Tiny Tomatoes

This afternoon I went out into the garden to beat back the mint that was encroaching on the bales.  I pulled and tugged, uprooting it and filling my basket with it to be thrown away.  Now the cucumbers can breathe and the parsley and tomatoes aren't overshadowed by mint.  It's not perfectly weed free but the cucumber plants don't have anything but the trellis to hold onto.  Besides it started drizzling while I was weeding out the mint so I cleared it out and came in.



There are two tiny tomatoes!  They're about the size of my fingernail but pretty soon they'll get bigger and start turning red.  There are lots of flowers on there so I should have a good harvest.







Lots of the Stella d'Oro lilies are blooming.  I love the way they look and the bright yellow gold color of the flowers.







Only one hawk showed up today.  It was sitting on the top of one of the trellises and looked very interested when I went out to take its picture but it didn't fly away.




I went to ALDI today for a few items and picked up a 3-pack of bell peppers that I diced up, froze on a tray, and bagged for future use.  It's so handy to have a quart of them in the freezer ready to be added to recipes.  I don't dice them as small as Durwood did but they're small enough for me.  I'm just not as precise a chopper as he was.

22 June--Barbara Malcolm, Tropical Obsession. 

About halfway down, the steps took a right turn to cling to the cliff face and there was a small landing where there was enough room for people to pass each other or to stand and catch their breath on the long, hot climb.  Sam had been making Maxi laugh on the drive up from the bungalow by telling her that he was certain that there could not possibly be one thousand steps down to the dive site, so he was counting the steps.  Maxi had her head down and was slightly hunched forward to balance the heavy, awkward tank on her back.  When she reached the landing, she turned to look back at Sam and that was when she saw what she thought was a snorkeler in the water below them. 

“Look, Sam, there is a guy down there snorkeling in a shirt, shorts, and sandals.” 

Sam came down the last couple of steps to stand beside his wife and he looked down, anxious to get down there himself and cool off. 

“Look at all the fish around him, honey,” Maxi said.  “Do you think he is feeding them?” 

Sam lifted his mask with its corrective lenses to his eyes and peered down at the floating man.  “Uh, Max, I do not think that guy is snorkeling.”  He put out his hand and turned his wife away from the ocean.  “I think we need to call the police or the rescue squad.” 

She started to turn back to look again but Sam held her tightly.  “Do you mean…?”  Her eyes widened in horror. 

He nodded. 

Before he could answer she had pushed past him and climbed up so fast she was almost to the top by the time he moved his feet.  “Come on, Sam, haul ass up here and let’s go get help.”

By the time Sam’s head cleared the top step and he could see across the road, Maxi had already shed her scuba unit and had unzipped and begun to take off her wetsuit.

 “Come on,” she said, “what is taking you so long?” 

A thought struck him as he crossed the road.  “Do you think one of us should stay with the body?” 

She shook her head.  “Uh-uh.  No way am I going in there with a dead body.  I mean, I like seeing sharks and barracuda but not when they are eating the guy next to me.  No way.  We are both going.  Saddle up.”  As she was talking, she was stripping Sam of his scuba gear and wetsuit. 

He was amazed at her strength and the speed with which she moved.  It seemed to him that she had planned every move during the minute it had taken her to climb back up.  Before he could protest, she had pulled his weights out of the pockets of his vest and tossed them into the truck bed.  Then she twirled him around and slid his buoyancy control vest off his shoulders, tank and all, and then turned and laid it gently into the tank rack next to hers.  He was fumbling with the Velcro at the top of his wetsuit zipper when she pushed his hand aside and unzipped it for him. 

She made shooing motions to get him to strip off the suit quickly.  “Come on, slowpoke,” she prodded, pulling the truck keys out of the dry box she wore on a cord around her neck.  “You want me to drive?” 

He nodded, surprised because she had been reluctant to drive on the narrow island roads since their rental truck had a standard transmission.  Today, however, it appeared that getting help overcame her lack of confidence. 

She slid into the driver’s seat and turned to him.  “Didn’t you say that there is some sort of oil depot or tank farm up ahead?” 

He pulled the map out of the glove compartment and unfolded it while she backed out and jammed the truck into gear.  “Yeah, here it is.”  He held the map toward her then he realized that she was concentrating on the road ahead.  “Just go straight and keep to the shore road when you come to an intersection.” 

“Got it.” 

            Later Sam thought it was a good thing that no big trucks or any vehicle at all was coming toward them that day.  Maxi cut every corner and slid through every intersection in her headlong dash to report finding the body.  Sam was certain that she took the turn into the BOPEC Petroleum property on two wheels.

I got the oil changed in the car today and, of course, he found that the transmission line is leaking a bit so it needs a new line.  I have an appointment on Thursday.  Today's toss was a food dehydrator and two boxes of additional trays.  When I pulled them out I saw another dehydrator behind it.  Why did we have two of those?  I do not know, but after tomorrow I will have none.  The second one will be tomorrow's toss.
--Barbara