Category Archives: Blogging

Garden Spotting

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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.

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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. 

A Treatment From The Past Century May Help People Survive Coronavirus

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An article in the LA Times today ‘An Old remedy for new contagion‘ discusses the long history of the use of convalescent plasma in the treatment of deadly diseases before the development of vaccines in the 1940s. Convalescent serum is taken from the blood of people who have been infected and recovered. There are antibodies in their blood serum that will fight the disease. This treatment was used for diphtheria, smallpox, measles, polio, and tetanus successfully before vaccines. Immunologists in the US have come together to create “the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project, a consortium of 260 doctors and scientists from 57 institutions around the country. Members of their coalition have launched more than 50 laboratory studies and clinical trials…” (LA Times). The early results will be out soon. Let’s hope the results will show positive outcomes and can help save lives before we are able to have an effective vaccine.

Featured image of Dr. Emil Adolph Von Behring who won the Nobel Prize in 1901 for his work on convalescent serum in the treatment of diphtheria via Wikimedia.org

We Are The World Blogfest, #WATWB, is a monthly blogfest dedicated to “positive stories no matter where they’re found. It is all about spreading peace and humanity on social media.”  Co-hosts for this month,  Susan Scott, Peter Nena, Shilpa Garg, Inderpreet Kaur Uppal, and Eric Lahti welcome participants and encourage all to join in.

More Power

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More power to the people. This sounds like a slogan for the oppressed but I am talking about electrical power. We have had 4 power outages in 24 hours. One was just as I finished cleaning up the dinner dishes and found myself standing in a pitch black room. I made my way over to the cupboard where we keep the flashlights and first found one with dead batteries. My husband had another outside with him, but eventually I found one that worked. We are heading into a heat wave this weekend and not looking forward to more outages. There was one nice effect of living by flashlight. We set up 2 little flash lights in our bedroom and I really liked the softer light in our room. Makes me want to find lamps or light bulbs with softer light. The flashlight is such an important device. It was invented by David Misell in 1899. A bright idea!

I am ready for the next blackout

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is to start your post with the word ‘more.’

Image of the first Flashlight Patent from US Patent Office via Wikimedia.org

Checking In

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Each morning I check my email and read one or two newspapers online. Not every word but I skim through and pick out a few articles. The LA Times has a Coronavirus newsletter. We are stuck in place here waiting for some good news. They say it will take a couple of weeks to see if the steps taken now will slow the virus. We seem to take one step forward and two steps back. I know I am lucky to have a roof over me ,enough food, and my health so far. I have gotten very tired of washing dishes, though. I always found housework very tedious, but what am I complaining about. I am alive, I can read books, look out at my backyard and see the hummingbirds that visit the sage bushes every day, do some genealogy research, take walks with my daughter, and do online exercise. I even ordered some dumbbell weights, small ones. You’ll have to check back with me later to see how I am progressing with the exercise. I am starting with the little blue ones.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt words for today check/checque/Czech.

Links In A Long Chain

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“We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.”-Crosby, Stills, Nash &Young

As billion year old carbon our connections go way, way, back in the universe. I look for something to sustain me during this long epidemic in inspirational books. I just finished one by Jack Kornfield. In it he mentions that we are breathing in molecules from Julius Caesar’s last breath because the molecules were dispersed throughout the earth’s air. Better than breathing in a virus. So far away from ‘the garden,’ were we ever really meant to live in Eden? What can sustain us now? In Nazi concentration camps, people wrote poetry, and hid it in the walls.  Just like ancient molecules, written words passed down connect us. We are part of all who have come before, links in a long chain. ‘We are stardust, we are golden.’

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is ‘link.’

Featured image ‘We Are But Specks of Stardust’ by Jason Jacobs on Flickr.com

 

 

Three Coins In A Fountain

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My daughter’s painting of Sienna evokes a dream of travel to Italy.  The trip would have to include a tour of Rome. One stop there might be Trevi fountain. The legend of the fountain is that if you throw 3 coins into it, the first coin promises you will return to Rome, the second means that you will find romance, and the third coin guarantees you will be married.  Sounds better than online dating. The legend inspired the classic film and song ‘Three Coins in the Fountain.’ The film is a light romance about three American women who find love and marriage in Rome.

Our dream of trips are on hold right now. I know it will not be forever. We don’t have to give up our dreams.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Your prompt is the title and/or the lyrics of the first song that comes to mind when you look at the picture. 

Toss Up

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It will be a toss up between sheltering at home in the house or out in the backyard for this July 4th, the American day of Independence. I’m ok with a subdued holiday being not one for big gatherings even when we are not in the middle of an epidemic. Not a happy holiday for us in America this year. It’s been a little over 3 months since we started ‘shelter in place’ in California. I am now used to having my groceries delivered or doing curb side pick up. The libraries are still closed to patrons but we can do curbside pick up there as well. I just signed up for an online exercise class. I have been very sedentary. What would we do without our computers and the internet. I continue to discover more about my ancestors with genealogy research. Recently looked back at some who lived in New York in the early 1800s. It bothers me when I can’t find out what happened to them though. A daughter of my 5th Great Uncle was named Eramina. She was born about 1808. The only way I know she existed is from an Abstract of Wills of Delaware County (1834).  On a title page it lists the names of the uncle’s children. So I know when she was born but so far I can not find out any other information about her. I can try to imagine what her life was like. She would have been a tot during the War of 1812. She would not have heard the battle near Baltimore at Fort McHenry.

Artist’s depiction of Bombardment of Fort McHenry via Wikimedia.org

She lived in Middletown, Delaware County, New York.

Delaware County by Doug Kerr on Flickr.com

I wonder if she ever heard ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ sung.

We won’t watch fireworks displays this year but I don’t mind that. I can put up with the restrictions on my life right now especially when I know it is preventing the spread of infection. The choice to maintain these restrictions to help stamp out the infection or being reckless is not a toss up.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS,  is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is ‘toss.’

 

 

Speak To Me Flirty

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“I was so enchanted by your beauty that I ran into that wall over there. So I am going to need your name and number for insurance purposes.” -A.J. Baker

The lady thinks: Cute line. Isn’t it romantic and witty. Love an intelligent  guy with a sense of humor. I hope he’s on the level. Should I take a chance? 

He says: “Would you like to get a drink? I know a quiet café not far from here.”

She says: ” It’s raining outside.”

He says: ” I brought an umbrella.”

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “coffee, tea, or me.” Find a flirty phrase of your own or use “coffee, tea, or me” in your post. 

Featured image of ‘romantic love abstract’ by Claudia Dea on Flickr.com

Flirty Quote found on wiseoldsayings.com

ZZ Trivia

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Many ‘zz’ words are in the category of onomatopoeia, words that come from a sound associated with the thing they represent. Words like buzz, fizzy, sizzle and then my examples fizzle out. There used to be flavored soda drink tablets called Fizzies® that you dissolved in a glass of water and voila you got a glass of soda. They made a fizzy sound while melting. An abandoned health resort in California near the Majave National Preserve was called Zzyzx. Curtis H. Springer picked the name because he wanted it to be the last word in the English dictionary. That designation has been taken by zyzzyva in many dictionaries. You may wonder what is a zyzzyva? It is a South American weevil and a literary magazine based in San Francisco. It would be nice to be published in the latter.

Zzyzx Rd exit sign by Vezoy via Wikimedia.org

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt is ‘zz’, a word that has ‘zz’ in it.

Featured image of a ‘Zyzzyva’ via Matthew Fang on Flickr.com

 

Number One Fan Of The Little Guy

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Gavin and Meme hang out

I am a big fan of this little guy. Probably have to stand in line for Number One fan status with his other grandparents, my husband, and my daughter. We have been distancing since the beginning of ‘stay at home’ so just starting to have a visit with him up a little closer again. My daughter, Kate, caught this cute candid photo. Lifts my spirits to see him.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is  “fan.” Use it by itself or find a word that starts or ends with it.