The weather has been up and down, and that will continue this week. Nights can be in the 40s, and the days are 70s and 80s, upper 80s by next week.
Still, there are signs of autumn. Besides flowers and vegetables dying back and the front yard starting to look unkept, the trees are starting to turn at the park.
Fungus at the park.
Puffballs - one still puffed, one already un-puffed. I do keep my eyes to the ground while Mickey is sniffing around!
I've torn out three of my four tomatoes. Sungold (a huge disappointment since it's usually an over-producer), Pantano Romanesco (did nearly nothing and what it did do got blossom end rot), and Golden King of Siberia, seen below. Bonny Best is still doing great, big red tomatoes with a good taste!
This is Golden King of Siberia. I don't know exactly what happened. Maybe a combination of things. Rain checking, bacterial spot... however, while the other varieties had their own problems, they were not this. Golden King of Siberia is a very thin-skinned tomato, and that means it's skin isn't as elastic as the others, so when it had sudden moisture changes the skin can't stretch. It looks like it has stitches!
The China asters are getting better and better!
They last a long time as cut flowers. These are in an antique creamer. The dogs behind them were my grandmother's, then my father's (who kept them on a dark bottom shelf of a bookcase; he didn't much like dogs, I took after his mother!), and later left to a brother by my mother. But, he didn't want them, and I do "love me some dogs!" They are antique Rockingham pottery (USA) mantle spaniels. I don't have a mantle. I don't even have a fireplace, for which I am grateful. The houses in the neighborhood originally had fireplaces, and some chimneys pulled, or were pulling away, from the walls. Mine was taken down by the original owner, and a neighbor said there were bats living in the chimney!
I almost mistook this moth for a petal. It's an invasive Southern Pink Mint moth the size of your pinky nail, if you don't have long fingernails.
This is a perennial aster, Aster KICKIN® Carmine Red. China asters are annuals. It bloomed back in May too.
I may have mentioned my deck needed replacing... well, I've begun taking it up, and it is very obvious why some boards were starting to sag! Mickey is pretty excited, we already uncovered three old pigskin chews and a rotted tennis ball! Not sure what the plans are after it's all removed. It's actually much, much better than I expected underneath. I expected decades of nasty leaves and spiders.
The last motley is this mural at a nearby laundromat. It's the Table Rocks. Why was I at a laundromat? My dryer stopped with the hot air, and it being over 15 years old, it didn't seem worth repairing. So, I'm waiting for a new one. It's been nice enough to dry most things outside (and they smell nice that way), but towels just don't do for me airdried. The laundromat is just down the street, and for 4 quarters I get 20 minutes, which actually is long enough for a big towel load. There are tables and chairs, so I get away from the house with a book for a bit! Have a nice week. Tomorrow's post is quite an assortment of Treasures! (I think Blogger wants things posted or viewed on phones and tablets, when I preview posts that way the formatting is fine, but on computer it's wonky.)
...tomatoes have been disappointing this year.
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