more little things

Posted on August 30, 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 tell you all about my day in the garden. You may remember me from such posts as “Little Red Elephants” and “Revenge Of The Rodents”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristic pose. Notice that I’m outside, for once. 14083009It was mostly a nice day today; I got to go on my walks without hearing thunder, and didn’t get struck by lightning.

The guy I live with did some gardening today, while I watched from the patio. I don’t do much gardening myself, though I do help with fertilizing, sometimes. Only one really strange thing happened, and that was when some small branches from the “thornless” honey locust were lopped off. 14083011 14083010The honey locust was here when my mommy and the guy I live with moved into the house in December, 1985. It’s never had thorns before. I think the thorns are because the guy I live with has been watching The Twilight Zone a lot.

I’m supposed to show more pictures. Here’s a picture of the main sand pile, just to show we do have flowers in the garden.(If you embiggen the picture, which was taken with the zoom lens, you might be able to see some flowers ….)14083005I know I’ve shown pictures of the Sphaeralcea ‘Desert Sunset’ many times before, but here are some more. It comes in different colors.14083014

14083013Ipomopsis (or Gilia) rubra again.14083015Agastache rupestris.14083017 14083016The first flower on Cyclamen confusum (or Cyclamen hederifolium var. confusum, or just plain hederifolium.) 14083012We had a visitor today, later in the afternoon, and the guy I live with was able to get some pictures, in varying degrees of focus. He was able to creep up on the visitor; I’m not sure why. I also don’t know how he could see it in the first place, what with his eyesight and all. 14083008

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14083003That’s really all I have for today. I’m grateful that it was a nice day, and got to lie out on the patio rug for hours. I did have to get up early this morning, about nine o’clock, so lying out on the patio made up for that. I also got brushed, which was nice. 14083001

 

Until next time, then.

 

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chance of showers

Posted on August 28, 2014 by paridevita

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. 14082803Incidentally, 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

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. 14082801People 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.14082804

 

Until next time, then.

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