making a mess

Posted on April 29, 2013 by paridevita

Few people can make a mess as quickly as I can. 042901

I decided to fill in the pool because during the summer it requires constant refilling with the hose, a pool in a dry garden looks silly, it was a breeding ground for mosquitoes, and it smelled terrible. The smell right now is something else. It’s on me, too.

After I drained most of the stinky black water with a bucket, I noticed a large garter snake lying in the water. It’s visible in the picture above, and also here, slithering under the butyl rubber lining.

042902

042901a

I lifted the poor thing out of the ice-cold water, and set it in the sun to warm up, but it went back in the water again, so I moved it further away. There are pans filled with water around the garden expressly for snakes.

I wanted to get this done before the next round of snow predicted for Wednesday. They (you know, “they”) predicted a low of 22 for Wednesday night, which would have been a record, but I notice they unpredicted that and now predict a low of 25. If this continues, maybe it won’t snow at all, and rain instead. Rain in spring; what a novelty.

I now have to get out the wheelbarrow, the tire on which is still flat (I understand that tires stay flat unless you do something about them), and fill in the pool with a pile of dirt I’ve been saving for just this situation, and then take five showers. Somehow it’s not surprising that I can’t find people to work in the garden here.

And there was this. Might be Tulipa montana; I can’t find the label but one thing I do know is that it’s red.

042903

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

let the whining begin

Posted on April 26, 2013 by paridevita

Hi there, it’s me again, Chess the border collie. Here I am standing in one of my favorite places, right in front of the refrigerator. There are biscuits in the cabinet next to the refrigerator, which is why I stand there. I know how to hint.

You can see that both I and the guy I live with have tracked dirt onto the 1970s kitchen floor. I say the floor doesn’t need to be replaced and a little dirt just adds class.

042601

The snow that fell the other day melted later that afternoon, and it got really muddy, so we tracked a lot of stuff into the house, which was fun. The weather has gotten nice and so the guy I live with has already started whining about the amount of work that needs to be done. What he did was move a heavy pot into the front yard, and that was all.

Mostly what he does is things like walk into the shed and then stand there for fifteen minutes trying to remember what it was that he wanted from the shed. Then he goes into the garage and stands there wondering why he’s in the garage. Sometimes he carries a trowel which makes him look really important and busy.

He got a shipment of beautifully grown plants from Beaver Creek Greenhouses and when he unwrapped all the plants the first thing he said was that he should have ordered more. What a whiner.

042602

Some of these plants are Pediocactus simpsonii, which the guy I live with already has, and a bunch of which he’s growing from seed, so I don’t know why he bought these, other than the fact that he’s kind of a nut. He even says they sell plants grown from seed right in the county where we live. What a nut.

I can see it’s going to be a long, long summer.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 8 Comments