Finding Peace and Perspective in the Mountains

One of the best parts about losing weight, is being able to go hiking. To be able to see things that you wouldn't be able to see without huffing and puffing to get there. Today Kent and I did a 4 mile hike to Stewart Falls which is near Aspen Grove in Utah. When I go there I gain a real sense of peace. Like no matter what, you know that everything is ok when Heavenly Father makes scenary like this. I saw lots of families with young kids on the trail today. If I could do one thing over as a mother, it would be to take my kids hiking when they were little. I hope my kids will do better at teaching their kids to do more physical activity. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Major

I forgot to add a picture of my dog Major. He is so cute .

Bee Friendly Garden

People ask me why I plant sunflowers. In addition to loving them, they make bees happy. The sunflower is a bees favorite food, (or so I have read). I think its true for these bees anyway.

The next picture is Japanese egglant. I have always had a weird relationship with eggplant. I love the plant itself because of the shape and texture, but I've never liked the taste. I keep growing it hoping that I'll find the perfect recipe someday. Well, I finally found it. I made BaBa Ganoosh. We roasted the eggplant for 40 minutes on the grill and then mixed in Tahini, fresh garlic, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. It looks like Hummus but tastes better.

The next picture is patty pan squash. I love this squash. It looks like an alien spaceship and it is great in stirfrys. The best part is that the squash bugs don't seem to like it.

The last picture is cantaloupe on a trellis. We had this gasebo that died over the winter. We left the canvas top out in the garage and some mice ate it. So this year we used the iron supports as supports for the cantaloupe and it is working great! I am using old nylons to support the melons as they hang down from the trellis.

That's it from my garden this week.

Kay