Walk with me - swamp color

Audubon Swamp Walk, Charleston, SC   

It may not be peak blooming season but there is always something in bloom at Magnolia Plantation's Audubon Swamp walk. It didn't seem so unbearably humid this morning and it was a pleasant walk.

As I began my walk the trolley with passengers came by. My least favorite thing is having a nature walk interrupted by a loud speaker but this time I heard the tour guide telling his passengers that the swamp had been the filming location for the movie Swamp Thing in 1982. After laughing at the scenes on youtube I immediately ordered the dvd. How funny to have a swamp creature scene in exactly the same place I was walking today.

Ready to dig

Garden tool gate, Hwy 52, SC   

I am always willing to detour to admire this gate made of garden tools at the now abandoned Carolina Nursery on Hwy 52 between Goose Creek and Monks Corner. No matter what becomes of the property I hope the gate is salvaged and reinstalled somewhere cool. 

Have a good weekend kids. I have the folks in the path of hurricane Harvey in my thoughts. 

Sadness in Charleston

Virginia's, King St., Charleston, SC    

It is a sad day in Charleston after a shooting at Virginia's, a popular local restaurant on King St. leading to the death of a young chef. My sympathy is with his family and friends. 

Jekyll Island ride

Jekyll Island, GA

I spotted this sweet ride on Jekyll Island over the weekend. Pretty as a picture so I took one.

I walked down to the Green Goat restaurant close to home for dinner this evening and looping around the neighborhood afterwards was able to get my 10,000 steps in. It is still hot and humid in Charleston.

I am ready for another Eclipse, aren't you? It was so much fun. 

Sip o' Cider

Carolina Cherry Company, Hwy 17 South, SC    

How many times have I/you passed this touristy place on Highway 17 South? Pretty darn many if we are truthful. I have never stopped assuming it was just for tourists grabbing the chance to buy one more gift item on the way out of town.

That may be the truth, but who cares? We finally pulled in to check the place out and have our courtesy sip of cider. They have South Carolina grits, tea, jams and jellies, soap, Nathalie Dupree's cookbooks and peanuts. What more do you want? Bathrooms of course, but they were out of order. :)

Eclipse 2017

Totality, Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital, Charleston, SC    

What a fun day! After all the build up we had so many clouds and rolls of thunder I wasn't sure if we would see anything at all, but we did. The glasses worked and the image was exactly as it was supposed to be. It was a pure delight. We set a few chairs out in front of the hospital and enjoyed the show.

I didn't worry about taking pictures of the actual event but enjoyed the camaraderie and awesome display of nature. The picture above was a cell phone shot during totality and it didn't get as dark as I thought it might but was certainly impressive. What great fun. Can we do it again tomorrow?

Church Photo in Lieu of Attendance - Jekyll Island, GA

Faith Chapel, Jekyll Island, GA

I was on the road this weekend and a bit worried about it considering all the ominous traffic warnings as folks head to eclipse viewing territory. We aimed for Brunswick, St. Simon's and Jekyll Island on the coast of Georgia. It was all new territory for me so I was in my glory. I never tire of seeing new sights.

This Sunday's Church Photo in Lieu of Attendance is the sweet Faith Chapel on Jekyll Island.

Jekyll Island is a small barrier island on the southeast coast of Georgia. It was purchased in 1886 by a group of wealthy industrialists (including J.P. Morgan, William K. Vanderbilt, William Rockefeller, and Marshall Field) and developed into the Jekyll Island Club, a private winter retreat. A clubhouse was completed in 1888, and members built 'cottages' the size of mansions nearby. 
With all the growth on the island, the members needed a place to worship. A chapel was built, but quickly outgrown; Faith Chapel was completed in time for the 1904 resort season.
The chapel's Gothic-influenced design, exterior gargoyles, luxurious carpeting, and rich stained wood interior are enough to impress. But the west wall, on the chapel's front, features a rare treasure. The stained glass window on this wall was designed, installed, and signed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, reportedly one of only five such pieces known to exist.

Luckily we found smooth sailing all the way with no traffic issues at all. We met with friends, had lunch on Jekyll Island, dinner on Brunswick Island and had a lovely water front walk along St. Simon's.

Follow Lizard Man's advice, protect your eyes

Lizard Man, Charleston, SC    

We had as much fun as you can with a $19 Lizard Man costume at our Pre-Eclipse party today. The city is in a frenzy. We ended the week with a quick break for music, pop-sickles, moon pies and a Lizard Man photo op. There are already reports of heavy traffic but I hope most of our visitors have arrived in time to enjoy the weekend in warm, muggy Charleston. 

I for one have had a hard time getting my 10,000 steps in in this heat. Puff, pant. 7,600 steps will have to do. 

My eclipse kit

Eclipse kit, Charleston, SC   

The word in the swamp is that there may be sightings of Lizard Man during the upcoming solar unrest. I have my Eclipse Kit ready.

Mail call!

Salters, SC    

This is an original! Every once and a while I consider doing a series on fun mail boxes and then I forget about it. This one called for a quick turn around for a photo op. Send these folks a letter!

I can't help think of all the excited kids ready for the first day of school in Charleston County tomorrow. I'll be looking forward to all the first day at school photos on Facebook tomorrow. 

On the road - Florence, SC

Julia Belle's, Florence, SC     

My weekend day trip was to Florence, SC and googling a place for lunch we drove directly to the Florence Farmer's Market and had lunch at Julia Belle's. I was amazed at the size of the Farmer's Market building. It was large enough for cars to drive right through the building and pull up to park under the shed.

Besides the usual produce in the building there was another huge structure with antiques and thrift items so big that it was divided into sections by rooms - living room goods, bedroom furniture and so on. Sadly for me, my house is tiny and if I bring home anything new, something old must go.

We made a stop in the historic area that is under renovation and admired the shops and Hotel Florence but not for long. The skies opened and rain put a stop to our downtown exploration. Thanks for a nice visit Florence!

On the road - April's Playhouse

April's Playhouse, Florence, SC   

It's called Charleston Daily Photo but some days ya just have to get out of town. This was from Saturday's road trip to Florence, SC. My friend Rosie was driving and I knew I had seen this little structure when I had briefly been at McLeod Regional Medical Center at a workshop. With my confused directions we kept circling the medical facilities in the rain until I spotted it. What a cutie.

Church Photo in Lieu of Attendance - Salt Spring Island

Paul's Church, Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada

This evening's Church Photo in Lieu of Attendance is a quick shot from my recent trip to Salt Spring Island off the coast of western Canada. Before I travel I always take a look at Google images for an area so I had my eye out for it. It was built around 1880 by Father Donckele, the first Roman Catholic missionary to the Gulf Islands and was built by Hawaiian laborers. The materials were brought in by canoe  and then ox drawn carts. 

Kanakas, men from Hawaii, came to British Columbia around the year 1850, mainly as labourers for the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Victoria. Some of these pioneers settled on Portland, Russell and Coal Islands but the largest group chose south Salt Spring where they farmed, fished and logged. Many married native women and their children attended Beaver Point and Isabella Point Schools. They held Hawaiian luaus on Fulford Harbour beaches. They helped build St. Paul’s Church and members of several Kanaka families were buried in the cemetery. Some descendants still live on Salt Spring.

I wish I had spent a little more time exploring the tombs because the cemetery website lists this interesting inscription: 

Papa Francis William Coffey, Born: Angels Cove, Newfoundland August 29, 1947 Died: Old Monks Farmhouse, Salt Spring Isles October 10, 1998. Mine. Better shop short than fill to the brim. Oversharpen the blade and the edge will soon blunt. Amass a store of gold and jade and no one can protect it. Claim wealth and titles and disaster will follow. Retire when the work is done. This is the way to heaven.

Hammer time!

Giant hammer, Scranton, SC    

Terrible things happened in the world and our country today but while the demonstrations were happening in Charlottesville, I was sailing along country roads under blue skies to Florence, SC. It seemed almost unbelievable to come home and turn on the news and be faced with the reality of hate in people's hearts.

In Scranton, SC we pulled over to grab a shot of this giant hammer in front of a salvage shop. The gentleman who built the hammer spotted me and came out to shake my hand. Meet Jerry Briggs.

Read Brothers

Read Brothers, King St., Charleston, SC   

I came home to the sad news that Read Brothers was to be closed due to structural concerns. I am not surprised but I am heart broken. Read Brothers sold everything from fabric to stereo systems and everyone has a story about the story. What sadness.

I remembered that my friend and author Josephine Humphreys had included Read Brothers in her essay on Charleston for the Smithsonian magazine. Click here to read the entire essay and fall in love with Charleston all over again: My Kind of Town.

Read Brothers is the strangest store you'll ever see, a big red-brick, creaky-floored building stocked primarily with fabric but also with used books, vintage toys, folding paper fans, long johns, foam rubber and high-end stereo equipment. I like to drop in periodically to get inspired by the wacky plenitude. Evidently, the movie director was similarly inspired when he chose the store as a setting. Whether the scene was action or romance didn't matter; Read Brothers looks like a place where anything could happen. The line between then and now is thin. Some of that merchandise has been on the shelves for decades. I asked the owner, Marianne Read, what the oldest item in the store was, and without missing a beat she reached into a basket on the counter and grabbed a card of hairpins, "Victory Bobbies," vintage World War II. I bought them for a dollar and asked if I'd gotten the last set. "Oh, no," she said. "We have cartons and cartons in the storeroom."
It was reassuring to think of those extra cartons, surely an eternal supply. I realized that Read Brothers mirrors my image of Charleston itself: a place packed with oddities and treasures that will never be depleted. Or maybe I was really thinking about my own self, desperately hoping my brain will prove to be similarly provisioned for the future. But just as I was leaving Read Brothers I noticed that the stock of merchandise on the main floor seemed a little thinner than it used to be. In a corner where once my childhood friend Pat and I used to select fabric for our dance recital costumes, choosing from shelves and shelves of bright tulle and satin, now the supply of the spangliest and glitteriest had dwindled to a dozen or so bolts. I pretended not to see that. I want Read Brothers to live forever.

After the fire - Smith St.

Fire, Smith St., Charleston, SC    

It is shocking to see the skeleton remains of these historic wooden houses after a fire. I'd heard about the fire on Smith St. but it was a different thing to walk by and see the sad ruins. It burned in mid July on a day that had a heat index of 101 degrees. Four fire fighters need to be treated and one lady was missing a kitty.

Protecting Smith St.

Guard lions of Smith St., Smith St., Charleston, S.C.    

These lions guarding an entrance door on upper Smith St. always make me stop and smile and after all, that's what it's all about, right? If I didn't stop and smile and grab a shot the blog wouldn't even exist. Thanks folks!

Church Photo in Lieu of Attendance - God Ain't Mad At Ya!

God Ain't Mad At Ya!, 

I had to get a picture of this sign. It is across from the popular Sweatman's BBQ restaurant in Holly Hill, S.C.