Yes, we have no more tomatoes?

I harvested tomatoes on the orange side yesterday, in anticipation of rain today. I'm glad I did. It is seriously raining. So far, .6 inches, but the forecast is predicting it for the next couple of days. That's been the story of this summer. Cool and rainy days followed by 2-5 days of perfect Maine summer weather. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

I AM grateful that we have escaped the hot horrible weather that much of the world has experienced this summer. Truly I am. But I have to say that it will be a disappointment if This Is It. As good as it gets. Well, ok. It's pretty good. Some homegrown tomatoes can't be bad. Even if they're cut off in their youth. And! It's really too soon to tell. Even the drier forecast later in the week isn't going to get above the 70's, though, and tomatoes do like their heat. . .

I had just decided that the eggplant plants were worth having, even if they didn't produce. They are handsome things. And wouldn't you know. . .as soon as I had given them reprieve for their sterility, they are forming fruit. I don't know how I missed the flowers, though it could have been in all of the rain. And many of our fruiting plants (tomatoes, peppers, raspberries, especially beans) like to hide their babies. Probably a sound evolutionary strategy.

Such pretty things, aren't they? With their personal ornamentation of black spines. . .

Meanwhile, my "all hat" zucchini plants are succumbing to powdery mildew. Mine have always had that issue at the end of the season, but these poor guys barely had a chance to show off. I'm thinking I have to get more serious about eating the blossoms, which are ever large and gorgeous. I need to look up why they didn't set. It could have been that there weren't many female flowers? That doesn't really make sense, though. More like the pollinators were less than ambitious because of the cool wet weather.

The apples are coming along, and the Japanese beetles have been seriously discouraged by the weather. Ripening will likely be a couple of weeks late, I think, but that blush of red stripes is reassuring. 

Then, of course, there is the studio production. G.S.'s final pieces are glazed, fired, and winging their way to Texas. I hope he likes them! I also sent a couple of surprises for the other two Grand Children (G.C.'s), since they didn't get to visit this year. I forged copper hooks for the ornaments, reminding me that even though I'm an amateur at clay, I'm a decent metalsmith. 

And of course, my last piece that I made with G.S. was also a box. I think I'm going to start a series of boxes, inspired by the experience.

I still have a couple of tumblers outstanding, and then there is the birdhouse series. I have questioned myself about the functionality of ceramic birdhouses, since my carefully made chickadee house doesn't yet have any occupants, though the squirrels have shown some casual curiosity. I may continue that line with some fairy houses, which always seem to get occupants, invisible as they may be.  

Tomato, tomahto, zucchini

Tomato plants in mid-August

Somewhat predictably, the tomato plants are looking a little scraggly. A technical term only some of you will understand. Smile. However, we got a decent harvest this weekend. . .the cherry tomatoes coming in more abundantly than our Early Girls. We are getting terrific sun today, and it's expected to continue through next Friday, so we should get some good ripening and drying weather.

Food. Love this stuff. . .

Oh, and yes. There are a couple of redskin potatoes in the bottom of the bowl. A couple of our potato plants were beaten down by the rain, so G.S. and I were forced to harvest them a little early. Tasty, but not maximally tasty. I'm looking forward to the real harvest in the fall.

Zucchini plants and flowers

In contrast to the tomatoes, the zucchini plants are lush and gorgeous. They are proving to be mostly hat and little cow, though. We've only gotten 3 medium sized zucchini from these 2 enormous plants so far. One of my daughters said that I had finally managed to plant the right number of plants, after all of these years of over-abundance. I'm not convinced, but will see what the rest of the season holds. It is, I should point out, hardly over. It's only mid-August, but it's been such a strange summer for us. And the powdery mildew on those lower leaves is ominous.

The eggplant I seeded in mid-May is also looking great insofar as leaves are concerned. But we need to get some flowers soon or they'll be strictly ornamental. Not terrible, since they are attractive plants, but note to self: Plant these indoors in March, rather than waiting to direct seed!

Direct seeded Eggplant plants

The most exciting news, though is from the raspberries that I planted just last year. I was not impressed with what I thought was a slow start, but they have really taken off. I let the fall-bearers bear in the spring this year (not cutting them back to the ground in winter) because I thought it unlikely that the fall crop would amount to much this year. I was wrong. We've got a strong fall crop coming along, which is also bring a ton of bees. . .bumble and honey!

 

 

Below is our view from our bathroom window. I went out this morning with my cereal bowl, and picked about a dozen to eat immediately. Yum. How could I ever leave this place now?

Raspberries

OK. Not a great shot, but you can see the green developing fruit. Getting this much in the second year portents great things for subsequent years! Now. If I can just stop having body parts give up on me. . .

Lastly, I wanted to post an image of my G.S.'s ceramic box (and my own and a bowl) in the kiln, awaiting it's first firing. It's amazing how things move forward, if you just keep pushing. Even a little.

Ready to get HOT!

Boxes and homegrown tomatoes. . .

Well. The Grand Son (GS) is back in Texas, about to start school. But we spent some time in the studio before he left, and these were our last projects. Bear with me. They're still greenware (unfired), and mine is darker because it's wetter. GS chose to have a set-on lid, while I decided to make mine into a solid cube and then cut it. Different strokes. GS had actually made a triangular stamp (that had to be bisque fired before using) that is on the lid. It has his initials in it. I, as usual, chose a more botanical theme. 

Making stamps is way fun. We also made some from plant and rock and mulch material that we just gathered from the yard. . .a door from my studio takes us right out there. More on these after they get glazed and finished.

In the meantime, the tomatoes are starting to get serious. They are WAY late this year. The summer has been cool and rainy. I'm sure this is because we installed a COMPLETE drip irrigation system this spring. We haven't needed it once!

Back to homegrown tomatoes. A friend of ours introduced us to Guy Clark and his song, Homegrown tomatoes. There ain't nothin' that money can't buy except true love and homegrown tomatoes. Here's a Youtube for your entertainment pleasure. . . 

Guy Clark Homegrown Tomatoes

 Well. I'll take some images of our tomatoes soon. But in the meantime, I found a bunch of images I meant to share. Some are from MUCH earlier:

We had some awesome peonies this year. . .just Sarah Bernhart cultivar, but I love them so much. Unfortunately the rains of the season just beat them down. I cut them and brought them inside to EXTEND their lives, which is almost never the case. Fortunately, the foliage still looks good, so we should have another good showing next year.

And for the record, I am so grateful for our cool rainy summer. The rest of the country has faced broiling terrible heat, and here we are, cool as cucumbers. One of our neighbors told me that she had patients who told her that in some summers, her "bones never had a chance to get warm". I think this might be one of those summers, though we still have more summer ahead of us. We'll see.

I also had a series of disastrous tumblers. Some worked out well (see previous post), but my two favorites had unseen leaks. I had no idea until I filled them with water that they weren't water tight. It's a unique problem in my experience. They were all made from the same clay (except for the porcelain one), made and fired the same way. It was one of those heartbreaking moments in a functional artist's life.

These were the two that leaked. My very favorites, one for my consort, one for me. Sigh.

 

A more successful venture was the dog dish I made for our retiring Border Collie. Pretty sweet. In clay, as in all things, you bake some and  you burn some. More later! 

 

It's just getting silly. . .

 

. . .and so the summer flies by. John and I used to joke that by July 4th, the summer was over. When we worked in academia that was just about true, but it still feels that way sometimes. This is an image that John captured. It's a day lily in front of our garage. The cool summer with tons of rain has brought so many gifts. And some not-so-welcome ones, like a great crop of Japanese Beetles. The little buggers love any Rosaceous crops, so I'm on constant guard with the apples and raspberries. They also have a particular liking for Linden trees. Mine is too small right now to take much abuse, so I've been controlling them on her assiduously. Oh. And oddly, they love one of the cultivars of kale that I'm growing, while they leave the other (the very curly type) alone.

Well. I'm hoping to get back to a more even writing schedule, but need to address my email inbox. After a week in a cabin-on-a-lake, and a week with our oldest Grand Son, it's a mess! More later!