Shop Disappearances & Being Fruitful

Things have been disappearing from The Quilted House. No, it's not aliens or anything otherworldly! People have been buying things from me directly! Though my shop says I have had only one sale, I have sold five additional items in the past two days!! This is incredibly good, but it means that I need to get a bunch of things made so that my shop's shelves don't go bare! So, I will be listing new things with as much celerity as I can get them made!

My life has been fruitful in another way, too. My friend Lynne came for a visit to tour my craft room today - great fun! While she was here, I told her about the problem I had with the squirrels taking my peppers and she suggested I pick them green, since they take them before they have a chance to turn red. So, I now have more peppers that I know what to do with (Lynne also brought me some jalapenos, a white bell pepper, and cucumbers, which was very nice, especially since my garden did not produce any of the three!) I am still hopeful that the Best Boy tomatoes will red up soon, though I have given up hope of them doing it with celerity.

Animal Lover

Being a vegetarian, most people assume I am an animal lover. Now, while I do not hate animals, I'm not an animal lover, per se. I was never around a lot of animals as a kid. I developed a healthy respect for them from afar. I would say I am more an animal tolerator and respector (with the exception of my three cats, of course, who I love to pieces, even when they meow and meow and meow and. . . but I digress.) So, all that being said, since becoming a gardener, I am developing a marked dislike for animals - squirrels and bunnies especially! Now, I gave up on my lettuce weeks ago. I just wrote that off as a sacrifice. I had in the back of my mind the statement from the man who sold me the Juliet tomato that squirrels like tomatoes, but I hadn't been thinking about it. Well, not only do they like tomatoes, they also like green peppers and hot peppers. They keep picking my tomatoes and habanero, kung pao, and cayenne peppers and - no, not eating them - nibbling on them and then leaving them in the garden or up on the fence or in the yard or wherever they can leave them to taunt me!! I swear they are taunting me with their fluffy little tails in the air. Now, I don't promote violence and I don't like hunting, but I am sorely tempted to get a dog - a big, extremely territorial dog who has a healthy taste for squirrel and bunny.

One Tomato, Two Tomatoes, Three Tomatoes, Four!

We have tomatoes! And cayenne peppers and the beans are flowering - so unexpectedly pretty. I had no idea how thrilling it would be to see actual produce growing in my yard! So very thrilling!! As you can see, the Best Boy plants have two little tomatoes, and Juliet has two lovely offerings, as well. OK, maybe you can't really see at all. The problem is that they are small and everything in the same shade of green. They are there, however, in all their lovely tomato-ness. Not to be outdone, the cayenne has been present and accounted for since last week. Also green, but so much easier to see. She, and two of her sisters, have graced our garden with their presence. I cannot wait to spice things up with cayenne from my own backyard!!