I took these few photos yesterday or the day before. Originally I had them loaded into yesterday's post, but at the last minute I took them out and decided to give them a blog of their own. I'm not sure why but it felt right somehow.
These photos tell me so many stories and make me feel so many things.
These photos make me sigh with relief that we will in fact have a tomato season this year. I should know by now that ours are the last in all of instagram and in all of the southern hemisphere but eventually they do ripen and redden.
These photos make me feel icky at the thought of that black tar that coats my arms and fingers each time I reach under a vine to pluck out a fruit and how hard it is to get rid of that stain and smell.
These photos make my mouth water in anticipation of toast and thinly sliced tomato, at chunks in salads, at passata, at semi drieds and at cherry tomatoes gobbled up on the spot.
These photos remind me that I'll have to pick fast and often and slightly under-ripe to beat the pesky mice.
These photos make me appreciate and adore the red in the garden for all too soon we'll be back to the green of spinach and kale and winter.
These photos make me feel a bit melancholy at that dress's last summer in our family. Even though it's already verging on too tight I'm finding it hard to let this piece of sister history go.
These photos make me feel bad because this tomato season I didn't plant nearly as many vines as other years, but then I try to quickly remind myself that what we lack in tomatoes this year we more than make up for in other areas of the garden.
These photos make me thank goodness for my little plaited tomato spotter and hope with everything that I have that she'll love hanging out with us in the garden for years to come.
These photos make me glad that we didn't buy one single out of season tomato last year because it makes these ones feel like prizes.
And these photos will make a lovely record a year from now when I'm madly scrambling through my archives trying to work out when we usually harvest tomatoes around here. March. Autumn. Phew.
So now I'm sending these photos out to you, wherever you are, whatever you are harvesting or eating, I hope they make you feel happy.
Love Kate xx
Love the wanting to hang onto to the sisterhood with your youngests summer dress. I can myself recall not wanting to pass on a gorgeous skirt to the next sister down the line.
ReplyDeleteYou have a very insightful way in what you can see in a scene. A wonderful gift . Thank you for sharing.
...and thanks for the mouth drooling taste of oh so fresh wonderfully tasty tomatoes :)
Alexa-asimplelife visiting from Sydney, Australia
They did. Enormously happy in fact. Have had a pig of a day at school and this was such a calming post to come home to. Made me appreciative of all the good things in my life.... Blessings. xxx
ReplyDeleteThis post makes me want to grow tomatoes! :) xxx
ReplyDeleteHooray for tomatoes Kate x
ReplyDeleteFrom here in the deepest winter days of Minnesota, it makes me long for our summer and tomato growing days. As the mother of 3 small girls i totally get mourning the demise of favorite dresses, they start to feel like old friends. I have been keeping them so that one day when the girls are all at last at school and life has a few quiet hours in the day, i might turn them into quilts so that the dresses can live to see another day.
ReplyDeleteI too am revelling in my tomatoes. Opening the pantry and seeing homegrown tomatoes which I can have on toast for dinner - it's a small but special happiness. :-) Every day, I go into my garden and see which of the green fruit has begun to blush, and I bite my lip and wonder if now ... or now ... is the right time to harvest them. I don't have trouble with birds, perhaps because I feed them well, nor thankfully with mice! Eek! But still I fret over my tomatoes, because that feels like an essential part of the growing process :-)
ReplyDeleteOh, and you have my empathy about the dress. I cut up most of my daughter's outgrown dresses and turned them into patchwork cushions, patchwork lap quilts. In that way I have continued to treasure them for years since. (Except for some which are put away for future girls, whoever they may be.)
ReplyDeleteTomatoes give us so much, all year round and not just deliciousness.
ReplyDeletexx
we are in the middle of deep frozen winter here in the northern hemi so seeing your tomatoes and greenery was a welcome respite. x
ReplyDeleteThey're beautiful pictures Kate, so delicious! We have loads of tomatoes here too, except a certain little someone keeps picking them before they turn red!
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about some of my little boy's favourite t shirts over the years. But, I decided to keep his (and mine) favourites and make them into a quilt when he is older. I just can't bear to part with them, they remind me of so many things!
ReplyDeleteWow.. tomatoes already.. can't wait to see our seedlings growing old!
ReplyDeleteNot quite the last Kate...Mine are still green on the vines! I must admit that they are a late planting. Will Instagram you a pic tomorrow. Seeing your photos makes me anticipate even more their ripening and the picking, and the eating!
ReplyDeleteOh joy! After a sleeting and snowing day the beauty of these wonderful tomatoes was simply heart warming.
ReplyDeleteI am in complete empathy with your tomato love this year - it has been tomato heaven for us too. So many times this summer (and even still, as we pick the last few from the bush) I have stood at the table cutting the red darlins, and eating slices as I go exclaiming "Oh my God the flavour is so....intense..."
ReplyDeleteLong live the home grown, sun-ripened, disease-free, bug-immune, and lovingly plucked tomato. May your seasons always be long and plentiful! xx
And our season is just starting...in a few months...the Hubs and I will be eating tomato sandwiches and corn on the cob for many nightly dinners...
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