Built-in Sprouts

On December 20 we visited friends who grow tomatoes and cucumbers commercially. Sometime before that they had removed the last of a tomato crop from their greenhouse, and that involved picking and storing 2 tons of green tomatoes. Nell had made sauces, soups, and canned tomatoes until she had her fill, so she generously gave us a big box full of slightly ripened tomatoes.

When we got home I put them, carefully separated, in a box on the floor of the spare bedroom, where, in the cool semi-darkness they ripened one by one. We are now eating the last four of that good sized boxful. When I cut two up for our dinner salad this noon, I found the seeds inside the tomatoes had begun to sprout, so we had "built-in sprouts" in our salad today.

We've had an amazing amount of fog the last two weeks, and because it's been quite cold also (-18C overnight), when the sun comes out in the morning, scenes of incredible beauty are revealed. This photo doesn't do justice since you don't see all the sparkling diamonds dusted over everything.

This is just outside our backdoor, looking down toward the vegetable garden. The tent-like structures are made of chicken wire, spread over the strawberry beds to keep the deer and robins out in season.

Twice this week a farmer's wife has mentioned to me the "well-known" weather fact that if you have fog, three months later on the same date of the month you will have rain. Now, I've never kept track to prove the point, but if it is true, we should have lots of rain in May. That would be a TREAT! as our soil moisture was practically nonexistent last fall. We are in GREAT need of moisture, so bring on the fog!

I finally went back to the Thursday quilting group yesterday, after missing the meetings since December. It was just lovely to be welcomed back and hear that I'd been missed.

But it was a good thing I took off these last six weeks, as my two "public service" involvements just about finished me off! There were hassles about the Alberta Landscapes Photo Display, and our little string ensemble almost didn't make it to the concert. There were string players who said they wouldn't come; there were string players who said they would and then didn't; there was one solo string player who disappeared from rehearsals and caused me lots of worry; and finally, on Friday before the Saturday concert, I got a phone call from the other soloist in the Corelli Concerto: She was absolutely stranded in the Washington, DC airport by the first of their two ginormous storms and wouldn't be back in Alberta until Monday. What to do? Our "concertmistress" took over the solo part with one day's notice, and that left just one first violin player. We had prepared barely an hour's worth of music, so we just couldn't leave out any one of the four pieces. Somehow or other, things came together. We all made a concerted effort, and the music was very well received. We played on concert on Saturday, and another one on Sunday afternoon. The weather cooperated and we had good roads for our travels.

I'm really thankful it went so well, but have my doubts about the future of the ensemble. We have only two first violins, two seconds, one viola, two cellos. That's really less than a bare minimum, and two of the violin players are students who will graduate in June and move away. We'll just have to see what next fall brings.

At quilting yesterday I was finishing a wall quilt that I started last summer. But when I was ready to apply the binding I found I didn't have it with me.

This morning, because I had to find the material in the "stash" closet, I got involved in some reorganization. I was so happy to see this mess all cleaned up again, that I left the door open for most of the day to admire how nice it looked. That's pretty much my whole fabric stash there in the 5 white containers and the two cardboard boxes. It's really almost all left overs from previous projects, plus a few pieces of material that I bought and then didn't use. I have to chuckle when I think of how this compares with Gypsy Quilter, who published a picture this week of a huge stack of bins of material.

But there are some bits here and there besides in these boxes. The little stack on the floor in the corner of the closet has projects on the go (or UFO's). And I do have two drawers under the cutting table that have leftovers that can still be used to make things. No wonder I haven't been buying much material this year! Oh, well, except for those Christmas tree skirts I made in December.

On the 22nd of this month I will have been blogging for a year. I'm wondering if I should do like so many others and offer a chance to win a table topper?