Mossy Cottage Knits

Feast or Famine

(No posting Monday, Dear Readers!)

Thank you to all my funny guys and gals for assuring me that I’m not alone when it comes to the Hey, What’d I Ever Do To You? Attack of the Paper Dispensers, and for sharing your experiences with the Bathrooms of the Inquisition. No one mentioned, however, the worst of the worst, bathrooms that are fully automated except, inexplicably, one item. The lights turn on automatically, the toilet flushes itself automatically, the paper-dispenser dispenses paper automatically, the soap dispenser dispenses soap automatically, and the hot-air hand dryer turns on automatically, all behaving much like the overly cheerful, overly hyper, anthropomorphized furniture and plateware in the “Beauty and the Beast” dinner scene. And, so, confident in the automated nature of everything around you, go to wash up…and end up waving your hands repeatedly, and then emphatically, and then frantically under a faucet that, you discover too late to save face in front of the other people in the bathroom, is not automatic. And then you realize you’ve just had an argument with a faucet…and lost.

(For you Red Dwarfers out there, were TMK and I the only ones who thought, “Talkie Toaster?”)

To distract you from the fact that I have, yet again, no knitting current events to share, let’s talk tomatoes, shall we?

Despite TMK’s green thumb and large yard and fancy tools and piles of luscious, steaming compost, we’ve never been able to grow vegetables successfully. Take this year’s yellow crookneck squash, for example. Nary a squash. Lots of blossoms, yes, but nary a squash. Who can’t grow squash? (I can hear TMK saying defensively, yes, but tell them about last year’s zucchini. She’s right. We grew great zucchini last year which she picked when it was still small and tender, marinated in a balsamic vinaigrette mixture and barbecued. Yumalicious. But it says something, doesn’t it, that this event was so remarkable and uncommon that we are still talking about it?)

Ever-determined, however, this year we tried something new, the Up Against the South-Facing, Heat-Reflecting Wall Method of Tomato Husbandry.

Before. The beefsteak, roma, and orange cherry tomato plants (and one lonely sweet-pepper plant) the day we planted them:

After. Kowabunga!

As you can see, we had so little faith in our tomato-growing abilities that we didn’t bother with tomato cages…and now have had to resort to various creative methods—sticks, a chair, the tuteur, which you can’t even see any more—to hold these unruly gigantor tomato plants in place. We’re even encouraging the tendrils of the pole beans on the back of the tuteur, which you can’t see in the picture, to hold up some of the tomato branches.

Are they good? Was it worth all of this insanity? Was it worth the sleepless nights spent wondering when a tomato branch would come tapping, tapping, tapping at your bedroom window? You betcha, especially the cherry tomatoes, and especially served in a salad with fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, toasted almonds and a vinaigrette dressing. So good in fact, that last week TMK ended up in a local clinic with what we believe was a reaction to eating one too many of the little buggers.

Speaking of luscious things, thank you, everyone, for your suggestions for the next incarnation of the Transylvania Hat. All good, all yummy. We ended up with:

Dark green and gold
Navy blue and orange
Light moss green and a deep brown
Black and wine-red
Brown and wine-red
Brown and gray/taupe
Black and gray
Gray and deep blue
Brown and red
Gray and green
Green and beige
Green and natural/offwhite-ish
Grey and navy
Grey and hunter
Pumpkin and mustard
Chocolate and tan
Charcoal gray and mustard/gold
Very dark brown and rust
Two tones of green
Charcoal grey and rust or russet-y red
Olive green and a deep golden brown

Must ponder.

Posted by Ryan at August 31, 2007 11:13 AM