The end of tomatoes and ...

Yesterday afternoon after a bout of emotional paralysis, I went outside and pulled up dead tomato vines. Frost killed them. I picked a few tomatoes I missed last week and ate my last tomato of the season fresh off the vine. I picked the pathetic beets, and the miniature rainbow carrots, as well (orange, yellow, red, and white, pretty cool really except they weren't designed to feed regular people, that's for sure). It is somehow very sad to have my garden growing season over, clean up the little patches of ground for next year, and pick the last tomato.

I've started making Christmas presents, but it already doesn't look good. I'm doing counted cross stitch ornaments (don't read this kids). It is taking me FOREVER to finish one ornament, stitches in, rip them out, my count is off so my picture is a bit skewed, and a few stitches that I missed ripping out (I don't know how I could have done that) are leaning slightly to the left. How hard is it to sew a stupid x for crying out loud? Apparently more difficult than I originally thought. I'm going to have to take the thing into town because I missed the class on French knots and of course, this picture has French knots in it. A bunch. I'm hoping I can find someone in town who can show me how to sew French knots. I'll be the old lady on the street corner with the little cross stitch picture saying to strangers passing by, hey can you show me French knots? I'm not complaining. It's just that you can't eat cross stitch pictures, you can't get out and dig up weeds around the pictures, and the pattern isn't nearly as pretty as the picture of tomatoes on the front of a seed package. But since growing season is over and holiday season is fast approaching, I'm stitching. This started out as a labor of love. It has become a test of wills. Who is going to win, me or the needle that goes where it shouldn't and the thread that knots up on the back of the picture? I'll keep you posted on my progress.