September 1st today.  Moving day for grandson, Matthew.  Dennis and Matthew loaded the truck and are on their way to Houston (BC) to move Matthew into an apartment.  He will start Grade 12 on Tuesday.  Very exciting for him, but stressful for sure.  His first time living on his own.  At least we are just an hour and a half away so he can come out on weekends for a square meal and get his laundry done. 

I picked beans yesterday and must process them for the freezer today.  While picking I spotted a weird fruiting body on a potato plant.  Here they are:

I have never seen these things on a potato plant ever.  I looked on the internet for potato abnormalities.  I found they are not all that uncommon.  They are the true seed pods of the potato.  If cut open they reveal a lot of very tiny seeds within the fruit.  However, they are extremely toxic.  Potatoes and tomatoes are both from the nightshade family, which produce the toxic alkaloid solanine.  I think I will just let them carry on and ripen and perhaps save the seeds to see if I can actually start a potato from seed, rather than another potato.  Kind of interesting, I thought.

The neighbours down the lake have reported frost for 2 nights now.  We have not had any frost here.  We seem to be in a frost-free micro-climate.  My bean plants and even tomatoes are still green and blooming.  Funny, I have tomatoes in the garden that just sprouted from the un-rotted compost that we threw into the garden over the winter.  The soil was tilled in the spring.  There are about 4 very healthy tomato plants growing in amoung the beans, peas and potatoes.  I doubt they will produce fruit as they are all just blooming now. 

I was listening to CBC Radio 1 and heard a discussion about minor hockey leagues.  It appears some provinces have developed a course for minor hockey parents, teaching them proper etiquette for watching minor hockey games.  Has it come to this?  Have we, as adults, drifted so far from polite behaviour that we need a course teaching us how to behave while watching our children play hockey?  I guess we have as the coaches are all behind the course being compulsory for parents prior to being allowed to watch games.  How on earth did we become so rude, pushy and obnoxious?  I always thought that we Canadians had more couth and manners.  Sadly, we don't.

Please feel free to comment on anything you read or see here.  I am interested if anyone else has ever seen those berry-like clusters on their potatoes. 

bye for now.