A surprise October harvest

I went out to the garden this afternoon not expecting to find much... and was very surprised. Pleasantly so. Remarkably so. This is the middle of October, and look at all of the RED tomatoes. Some went into soup immediately, and some will go into a pizza or more soup to freeze tomorrow. There were also quite a lot of peppers - pimento, orange (well, green.. but they would have been orange) and plain green bell. I cut those up for freezing.


Wow!
Esme approves...


Some of them are Cherokee Purple, a few Black Prince, and Mark thinks the others are Jet Star and Brandywine. One Mr.Stripey yellow tomato to the side and there was another half-bad Stripey I cut immediately to save the good parts out of for the soup.

And that is without getting nowhere near the amount of cowpeas and beans that are out there. I need to do more with them tomorrow, now that these tomatoes and peppers are taken care of.


Also, further evidence that yes.. I do need to make a few more long sleeved dresses for this winter. Compare the sleeve on this dress last February to the picture of the same dress above. The dress didn't shrink, not that much! ;)


Looking at the candy in the fridge...


Tomatoes!


Simplicity 5137, dated 1963
Size 5

I had made a dress from the pattern on the left way back nearly two years ago... long before Esme would fit that size. It has been put away in the 'future box' since then. I took it out and washed it and today, it seems to be just a bit too big on her... not swamping her as it would have then. The sleeves are the right length. The skirt is very long - but I followed the pattern instead of making it shorter, as I usually do so she could wear it with pants. It also did not have the back ties I'm used to seeing on her. With back ties and a shorter skirt, it would be gold for making her next dress out of.


Simplicity 2714 child coat pattern, 1958

I have a coat pattern also, that is pictured above and similar to this other one. I post this other one because of something in the instructions that caught me and held. "Matching pants are lined and have suspenders, side zipper, elastic waistline casing and knitted anklets." Knitted anklets? What a beautiful idea! It reminds me of something very old I had as a child, at my grandparents house. A pair of heavy cloth/denim snowpants (instead of plastic coated!) that had a white cloth lining inside and ribbed cuffs at the bottom sewn on. It was such a warm cozy feeling not to have snow coming up into your pants legs. Where did that idea go?

I also remember the little Nordic mittens they had found, too.. navy blue with a red and white jumping reindeer knitted on the backs. I don't know how old those were when they gave them to me... feel like they scraped things out of old drawers back then to keep me warm when I visited. Years later I remember going through one of the large built-in cabinet drawers in their house and finding a single mitten tucked in the back of one. Now, it is locked in my memory...