Long time no see, I know. But, the thing was, Jessie had her camera and words on a blog without a photo seem so empty, somehow. Well, good news: I bought my own camera! Yes, I am an adult now. Yeah, right. Anyway, I'm leaving for a six day hike next Thursday and I promise to take a lot of pics. What's that, do I hear groaning? Because, it's true, showing other people your vacation pictures is a sure-fire way to bore them to death.

Speaking of being an adult, the toys on top of the ice chest were given to me this past Christmas by my mother. Of course, I inherited my affection for rusty old toys from her, so it's really a very mature tradition. The ice chest itself was rehabbed by the Gilkster and is now really more of a toy chest since I'm using it to store my budding collection of backpacking gear.

Rosa Rugosa we planted last year. Even idiot gardeners can't stop this stuff from growing.