Lesson Learned

First, a bit of sad news.  I got home from work, and discovered that a huge branch had broken off of Mr. Mater.  It was hanging by just a bit of skin -- so to speak -- so I went ahead and cut it completely off, even though it had a baby tomato on it.  Now Mr. Mater looks a bit sad,   

but I'll just consider this a lesson learned.  Next year, I'll make sure to get them proper tomato cages.  And next year, I'll have some of the raised beds in place, so I'll have them in the ground instead of a bucket.  They won't dry out so fast that way.  

In a bit of better news, I made an impulse purchase on Amazon, which arrived today.  And just what was that impulse purchase, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you. 

Rocks!!  

Polished rocks which I thought I could use to decorate my fairy garden.  But first, my bee pond got an upgrade.  

I didn't do much else outside, other than water the basil, fill the birdbath, and dump the manky water out of the deer trough and refill it.  We have a heat index of 109° this afternoon, and that's just too hot for me.  

Oh, I did trim off some of the bigger leaves of my basil plants, but I just tossed them over the back fence for any wild critters that might want to eat them -- or to compost down if none of them do.  That will give the new leaves better air and light to grow, and I might get one or two more batches of pesto out of them before they die off for the winter. 

By the way, this is what basil looks like when it flowers. 

 These are the ones in the front planter.  I've decided to let them go through their natural life cycle and either live or die as they will.  Oh, I'll still water them and all, but I'm not going to cut the flowers off or harvest any more leaves from them. 

That's about all I have for today.  I got to work this morning and told a coworker, "It's too early in the week for me to be this tired!" and she replied, "No it ain't!"  So, between that and being sore from working in the yard, and I hammered my thumb, and getting up at 2:30 in the blessed Ay Em, I'm all in.

I'm going to go take a hot shower and watch a few more episodes of either Ryan Trahan on YouTube or Shark week, then try to go to bed early.  

Laters.