Cold Morning: Is Summer Finished?

This image is from ArtPropelled:archive and is by Catherine-White in the Rock Of The Day series. I think she collects the rocks, makes the ceramic cups and paints.  Canvas under the rock and cup is her work.  I am In Love with it. One of my favorite painted cloths is very similar to this cloth.  It's why I "collected" the image.  To remind myself that I AM a Painter.

At Work.  A full sized artificial Christmas Tree is up in the Gift Shop--with lights.  90 days prior to Christmas.  Too Soon?  Yes.

I have my Fall and Winter shawl on this morning.  Still wearing a summer short sleeve shirt.  But it's cold.  Well, colder than usual.  There is sun.  So I am hopeful things will warm up.  Which reminds me--I was going to try and paint over the strange symbol the original owner of this shawl discharged on the back of the shawl.  It's misleading.  Not my symbol.  So, I think, if it warms up enough, I will try and paint some black over the symbol.  Make it not so noticeable.  I'm not sure what the fabric is. Whether its "real" or synthetic but I am going with natural as it is difficult to discharge synthetic, I think.  It's soft, light and very warm to wear in the Winter.  One of the things I would grab first in an emergency exit from the house.  It can "be" anything.  Bathing suit coverup to warm shawl.

I am having to decide:  Read my book.  Watch television.  I cannot do both anymore.  Due to the new prescription in my glasses.  If I read for an hour (which is what happened with Glass Houses) then watching the television screen was good.  If I read my "Scarred Woman" by Adler-Olsen--and I find it hard to put down--- the television images are blurry and hard to focus.  I timed how long the effect lasts--- 3 to 4 hours (after reading for 2 or more hours) and my vision was still no good for television watching.  I had been reading for several hours in the afternoon.  By morning the effects had worn off.  My eyes had recovered.  But I am wondering if permanent damage could occur?  I may revert to my older glasses.  The only thing about them was my super near vision was crap--couldn't thread a needle or read the tiny print on medicine bottles.  Now I can read super-super fine print.

I have boxes (2) of ripe tomatoes on the kitchen floor.  I MUST decide to "do something" with them or compost them.  Fruit flies and gnats.  Infesting the kitchen.  This was the year when my tomatoes were very slow (to never) really getting started.  And somehow people gave me tomatoes.  They had far too many.  My zucchini never really was productive.  Managed to only grow "just enough" to make pickles twice or three times.  No extra for zucchini patties or zucchini butter or ratatouille which in previous summer I made at least three big batches..  None for zucchini fried in a pan--I ate that every single day last summer on the elimination diet.

So--in the records of garden successes--2017 goes down as a "not so good" but--I wasn't that interested in eating produce this summer.  No cucumbers equaled no thin sliced cucumbers in sour cream dill sauce.  I ate VATS of that in previous summers. Zero this year.  In fact, I have no memories of anything  I ate this summer.  Besides grocery store brownies.

I think I will go directly to the boxes and select the best of them and make a nice pot of tomato soup for G.  With cheesy dumplings.  Ones I make in a coffee cup just like Gramma.  Stir up the batter and drop into boiling water---dumplings.  From the Austria-Hungarian Empire.

If I even had the vaguest remembrance of how it was made--I would put on a pot of the cabbage carrot veal and pork stew by grandmother made especially for me served over boiled yeast bread dumplings.  Oh, gramma.  Why didn't we write these recipes down?????????

So, okay--- fresh tomato soup with basil from the garden.