the miserable gardener

Hello 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 (and the house). You may remember me from such newsworthy posts as “Sprinkles” and “A Wet Afternoon”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristically weather-related pose. If you think I look pathetically sad, that’s because few creatures can look as sad as I can. Incidentally, you may wonder about the thing to the right of my fort. That’s an old-time heavy-duty wooden yardstick, labeled “Chas. H. Dauchy Co.”; that was a paint company in Troy, New York.

But back to me and my tribulations. The weather prediction for today was a “seventy percent chance of showers”. That sounded okay, but it thundered on my morning walk and so I had to hurry home, to get all snuggled into my fort. Nothing happened for a while, and then we got some showers.

The guy I live with explained that this is an election year, and that, since words tend to lose meaning at times like this, what you saw on the movie could possibly be defined as “showers”. I stayed in my fort, but the guy I live with collected about seven gallons of rain water for the house plants.

Yes, we do have house plants. Actually, a lot of them. Here’s one blooming right now, in the house.

Huernia oculata

The sky started to clear, and then it started to get cloudy again, and there were, yes, “showers”. This is what the “showers” looked like from my fort. (I didn’t make this movie, though.)

Eventually the “showers” stopped, and the guy I live with decided it was “high time to get a good hummingbird picture”. They fly away when they hear him turn on the camera, so this was about the best he could do. The light was “weird” again because it was all drippy outside. People like me know that the most practical place to be in weather like this is to stand in front of the refrigerator, in hopes that a biscuit might come my way. One did, after a while.

They (the same people who predicted “showers” for today) say it’s supposed to “dry out” for the upcoming holiday, so I better get out my water wings, huh. The guy I live with said all the rain was good for the autumn-flowering bulbs, to come later, but all I care about is less thunder, and more biscuits.

Until next time, then.

Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with even though I’m totally traumatized by the weather, and here to bring you the latest thundery news from our garden. You may remember me from such posts as  “Stormy Weather”, and “The Weather, Again”, among so many, many other such posts.

Here I am in a characteristic, but rare, pose. I know, “How can a pose be both characteristic and rare at the same time?” Well, it can be. “Characteristic” considering my life in general, but “rare” for this summer. I’m sitting out on the patio rug, in the sun (believe it or not), though the rug is soaking wet from yesterday’s rain. We purebred border collies are used to roughing it. This is me roughing it. Even though it looked like this at about two in the afternoon,it was still a beautiful day. This is a picture of part of the garden in the sun. The yellow deal is a bag for thistle seed, for the goldfinches. I think they think it’s weird, and we haven’t seen many hanging from it. Usually there are dozens of goldfinches, so maybe the old one should be fixed, if it can be fixed. About seven in the evening the light got all weird, because a storm was coming. You know those people who talk about the same thing over and over again, and you have a conversation with them, desperately hoping that their favorite subject won’t be brought up again, but it always is, no matter how much you try to avoid it; well, that’s what this summer has been like for me. Beautiful day, but not for the whole day. Someone just had to bring up that subject again. The guy I live with took some pictures in the weird light. We could hear thunder up in the mountains, so I sensibly stayed in my fort. They say you can get hit by lightning if you hear thunder, even though this was way up in the mountains, and echoed down the slopes and canyons. My fort was the best place to be.

the trough patio, kind of overgrown with catmint. seed frame in the middle.

sedum ‘Matrona’

the north border in the “way back”

The light got weirder.

looking toward the shed; the garden isn’t as messy as it looks

path in the rock garden

The guy I live with said rain was coming. See the streaks? I know where to be, in case that happens. The weird light went away, of course, and then this happened. For once, it didn’t matter that things didn’t look in focus. As you can see, I have a movie for you. If this were longer, it would definitely need popcorn. White cheddar popcorn for me, please. But served in my fort. There’s plenty of room for both me and a pile of white cheddar popcorn in my fort. I even get my dinner served to me there.

Anyway, the movie. I do know this is kind of weird, in keeping with today’s theme, but it wasn’t my idea.

Until next time, then.