the miserable gardener

Greetings and salutations everyone; yes, once again it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, feeling quite fine thank you, and here to bring you the latest news from the garden. And maybe something more. You may remember me from such posts as “On A Rampage” and “Stinker’s Revenge”, among others.

Here I am in an uncharacteristically serious pose. Not quite in focus, I know, but I didn’t want my picture taken. I wanted a biscuit. (I got one, of course.)

Everything checked out fine, as far as I’m concerned anyway. I had a moment of terror around midnight last night, because there was a mouse caught in the Tin Cat downstairs in the kitchen. The guy I live with went downstairs to let the mouse out, into the garage, and there were three mice in the Tin Cat. Talk about scary. They make a lot of noise when they get trapped in the Tin Cat.

The guy I live with spent most of the day putting up another section of fence, and so not much actual gardening was done today. We went on our walks, but didn’t take our usual afternoon nap, so the guy I live with says he might take two naps tomorrow.

He did notice this crocus, which he says is Crocus kotschyanus HKEP 9317, and it’s supposed to be exciting. We can all be excited for him, I guess.

Well, that would be it for today, but the guy I live with suggested that I could make the post interesting (like he would know how, huh) by including some older pictures. When I realized he meant pictures of me, though, I knew he was on to something.

This is the view from the farm where I was born. That’s Pikes Peak. (You don’t use an apostrophe with Pikes any more, for reasons I don’t understand, or, really, care about.) I was in the car, sitting on my mommy’s lap, when the guy I live with suggested she take this picture. A few miles down the road I threw up all over my mommy. The guy I live with thought it was hysterical, because my buddy Slipper did the same thing a couple of years earlier.

Backing up just a little, here I am on the farm. I’m the one who looks alert.

Here I am again, on the left.

Here I am several months later. I think you can tell it’s me.

Here’s my buddy Slipper looking at the turtle my mommy and the guy I live with used to have.

Here he is eating raspberries. My mommy taught both of us to pick our own raspberries.

Here are some colchicums.

This is Aquilegia glandulosa. The guy I live with says the flower is four inches (10 cm) across.

Now some more of my mommy’s watercolors. Columbines, of course. (Just the details, not the whole drawings.)

Now some pictures of the cabinet where my mommy kept stuff she collected. I think it helps tell what kind of a person she was, besides someone who loved me. You can tell she liked bugs, too.

We don’t go down into this room very much any more. I sometimes go down there when it’s thundering, or when it gets really hot, but otherwise, everything just gathers dust. The guy I live with said he might vacuum down there some time.

Well, I hope you enjoyed all these pictures. Thanks to everyone who expressed their concern over me. I think I’m just fine now.

Until next time then.