Father's Day

University of Toronto, Canada

Here is one from my family album in honor of Father's Day.

My dad is on the far left after earning his Masters of Philosophy degree at the University of Toronto in 1952. The ladies with the hats are my grandmothers Grace Perry (left) and Helen "Nellie" Cameron (right) and on the right my uncle Ralph. I am not sure about the identity of the lady in the middle.

Happy Father's Day to all my readers who fill that special role in a fortunate child's life.

SCRUBS Camp Graduation

You can see what has kept me busy all week! Congratulations to my SCRUBS Camp graduates and thanks to all my co-workers who made it such an incredible week. I love y'all!

Found another, and another....tiny business buildings

Ellis Photo Studio, Charleston, S.C.

I swore these little buildings were everywhere but now that I am looking for them, they are harder to find. Ain't that always the way? I tracked down two more - the Ellis Photo Studio above and Dan's Barber Shop below is in Georgetown.

Busy week and I am happy to see Friday. My flock of SCRUBS students graduated and I got to meet all their proud parents. It has been a week of happy chaos. They were a wonderful group and I have every confidence they will be our future health care providers. We will be in good hands. Forgive me if I owe anyone an email or call. I have lived and breathed teenagers for the entire week!

Dan's Barber Shop, Fraser St., Georgetown, S.C.

Relic Revival, Summerville, S.C.

Fashion Barber & Beauty, Moncks Corner, S.C.

1st Class Cuts, Charleston, S.C.

Doors & Blossoms

I am scrambling this week and have nothing clever to say. I am in the midst of coordinating my annual SCRUBS summer health careers camp and trying to keep this happy gang busy and interested. In the evening I upload all of their photos. Luckily I had these photos from my weekend walk downtown.

Don't stay up too late, kids. (I am speaking to myself here).

Travel Tuesdays - To market, to market

Bomdila, Arunachal Predash, India

On Travel Tuesdays we take a trip off the Charleston peninsula and dip into past travel albums.

This evening's visit is to one of the markets in the hill town of Bomdila on the road to Tawang. Pots and pans, kettles, fresh vegetables, the best oranges in the world and hanging on the strings below - dried yak milk, hard as a rock to suck on for hours. Not something you find at the local Piggly Wiggly.

That is my sister-in-law Val, shopping for kitchenware in the photo above.

I need to get to bed, kids. I am taking forty four teenagers on a field trip to Trident Technical College in the morning. Wish me luck!

Hanging garlands of dried yak cheese for sale

The best oranges in the world, NE India

Teeny, tiny houses of Charleston

Charlotte St., Charleston, S.C.

Here is another sweetie in the Teeny, tiny houses of Charleston category. This one is on Charlotte St.

In other news - more rain.

SCRUBS Camp is in session!

SCRUBS Camp 2013

This is the happy gang I am spending the week with. Each year I sponsor a SCRUBS Health Career Camp at Roper St. Francis Healthcare. I intend to make their heads spin! So far so good. I am den mother to the gang at St. Francis Hospital while Cathy Hallman Kenner shepherds our guests at Roper Hospital.

I am hoping these students will take care of my when I am old and frail. :) Meanwhile, I'd better get to bed so I'll have enough energy to keep up with them in the morning. G'night kids!

Tweet, tweet Charleston

Wentworth St., Charleston, S.C.

I randomly came on a site that lists recent links and tweets that relate to Charleston. These are recent tweets that mention Charleston:

Tweets

• 68 days until Charleston is my home.
• Charleston girls all the same 
• Can't remember her name but she was flying a plane. When she was there she told them about Charleston 
• Thank you Charleston SC for showing me how much more Charleston WV sucks! #WrongCity back to life back to reality
• Just take me to charleston already....
• Finally in Charleston 
• My summer wardrobe consist of the bare minimum. It's going to be a hottt summer in Charleston.
• Ok it's official, I've only been here for 2 hours but I wanna live in Charleston the rest of my life...
• The next time we will see each other will be in nine weeks, then we start our new life in Charleston SC!!
• I just can't wait to be living in Charleston. It's the only place I feel at home and it's the only place I can think. 
• Can you go back to Charleston
• i hope the novelty of me living back in charleston wears off soon because all of this family time is exhausting (but i love it)

Church Photo in Lieu of Attendance - Second Presbyterian

Second Presbyterian Churchyard, Charleston, S.C.

Today's featured Church Photo in Lieu of Attendance is the Second Presbyterian Church with a most impressive blooming Sago palm tree in the shot. They have a lovely church and cemetery grounds.

Here is a bonus joke from Beliefnet.com thrown in for good measure. Yep, they have a joke of the day feature:

E-mail Me a Prayer

I had been teaching my three-year-old daughter, Caitlin, the Lord’s Prayer. For several evenings at bedtime, she would repeat after me the lines from the prayer.

Finally, she decided to go solo. I listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word, right up to the end of the prayer:

“Lead us not into temptation,” she prayed, “but deliver us some e-email. Amen.”

Swim, my little rubber duckie swim!

Rotary Duck Race, Wando Bridge, Charleston, S.C.

My $10 duck may not have won the Rotary Duck Race but I felt like the grand prize winner being out on the water to watch the annual festivities. What fun!

I had invited St. Andrew's Rotary Club members to set up a table selling ducks at the hospital last month since they had generously included Nursing Scholarships as a beneficiary of the charity. I mentioned on Friday that I might head out to Daniel Island to watch the ducks come in and the next thing I knew there was a package in my mailbox with a ticket for the Rotary sponsored boat going out to watch the drop from under the Wando bridge. Too fun! Thanks to Philip Cook for my fun morning. I love last minute adventures.

The ducks are sponsored for $10 and then dumped off the Wando Bridge. Not all the swimmers followed directions and I got a kick out the Rotary Navy boats equipped with nets to capture the strays - and with the current and winds most of them did stray! Heheh. Naturally those were my favorite pictures.

It is estimated that $100,000 was raised for a number of charities. Thanks Rotarians!

Bear on George St.

George St., Charleston, S.C.

Where does a brown bear on George St. go to get out of the rain from tropical storm Andrea? I'd hide out in Caviar & Bananas myself. This fella was a surprise!

A few years ago I took a picture of this giant blue bird in the same spot. It reminded me of this (slightly altered) childhood song:

There was an old bear who swallowed a bird.....

How absurd! to swallow a bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
Perhaps she'll die. 

A tiny building trend

Summerville, S.C.

Notice a trend here? I mentioned earlier that there was a probably a building like this in every South Carolina town. I may track them down. They are usually barber shops although the one above has been turned into what looks like a used furniture store. Let me know if you spot another one with the same layout.

Moncks Corner, S.C.

Class 1 Cuts, Spring St., Charleston, S.C.

Travel Tuesdays - Drinking Local

Drinking Assam Tea in Assam, India

I had lunch recently in the Single Smile Cafe in Summerville and picked out a bag of Organic Assam Tea from their wonderful selection. I boasted that I had enjoyed Assam Tea in Assam (above). Reflecting back, I have sipped Darjeeling in Darjeeling, Assam in Assam, Kenyan tea in Kenya, Cocoa tea in Peru and Charleston Tea Plantation Tea  on Johns Island.

More photos from the Assam trip in this album. *Travel Tuesdays will feature photos taken out of Charleston and the Lowcountry.  Join me for Travel Tuesday field trips!

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Tea Plantations in Kaziranga, Assam

Drinking Assam Tea in Summerville, S.C.

Browns Ferry Gardens - Day Lily Heaven

Browns Ferry Gardens, S.C.

I've been to day lily heaven. Once a year Heidi and Charles Douglas open the day lily gardens at Brown's Ferry to guests and put their lilies on sale. I thought it might be a little crazy driving up from Charleston but I am so glad I did. Heidi and her granddaughter met me and told me to feel free to roam and take as many pictures as I liked. Wow....what glorious color. From sale lilies at $8 to well over $100 they were hard to resist.

Bio from Facebook: "What happens when an Ohio girl marries a South Carolina boy and they go off to make baby daylilies together? You get some really exciting new daylilies! Heidi and Charles Douglas are producing some outstanding plants that are selected for their northern hardiness. And the flowers are to die for. Come meet these great daylily people and see what they've been been up to. You'll be glad you did."

I was ready for the long drive back home when I was invited in for lunch. Lunch? "That's the way it's been done for nineteen years", I was told.  Mark your calendar for next year!

It's Oleander time!

Oleanders at Colonial Lake, Charleston, S.C.

The Oleanders are in bloom at Colonial Lake making a nice frame for the Baker House. When I recently featured old pictures of the downtown hospitals someone asked about the old Baker Hospital. This is it. It is now ritzy condos.

Baker House:  The Baker House was constructed in 1912 as the Baker-Craig Sanitarium. This sixty-bed hospital and nursing school was founded by Dr. Archibald E. Baker Sr. and Dr. Lawrence Craig. The Baker House was designed by John D. Newcomer and Ernest V. Richards, prominent architects of the period. The building is a rare example of early 20th-century Eclectic architecture in Charleston, with Mission Revival and Craftsman design features. The Baker Hospital relocated in 1981, and in 1983 the building was rehabilitated for residential use. The building is protected under a conservation easement by the Preservation Society.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I am trying to spruce up my yard and stopped at Lowes to load up my little car with greenery, blossoms and edging stones. I've been spending so much at Lowes I might as well arrange to have my paycheck directly deposited there. On the way home I stopped at the new Black Bean Company restaurant on Savannah Highway. Yum! They have a full dinner menu now and had live music playing. It was a healthy, tasty oasis in the KMart parking lot.

Guess what S.C. town?

Car Wash mural, S.C.

My last entry in the Guess What S.C. town? series was clearly too easy. Let's see if anyone recognizes this spot. You'd have to be very familiar with back roads because I had to check the next sign to figure out where I was myself. The cool mural was painted on the sign of a car wash.

Guess what S.C. town?

Fashion Barber & Beauty, S.C.

Guess what S.C. town?

Let's see who knows their small towns in South Carolina. Where is this tiny Barber & Beauty Shop? Not that it matters. There is probably one just like it in every small town in South Carolina.