The first seedlings have arrived!  On March 12th, as I was watering my seeds, I noticed these lovely little sprouts.  Five minutes of frantic searching for the camera ensued. 

 

 

They are growing fast, unfurling their first leaves and stretching up toward the sun. In the past few days, Mark has taken a few more photos:

 

 

 

And, tips of Thyme have also begun to show!

We went for our first hike of the new year on Sunday!  We’ve been itching to get outside, and Maryland finally had a super nice weekend weather after months of cold and ice.  We headed up to Catoctin Mountain Parkin Thurmont, MD.  I had wanted to take the Hog Rock/Blue Ridge Summit Loop, but it was closed over the weekend due to ‘security measures.’  Which means that President Obama was at Camp David, which is located pretty much in the middle of the park.

So we hiked the Wolf Rock/Chimney Rock Loop instead, which was fine, since Mark has really wanted to play on Wolf Rock again.

Muddy Trail

There were a TON of people out and about in the park on Sunday.  The trail was a bit muddy and full of leaves.

At the trailhead

The hike up to Wolf Rock is fairly steep and I realized just how out of shape I get in the winter! 

Wolf Rock

We had lunch – PB&J’s – up on top of Wolf Rock.  And we watched as a government helicopter checked us out… repeatedly.  He flew by about 3 times.  We think he was scouting out Obama’s flight back to DC.

Security

 After lunch, we continued the loop around to Chimney Rock, which is smaller than Wolf Rock, but boasts an impressive view.  It was also less populated with loud picnic-goers, running kids and exasperated parents, we enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Chimney Rock

A few weeks ago, Mark bought each of us a brand new bandanna from The Trail House.  This was their first trip and we baptised them in a small stream we found along the trail.

Baptism

We moved a couple of weeks ago, and the new place not only has a lovely wrap-around front porch, it also has a delightfully large south facing window in the dining room, complete with extra deep sill.  So I decided that it was high time to grow something.

I’ve been obsessing over garden websites, container gardening books and seed catalogues.  On Saturday, we hit the Common Market to pick up some seeds.  The market carries Seeds of Change packets and I picked up broccoli, jalapeno, orange bell pepper, tomato, lemon basil and thyme.  Then we headed over to Lowe’s to grab seed starter mix, peat moss planting cups and cilantro and Rosemary, which the Common Market didn’t have. (The Common Market is an excellent place to pick up spices and tea – which they sell in bulk).

The Set Up

 So here’s my set up on the front porch - seeds, soil, planting cups, markers and pen.  I had the small green cup to ladle soil into the cups, but I ended up using my hands.  Before planting, I mixed the soil with enough water to make it moist.

Tomato, Broccoli, Jalapeno and Orange Bell Pepper

Thyme, Basil, Rosemary and Cilantro

And here are my lovelies!  Yes, those are cookie sheets under the planting cups.  I’m watering from the bottom so the tiny seeds don’t drown.  I’m also contemplating covering the seeds with plastic, which keeps them a bit warmer.

We took a trip down to Rockville over the weekend to visit the REI store  and lust over all the gadgets.  The store is even more addictive than the website, since you can touch everything.  Closer to home we have The Trail House,which has everything REI does, just on a smaller scale.  We have a long list of items we need to pick up before the camping/hiking season begins (which for us, because I am a wuss about being cold,  is early April -September).  We need a new water filter, water shoes for both of us and Mark is set on getting a dutch oven.  I also needs some basics, like my own knife and compass.  Last year I relied on Mark to carry these necessities, but I really should have my own.

We’ve got return trips planned for two of the places we visited last year: Savage River and Assateague Island.  We’ll visit both for 2 nights this time, which we are super excited about.  And we want to do a second Assateague trip – primitive campsites are available in the back county part of the island (the shore that faces the mainland) and we want to canoe around the back of the island.  We want to add a longer canoe trip into the mix and are still looking for a good place.  And of course, we’ll do some day hiking around Frederick.

I can’t wait to get out there, I’m feeling a little stir crazy all cooped up indoors!  We’re been watching lots of Surviorman,which only increases the itch to be outside building fires and pitching tents.

Over the weekend of July 19th, we went to Catoctin Mountain Park.  It was incredibly beautiful.

We walked a long loop starting from near the top of the mountain to Thurmont Vista:

Thurmont Vista

 

It was hazy

 

Then down to Wolf Rock (which apparently everyone has heard of but us!), which is a really, really big rock.

Yep, those are trees growing out of a rock

 

Wolf Rock

 

This is a little sequence I like to call “Mark climbs a rock.”

 

 

 

Sarah wasn’t as brave

 

We had lunch at Wolf Rock – peanut butter and jelly.  And they were the best sandwiches EVER!

PB&J

 

Then we took a little rest:

 

We took the long way back to where we parked and ended up with a steep climb right at the end…again. 

 

 

Our first real adventure of Summer 2008 was camping at Savage River State Forest in Garrett County, Maryland.  We had the most glorious campsite, right on the river.

Mark finishes pitching the tent

 The primitive campsites at Savage River are right along the road leading into the campground, but they are very secluded.  The park was full while we were there, but we never heard our neighbors.  This is the view from the back of the campsite:

 

It only cost $5 a night to camp!  We picked up a registration form, filled it out, put 5 bucks in the envelope and dropped in one of several green self-registration posts.  This post was in front of a little store that sold bait (Mark bought worms), firewood (another purchase) and various other supplies.

Sarah registers the campsite

 

We spent our first day setting up camp and hiking.  We walked the short and easy Meadow Mountain Overlook and then part of the Monroe Trail, which was quite taxing.  Walking in was fine, all downhill!  But coming back out the path was steep and my calves were on fire. 

 

 

Mark did a little fishing and caught several very small sunfish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a campfire, although we forgot to bring stuff to make s’mores!

 

Mark makes Fire

 

 

 

 

In the morning, Mark cooked some yummy eggs, fished again (we saw a bear!) and fell in the river: