below normal

Greetings and salutations everyone; once again it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, here to amaze and delight you as only a purebred border collie can. You may remember me from such wonderful posts as “Gray Day, With Drays” and “The Worst Laid Plans”, among so many others.

Here I am in a characteristically horticultural pose. I’m out in the garden, as you can see.

me

me

Before I talk about what’s been going on, which is hardly anything anyway, how about another picture of me? I say why not. This is me inspecting things in the garden. You know, things that need inspecting. What you see there is what the guy I live with says is a lawn. The thing is, he wanted to grow a bunch of native grasses, and couldn’t figure out where to grow them except all together where the regular lawn was, and so he ripped that out and put these grasses in, but he still calls it a lawn. I don’t really get it.

me again

me again

Whatever, huh. He did decide to order, and then eventually actually did order, some feeder things for the rodents. He says that might a good way of keeping them out of other stuff, but I think what’s really going to happen is that they’ll have their feeders and still do all the other stuff.

rodent

rodent

A funny thing happened today. I better back up first and say that today was a really beautiful day, the way days can be here at this time of year, but they (you know, “they”) say that snow and cold is coming for the rest of the week, and it’ll be so cold there won’t be any degrees at all here. I think this sounds completely excellent, though the guy I live with doesn’t enjoy going on walks with me when there’s blowing snow and no degrees as much as maybe I’d like him to. “It’s just not the frolic you think it is”, he said to me earlier today, when I was getting all excited about the weather.

So it’s going to get cold., and we’ll be below normal for the foreseeable future. Temperature-wise, I mean. We’re getting ready for it in the usual way. (He’s complaining.) And so today, keeping in mind that it’s going to get really cold and snowy for the rest of the week, which maybe I already said, look what came in the mail. I mean, really, look at this.

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If you’re thinking that this is a watering can, you’re right. See, the guy I live with was feeling sorry for himself (like that’s something new, right?) and he ordered this fancy Haws watering can this past summer, and it was back ordered from England, where they make these, and it finally showed up today. He had forgotten all about it, but he remembers it now, since it’s here.

Surely, you may be thinking to yourself, he must already have a watering can. Indeed he does. The guy I live with has this watering can

watering can

watering can

and this watering can (also a Haws)

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as well as his Slovakian watering can, which is for the rock garden, and a leaking watering can, and a little watering can for indoors. In fact, two indoor watering cans.  A lot of watering cans.

I can’t explain it. Maybe there is no explanation. The guy I live with has a new watering can.

Okay, let’s see….pictures of me….rodents…..getting cold…..watering can…..oh, I know. The titanopsis. It’s about to bloom. Right when it’s going to get really cold. I think that’s pretty dumb for a plant, but what do I know.

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You can see where someone has nibbled on a leaf or two. I forgot to say this is Titanopsis calcarea. I’ll do that now. It’s Titanopsis calcarea. Here’s a better shot of plants that have flower buds, and you can even see the color. Somebody’s been eating these a little, too. Not me, for sure.

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Now that really is all. It’s going to get really cold and snowy, we’ll be going on walks in it, and then at night I’ll be tucked in under the covers, sleeping on my soft Pottery Barn sheets.

I’ll say goodbye now, and make this post really excellent by ending it with another picture of me. I got really close to the guy I live with when he was trying to take my picture, which I like to do. You can see the funny little ridge of hair on what I guess is my forehead, that my mommy used to make fun of, but she liked me a lot. Partly because if the funny ridge, I think. It’s very distinguished looking if you ask me.

another picture of me

another picture of me

Until next time, then.

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home alone once again

Greetings and salutations, everyone; once again it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, here to tell you all about my day. You may remember me from such entertaining and informative posts as “The Sand Man” and “A Day At The Opera”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristically sad pose.

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Have you ever seen anyone look so sad? So pathetically sad? So sad it redefines the definition of the word “sad”?

Well, the guy I live with left me alone today, so that he could go to Denver Botanic Gardens all by himself. To give him some credit, he’s never done that before, and it is right before the holidays and stuff, but he wanted to see if he could do it, and he did. I stayed at home and guarded the house, and made sure the carpet was level. I can do both things at the same time.

This is right by the entrance. (I’m supposed to say these are really large files and you can embiggen them if you click on them. He and my mommy watched The Simpsons at every opportunity. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know that already.)

Yucca faxoniana and Y. thompsoniana, and Hesperaloe funifera

Yucca faxoniana and Y. thompsoniana, and Hesperaloe funifera

Yucca rostrata

Yucca rostrata

He went over to the “dryland mesa” after that.

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The guy I live with said he was particularly “intrigued” by these next two opuntias, both of which were labeled “Opuntia sp.” He says to say that “sp.” is pronounced “spuh”, if you didn’t know. That’s the way he and my mommy pronounced it, because they thought it was funny. Lots of people have no sense of humor, but they did. The opuntias are particularly blue, with tints of purple in the winter.

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112902Then more purple pads.

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Another Yucca faxoniana.

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And maybe a Yucca elata.

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Then to the Rock Alpine Garden.

crevice garden

crevice garden

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Then he came home (he said he was only gone two and a half hours, but it seemed like three hundred), we took a nap, got up, I had my dinner, and we went on our walk.

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me turning around on the path

me turning around on the path

And that was our day. It turned out okay after all.

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The guy I live with says he hopes you enjoyed this little trip to DBG, even though I wasn’t there to make it really great.

Until next time, then.

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