Stand back; it’s the Tomato Man (without his cape).
In 80 days, history will repeat itself at Casa Valencia! The old garden circa 2015!
What do you call a tomato with a trumpet? A tooty fruity.
The bonbon lady slept until 8:30 am this morning, getting up only to let the baby out; I was sawing logs!
I checked her feeding schedule, and I can do it as long as the alarm goes off there thirty minutes!!
After fixing her a most delightful breakfast, I headed for the garden and worked there most of the day, only leaving to check on Mary every 30 minutes )and check on the bonbon supply).
The babies are doing just fine!
We have twenty-six different tomatoes planted in our new garden, and each one is individually caged and labeled so we can keep track of them.
The type of tomato that smell best is? A Roma.
I folded up the tarps since the wet weather seems to be gone finally and reinstalled a dip system in one of the five beds! It is not as easy as ten years ago; arthritis in my thumbs makes things difficult. I must resort to pliers to get things tightened/loosened up.
Gloves are becoming a must, and I use 13 mil thick rubber latex gloves, which are as good as the cotton ones. They are extra thick—at 13 mils, more than triple the thickness of standard latex gloves—for extra barrier protection and more than 2 inches long to guard against splashes. Mary no longer has to say, “It’s dinner time, scrub in!” 
Mary has the same but in medium! These tomato cages are at least ten years old, maybe more. They are steel and fold up flat for ease of storage. If you look carefully, you will see the plant tags are wired to the cages at eye height to make the plant easily identifiable.
The cages are up, and plants are labeled!
May and I will have a ball this summer making tomato recipes and trading tomatoes with our neighbors for citrus fruit!
Scout, the Wonder Dog, began barking, and I did not want him to wake up the bonbon lady, so I quickly ran to the front door, which was open.
The mincemeat I ordered from Amazon had arrived! I will make a mincemeat pie for Jan; poor girl never had one! I will also attempt to make a hard sauce to go on top!
Did You Know? Mincemeat is a mixture of chopped dried fruit, distilled spirits and spices, and often beef suet, usually used as a pie or pastry filling. Mincemeat formerly contained meat, notably beef or venison. Many modern recipes replace the suet with vegetable shortening. Mincemeat is found in the Anglosphere.
The 16th Century recipe stated: Pyes of mutton or beif must be fyne mynced & seasoned with pepper and salte and a lytel saffron to colour it / suet or marrow a good quantitie / a lytell vynegre / pruynes / great reasons / and dates / take the fattest of the broath of powdred beefe. And if you will have paest royall / take butter and yolkes of egges & so to temper the floure to make the paest.
Note: My spell checker thought it had died and gone to heaven on the above recipe!
I see pie in the future.
I straightened up the patio, moved the swing back into its normal position, and decided to fulfill ht bonbon lady’s request to load the rat traps. The new rat traps that were on the patio table are now set; even though I see no evidence of the critters, I am taking no chances with the new baby plants!
Returning tools to our workshop, I noticed the mailbox looked full, so I gathered its contents and took them inside. The beauty of the sunset took me, so I grabbed the iPhone and snapped a shot just as the sun went down. A sunset should never go unnoticed.
The sunset from our living/TV room.
As it got dark, I fixed an epicurean dinner for Dr. Mary. I created chicken soup with mushrooms, plus I added two pieces of California roll to the plate. Hot tea, Earl Grey sans caffeine, and a carefully crafted orange juice-diet Sprite cocktail. I looked all over for little cocktail umbrellas, but none were found. A meal fit for a queen!
The flagpole light has been acting funny, so I opened the garage door, and it was on as expected. The iPhone was in my pocket, so I snapped the front of the house; we were ready for the upcoming holiday! With the touch of the iPhone, the lights can change to any of 64,000,000 colors!
Are we ready for St. Patrick’s Day or not?
We watched the first four episodes of Fraser and laughed ourselves silly. Scout coughed and pointed toward the door, so I took him outside to tinkle. He set off the alarm in the vegetable garden, so I pulled up the image on the phone, and he was smelling the blood meal I put around the last eight tomatoes I planted today.
I hit the sack in Robin’s Nest at 10:30 pm so I can prepare for our house cleaning staff, who are expected to arrive at 8:30 am tomorrow. From Robin’s Nest, I am only eight feet from the master bedroom door, so I can hear Mary should she need me.
