Archdale & Beaufain

Archdale & Beaufain St., Charleston, SC 

What a sweet street corner. Folks who have lived in Charleston remember it as Celia's Porta Via restaurant and to my happy surprise you can still order her specialties online! Check this website. I am very temped by that lasagna! What a fun dinner party it would be. 

Colorful King St.

King St., Charleston, SC 

This is a colorful intersection on King St. with buildings of completely different styles yet each appealing in their own way. The curved one used to be Edwards 5 & dime store. The other one is now The Darling Oyster Bar. It looks so pretty it makes me want to give it a try.

Backroads, SC

Adidas Rd. SC

This cottage always catches my eye. Until recently there has often been a gentleman on the porch who waved to a honk on the horn. He's been absent lately so I didn't feel like I was invading his space to pull up and grab a shot. Hope he is okay.

Happy weekend, kids!

I need to up my citrus game

Citrus, Charleston, SC 

It's gray and rainy so I probably won't be going for a walk this evening so I am dipping into recent pictures to share this wonderful crop of oranges. Wow! I need to up my citrus game. I have one lime tree in a pot and harvested ONE lime this, my first year. It would be grand to have plenty of lemons and oranges in your own back yard.

In the pink

Camellias, Bennett Hotel, Charleston

When I moved to Charleston my family lived a few blocks from the library and we traipsed back and forth carrying armfuls of books. The library was two stories and built of pink marble.

After the new library on Calhoun St. was built the shabby pink building sat abandoned for years. Not the spot is the grand new Bennett Hotel and some of the pink marble has been re-purposed into Camellias Bar. I did a quick walk through the lobby this weekend and grabbed a shot through the door.

South Eastern Wildlife Festival - 2019

SEWE, Charleston, SC

The South Eastern Wildlife Festival is winding down today so I directed my walk through Marion Square to at least catch the free displays. I got lucky. The birds of prey were on display, cooking sessions in progress and I had a courtesy bowl of cardamom wild boar stew from Michael's on the Alley. (It was so delicious I already checked their menu to see if it was a regular dish). Everyone seemed to be having fine time and pets were on display in full force. 

A beautiful valentine!

Miss South Caroline U.S. International 2019

It helps to know the right people and each year I contact Randall Dukes and he summons up a beauty queen to serve as an honorary hospital volunteer on Valentine's Day. I order romantic fortune cookies and chocolate hearts and we roam the hospital treating the staff and patients as she patiently poses for photo ops.

This year our guest was Sara Burd, Miss South Carolina U.S. International and she was a delight! Thanks Sara! You brought a lot of smiles. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

My wild birthday ride!

Container Bar, Charleston, SC 

My son offered a few options for my birthday and we settled on this one! He picked me up in a ex-military humvee and took me to an oyster roast at the new Container Bar on Mt. Pleasant St. This was definitely a new experience and what better can you hope for on a birthday? What fun!

I am very old

I am very old. North Charleston, SC

I spotted this sign by an ancient oak tree with low limbs on the old Navy Base and thought it would make a perfect birthday pictures so saved it for the occasion. Tada! I am old!

I have so many friends celebrating birthdays within these few weeks that it has become a good time of year to have a party. This year's theme was to cook a recipe from the old Charleston Receipts cookbook published in 1950. The party was hosted by my friend Josephine Humphreys and Tom Hutchinson at their beautiful home on Sullivan's Island.

It was a little tricky deciding what to make from the book and I flipped on past the Opossum pie, rabbit stew and Cooter (turtle) soup. I ended up making the traditional cheese log and eggplant au gratin but there were plenty of brave cooks and an amazing spread of food including macaroni pie, rum punch, red rice, chicken, peach cobbler and pralines. Fitting to the period most of us wore pearls and aprons. It was a perfect evening with good food and friends. Happy birthday to us all. I didn't take many pictures and I think these two were by Terry Richardson and Brandon Coffee. Thanks gentlemen!

Fancy duds!

Shoe buckle owned by the Swamp Fox, Charleston Museum, Charleston, SC 

The stories that caught my imagination about the legendary Swamp Fox didn't include jeweled shoe buckles, fine china and his decanter set! Photos from the Charleston Museum.

Headless peacock

Peacock, Charleston, SC

I had in mind to capture a little snippet of ruffling feathers with video but the more I turned around him the more he spun so I had a hard time facing his rear. I finally caught him with his head tucked in. 

Valentine spirit

Valentine spirit, Charleston, SC 

 These folks clearly like Valentine's Day!

Historic Camellia Collection

Magnolia Gardens, Camellia Collection, Charleston, SC 

 For some reason I like doing the camellia garden walk after a cold spell. They are as beautiful as they die as they are in full bloom. Hope someone says that about me someday!

Volunteer Fair

Lowcountry Senior Center Volunteer Fair, Charleston, SC 

There was something for everyone who might consider giving back at the Volunteer Fair at the Lowcounty Senior Center this morning. From Pet Helpers to Hospice every agency that uses volunteer support was represented.

Charity

Charity, Charleston Museum, Charleston, SC

Charity was the statue that stood on the top of the old Charleston Orphan House. This is all that remains of her (framed in this shot by the hanging whale bones in the museum!) but the image below shows what the complete piece looked like.

Time to reproduce her. We need Charity to balance all the military related statues we have in the lowcountry.

Clearest image I can fine - from Shorpy

Why did the Guinea Hen cross the road?

Charleston, SC 

Sighting Charleston's merry band of guinea fowl always makes me happy. They were on a route, squawking and cackling and two started a squabble in the middle of South Battery which startled the tourists. They dodged in and out of yards along the way and were a noisy bunch. I backtracked to find this story from the 2013 Post & Courier:

Post & Courier; Edward M. Gilbreth;  April 10. 2013  - It’s been awhile since I mentioned downtown Charleston’s famous guinea fowl that amazingly and unbelievably flew in out of nowhere and landed on our doorstep a little over three years ago and have been hanging out in the neighborhood ever since.
They’ve become local celebrities and everybody loves them, even a couple of neighbors who were concerned that these completely out-of-context farm animals wandering around their porch, pecking hither and yon and leaving unwanted calling cards, might actually hinder the sale of their house.
Well, the house sat there forever and didn’t sell ... until prospective buyers saw the guineas. “Gus” and “Ginny” sealed the deal and now everybody’s happy.
The birds’ social antics are hilarious, and they are never seen outside each other’s company. Over the past three years, they have withstood innumerable close shaves with passing automobiles and attacks by a Northern harrier, a peregrine falcon, a red-shouldered hawk and what we think was a great horned owl during an insidious nighttime attack.
Last summer, Gus was bloodied up by the hawk and had a serious eye injury and a piercing talon wound to the neck. But he fought bravely to protect his hen and two young chicks, and, incredibly, the hawk retreated.
Bloody feathers were strewn all over the place, and we thought there was no way he could survive. But survive he did, with the help of Dr. Doug Berger, DVM, who captured the ailing bird and gave him a shot that seemed to jump-start recovery.
He’s completely back now, attitude and all, brazen enough to sit on an exposed perch at the end of each day and bugle sunset, with a note of defiance to boot.
“Bring it on!” he seems to be saying, with his chest puffed out and silhouetted against the sunset. It’s a thing of beauty.
Meanwhile, the two chicks, “Roberta” and “Fowler” (and aren’t you glad Roberta’s a hen? speaking of bad puns), are two of perhaps 50 hatchlings to make it to maturity without intervention. The long-suffering mother hen now has herself a closely knit family of four, and the rest of us have twice the entertainment.

Sunshine!

White Point Gardens, Charleston, SC 

For those of you having snow storms at the moment this was Charleston on my morning walk. We get our rain tonight and cold tomorrow but what a treat this sunshine was!

To whom much is given, much must be protected:

Guard pigs on Murray Blvd., Charleston, SC 

To whom much is given, much must be protected. Meet the guard critters of Murray Blvd. and South Battery. I found pigs, lions, dogs and teddy bears!

What a lovely sunny day. We have rain coming this evening and cold tomorrow but everyone was out enjoying the sunshine as I walked this morning.