I sat down with cloth scraps last night to see how it goes to piece things together, and it looks like I tossed some of the smaller ones that would have worked, but will still manage with what I have because the new blocks can be cut and reassembled. So I'm learning.

This morning has been a push to clear fridge contents into smaller containers and process stuff waiting for attention. The beets were simmered until soft several days ago and have finally been peeled and diced. All of the tomatoes I blanched, peeled, and simmered yesterday were run through the food mill and now await the step of making Italian-style sauce. All year I've been using sauce I made and froze last fall but I'm down to the last jar, so this is a combination of purchased fruits and a few overripe small ones from the garden (not enough to do much with by themselves and too weird to slice for salads.)

The aftereffects of that cold are still with me, but I'm carefully managing them with the neti pot and decongestants. My taste and smell are still a bit reduced because of it. This seems to be a fairly aggressive head cold making the rounds, according to my hairdresser, who because she talks to so many people in the course of a week has a pretty good sense of what is going on in the surrounding community. Seriously, it's the same as the barbershop conversations. Lots of anecdotal information is shared. :)

Garden work today (watering this morning) and some chopping/prying/sawing to finish removing the big root in the way of finishing the fence in the backyard.