Weekend in the Highlands, NC

Our friends John and Duran invited us up to the Highlands, NC this weekend. We were the guests of Duran's Mom, Paula, and got to meet her brother, Chris, as well. Paula has a lovely home with a fantastic deck with great views. We enjoyed dinner on the deck Friday night and shot this beautiful sunrise photo this morning.

Saturday we headed over to the Chattooga River and hiked in along the river until we found a spot John and Duran had been to before. A beautiful set of pools, perfect for fishing and swimming. Alan caught a nice 13" brown trout. After a couple of hours, we headed to Cashiers where we had excellent mexican food at Pescado's. Dinner was excellent Italian food at Paoletti's.

All in all a great weekend. Full photoset on flickr.

Tomato Update, June 17

Tomatoes are all doing well -- unlike last year, I haven't lost any plants. And every one has at least one fruit. The Celebrity plant in the front has 18! They're getting very tall and I had to install extra supports for the Early Girl, which contrary to promises, has fruited very little and late. The Patio is best after the Celebrity and the Yellow Pear is doing well, too. The first Patio (the one that was upside down) turned color in the last couple of days -- first sign of ripe fruit! The heirloom has one tomato; let's hope it tastes good.

I fertilized all the plants with manure tea this weekend and so far they have been relatively pest free -- killed my first caterpillar tonight.

Garden update

It was a beautiful weekend in Atlanta -- 80s and as long as you weren't in the sun, very comfortable. I took advantage with two afternoons in the hammock, enjoying an Elizabeth George novel. Also took some pics of this year's garden, including the tomatoes. I got the tomatoes in about a full month before last year, so the plants are big, and most of them have fruit -- this year's crop includes Celebrity, Kellogg's Breakfast, Husky Cherry, Yellow Pear, Early Girl, and one whose name I forget. Planted either one or two to a 10 gallon rubbermaid bin, using either Pike's container mix or Miracle Grow vegetable mix. I mixed tomato tone in at the time of planting and mulched all of them generously. This weekend we got some aged chicken manure to make manure tea and Alan's car was quite odorous!

I also planted collards, most of which fell prey to larvae of the diamondback moth, spinach and cilantro from seed (not successful), potatoes, and a watermelon. Oh, and Alan brought home some lettuce seedlings that did very well, especially in soil amended with compost. And it was delicious.

Here are some pictures, the first from the start of the garden and the others from today.

Full set of pictures on flickr.