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.

Changes for the Sergeant Jasper

Sergeant Jasper, Colonial Lake, Charleston, S.C.

Fourteen flours high counts as a sky scraper on the Charleston peninsula but we got used to it. Built in 1950 it is considered at the end of it's usable life. Now the Beach Company is hoping to rezone the area and will probably demolish the Sergeant Jasper apartment building. Susan Cohen at the Charleston City Paper reports on the discussion of the six acre area might be used for.

As it stands today, the big, brown Sergeant Jasper apartment building on Lockwood Boulevard (or Broad Street, if you'd like) shoots up 150 feet into the Lowcountry air. It has 14 occupied floors, plus two additional floors for mechanical equipment. There is also 17,000-square-feet of commercial space leased by doctor's offices, insurance and financial planning companies, and a minimart, while a mix of college students, MUSC nurses and interns, young urban professionals, and retirees live in the 221 one- and two-bedroom units. And these are very, very small apartments.
"If you want to have a refrigerator, you have to put it in your closet because there's not room to put one in your kitchen," explains Kent Johnson, vice president of the Beach Co., which owns the Sergeant Jasper. The pipes for the plumbing systems are so small that the units can't have garbage disposals or dishwashers. And the whole place smells a little funny.

If those walls could talk we might have an interesting book about Charleston. Each former tenant could write a chapter.

I like to throw in a bonus shot with a cool automobile for Lowandslow.  That usually earns me a comment!

Things I miss about living downtown....

Caviar & Bananas, George St., Charleston, S.C.

Gourmet grocery stores! Delicious treats where you can have a table for one and get a great meal and a glass of wine on a walk. Oh yum. This shot was taken at Caviar & Bananas. No worries. I left with a Duck Confit sandwich for a picnic.

Stop the press: I just noticed there are a few more days for their 5 for 5 Menu that goes through May.

Memorial Day History

Charleston, S.C. 1865

I couldn't resist passing on this wonderful photograph and bit of history that was being shared on Facebook. I have never seen this picture before. 

"According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first Memorial Day was observed by formerly enslaved black people at the Washington Race Course (today the location of Hampton Park) in Charleston, South Carolina. The race course had been used as a temporary Confederate prison camp in 1865 as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who died there. Immediately after the cessation of hostilities, formerly enslaved people exhumed the bodies from the mass grave and reinterred them properly with individual graves. They built a fence around the graveyard with an entry arch and declared it a Union graveyard. The work was completed in only ten days. On May 1, 1865, the Charleston newspaper reported that a crowd of up to ten thousand, mainly black residents, including 2,800 children, proceeded to the location for a celebration which included sermons, singing, and a picnic on the grounds, thereby creating the first Decoration Day."

Edit: I was informed that although the story is historically true the photograph is not from Charleston but a scene in Hampton, Virginia. This link has more information on the beginnings of Memorial Day. 

It's Jasmine time!

Confederate Jasmine Gate, Charleston, S.C.

Let's make a law that every homeowner in Charleston is required to plant Confederate Jasmine and azaleas. It won't pass, but how much more fun to argue about than the current bills up for discussion. I am stepping up and offering to be the Floral Inspector.

Welcome to Charleston. You will need to plant some jasmine.
No, I don't.
Yes, you do.
No, I don't.
Get out.

Thanks to these upstanding citizens who followed my unwritten rules for living in the lowcountry. I must be allowed to stay as well. I had my old garage covered in jasmine in town and although it isn't blooming yet, I have some started in my new nest.

Memorial Day

Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, S.C.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen.

Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the US Armed Forced. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died while in the military service.It typically marks the start of the summer vacation season, while Labor Day marks its end.

Many people visit cemeteries and memorials, particularly to honor those who have died in military service. Many volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries.

Let's have a party Charleston!

Marion Square, Charleston, S.C.

I walked through the crowded Farmer's Market and Piccolo Art Show at Marion Square this morning. I appreciated the gentleman who walked by the mirror in the shot at exactly the right moment. Perfect! He looks like a painting. I couldn't have planned it better.

I've been so preoccupied with my nasty poison ivy covered body that I haven't made any plans for the long weekend except to slather on ointment and soak in my tub. Yuck. Y'all party on. I am the itchy scratchy wall-flower.

Seafood...yum, yum

Hank's Seafood, Hayne St., Charleston, S.C.

The two characters propping up the palmetto tree were with me. The moon was full and downtown was bustling with festive activity. The Spoleto festival started today and I celebrated with Seafood A La Wando at Hank's Seafood.

Nice sideline...one of the servers came up and gave me a hug. She used to be one of my hospital volunteers. I love knowing good people all over town.

Red Cross Donations

Smith St., Charleston, S.C.

Red Cross donation site for the Oklahoma recovery relief.

Today's bit of history: this Smith St. house that has the red cross painted on it was actually the local headquarters of the American Red Cross during World War I. It housed the administrative services of the Red Cross as well as the Blood Bank until 1989 until it returned to being a family residence.

Iron Gate

Governor's Mansion, Columbia, S.C.

Waaaaa....I have a mess of poison ivy. Poor, poor pitiful me. I moved a tv into the bathroom and played one of the Doc Martin DVDs while I took a long soak to keep myself from scratching my skin off. Wish me luck. I keep telling myself, "at least it isn't smallpox."

Today's picture is not from Charleston but was taken at the Governor's Mansion in Columbia. What beautiful delicate iron work.

Perlow Rice & Cold Slaw

Mack's Bar B Que, Lake City, S.C.

I took the picture for the Perlow Rice and then spotted the rest of the quirky spelling. I spotted this at Mack's Bar-B-Que when I was in Lake City a few weeks ago.

Perlow Rice

Lime Beam

Pota Sald

Cold Slaw

Is it pilau, perloo. perlau, plaw, pilaw, pilaf, or pilaff? The word comes from the Turkish pilaw, from the Persian pilaw, and from the Osmanli pilav, "rice porridge."  Pronunciation is just as varied, as in PER-lo, PEELaf, or per-LO. According to Bill Neal, Charlestonians, no matter how they spell it, all pronounce it PER-low.

English writers spoke of the dish in the seventeenth century, and by the eighteenth century it had taken hold in Britain, especially after the empire spread through the Middle East and into India. In America, the Southern rice crops and the influence of the spice trade made the dish popular. Pilau has been a popular dish in many Southern states for 300 years, particularly South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana.

 

Swamp Stylin' Charleston Fashion

Audubon Swamp, Charleston, S.C.

It is the spring statement fashion Charleston style - stylish boots and short shorts. It was a bright sunny day, a bit warm for boots but considering all the little bites I have on my sandaled tootsies, she was dressed the smarter of us for stomping through the swamp paths.

Thanks to Sheryl for posing for me as we passed on our hikes around the lake. 

New favorite tree

A tree grows West Ashley, South Windermere, Charleston

This may be my new favorite tree. Wow. The trunk is quite thick and sturdy so it hasn't just popped up. This is quite amazing.

I found it in behind South Windermere when I walked down the greenway to try out the newly opened YoBo Cantina Fresca. You know my theory, if you walk to and from dinner there are no calories to consider. Yummy dinner by the way.

Congratulations to SC Governor's Volunteer Award Winners

SC Governor's Volunteer Award Winners - 2013

Thanks to the South Carolina Association for Volunteer Administration for coordinating the presentation of the 2013 Governor's Awards for Volunteerism at the Statehouse yesterday. I had three nominees being honored so we took a happy gang to Columbia for the festivities. The awards presentation was held at the Statehouse with Governor Nikki Haley and then we went to the Lace House on the Governor's Mansion grounds for a luncheon.

My winners from Charleston pictured below with the Governor are Charles & Marlene Williamon and Betty Saulisbury. Charles and Marlene volunteer for almost every non-profit in town (seriously!) and Betty has served close to 30,000 hours at Roper Hospital. I've been going to this event for quite a few years and am so appreciative of Governor Haley for taking the time to make it such a special event. In the past, our Governors never even bothered to show up for the event.

I served as photographer and handed my pocket camera over to a friend as I did my presentation. That is how I got in the final shot! Heheh.