Stuck Between Seasons

This heat should break, finally, by Thursday. The forecast high for tomorrow is 89 but only 67 on Friday. Hallelujah.

I pulled up the tomatillo plants yesterday. I think they would produce as long as the weather holds, but I have to call a halt at some point. There is one winter squash plant with aspirations toward world domination, and it grew itself right through the middle of the tomatillo patch. I had to surgically excise some of the tomatillo plants. Now the winter squash has (more) room to spread.

I put six gallon zip bags of tomatillos into the freezer for later processing. This is the first year I’ve grown them, so I don’t know if that will be too few, too many, or just enough. We’ll find out. They were a delightful addition to the garden. Thank you, Sarah, for sharing your seedlings with me! I will do tomatillos again next year for sure.

I hauled in another wagon load of tomatoes yesterday morning. Some of them are absolutely huge. I’ve got a variety called Weisnicht’s Ukrainian, from Susan, and most of those tomatoes are larger than my palm. I also have an Abe Lincoln tomato plant, from Elysian, and one of those clocked in at almost two pounds:

I wish I could tell you my secret for growing these enormous tomatoes, but I have no idea how it happens. Not tilling the soil and growing on black plastic certainly makes a difference.

It’s quite a rainbow of tomatoes out there. Left to right, these are Dr. Wyche, Weisnicht’s Ukrainian, and Cherokee Purple.

I also have an orange one—variety unknown—and the green Aunt Ruby. (Sarah, I have one of those for you.)

We’ve been eating watermelon and cantaloupe. I’m not a big fruit person, but I do like strawberries and cantaloupe.

I am ready for the garden to be done soon. At some point, we’ll have to go out and dig potatoes. The winter squash need another week or two, but the 2022 season is coming to an end, at least the outside part of it. I’ll still need to make tomato sauce and salsa.

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I had a marathon session Sunday afternoon with the coverstitch machine and hemmed two Laundry Day Tees, a pair of black ponte Renee pants, the black ponte Magic Pencil skirt, and a black stretch velvet top that I made but didn’t show you. I expect those black Renee pants will get a lot of wear. I wore my navy ones to church on Sunday and could have left them on all day. They are that comfortable.

I’ve lost my sew-jo, however. I don’t want to make any more hot-weather clothes, but it’s still too hot to think about making cooler-weather clothes. I was not motivated to start anything yesterday. I tried to put the sleeves into the teal polyester top, but the Janome—despite sewing everything else I threw at it without complaint, including ponte and a drapey woven rayon—balked at that fabric again. I tried three times and now that top is in indefinite time out. Sometimes it just isn’t worth it. That was clearance fabric and I wasn’t in love with the design, so I won’t be too upset if the top never gets finished.

I pulled out my stash of knit fabrics and looked them over. If I can find my lost motivation, I might make a long-sleeve black Laundry Day Tee out of some rayon/spandex. I’ve just sewn so much black lately. That one won’t take long, though, and it’ll get me through this transitional season.