Arrrgh!!!

I have harvested my first tomatoes of the season! I thought I'd get the jump on the chipmunks and deer and bunnies and pick the very few tomatoes that were ready to eat. I have three yellow pear tomatoes, the tiny ones, a cherry tomato, and what I think may be a "Celebrity" tomato.

The chipmunks planted tomato seeds in the gardens at the sidewalk leading to the front door. The seed was in seventh heaven, because that's one of the areas that has full sunlight, and it gets water regularly from roof run off, and overlap from watering the containers. It turns out there are two cherry tomato plants. They exploded with growth when the heat arrived and were growing across the sidewalk. Our guests had to hop over them. I should have corralled them sooner, but didn't have anything to use. Dear Husband clipped apart an old trellis and we slid it under them and propped them up. It could look better, but the plants seem to be thriving.

When I weeded across the front of the house, to see if the Russian Blue sage was still there, I discovered more tomato plants, and left them. We'll see if there will be tomatoes to harvest, there, too.

I'm looking forward to ripe homegrown tomatoes in "Summer" salad, and "Farmer's Tomato Pie!"

Visit the May 13, 2003 archives for the recipe for Farmer's Tomato Pie. "Summer" salad is diced tomatoes or thin tomato wedges, with cucumber slices and sliced green onions, with dill, in a vinaigrette. You can add other veggies, or omit those you don't care for to personalize the recipe.

I MUST get into the habit of taking before and after pictures!

Frankie worked with me in the herb garden for an hour and a half yesterday, when it was deliciously cool in the early morning. I looked out over the garden this morning, and to the side there are three huge piles of herbs and brush waiting to be picked up, and a wheel barrow that is filled to the brim, waiting to be sent to the north 40. There's also a new pile of mulch that needs to be distributed, but I'll have to wait until the guys empty the wheelbarrow for me.

We cut back the chives, feverfew, lemon balm, the flower stalks of the lamb's ears, and a good portion of the oregano. I decided to take the oregano down to the crown, and in the process came across a bunny nest. Something moved. Oooops...... I left some of the oregano around it to shade it. I hope....well, never mind. Enough said.

I also cut back spent stalks on the salvia, at Frankie's suggestion. There are new starts coming up in the center of the plant, and Frankie tells me that there will be a flush of new growth now.

I have a rudbekia "Goldsturm" in the herb garden, and one more in a tiny area to the left of the back door to the garage. Catnip was trying to overgrow the one by the garage, so I pulled out all that catnip. It has spread to virtually all the gardens, so I don't have to worry about running out of it. Besides, with Ed gone, I don't need a lot of catnip right now.

I was startled to find that the chives were already growing back today! What an amazing plant!

Friday we had unexpectedly heavy rain. Frankie was woken by the sound of the rain on the roof, which is a pretty rare occurrence in this house. It's structured in a way that there's a lot of air space between the roof and the ceilings in most of the rooms, but the two "barrel" bump outs at the front of the house and the skylights can be pretty noisy in really hard rains. When we were out and about on Saturday morning, we found lots of streets that were closed due to flooding. I understand that some of the expressways in Chicago were closed for a bit.

I was delighted to have the rain. We were getting a little desperate, and I had begun watering with a hand-held watering wand. I was going to have to shift to a sprinkler, not my favorite thing to do. I had just planted cosmos and cleome in the gardens at the front of the house. I suspect that all that seed is now lodged at the front of the bed, and I'll get a line of plants right at the sidewalk! Still, I am glad we had rain.

My sister, Frankie, of Just My Opinion, has been visiting with me this weekend. We went to a birthday brunch for our most special sister: My-Sister-The-Nurse, visited with Elegante Mother, went to the French Market for flowers and veggies, and came home to Frankie's pasta salad for dinner on Saturday.

Sunday morning, we went out to garden early in the morning, and spent about an hour and a half putting the herb garden into shape for the remainder of the summer. We came in for breakfast and to clean up, and then worked through the middle of the afternoon to finish the Log Cabin quilt top that we started a year ago. It's based on one of Eleanor Burn's "Quilt in a Day" books. If we had been able to work for one entire day, we might have actually completed it in a day, but we've been working two hours one month, and two another. We have officially finished the top! YEA!!! It will be sent off to my favorite machine quilter so that Frankie will get to use this quilt this season!

That left us a little time to hit the shops for clothes for Frankie's first day back at school, and preparation of dinner for five: Dear Husband, Stepson #2 and his girlfriend, and the two of us. We took advantage of summer veggies and had fresh green beans, and a "Summer Salad" (tomatoes, green onions, and cucumbers in a vinaigrette with LOTS of dill!), and crimini mushrooms. We rounded out the meal with a flank steak, baked potatoes and sweet potatoes, sliced tomatoes for those who don't eat the Summer Salad, and watermelon.

We gathered in the living room to veg out for the evening, and I turned on the TV.
"Leverage" is a show that I enjoy, and Frankie had never seen it. We watched two episodes and chatted about Round Robin quilts, and whether we wanted to do one within our family.

Frankie has to be on her way this morning. I'll really miss the early morning visits. We both head for our personal choice of caffeine and something to read while we rise up into our daytime personae. Sometimes we check e-mail, sometimes we sit and chat. But once the coffee or tea has had the chance to do it's work, we are off and running. We both have found that it's more fun to garden when you have company. It's not just the idea that many hands make work light, though that IS important, but sometimes it's just the fact that you have company and that your endeavor doesn't have to be solitary. I need to go visit her this fall and help her with her gardens. Turn about is fair play, and I really owe her the help!

So, in a few moments, we will be parting and starting our days, separately once again. It has been a lot of fun to have these days together!