During this ‘ stay at home’ period in California, my husband and I have dabbled in an assorted array of activities. I make it sound like we are very industrious but it is a battle against boredom and to not get depressed. I have immersed myself deeper in genealogy, learned to navigate online grocery shopping, and practiced horticulture in my back yard. My husband was first to order a small selection of vegetable seedlings and potting soil with the goal of growing vegetables on our patio. The little plants waited patiently on the patio to be potted, slowly wilting, when my daughter and I took the initiative to transplant them into several large pots. We all have enjoyed seeing the plants grown and bear some fruit or vegetables. We have had lots of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, some chili peppers, and an eggplant starting to come in. Then we spotted some invisible critter had taken a lot of the tomatoes and chewed on the eggplant. We have decided it is a rabbit or maybe a rodent. Whatever this critter is at least it does not like cucumbers. So, I have been able to harvest some of them and make a couple of jars of sweet pickles. I had thought making sweet pickles would be hard but I found an easy recipe. My grandmother used to make a sweet pickle she called ‘chow-chow.’ I’m the only one here that likes sweet pickles so I get them all to myself. Another cool thing I noticed is that the cucumber plant has tendrils that is wraps around the metal climbing support my husband put in the pots. It’s hanging on tight. The eggplant is starting to bloom again so I am intent on preventing the moocher from chewing on the fruit again. I bought this tent gismo with netting and we will see if this does the trick. It would be exciting to have our own homegrown eggplant.
The recipe I used for my sweet pickles included with link below:
Easy Summertime Sweet Pickle Recipe
Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “spot.” Write whatever image the word “spot” invokes.
Notes Tied On The Sagebrush 
I love hearing about your gardening efforts. I just started some tomato plants. We’ll see what happens. I have some parsley and thyme growing that Adam’s girls gave me for Mother’s Day which at the time were just pots with the soil and seeds in them.
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Even if the efforts are not totally successful it is nice to watch the plants grow. I hope you get some tomatoes to go with your herbs. Thank you, Cynthia
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Very industrious hope you can prevent your greedy visitor/ visitors enough so you can enjoy the fruits of your labours! 💜
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Let’s see if the eggplant can grow undisturbed. Thank you, Willow.
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Fingers crossed 🤞🤞
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😀 Thank you.
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💜💜
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At least you’re getting come cukes. We’ve been so dry here, that critters are eating things they haven’t bothered with for over 30 years.
Hang in there.
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I think the critters here were happy to have something new on the menu and made pretty quick work of it. Yes, at least the cucumbers survived. Hang in there, too. Thank you, Dan.
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We miss our garden. 2020 is the first time in the last decade that we took the year off. Our spoil had turned and we needed to treat it. Hope the netting works on the eggplant. Eggplant is a fave of mine.
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Well it was pretty easy using this pots I had in my yard if you want to consider something smaller. I will have to report on the progress with the eggplant if it comes to maturity intact. Thank you, Jill
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Isn’t it neat to see the seeds start to sprout! Fresh vegetables are so good. Best luck with yours after being nibbled on. My grandma made chow chow, too. It was really good. 🙂
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Yes it’s fun to watch the plants grow and interesting. I am glad I can make sweet pickles now. Thanks for the good wishes.
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Isn’t it great that there are plants that make flowers AND vegetables! I hope the net gizmo works.
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It’s really a great experience to see how the plants grow. I hope the gizmo works, too. So far so good. 🙂
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lovely to read of your gardening efforts Deborah thank you! We’re also growing things … spinach growing out of our ears, some nice lettuce and parsley and some other veg are beginning to sprout. I think there’s some broccoli there and chinese cabbage
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Sounds delicious. That is great you can go in your yard and harvest so many things. 🙂
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