time for a change

Posted on November 9, 2014 by paridevita

Greetings and salutations everyone; yes, once again it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, who is busy readying the garden for a change in the weather. You may remember me from such change-oriented posts as “A Change Of Pace” and “Change In The Weather”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristically pensive pose.14110904Well, things have been pretty much the same for a long time now, and the guy I live with says that things being the same is one of the ways to define sheer excellence, so long as the things are okay, and things have been okay. A turkey got smoked yesterday. This doesn’t happen very often. I got some; it was good. 14110903But now they say we’re going to get snow and a low of 9 degrees, which is minus 12.78 celsius, if you measure that way. That’s not really all that cold for us; I can still go for my walks and stuff, but we might not have all the doors and windows open for a while.

Some protective teepees were made to cover things that needed covering. They don’t really need covering, of course, but it makes the guy I live with feel better, you know, like he’s actually doing something, instead of just sitting here helplessly in the face of what he claims will be “awful weather”. IMG_2394_edited-1It isn’t all that unusual for it to get cold this early, though our serious cold usually happens right before Christmas, and when the guy I live with worked outside in telephone repair, that was the coldest time of all, and there was a lot of traffic on the icy streets, people doing last-minute shopping, which he says he doesn’t miss at all, though my mommy was at home, waiting for him, so I’m not sure that everything he says is all that true.

Like the business about Daylight Savings time. I still don’t get why my dinner has to be so late, since I know what the angle of the sun means, and my tummy clock is ticking. He says we go through this every year, but that doesn’t seem right to me.

The reason for the teepees is that he’s been waiting for the snowdrop, Galanthus reginae–olgae ‘Cambridge’, to flower, but it’s been growing very slowly. “Nothing is happening”, according to the guy I live with, but, in fact, a couple of weeks ago there wasn’t anything there, and he thought he’d misplaced the snowdrop, and was getting old and losing his mind, because he remembers everything, but couldn’t remember where the snowdrop was, which was unfortunate, since it was a gift.

But then one day he saw the green poking up. This is what it looked like today. 14110901The guy I live with says the snowdrop was named for Queen Olga of Greece, who was born in Russia, and who married George the First of Greece, who was born in Denmark. That’s almost as bad as the Daylight Savings business.

Anyway, this snowdrop is to snowdrops as autumn-flowering crocuses are to crocuses. It’ll get a teepee for sure.

While he was out in the side yard (the side yard that’s on the north side of the house, so, the shade garden) he noticed this. Another teepee will go here. 14110902The label says Galanthus elwesii, so he said this was variety monostictus, but he could be wrong.

You might well ask how this snowdrop went unnoticed when there has been a daily pilgrimage out to Queen Olga’s snowdrop, but it did.

Sometime things go unnoticed here. I’ve noticed that a lot, which is why I’ll leave you with a picture of me trying to be noticed. 14110905

 

Until next time, then.

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up on the rooftop

Posted on November 7, 2014 by paridevita

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 news from our garden. You may remember me from such posts as “Baffled Again”, and “Turkey Day”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristic, though rather be-leafed, pose. 14110701I was just lying here, minding my own business, when the guy I live with decided to clean out the gutters using his new electric leaf-blower, and, as you can see, leaves went everywhere, including on me.

Other than being covered with leaves, I’m feeling pretty good, and, in fact, have made it down the stairs from my bedroom four days in a row. The guy I live with was there in case I fell, but this is a big deal, considering that I had to be helped downstairs for several weeks. I’ve lost about eleven pounds, too.

So while the guy I live with was up on the roof, he thought it would be a brilliant idea to take some pictures of our back yard. I must say it was better that he had the idea while he was on the roof, rather than down on the ground, with the ladder put away. Here are the pictures.

This one is looking south-southwest. 14110703This one is looking west-northwest, sort of. The roof is in the lower right corner. 14110702Looking slightly north of due west, toward Mount Morrison. The green thing on the left is the “desert bamboo” (really a kind of privet), Fontanesia fortunei. It doesn’t have fall color, really. The cottonwood is out in the field, by the creek. And the patio cover that my mommy built. She measured and measured, and then cut, and then the guy I live with helped her lift it into place, with ropes and stuff, and it just dropped into place. 14110705A little later, looking more like due west. That’s Mount Falcon at the far right of the four peaks; 7851 ft high (2393 m). Behind the leafless honey locust, and the Austrian pine in our neighbor’s yard, is Mount Lindo, 7817 ft  high (2383 m). The peaks are about five miles away. You can also barely see cars on US Highway 285 in the middle of the picture (not the cars across the field there). We can always hear the sound of cars and trucks on the highway, but tune it out, mostly. 14110704Some pictures were taken when the guy I live with was on the ground, too, since the garden is changing some. They say it’s supposed to snow next week, which I think is pretty exciting.

I understand that a new rock garden will be made in the area to the left. That probably means a pile of pea gravel and sand, and not much else. The flagstone path looks a lot wider and longer now that the pinyon is gone. My mommy designed it. 14110706What you see if you walk to the end of the flagstone and look toward the shed. The path is just dirt. I like that kind the best. 14110707What you’d see if you turned your head to the right. And then took a picture, I mean. If the new fence looks slanted, well, um, that’s because it is. The guy I live with didn’t realize the new section was slanted until he was all finished, and then stood back and looked at it, and said “My goodness, it’s slanted.” Okay, those weren’t the real words he used, but you get the idea. My mommy, who built the arbor there, would have made him do the whole thing over. 14110708If you happened to come by the garden, and go through the fence on the north side, this is what you would see.

That’s the ‘Grace’ hybrid smoke bush showing color. Really, there are two of them. The guy I live with calls them “the two graces”, because he has such an inventive mind. 14110709And then the “way back”. The guy I live with has been fixing the fence my mommy built. That center section should get fixed tomorrow. I probably forgot to mention that this is the time of year when the guy I live with does stuff.

Regular purple smoke bush on the left. Those arching lines on the right are from the deer grass, Muhlenbergia rigens. 14110710Oh, I have a flower to show you. A crocus, again.

Crocus dispathaceus

Crocus dispathaceus

That’s all I have for today. I got some Brie earlier this afternoon, and that was excellent, even though I kind of doubt that it was “the most expensive Brie on the planet”. The guy I live with went out and got some epsom salts today, and he says I’m going to soak my sore toe in it. That’s what he says, anyway.14110301

 

Until next time, then.

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