The Gnawed Tomato

Hm, that sounds like a band name but it's really the pitiful state of my tomato and its brethren. I don't know how the plant is still alive, there's hardly any green leaves left. I go out and water it every day or every other day and it's hanging on. It looks like the chipmunk is coming back for additional bites but I left that gnawed tomato there purposely to maybe keep the other sad little tomatoes from being eaten before I get the chance.

There's only one orange day lily still blooming. It was so hot today--90 degrees with 80% humidity--that I'm surprised the flower didn't just flop over and give up. I would have. The bad thing was it was the first day of school so I don't know how the kids whose schools aren't air conditioned managed. Fingers crossed all of them have a/c.

Right next to the day lily the sedum flowers are starting to bloom. I love the tiny pink flowers against the pale green of the plant. I'm not a pink fan but even I have to admit that these flowers are pretty.

I girded my loins or maybe I rustled up my guts and tackled the next painting in Ink & Wash Florals. It's cosmos and daisies. Once again I took my time and sketched a couple thumbnails like the author recommends, then transferred the best one onto the watercolor paper, outlined it in archival ink, and started painting. It isn't too bad. Pink again but tinged with blue (another color I'm not overly fond of) however I like the way it turned out.

This afternoon I worked more on a scene I started the other day and added some good stuff. When I was getting ready to wrap it up for the day I checked my total word count and I was just over 200 words short of 45k. So I stretched out the scene and ended up at exactly 45,000 words. I know you can't see it but it says that in the lower left corner of the screen. Now I only need about 40,000 more words (35k at the minimum) to have a whole novel. Good thing I know a lot of words and some of them I'll use more than once.

 

Tonight after supper I sat down and worked on the One Skein Hat. I'd gotten to the crown decreases at Friday Night Knitting so I thought I'd keep going since it goes fast once you hit those. I'll probably finish the hat tomorrow night and then go back to working on the Zauber Crazy Sock on which I've been avoiding knitting the gusset (my least favorite sock part).

 

This morning I had a writing zoom with cda and LL. cda's been sick with West Nile Virus and hasn't had the energy or the motivation to write or critique for a few weeks but it was good to see her upright again. She's slowly getting better. I got a lot of good comments and a few interesting ideas from LL and hope I did the same for her. I'm so unsure of my critiques; I hope I'm not a disappointment.

I've got one more bowl of Easy Egg Drop Soup left to eat so I went downstairs and hauled up one each of the recipes I made over the weekend so they can thaw until they're needed. I thought I'd have another BLT when the soup runs out to give the portions thawing time. That's my rational anyway.

Mercy me, it's hot and muggy. I hope it doesn't stay long.

--Barbara