On a lighter note

I think it's finally time to get a bunch of ripe tomatoes from the garden. It looked that way before I went to work yesterday, but Mr W and I didn't come home for good until about 7:15, and it was dusk by then. So I'll head out this morning before work with my scissors and basket and see how many there are to be had.

It's been a long time coming! Tomatoes around town largely got wiped out last year in a series of hail storms, and this year have been slow to ripen. We yearn for a good tomato! I felt so optimistic about my chances of canning some of my tomatoes that I bought more canning jars yesterday.

I put two of my tomatoes in cages and one around a metal spiral this year, and will not do any of that again. The spiral is worthless, although visually interesting, and the cages don't really do the job either. I think I will do larger tubes of some kind of large-holed mesh that are sturdier. I look forward to that time after Christmas when people start feeling the urge to start planning their gardens again.

And if I get the urge to grow this many tomato plants again, will someone remind me please how much room things take up when they get mature? Things are very crowded out there!

In the meantime, I've got house stuff to do. My gutters need to be cleaned out before it gets cold, and I have vowed to myself that I will finish painting the trim on the house, as well as paint the front porch this fall yet.

Maybe it will happen Sunday, as Mr W and I are going to leave Saturday morning to take the campervan out for the night. If I'm going to be paying for the van I need to use it, not let it sit in the driveway. It's relatively easy to throw our stuff in and go for a night, and that's exactly what I need it to be.