This morning I did a surgical thinning in the cucumbers, removing two of the four vining plants. One of them offered a parting gift of the largest cuke to date, a big honker tucked in behind a low wall of stones that edge the garden. The dead vines wilt very quickly and I'll cut and pull them out. It seems proximity to other plants is also part of the bitter taste problem, and they've intertwined. Who knows if pruning this late in the season will help. Adding calcium to the tomatoes helped the blossom end rot within a couple of weeks, so I have my fingers crossed.

This is the week between my daughter's and my birthdays, so it's a kind of lazy time and we'll plan to do a celebratory lunch soon. Charmion also has a birthday coming up - anything special going on? Choosing paint colors for the new bedrooms? Window coverings for the front of the house? Or do you have a plan to actually pamper yourself after the huge amount of work you've accomplished this summer?