Booty...Kicked

Today, we three went for a local hike, around and on Stone Mountain. We had intended to do the easier, longer hike around the base of the rock, but we ran out of time and had to take the Cherokee Trail back to the theme park area. The Cherokee Trail crosses over the side of the mountain, and crosses the walk-up trail to the top at an elevation of 1165 feet (it is 1685 feet to the top of the rock). We basically walked over the heel of the mountain, and about a third of the trail is over more or less bare rock. It was a little scary doing that with Caetlin on my back, as the footing wasn't bad, but the rock is pretty steep. Also, it rained over the weekend and there was plenty of runoff, making the rocks slippery. Bruce helped me when I needed it, though, and it certainly was an interesting trek (it wasn't that crazy of a trail- I would have been fine without 30 extra pounds on my back that I constantly worried about falling and hurting). We worked ourselves quite hard in the heat, which was noticeably greater on the bare rock than it was in the forest. This time we actually remembered to bring snacks for Caetlin and enough water for all of us, so our physical needs were pretty well met (Caetlin hung out on my back and chowed down on dried apricots and cheese crackers).

It was quite hot today so when we got home we were all wrung out. We put Caetlin down and I went immediately to lay some compost in the garden and just do some general maintenance. I figured if I was already needing a shower from the hiking, I might as well dig in the dirt a little bit as well. I actually owe you some pictures of my little garden:



It's alive! The little orange pot at the end is the mint, the sad little spearmint and the other kind of mint that I was convinced I had killed.

Here's a close up of the tomatoes and peppers:

Here's another tomato plant, pepper plant, and then on the right is the basil. The basil is positively thriving:

Then we have the parsley, sage and rosemary:

And the watermelon, which has positively taken off lately:

Here's a picture of the spearmint. I think I wrote that I didn't pot it quite soon enough and I had thought I had killed it entirely. You can see here the new growth coming out of the sad dead strings. Somehow it soldiers on:


And then there was the other kind of mint, the one that potting seemed to kill. It looks so sad, so lifeless:

But wait! What's that? Look closely:

Somehow the roots apparently stayed alive, even if the stems and leaves died. It's growing slowly, but I added some compost today that should help it along.

Tonight was actually a neat milestone for me and my garden- I harvested from it for the first time. I grabbed some basil- it smelled so amazing!- and put it into my veggie frittata that I made tonight. This was my dinner for this evening:

Isn't it lovely? It tasted quite nice as well. It's just eggs, basil, salt, pepper, red peppers, tomatoes and zucchini. It was such a nice feeling, eating something that I grew myself. And it was the best tasting basil I have ever had. Caetlin was eating her dinner at the time and I stuck the handful of leaves under her nose, telling her to smell it. After she did, she demanded one of the leaves from me and continued to hold it under her nose. I guess she liked it.

Anyway, we got her to bed and I've written this. I'm off to bed myself now- it's a little early, but I'm exhausted. Hope you all had a good weekend too!