Growing and making

After a long wait and some disappointment along the way, the tomato plants are finally bearing ripe fruit! We ceremonially shared the red one in this picture, and its neighbours are now looking ready to pluck. (They're cherry tomato plants, so yes, the fruit is meant to be that small.)

Unfortunately the leaves aren't doing so well, suffering from something-or-other that's making them wilt and die, one branch at a time. Tomatoes appear to suffer from a bewildering variety of pests and diseases, and I don't know what's wrong with mine this time. Sometimes I wonder if this gardening thing is worth the effort. We've hardly had an abundance of crop - though it is my first real try at growing vegetables, and in a very different climate as well. Maybe next time I should stick to prickly pears.

A friend organised a jewellery-making class recently, so I went along and managed to produce something wearable. In fact the process is very easy. You find yourself some pretty paper, and sandwich two pieces back-to-back between pieces of microscope slide. Then you wrap adhesive copper tape around the edges to hold it together. The fun part is using a soldering iron to spread solder all over the copper tape for the silver effect - and the hardest part is trying to get it smooth! Add a loop and chain, and bingo! you have a beautiful reversible pendant. It seems like an infinitely adaptable technique which requires relatively little equipment - definitely one to remember.

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