Tomato Plant Gone Wild

I glanced out the patio door when I got home from the grocery around noon and was finishing up putting the food away and thought that the tomato plants closest to the house looked odd.  I took a closer squint at them and realized that the Sweet 100s cherry tomato plant had branches flopping toward the ground.  Once I got everything put away and got Durwood's meatloaves into the oven to bake for supper(s) (yum, meatloaf) I went out to tie them up.  I did that but realized that the whole plant, cage, and stakes were leaning over, threatening to uproot themselves, so I went back to the garage for the pounder, got another stake, and pounded it in on the left side of the bale, then used it to tie the whole shebang back upright.  I definitely need taller stakes and heavier trellis wire next year.

What do you do when you have a handful of Caribbean-bought clothes that you just don't wear and are in the midst of a sewing jag?  Why, you open up the side seams and use the fabric to make tunics and shirts in your new beloved patterns, that's what you do.  Or, rather, that's what I'm gonna do.  I am going to preserve the fringe on the bottom of the pink batik on the right.  How could I not?





Yesterday afternoon I got these black linen capris all sewn up except for the hems.  I still might put patch pockets on the sides but that's something I can easily do after the fact if I decide to.  I'll get the hems in later, probably after supper.

On Friday night, Sunday afternoon, and last night I worked on getting Sudoku Long Strip #1 to 64".  Friday night I measured what I had and put that red marker at 54" so it'd be easier to measure the last 10".  You can see I've got barely an inch left to go.  I think before I bind off and cut the yarn I'll bring the panels up and "dry fit" them together so I don't end up with an extra inch of strip or an inch not enough.  Pretty smart for an old broad, don't you think?


August 1--Adrienne Grandpierre-Deverzy,  Interior of the Studio of the Painter Abel de Pujol, her husband.  It was cold in the studio.  Chloe sat on the hard wooden crate with her frock down around her hips.  Out of the corner of her eye she saw Monsieur Paul's assistant, Etienne, shuffle through the wood box.  Oh please, she thought, please put some wood on the fire before I freeze.  It was all right for Monsieur Paul if the studio was chilly.  He wore a heavy canvas smock over his slacks and shirt and he was moving around looking at the canvas and her from every angle.  She was the one sitting perfectly still while half-undressed, feeling the draft from the stairs glide up her spine.

Seems like all of the curb and gutter guys are done with our street and feeder street.  They've been roaring up and down all day with dump trucks and a little bobcat thing (that looks like great fun to drive) filling in the edges with dirt and rocks, getting ready for the blacktoppers to come.  Now watch, it'll take two or three weeks for them to get around to us and in the meantime our tires, shocks, and struts will take a beating on the temporary surfaces.  A person would think that they'd get more done and quicker if they stuck to the job from start to finish.  Well, this person thinks that anyway.  I need to go water the coleus and snip off the ends so they bush out more, not that some of them aren't already extra-bushy, but I want the other plants to have a chance to shine.  Maybe I'll wait until the front of the house is in shade so I don't melt like I did when I fixed up the tomatoes... yeah, that's a good idea.
--Barbara