A few words from the artist

 Hello again,

It's a wet and grey day as I write this. One of those days where you feel like nothing and everything is going on. So many things to think about, lots to be done and few resources to manage it.

Is that a bad thing or a good one?  It's hard to tell. I just have to go where the day takes me. Here are a few of the things I've been working on.

All of these are using up the last bits of tube acrylics I had with the help of a bottle of black all purpose paint.

I have no idea how this picture got in here twice or how to remove it any of your suggestions or explanations would be welcome.

Some of them are small canvas panels that I had used for pallets while doing other paintings. Which of course reminds me of an old story that I told you in a previous post so I'll move on.

As you can see. Somewhere along the line fall set in and I was apparently too busy to notice it much. By the time I got around to painting falling leaves. They were all on the ground.

What I was attempting to show here is how well the transplanted strawberries were doing.

As always the marigolds did well and are the best of the color left around the place.

I love this picture up into the trees in my yard.

Somehow I think I should have stayed away form that blue paint. How many of you think I should have stopped earlier on the leaf painting?

The Cherry Tomatoes Come in from the Cold

I ended up with one nice plant with seed saved from last year and as it gets too cold outside I brought them in to finish ripening in a vase of hydroponic growing water.

There was very little waste as I trimmed things down to the most promising parts of the plants.

Outside in the garden this plant was over three feet high and 6 feet long/wide.

Here's the way it looks now.

Detail Photos

The change seems to be doing them good. There were 4 more ripe tomatoes this morning.

First thing Wednesday I pruned some of the leaves away so that I wasn't wasting resources feeding parts of the plant that we can't eat.

Everyone has been enjoying being able to pick and eat tomatoes without having to leave the house to do it. The most important thing at this point is to remember to change the water often.

This is where things were at on October 20, 2019

This photo was shot on October 24th, after that I just ate them as they got ripe and stopped bothering to photograph them. 

 Considering this was all grown from seed saved from last year's plants and was more or less free, I'm happy even though so few seeds germinated.

Next year I'll plant a variety I really like and try several different methods of seed saving to see whick works best.

Winter Lettuce

I've wrapped things up in the garden outside and just have a bit of celery, lettuce and strawberries in the house for the winter.

I'd have loved to leave the strawberries outside but they are the wrong zone for my part of the country and I'd have lost them.

It's fun to just reach across the table when I want a finishing touch for a meal. The baby celery leaves make a nice garnish and the tiny stalks are just the right size to cut up in ham salad, egg salad or soups.

In this little plastic cup is a small amount of water and the base of a head of lettuce we'd had from the grocery store. The dark green leaves on the top are the beginnings of a new head of lettuce from scraps that most people throw away. Also recycled and re-used is the plastic jello cup that I'm growing it in.

I'm also growing some lettuce from seed. Instead of waiting for it to mature I clip it and use it for sprouts. Kind of my little idea for growing micro greens indoors.

I still don't have any grow lights so the plants aren't doing quite as well as they could be but it cheers me up with snow forecast in my part of the country by the end of the week.