Hello there, General!

William Moultrie, Charleston, S.C.

I marched straight down King St. to the water this morning and snuck up behind General William Moultrie who was gazing out over the harbor. The original Fort Sullivan was renamed Fort Moultrie in his honor and he is well known for using palmetto trees to build the fort which turned out to be very clever since they were so spongy they simply absorbed the canon balls that came their way.

General Moultrie had a busy career during the Revolutionary War and ended his career as the Governor of South Carolina. He is very much deserving of the statue put up in his honor at White Point Gardens in 2007. BUT. But, but, but....to my shame all I can think of when I walk past the statue is Dan Conover's column in XARK titled Moultrie - The Full Package, about how well endowed he was and I sneak a peak as I go by to see if it is true. And now you will as well.

Carry me!

Warren St., Charleston, S.S.

Repost of an old favorite from my bike files. This makes me smile every time I look at it.

I am lazing in bed knowing my weekend lays ahead of me. Since I traditionally leave all my chores to race through between 10 - 11 pm on Sunday night I should have some time for something fun. What is everyone up to on this bright and chilly day?

Walking Speed Predicts Life Expectancy

Warren St., Charleston, S.C.

How fast you walk may predict life expectancy. Now, here is a study I like!

I've always walked fast because I walked to actually get somewhere. It sounds like a "grumpy old man" story but I really did walk three miles each way to high school. We took short cuts through the woods and climbed hills and were still faster than the pokey bus route.

I don't know how to amble or stroll. You need to tie a rope around my belly and hold me back if you plan on a lazy walk with me. One of the hardest things about having small children and toddlers was never being able to take a brisk stride without picking them up and carrying them.

I am always so pleased to find people who match my pace. According to this study, I should live a long time - unless I break a leg first.

City Market Murals

Market St., Charleston, S.C.

I featured the mural on the other end of Market and recently spotted this gentleman. Nice! I imagine it is more of the talented David Boatwright's work. The market buildings are gradually getting spruced up.

It has been a day of end of the year reports and counting numbers. One of my volunteers was at loose ends today and started cleaning MY office. Shock and awe! Brave lady.

Going, going, gone!

North Charleston, S.C.

This pile of rubble was Baker Hospital, although not the original Baker Hospital building which is now condos on Colonial Lake.

Baker Hospital became Roper Hospital North. After the hospital closed in 2001, the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce moved in but now the sweet spot on the water is going, going, gone. Soon no one will even remember there was a friendly community hospital there, but all over Charleston is a group of people that still greet each other and say, "Hey, didn't you used to work at Old Baker?"

Word Clouds

Charleston Daily Photo Word Cloud

Isn't this fun?! You can enter any words you like or the url to a blog or website. This one was created with my blog link. You can change the color and fun. It's a bit addicting.

Go play at: Wordle. Send me the link so I can see what you came up with!

Vote for Best of Charleston

Magnolia Plantation, Charleston, S.C.

It is time to vote for the Charleston City Paper's Best of Charleston. Join in! There are a lot of categories and you have to place at least 35 votes for your entry to count. Log in and you can take your time and return to the site as many times as you like as long as you don't click "finish".

Go send some love to your favorite restaurant, hair salon, grocery store and mechanic. Spread the word!

I've won the Best Local Interest Blog award for the last two years. The award tickled me to no end and I am most appreciative. It is a bit surprising since although Charleston Daily Photo is certainly a Local Interest Blog, many, if not most of my readers are what Charlestonians describe as "from off". In fact, most of my readers are "Slightly Off from Off" and I like 'em that way!

The photo applies to this entry because I always vote for Magnolia Plantation for Best Attraction. Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital has won Best Place to have a Baby for the last 13 years and we like that too. :)

Go vote kids! Thanks to the Charleston City Paper for letting us thank the businesses that stand out in this town. I haven't clicked "Finish" yet so let me know if there is something I should consider voting for. Who do we love?!

Before & After - Warren St. Favorite

Warren St., Charleston, S.C.

I've had my eye on this sweetie on Warren St. for a long time. I assumed someone would buy it, fix it up and hand me the keys encouraging me to live happily every after. Oddly these people seem to have their own plans because I haven't been consulted at all. Hmmmmph.

Still, nice to see a beautiful old place getting some love.

Before & After - Rutledge Ave.

Rutledge & Vanderhorst St., Charleston, S.C.

I walk enough to keep up with the changes in the neighborhood and it's my job to pass it along to you. This is the new Ashley Hall School building at the corner of Rutledge & Vanderhorst St.

Speaking of progress, I am slipping. Wired Mazagine published their list of The 10 Most Significant Gadgets of 2010 and I don't own a single one of them. Am I alone?

They are:

1. Apple iPad
2. Berkeley Bionics eLEGS
3. Microsoft Kinect
4. Windows Phone 7 on Samsung Focus
5. Sprint Evo 4G
6. Apple iPhone 4
7. MacBook Air
8. Samsung Galaxy Tab
9. Canon S95
10. Kindle 3

Church Photo in Lieu of Attendance

Morris St. Baptist Church, Morris St., Charleston, S.C.

This odd little corner building looks like part of a structure that collapsed around it. It was abandoned for years but now is all spruced up and appears to be used for something. The main historic Morris St. Baptist Church building is just down the street on Morris.

Below is the same property back from the time when Ninjas Were Real.

I made Sunday brunch for my tenants this morning because I never, ever want them to leave my property. That sounds fair doesn't it? One brunch equals permanent residence.

House Fire on Smith St.

Smith St., Charleston, S.C.

It was a sad pause on my walk this morning when I passed this house on Smith St. where a young student, her two dogs and cat lost their lives yesterday. We've had some fires set deliberately in this area in recent years but they think this one started in the kitchen.

It is always a worry in these wooden houses with old wiring. I have little safety rituals that I check each night and every time I leave the house. I can't tell you how often I have gone back home to make sure that I turned everything off. I believe it is time to check the smoke detector batteries.

What a sad beginning to the year for this child's family. The Post & Courier has more of the story.

A New Year - 2011

We will open the book. Its pages are blank.
We are going to put words on them ourselves.
The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.
Edith Lovejoy Pierce

A new year! What shall we do with it?! I spent the first day of 2011 alone in my favorite place - walking through the gardens at Magnolia Plantation. I can't count the times I've walked these paths and they delight me every time. Around each corner is a familiar friend, a tree, a flowering bush, a statue dressed in each season's color.

2010 has treated some of my friends very harshly. You know who you are. I hope 2011 is gentler and joyful. I wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! Thanks for dropping by Charleston Daily Photo and leaving all the great comments. I've made many new friends this year!

New Year

Shillong Peak, Shillong, Meghalaya, India

I've always liked New Year's eve and day. This photo is labeled 1965 so it was the end of the second year New Year I spent in India. I already had my friendships well established.

We always stayed up until midnight as kids, with the coal stove on, playing carrom and crokinole. There was a "midnight feast" and token gift exchange.

I am one of eight so there were enough of us to put on little plays and performances that always involved my sister Shirley doing her infamous Beggar Woman dance for tips. Gotta support the arts!

Mural Location

Liberty St., Charleston, S.C.

Michael correctly located the new mural on Liberty St. It is the side of Willow Salon and was painted by Anson Cyr.

I like it fine but I also liked the earlier mural that was painted over.

New Year's Eve - Dinner Plans

King St., Charleston, S.C.

Years ago as my marriage ended and I faced the fact that I was alone, I was walking up King St.and saw an announcement for a brain storming session for the First Night Festival. I said to myself, "I'll be damned if I am going to sit alone on my couch at midnight" and walked in. I was greeted by a gentleman who looked me over and said, "You must be one of the artists?"

Ha! I wasn't an artist but I loved him for thinking it. I volunteered that year signing in all the artists and performers and the next year and for quite a few years of the Festival's hayday, I was on the board and coordinated all the volunteers for the event.

I roped in everyone I knew to staff venues. We had fire cauldrons in the streets, belly dancers, street performers, comedians, musicians and fireworks. I walked for miles on New Year's Eve checking on venues in churches, schools and auditoriums and touching base with 2 - 300 volunteers. It was a crazy fun night.

When the city absorbed the First Night Festival we looked at each other wondering what to do with ourselves. We started going out to an early dinner at a different restaurant every year. Initially it was my core group of friends but the group changed and grew and now often consists of people who might otherwise be alone, friends as well as some of my hospital volunteers.

We've treated ourselves to Ansons, Fulton Five, FIG and Circa 1886. The last two years we were welcomed like royalty to McCrady's Long Room when my friend Andre' Guillet was the General Manager and spoiled us all. This year we are going to FISH Restaurant on King St. We go early before the craziness on the streets and are often happily snug at home to watch the ball drop in Times Square.

If you haven't made your plans yet, going out to dinner it is a good way to celebrate! Most restaurants have a fixed price meal as well as their regular menu. If you decide to go to early dinner at FISH let me know so I can say "hey!"

Help Fight Hunger

Charleston, S.C.

Loved the iron work on this gate!

Mickey Baksts from the Charleston Grill has been promoting one of those "click to support" sites that always turns out to be advertising for a company. In this case it is Walmart and based on clicks supporting a community they promise to donate $1 million to the community with the most support, and $100,000 each to the next five communities.

I did my part. I clicked and shared the link on Facebook a few days ago. Cool thing is I just checked and the Charleston/North Charleston Community has leaped to #6 in the rankings.

Coolness! Nudge us just a little further if you would. Click the link and then select the Charleston - North Charleston Community. There are some people in need in the lowcountry who will appreciate it.

Help stop hunger.

What on earth am I doing up so late?

Mural - Guess Where?

Charleston, S.C.

I spotted a fresh mural in town yesterday. Can anyone identify the location? It replaces a painted wall that I have featured before. I'll come back and add the full view that includes the business name later but for the moment - who can guess where it is?

Shepard Fairey Art on Spring St.

Spring St., Charleston, S.C.

Scooped. I've been scooped!

I've taken a zillion pictures of this old building, the doors, the locks and the hand painted signs through the years, but missed this Shepard Fairey installation until I read about it on 53 Cannon. The former auto repair shed is now Eye Level Art but until recently had remained relatively unchanged on the outside.

Street artist Shepard Fairey was recently featured in the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop that played briefly at the Terrace Theater and on the Stephen Colbert show. He did the controversial poster of President Obama and the original Obey stickers.

I spotted a couple of the Obey Giant stickers in Charleston recently and loved the little "Marks A Lot" addition below them. Ha!

King Street Trolley - Free at Last!

King St., Charleston, S.C.

What fun is snow in Charleston if it doesn't stick on the ground? It's been a wet and slushy day but I had no problem on the road delivering soup and whiskey cake to my buddy who has been coughing for weeks. Then I had to walk down King St. to see if anyone was actually giving anything away instead of bothering to put it on sale. They weren't.

I was looking for a snazzy wide belt since the cheapo ones I've been buying keep breaking or losing themselves. I had my eye on one in a shop the other day and hid it at the back of their rack while I pondered it's worth. I decided to go back and buy it to find out they had sold the only one I wanted. Grrr. The sales girls opened bins and drawers and sorted through deep stacks of wide black belts but it was gone, gone, gone. Sigh.

Good news on the trolleys, by the way! They are free now. So, if I had bought a wide black belt and it was too heavy to carry home I could have hopped on for a free trolley ride home. Very nice! Thanks to the City of Charleston, SC Ports Authority, and the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau for pulling this off. Here is the scoop from The Digitel and a map of the free routes. All aboard!

One more Holiday Tree

Coming St., Charleston, S.C.

Here is one last creatively decorated Christmas tree for you. This one is clearly in a college rental area. Fun!