The start of summer has just passed and the days are officially getting shorter. One could hardly tell it from the heat-sparked thunderstorms frequently rolling through, their thick clouds struggling to blanket the long evenings and finally bring some relief from the stubbornly lingering sun. We're having lots of rain day after day and the garden is thirstily drinking it up after baking all day under sunlight as strong as a heat lamp shining down on the plants.

It was a little cooler in the past week with the highs only going into the high 80 degrees F instead of the 90's. It still seems awfully hot and muggy for this early in summer, but the tomatoes are thriving and finally showing some yellow and orange blushes on their biggest fruits. There was one small Roma tomato that was almost red.

The tomatoes are now leaning heavily in their cages and pulling a few cages over. The ample aisles I left between the rows are filled with tomato vines pouring over the tops of the cages and escaping from the middle rows of wire. These tomato plants are already half again as big as the ones I grew last year and are still growing. It's going to be a struggle to fight my way into the middle of the jungle for the fruit, but I'm eagerly looking forward to the first tomato feasts.

The tomatoes, the squashes, and of course the weeds are truly enjoying the heat wave. The squashes have lots of blooms but still no fruit yet. Perhaps the horseshoe of daylilies surrounding them with fireworks of orange and red blooms shooting up profusely will encourage them, or at least encourage the bees to more diligence for their neighbors.

Their pumpkin relatives got planted last week and are up to claim their share of sunlight and heat as well. There was an early winter squash plant which evidently grew from an undigested seed in one of the tumbler's load of compost. It already has yellow blooms but no fruit set yet. I waited until summer to plant the first pumpkins to let them ripen as close to frost as possible to keep longer into the winter. I still have one packet of pumpkin seed to go in a little later.

The spring clearance sales are now in full swing at the garden centers and gardening catalogs. We're getting ready for the fall garden here, my broccoli and cabbage seedlings enjoying the air conditioning while starting their first true leaves under the plant light. Their outdoor brethren are sulking in the heat, the last of the broccoli pretty much finished and the cabbages mostly shredded to green lace by the offspring of the cabbage butterflies.

They were unusually numerous this year and I finally let them have the cabbages for the sake of protecting the broccoli. It costs much more to buy broccoli in the store than cabbage, after all. The cabbages are trying to make little heads, but I don't expect too much from them. Sometimes nature wins when one doesn't want to resort to the chemical arsenal and the gentler remedies fail to halt the onslaught.

The cat-mockingbird war is largely over for the year. One grumpy mockingbird occasionally swoops down on Rascal, but that is likely a grudge match rather than the need to protect its young. The young birds are largely on their own while their tired parents find a quick meal for themselves before retreating to a safe perch away from the feline hunters below.

The young squirrels are also scattering, seeking new homes and territories for themselves. Occasionally one sees a slim youngster foolishly dangling on the end of a long branch or nosing in the grass too close to cats and humans for its own good. The school of hard knocks and close escapes will soon teach them to take more care watching for the predators and cars.

The patchwork vest may be evolving into a jacket. I'm working on the long ribbing around the front opening. I'm making a wide one to serve as a double-breasted button closure with a turn-down collar. I'm at the point of making the second row of buttonholes, then a few more rows and crocheting around the buttonholes will finish that part. Next I get to decide if I want to make sleeves or just put a ribbing around the armholes to make a vest after all.

I had a delay working on it because of a molar that had to be removed by an oral surgeon. I bit down on a bone chunk in a meat patty and jammed the tooth. Given the general state of my health, that called for more than a dentist to rectify the problem. I'm doing well now and once again chipping away at yet another backlog of jobs on the organizer from my unexpected dental vacation.