Miraculous fruit

I planted some tomato seedlings a few weeks ago. They have been accumulating little branches with flowers, and then I saw one day that tiny green shiny balls had appeared where the pistil was. Two days ago I sat outside for a lot of the day and watched as the little fruits on the lowermost branch turned from a greenish-yellow to a full orange by the end of the day. These are the first fruit that I have ever grown myself and it's just such a miracle watching them grow. I have a similar feeling watching large flowers come from a tiny bud at the node, grow outward, grow a pedicel, sepals, petals, stamens and carpels. It's just amazing that a hunk of cells "knows what to do."

In any case, my miraculous bounty (of 10-20 cherry tomatoes, ha ha) is arriving just in time for my trip far and away (to a greener place!) for a few weeks. They will have to be part of the reward for my house-sitter.

Eat tomatoes and feel blessed!

Fern Shelf

Well I took apart a shelf on the "free table" at school and salvaged the boards. So, here is my fabulous dorky fern shelf. I bought several at botanic garden sales, and the really big one is from the supermarket. They have been getting too much sun now that the sun angle stays low throughout the day, and the big one got fried when I tried to move them, but they'll do better now. They'll be a little higher too.

Luckily frost hasn't been a concern yet. The Staghorn fern (epiphyte on left, attached to board) should probably come inside if we got a frost, as well as the bird's nest fern in the middle. The other haggard-looking one in the middle is the native Woodwardia fimbriata. Supposedly it gets up to 6 feet tall in the woods up north, and I think should be somewhat frost-hardy. I'll need to repot to get it that big, of course. We'll just see if I can keep it alive.
The african violet on the right is just hanging out- obviously not a fern.