanted. Some of the irises have four leaves now. 
There’s not much else going on here. It’s winter, and we don’t do much in winter. Sometimes we wait for it to end, and then sometimes we just “experience it”, which isn’t as interesting as it sounds.
And sometimes we just hang around the house, doing nothing.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 