"Loads of Potential"

This afternoon finds me very unhappy at the weather, my heirloom tomato plant, and a certain elusive disgusting brown spider in the mudroom who should do the whole world a favor and just die.

First, the weather. It is over 100 degrees. Today, in case you missed the memo, is the first day of fall. It feels suspiciously like California fall. Speaking of, there are hot, gusty winds that distinctly resemble the Santa Anas (the much-maligned winds known best for turning Southern California into a barbecue every year). These winds blow me to my next point: the heirloom tomato plant.

Frankly, I've been disappointed. Only now, late-ish September, does it have three small green tomatoes. I've just been hoping they ripen before the first frost. But I'm really mad at this plant because this afternoon, I had to go outside in the inferno to put stand it back up again. Then it blew over a second time and the pot broke into multiple pieces. So now I have a half-busted pot, held together by a bungee cord, stuffed inside another pot, and bungeed to the fence so it can't blow over again. All this took about 45 minutes at midday, after which I was dripping and ready to run over the stupid tomato with my car.

Honestly, I can't wait for the first frost. My gardening efforts this summer have been minimally rewarding, and the plants that aren't infested with budworms bent on eating everything colorful have some kind of weird leaf fungus. Next summer, I'm not growing any petunias, because I found out that the budworms come from moths that lay eggs. So they can fly to my baskets. They also eat geranium buds, but I love geraniums, so I'm going to have to come up with another solution -- screens or something. I tried poisoning them, but they don't like the bait. Rotten bugs.

I don't think I really need to say anything further about that spider, other than, I will stomp on you with much glee when I see you next, so watch your back or beat it.

Anyway, here's the picture of the headboad I was working on the last time I posted.

It turned out really cool, except for the part about the spray paint off-gassing and us waking up at 2:30 am with headaches and having to spend the rest of the night in the guest room. Avoiding stepping on pliers and nails sticking out of the floor in the stairway on the way upstairs was the most fun, especially since I didn't have my glasses.

After that, the headboard spent a few more days in the garage to de-fume. We moved it back in last week. I also have to post a picture of the crafty thing I did to one of our duvet covers...coming soon!