Cleavage and a Volunteer on Outdoor Wednesday!

Today's Blog Headlines:

Brazen Tomatoes Flaunt Their Cleavage!
or
The Real Tomatoes of New Jersey!
or
????
C'mon, help me out. What would your headline be?

It's Outdoor Wednesday at That Old House -- click here to visit other posts about the Great Outdoors; there are always amazing photographs to marvel over, and lots of entries.

Thanks to Susan of A Southern Daydreamer for hosting

one of the most popular blog parties!

***************************************************************

I never got a proper vegetable patch planted this summer; instead I just tucked in herbs and a few tomato plants here and there. The tomatoes did surprisingly well, as you can tell in this photo from earlier in the summer:

This morning I plucked three ripe fruits off one plant. Like many homegrown tomatoes that aren't sprayed,
and that suffer brutal neglect on the part of the gardener, they are not exactly gorgeous:

History tells us that they will taste wonderful, despite their plug-ugly faces.

But. . . I think my tomatoes have tried to beautify themselves. Take a look at this:

My tomatoes went and got silicone implants.

My, how perky!

Yes, even the third tomato off this plant looks like ....

Three of them. This tomato plant was particularly well-endowed.

I'm going to feel like a plastic surgeon cutting these babies up. Scalpel!

***********************************************************************

Sigh . . . it is coming on autumn. The wax begonias, bless their little hearts, are still pumping out the blooms along the conservatory foundation.
They will probably last till nearly Thanksgiving.

Black eyed Susans are still in bloom, although not quite as exuberantly as in August:

Near them, in the border, the phlox is fast pooping out:

Back in late spring, in front of the ferns in the border, I found a small plant hanging over the low stone retaining wall; I thought it was a weed and nearly yanked it, but then I looked closer at its foliage. Very small mum-like leaves, so I left it and watched it slowly grow larger and larger, all summer. This is our mystery plant now:

Yeah, it grew pretty big.

And has lots of buds.

Clearly it is some sort of mum. The flowers are dinky -- maybe only an inch across.

But they are a lovely spot of color in a border that's mostly fading flowers now:

Meanwhile, across from this Mystery Mum, the rose bush behind the house which hasn't bloomed since June,
and whose blooms were eaten by deer anyway, popped out this little rose:

One rose. Talk about a late bloomer! I hope the deer don't find it.

We had enough rain this summer that we never had the usual brown August lawn. (We don't water our lawn; I believe in survival of the fittest, and tough love.) But, sadly, it's beginning to play host to falling leaves. Just a few so far, but I know they are there:

Those are footsteps in the grass, not brown spots. :-)


Thanks for visiting That Old House on Outdoor Wednesday. Now go check out what others are looking out in the Great Outdoors, for there is no better decorator anywhere than Mother Nature.

Please leave a comment if you have time, on any blog you visit;
it's lovely to know someone came by and it is especially encouraging to new bloggers.

Happy Mid-Week! --- Cass