u/MyAnnoyingOpinions

It’s the end of September in southern Minnesota and a cold death will soon be on the garden. My peppers don’t know this though as they’re still setting flowers and fruit. I’ve been picking everything that’s sizing up except my Hungarian Blacks, many of which have become large and glossy. This is going to sound stupid but I only discovered this year—after growing them for the previous two—that these ripen to red! After a couple of small ones turned to red on the counter I’ve been leaving them on the plants. But boy, are they taking their time. I was on the verge of finally just picking them yesterday when I found a reason to keep the faith.

My garden is mostly about tomatoes but towards the end of our short growing season in southern Minnesota it’s the peppers’ time to shine.

A lot of shishitos picked today (below the cucumber). And some peperoncini, sweet bananas and serranos as well (above the cucumber). Plenty of fruit still on the plants.

I’ve been looking for the iBorrys leather half case in brown for a while for my Zf. It fleetingly came back in stock on Amazon and I managed to order one. Took just about a week for delivery. I like the look and the fit but I’m unsure about one part of the case in the front (above the lens removal button) where the leather does not lay flat against the camera. I’m not sure, however, if that’s just par for the course for cases of this kind or if this one is flawed and I should return it. Can anyone who has this case from iBorrys (in whatever colour) weigh in on whether this is how it is with yours as well?

Thanks in advance.

Other pics included for reference for anyone interested in how this looks on the camera.

In the three days since I last made it to our community garden plot, we got some light rain and a lot of sun (but not too much heat). As a result, a lot of tomatoes ripened at once: almost all the Amish Pastes, many of the Striped Germans and Big Rainbows, most of the remaining Green Zebras. Lots of ripe San Marzanos too but I literally did not have enough room in my containers to carry them away and so did not pick any of those or any cherry or grape tomatoes.

1. Today’s haul.
2. Just over 24 lbs of Amish Pastes.
3. Big Rainbows and a single Brandywine.
4. Striped Germans and Green Zebras.
5. Current counter situation. Need our friends to step it up and do their bit in addressing it.

…but they’re not done yet.

Entering September and the days are getting shorter; and here in southern Minnesota, the first frost could be just a couple of weeks away. You might not be able to tell from what my garden is still putting out though. I know it’s not going to be like this for much longer but it sure is satisfying to bring in these hauls a few times a week.

The San Marzanos are making their last push; still a lot of Amish Pastes ripening on the plants. The Brandywines are entering their end days as well. The Ananas Noire and Black Krim are pretty much done. But the Big Rainbows and the Pork Chop are going strong, as are the Green Zebras. The Striped German has not been super prolific but there are quite a few small-medium fruit on it that are beginning to ripen. The Chocolate Cherry is the only still pumping out flowers and fruit—the Brad’s Atomic Grape is loaded with fruit but it’ll be done once they ripen.

I swear I have no idea how this happened. Did manage to get it out.

1. Tuesday

2. Thursday

3. Sunday

1. Today’s harvest.
2. The San Marzanos are coming.
3. The Amish Pastes are not far behind.
4. The Chocolate Cherries and Brad’s Atomic Grapes are keeping on keeping on.
5. The Brandywines have joined the party bigly.
6. Other slicers include more Black Krims and Green Zebras, the first Big Rainbow of the season, and my first-ever Pork Chops.

A bunch of Black Krims yesterday and another couple of Ananas Noires. The Big Rainbows and Pork Chops haven’t begun to turn yet and there are a lot of Brandywines and Striped Germans in a holding pattern as well. Meanwhile, the sauce tomatoes and Chocolate Cherries keep coming.

Pics 2 and 3 are of the current counter situation at home. Time to start distributing.

My Amish Pastes and a few of the other large heirlooms (Big Rainbow, Pork Chop) are taking their own sweet time to ripen (the plants are laden) but we’re getting tomatoes at a steady tick anyway. Today, a number of San Marzanos at different stages of turning (plus a few green drops that will be turned into chutney), a couple of Striped Germans, a couple of Black Krims, and a clutch each of Brad’s Atomic Grapes and Chocolate Cherries.

The time of the Brandywine has come.

Also brought home today: some San Marzanos that had turned and a bunch of green ones that had dropped. Plus an Amish Paste, a Black Krim and a single solitary Chocolate Cherry. (Plus the inevitability that is cucumber.)

I was out of town for two weeks. My teenaged sons—who’ve been helping with the garden for the last 5-6 years—did a great job of taking care of our community garden plot while I was gone. Not quite as good a job of spotting cucumbers though—these Japanese cucumbers are not supposed to get quite as massive as some of these got, hiding at the back of the vines.

I feel a little nervous posting these pics as I'm not by any means an accomplished photographer. But as I've been looking at everyone else's pics for a while, I figured I would throw some in as well.

These were taken very much on the go this evening at a wet market (mostly a fish market) in Sikanderpur in Gurgaon (a suburb of Delhi). All quick shots while trying to stay out of people's way. The lens is the 24-70/4 S. Other than having to move quickly and not always having time/space to compose shots well, the light was a challenge as pretty much every stall had more than one kind of artificial light (plus natural light). I shot everything at f8, 1/125 and let the camera decide the IS0. Adjusted the white balance etc. in NX Studio as best as I could.

How many miles do you think I could get for this?

I’d meant to purchase the Think Tank Digital Holster 20 for my ZF but it seems I accidentally purchased the 10. Didn’t notice till it arrived and because of a delivery delay it’s probably not going to be possible to get a new one sent out before the trip I was hoping to take it on with just the 24-70 4S as an all-purpose lens.

Now, the camera fits with either that lens or the 50 1.8S attached, and with the bag’s bottom compartment unzipped/extended even takes the camera with my old 70-300 DX zoom + the FTZII attached. But in all cases it’s just short of a tight fit in terms of the width of the camera and it’s also a bit snug at the top. Do I ideally want a little more space between the top of the camera and the top of the holster? I may be overthinking this—it’s just that my previous case had a bit more room (though it was crappier in every other way).