No real knitting to show, so..

I've been working on a sleeve of Khaki Cables, but I took a number of days off knitting because of hand problems, and the progress just isn't exciting. So I will distract you with garden and house plant photos. Many of these plants were gifts from my friend Nancy, who is very generous with cuttings. September is just the start of the harvest in San Diego, despite the slight autumnal turn in temperature.

Little green tomatoes:



These are mini and regular sized African violets:




And finally — this last little cutting doesn't look like much, but it represents hope to me.

Back in 1965, when I was born and my maternal grandparents moved into their home high in the Hollywood Hills, my paternal grandparents gave my maternal grandparents the gift of some plants for their new home — cuttings from their own garden. They gave them a stephanotis, a champagne grape, a gardenia. They also had a loquat — we're not sure if this was a gift or a suggestion.

My last grandparent died in February, and this summer, the house was sold. We took cuttings from the plants, and tried hard to get them going, but it was a challenge. My parents' and aunt's attempts all failed. Mine were looking pretty grim, and just before the house went out of escrow, I grabbed a last few. Many of those died too. I was left with just one success — a grapevine cutting that took — and a couple of cuttings in water that haven't yet completely given out. The cuttings in soil mostly died, and I was puzzled by this one remaining gardenia twig, which I'd planted back in April and which was, oddly, still green despite having no leaves. Until last week:
It's blurry, I know, but you can see tiny baby leaves peeking out from the top of the cutting where the dead leaves are. That was a few days ago and now they are starting to unfurl a little. Cross your fingers and make a wish for me!