This year I have been growing some tomato plants on my kitchen window sill.  They have grown very tall, produced loads and loads of leaves and, despite producing lots of flowers had, until now, shown no sign of any fruit.  Today I noticed that beween the three plants I have five baby tomatoes growing!

It is considerably more than a decade since I last grew tomatoes, and last time I had a really bumper harvest, so much so that I ended up making green tomato chutney in the autumn (yum).  This year, it is looking like I might get just enough for a tasty snack, though the growing has been fun.

It was a very pleasant surprise to spot the baby toms today... I just need to make very sure they get fed and watered from now until they are ready to gobble up! (No pressure cat-sitters!!)

Thank you God, for small things...

Anyone who has read this blog regularly over the last couple of years may recall this post and this one and this one.  I was very grateful to AE, as I referred to her, for the two jigsaws that helped me learn to concentrate again after my surgery, and which kindled a pleasure I had never anticpated (being very myopic jigsaws were torture to me as a young child before I had glasses).  Sadly, news reached me today that after a period of illness AE has died, her long and well-enjoyed life complete.  Free from the pain and suffering of recent weeks, she is now able to enter the promised rest of her Lord and Saviour.  Rest peacefully, AE, and thank you for touching my life for the good.

It's embarrassing... I have not ironed for four weeks now, though all the washing is up to date, and I still have LOADS of clean, ironed clothes in the wardrobe.  Time, then for a declutter, a systematic, non-sentimental (well almost) sift through the things that hang there unworn and really ought to be passed on to charity shops or even for rags (arguably some are almost museum pieces, such as the C&A blouses I bought in 1988! (and I actually wore one as fancy dress a few weeks back)).

So now there are a couple of small cases and a couple of bags full of stuff... seven suits in assorted colours, goodness knows how many white blouses that date back to my industry days, a variety of 'ugh' cardigans and jumpers I have been gifted at various points (some still NWT in Ebay language) and various other items that I have long stopped wearing.

It was an interesting exercise, one I do every couple of years (with varying degrees of ruthlessness), partly because I could clearly remember when and where I bought most of the items, and why I bought them (hence why they have hung there so long).  Many happy memories stirred or people and places.

It was also a very sobering exercise in how much material wealth we take for granted in the west.  I quick count showed that I still have twelve suits in the wardrobe, and though I chucked out all the winter skirts (nothing under a decade old!) still more than enough outfits to keep me going for a long, long time.

Next job... start on the ironing mountain.  Not a task I like, but I love the results... and it will be good to be back on track to weekly quantities again!

If cleanliness is next to godliness, then maybe a bit of decluttering constitues a step towards holiness?!

Cease

Desist

Halt

Pause

Wait

Quit

Refrain

Conclude

Suspend

... and many other alleged synonyms.

Be still... this is where shabbat begins, this is how sabbatical starts... with stopping, stilling, be-ing not do-ing.

So this is advance posted for Week 1 Day 1, when the only thing in my dairy is 'sleep'