WIPS On the Move

There was grocery shopping to do yesterday, but my first task of the day was to harvest some lettuce from the greenhouse for our salad at lunch. I like to wash it, give it a spin in my salad spinner, and then refrigerate it for a while before using it. It crisps up so nicely when done that way.

While I was harvesting the lettuce, I noticed some of the tomatoes mocking me by turning red. Possibly I'll get enough to make something with them, but I'm not holding my breath. Regardless, I will harvest enough green ones to make some green tomato salsa. The green tomato salsa is surprisingly delicious, and it's especially nice on eggs. I've tried green tomato relish and green tomato chutney. Neither of those appealed to us, but the salsa isn't half bad.

Tomorrow I'm picking up 40 lbs. of Romas from our farmers, which means it's going to be a weekend spent tackling the tomato tonnage. (Awesome Alliteration.) This year, I'm focusing mainly on pasta sauce, but I'll make one batch of tomato salsa and one of tomato jam before I've used all of them.

On the way to the greenhouse, I noticed the mystery squash/pumpkin plant cultivated by the squirrels is blooming now. It'll be interesting to see what the squirrels are cooking up.

With the tomatoes turning red, I decided to approach my other heartbreak crop...the plums. The tree is shedding some of its fruit now, which is does before the remaining fruit ripens. They're starting to turn purple, but it'll still be quite some time before they can be eaten without having their tartness turn your face inside out. If I can get just one plum tart from these before we leave, I'll be able to declare it a successful harvest. (Our neighbor will make jam from them after we've gone.)

As for the tart, I'd like to try cutting down the recipe to make a Plum Tart for Two...seems like there should be a song using that name, doesn't it? We're doing really well on our diet. I've lost 18 pounds now, and Mike is down 30+ pounds. He's nearing his goal, and I'm about 60% of the way there. He says he'll stick with me on the diet until I've reached my goal. Hopefully, he'll be more than just a wisp of a man by the time we get there.

Having explored the crops, it was time to head to the grocery store. When I finished with the grocery shopping, I had hours to work on the latest block for "And on that Farm." First, I made the onions and carrots.

Then, I made the eggs. With those finished, I could fuse one more of the chicks to its final resting place.

After that, I built the basket, which was a bit of a challenge. I couldn't really fuse it together until I fused the whole thing to the background piece. And then it was finished.

The carrots won't be added until the whole quilt is sewn together. They overlap the sashing a little bit.

So that one is finished. The next time I work on this project, probably next spring, I'll be doing the fourth block, "Here a Bahhh."

Today I need to do a housekeeping chore, feed the birds, water a couple of hanging pots, and then I'll get on to the next block for "It's Raining Cats and Dogs." The next one is the Kitty Hotel. Please note the sign, "No Dogs." Sorry dog people. Kitties do not like woofies.

Sadie is wondering if there is a pool at the hotel. She's practicing to get a gig as the first kitty model in Sports Illustrated's next swimsuit issue.