Tomatoes, Floods, and a Book

64 this morning, overcast and cool all day. A welcome break from heat and rain.

What a change in the weather! So nice to be cool again, and it appears that this trend may continue, although with a few rain showers. 

The county below us has had extensive flooding this week with a good bit of damage.  So sad for all those families whose homes got water inside. Bridges and roads were washed out, and I understand there were several water rescues. 3.5 inches of water in less than an hour can certainly wreak havoc in mountain communities. Larry stopped at the store on his way home from jury duty and said that the bottled water aisle was almost empty, and he was unable to find the toilet paper we usually buy. I suppose supplies are being sent to our neighbors to the south.

While he was at jury duty I was, where else?, in the kitchen, finishing up the last of the tomatoes. I had almost a bushel left, so I made more salsa and pasta sauce. We are almost out of quart canning jars, just a very few left. I do have some pints, though, and will be using them Thursday to put up the beets, and maybe some blueberry pie filling since I picked up blueberries for a very reasonable price yesterday.

This dresser is my project for tomorrow. It's been waiting for almost a week while I've been busy with other things. I need to get it done as a granddaughter is coming soon and this thing will be in the way.

This afternoon while waiting on the canner to process I started reading this little book, picked up a while back at the antique mall. 

 I had never heard of J.B. Priestley, who apparently had quite a career as a writer, playwright and social commentator. The book is a collection of essays centered around the theme of delight--things that the author finds simple pleasure in, like fountains, small shops, etc. It's an easy pleasant read that has me smiling or nodding often. Published in 1949, I suppose some of Mr. Priestley's opinions are out of style now, but that doesn't bother me. I really do like the quote on the cover.

I have been hearing on the news about the drought and heat in England, and it sounds terrible. We are used to temperatures in the 90s here, and our homes, habits, and clothing are adapted to it, but England is not. I had to lugh at one news story, though. It seems that people were forbidden to water their gardens, but the golf courses were still allowed to water. Some people were so outraged that they filled up the holes on some courses with concrete.  Might make a difficult course even harder! (Pun completely intended).

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