The last of the tomatoes

still ripening outside.  It's been a different year in the garden, with this little pot of cherry tomatoes still ripening, the only ones left outside.  They're up against a wall that gets afternoon sun (when there is any), but it's time to pick them.   A variety of salad greens are still flourishing, and I love having a salad every day with them, the tomatoes, carrots and onions from our own garden.  Growing season hasn't lasted this long since I started gardening again a few years ago.  It's time to think about planting garlic but it's been too wet to get the beds ready.  Soon, I hope.  A quick emergency blip today, and more for my own records of the garden than anything else.  
This afternoon we're going to a celebration of the Life of Brian.   Brian Rowley (1931-2016) was a fixture in Fulford, found most mornings enjoying a coffee and reading the paper with Phil Barnard in their usual spot at the Rock Salt Cafe.  Phil passed away a few months ago and now Brian is gone too.  I miss seeing them and exchanging a few laughs most mornings when I went down for a paper.  Brian had a twinkle in his eyes and a sense of mischief about him, and he always sprinkled our conversations with a few words of Italian, especially when G was with me.  He'd spent some time in Italy as a young man.  I couldn't believe his age when I saw the notice of the celebration in the paper.  The last time I'd talked to him, he said that his knees had given out and he'd had a fall.  I hadn't seen him for a few days, so asked one of the servers in the Rock Salt.  He'd had a stroke and died shortly after.  It was a shock.  It's very fitting that the celebration of his life is being held at the cafe.
I know he wouldn't mind the reference to Monty Python at all.
I took photos of Brian and Phil in 2013 for A Day in the Life of Salt Spring, a little insert that comes in the local paper every summer.  I've included them as extras.  The one of Phil was published, but not the one of Brian.   It's just so strange to see other people sitting in those two chairs by the window when I walk by now.