Here is my tomatoes bounty, snatched from the blackened tendrils of blight! My bowl doesn’t quite floweth over…but at least reaches the brim. I had feared just a lonesome survivor rolling around in the base, looking for a sandwich bijou enough to fill.

And there are a few more ripening I hope to pick by Thursday (come on sun – shine, shine, shine – it’s time to sling your hero’s hat on).

The Japanese Trifele are delicious and some which are still green on the vine are growing into quite sizeable fruit. I would certainly make it a variety “worthy of consideration”  if somewhere in the back of your mind you are not content just to live in the present and have a little list of potentials for next year tucked away in there somewhere!

The first photo was taken on the 14th of July, the second today – eight days later. I don’t think the lower fruits look a great deal larger in size but those higher up the truss have moved on from pea-size to taken on their tomato likeness.

And I like that in the first photo, just above the truss, there is a solo flower, that in the second photo, has most definitely become a fruit.

A second truss/cluster on the unknown plant. I like these varieties which have tomatoes bunched like grapes. It feels very generous – like you can just keep picking – and no one will notice. As opposed to pulling one off a straight truss and leaving a gap in the row – like a missing tooth.

And then the look of the Japanese Trifele. Handsome, solid and dignified but slightly comical too – like a rotund, red wool waistcoated station-master from the days of up- and down-lines . A gorgeous tomato to look at. I know that the true taste is in the eating but how they look hanging about on the vine counts for a lot as well. And this cluster is like coming across a hidden clutch of eggs, laid by a tomato loving hen.

These are the other tomato fruit to appear… introducing them feels like that bit of the concert where the lead singer puts proceedings on a repeating riff and introduces all the band members in turn – and they each get to give their instrument a little solo moment in the spotlight. So in no particular order we have…Green Zebra, Gardeners Delight and Sun Cherry Premium.

Sitting inside the pub looking out (cloud scrutiny dictated our choice) we were spared the “grab and dive for cover” that’s part of the “summer outdoors” experience of late. But it did strike me – as I took another sip of my undiluted drink – and watched the “get everything indoors quick relay” that it’s a shame we can’t nominate this now much practised drill as our home country’s sport of choice for 2012 – we’ll be consumate champions by then if this continues…

So I was hoping to get some photos of the Japanese Black Trifele as they are now heading for their eponymous colour via a deep brick, bronzy red but that will have to wait till the rain stops.

In the meantime today’s pictures were taken at the end of last week and show the lovely shapes the tomatoes are throwing. From pear to pincushion – they are all so pleasing!

With time lapse photography very well established this is hardly cutting edge technology! But on the other hand I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone shoot footage of a tomato plant…shooting out tomatoes. So having ooe’d and ahh’ed over the Sungold in the making at the end of last week – I thought I’d see what the changes were. Quite impressive!

This is what the same truss looked like 4 days previous:

Sungold flowers, fruit and a close up of the tiniest of the bunch.

More Dometica

I love the paint cascade effect of these Japanese Trifele. I feel if you washed over them with some water and a brush they would come up purple – just like the Magic Painting books of years gone by.

Tastyo – More paint effects and a generous little cluster.

And then cute Golden Sunrise pincushions.

These photos were all taken on Monday. They may have now been grilled by lightning – is that what they mean by Fried Green Tomatoes!?

I was worried that last night’s rain hadn’t come to pass -  it was stuck somewhere over France  – and that plants might wilt as I ‘d been counting on the promised downpours to do the watering for me. So today definitely turned into a case of be careful what you wish for.

I also forgot to mention yesterday that I got my first “Blight Warning” text of the year a couple of days ago. It seems really early – and I think it was for a “near miss” as opposed to a full Smith Period – but still – it brought me up sharp – I stared at the text, thinking , surely some mistake? But the weather today feels like just the sort of conditions for spores with nothing but evil on their minds to start greasing up their boards – just lying around in wait for that “perfect wave” of humidity and warmth to ride in on. Let’s hope that turns out to be another needless worry -at least for a while.