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 the latest frigid news from our garden. You may remember me from such equally frigid posts as “A Cold, Cold Day”, among so many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. “Characteristically spoiled”, says the guy I live with, who thinks wanting another biscuit while a half-eaten one is lying on the floor is a bit much. This is really my Hopeful Pose. Charmingly Hopeful Pose. 
But of course it isn’t spoiled at all, is it?
Anyway, hardly anything is going on, so we’re only “semi-communicado”, according to the guy I live with. “Neologisms a specialty”, he says. Capricious logodaedaly, I say. I mean, really. Semi-communicado?
This is why, of course.
More air from Canada. It’s much colder than it looks out there, and so if it looks cold, just think much colder, and you might get the idea.
This cold.
Well, so what do we do when it’s this cold? We still go on walks, because they’re important to me, though my arthritic hind legs don’t let me go very far, but if the sidewalks were all shoveled I could walk pretty far on concrete (I slipped on the ice a couple of times, but I’m okay). They aren’t, so I don’t.
We mostly just kind of sit here. The DVD player is broken and the guy I live with is too lazy to get another one. He does check the irises from time to time. (Like, constantly.)
Here are some in the upstairs bedroom. This is Iris lortetii with some other species. 
That’s really it. He goes and checks the irises, then checks them again, and then takes a nap. I like that part; the afternoon nap. We do some other things, but they’re not that interesting, like running the vacuum (he does that), and thinking about stuff (I do that). But not much else.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 