Good Night Irene

  Irene wasn't a hurricane by the time she hit Massachusetts, but she sure left a mess of fallen trees and power outages.  We were lucky at our home and never lost power, but the next street over had trees on the power line and no electricity for five days.  Many in  more rural towns  in nearby Rhode Island are still without power as I write.
 My friend Margie has no cell phone, and lives alone.  I was so worried  about her after two days that I drove the detour-filled ten miles to her house, to find her just finishing a letter to me!  I delivered a fresh tomato and took the circuitous route home with a lightened heart.
 Two trees fell in our yard, both without causing any significant damage.  One just missed the fence, the other just missed the power lines. Here's a picture of the Black Walnut resting on the back fence:

Next door a much bigger tree came up by the roots and fell across the driveway.  Their car was parked about four feet from where it fell.

The lima bean trellis tilted, but didn't fall, and the rebar trellis was solid as a rock.

I've been busy harvesting late crops. Here's a trug full of good stuff:

I'm really happy with the delicata squash (that's the striped things, in case you didn't know) I got ten squash from three plants that were  in less than ideal soil-- next year I'll give them more love and see what I get.

I've brought all the ripening tomatoes (mostly 'Mortgage Lifter' ) inside the house because mice were nibbling them in the garage, where I had laid them out on newspaper.   Although the days are still warm, the nights are now much cooler, and the tomatoes ripen faster indoors where it is warmer at night,  so I pick them as soon as they show any color.   

I went out Tuesday morning and found a big section of the most perfectly ripe tomato gone, and mouse droppings all around the others. At least they were discerning, and did not just ruin them all.

Now the tomatoes are on the sideboard above Sol's bed. He doesn't seem to mind. That ought to keep the mice away.