Backyard garden

Sunwarmed bright Sungold cherry tomatoes.

Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes
What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can't buy,
That's true love & homegrown tomatoes.
(from "Homegrown Tomatoes" by Guy Clark)

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We spent some time out in the garden last night. Weeding, picking, digging in the dirt. Ripe sun-warm cherry tomatoes take me right back to high school when I'd get off the bus and head straight to the cherry tomatoes for an after-school treat. Mmmmm.

Sungold cherry tomatoes were an impulse buy in the Year of the Cherry Tomato, about four years ago, when I foolishly decided to plant three different varieties of cherry tomatoes. I gave away bowls and bowls of cherry tomatoes that year, and discovered the mild sweetness of the Sungolds.

The fine young gents weeded and searched for pumpkins for a bit, then used the hose to make a river. They all got marvelously filthy, enough that I had to hose them down before I put them in the bath.

We've been playing "What's that squash?" I didn't chart which squash variety I planted in which hill, and the backyard denizens ate half of the seeds, so we've been guessing what we've got left. Looks like mixed gourds and pumpkins for sure, and something else that I'm not so sure of yet. Alas, no zucchini. At least we'll have sugar pumpkins for pumpkin scones and Thanksgiving pie.

I love having a garden in the back yard. If I were to write a book on gardening, it would be called The Lackadaisical Gardener. It would go something like this: "Plant some seeds. Check for weeds every once in a while. Pick stuff when it's ready." As long as I get tomatoes and pumpkins I'm happy, and I always get tomatoes and pumpkins.

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On to something new. My mom sent me a short email the other day:

http://mentalmultivitamin.blogspot.com/2006/08/effortful-study.html
This entry reminded me of what you're doing with the Reformation book.

The full Scientific American article is definitely worth reading. And worth thinking about.

Update on my studies: I am on page 277 of MacCulloch's The Reformation. I've been out in the garden and playing with the ladies and gents instead of reading in the hammock; evenings are full of projects and school planning. That makes for even slower going. New words: trenchant, which means what I thought it meant, and truculent, which didn't.