Before I forget: Amazon included In the Midnight Rain in an October special, so it’s .99 for the whole month. If you haven’t read it, now is a good time to grab it.
Now…on to the blog….
It’s a slightly overcast morning, and promises to be truly cold and blustery and maybe even snowy tomorrow. I had the house cleaned thoroughly yesterday—it feels so good to have the house all in order, and the floors cleaned and the bathrooms sparkling. I love, love, love that. Once, it would have made me feel guilty. Now I think about how the young woman who cleans my house has a job and I get a clean house. Good trade.
We had our first freeze on Wednesday night, and all the tomato plants fell over, despite my (half-hearted) attempts to save them with tarps. I had to collect them all, about 20-25 pounds of green beefsteak and roma tomatoes of many sizes. I took bags of them to each of my neighbors, and this morning put the rest on the top shelf of the greenhouse window. They looked so beautiful that I had to run and get my camera to shoot them, finding in me that quiet, that peacefulness that comes to me through the lens of a camera for no reason I can pinpoint. Maybe it’s the focus, the wordlessness of letting everything go to be in the moment, here, right now. Maybe it’s the sweetness of beauty, because I do tend to shoot things I think are beautiful. Some photographers collect gritty or grim or ugly things, but I’ve never been that person. I love beauty, and flowers and fruits and vegetables, and looking at things closely.
I love the corn in the background, the way the light spills over the silken curves of the tomatoes, the way their shapes are repeated over and over, and the stems add prickliness.
I also like this one:
Garden/kitchen tip: green tomatoes will keep for a long time this way. Spread a paper towel over a flat window sill and put the tomatoes on top. The last time I did this, I had tomatoes through Christmas.
Now I’ve played long enough and need to turn my focus to writing. Last night, on the way home from a book club meeting in Woodland Park, I was tangling myself up over the story I’m writing, thinking how to do this and how to do that, and the Girls in the Basement said, “Oh, just stop it! Just write. Have some fun, will you?”
So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to stop burdening this poor book with more and more and more expectations and weighing it down with lead bricks of time pressure and twisting and turning and all that other business- and expectation-crap and just let the story emerge as it wishes. I like these characters! I love them, honestly. Lavender and Ruby and Ginny and Noah and the little barn cat and the lavender fields and the chickens. It’s lovely and sweet and I’m just going to go write now.
What are you up to this weekend? Is it freezing where you are? Do you know any recipes for green tomatoes?
Green tomato mincemeat. A sweet green tomato pie (yummy, slightly like apple pie). A quick bread.Boogers and Slugs (Halloween) cake, sort of a spice cake that includes golden raisins and walnuts. Message me on FB if you want me to send any of these along. 🙂 mb
Fried green tomatoes and hot n spicy green tomato relish. Can you tell I’m Southern-influenced?
I also dod a bit of gleaning in the last few days. I have tomatoes and peppers in the dehydrater as we speak.
I really need to get a dehydrator. It’s on my list.
MB, Facebook won’t let me email you directly.
Your tomatoes look so happy! I was down in the Springs many times this summer and think about you each time I go through. Are you running? I will be in Greenland tomorrow AM for a long run and would love company! Do you have my number?
Hope you are well.
I’m quite happy to see summer go. It was a miserable one with the drought and the overwhelming heat. I’m currently wrapped up in a blanket on my couch, my kitties are with me, and outside it is chilly, yet the autumn leaves leave me breathless. Made a pot of homemade vegetable soup in the slow cooker and will have it for supper. A good Saturday!
Holli, I don’t have your number. I’d love to run with you but my knees are suddenly paying the price of a thousand roller-skating accidents in my teens. I’d love a coffee, however.
Melissa, it was a hot miserable summer, that’s for sure.
The picture of the tomatoes is beautiful! The temperature here is supposed to drop twenty degrees within the next day or two, but our temps at night will only be in the forties. It’s a little early in NC for a frost, but the way things have been going it wouldn’t surprise me. I had some of the best fried green tomatoes in Savannah. They were lightly battered and covered with a balsamic vinegar, goat cheese, and a raspberry remoulade.
Good luck with your book in progress. It sounds like it will be phenomenal! Don’t overthink it! 😉
Good advice, Kelly. Thank you.