Hilton head and Ace Basin 1 '10

We made a  trip to Hilton Head this weekend to have some quick R& R and to check the area out for future longer trips.  We were not at all impressed with Hilton Head.  The area is way too commercialized  to be attractive to  me, and far too crowded to appeal to Bruce. Even in this off season, he was going nuts with the stop and go traffic, and lack of parking we encountered all over the sea island.

What we did like was the views of Ace Basin we had as we were driving into Hilton Head.

Now that impressed us!

Myrtle Beach Quilt Show 1/29/10

 Today  my neighbors Nancy Susla and Janet Holmes and I went to see the Myrtle Beach Quilt Show.

There is no shortage of fabric artists in South Carolina 

A hand painted Quilt

 and the show featured row after row of  finely crafted quilts. 

Traditional cut out  applique quilt

 Full and closeup view of cut out quilt

Close up of Applique cut out quilt

 A batik fabric quilt

 As with many such shows, the audience got to participate in the  judging  based upon both the size and the type of quilt.  The quilts shown above were my runner up selections. Below are my selections for  the Best in Class Awards.

My favorite Small Quilt

Above My favorite Medium size Quilt

My favorite Large Quilt

  And finally, this is the quilt all three of us voted Best in Show.  We all loved the humor, and color,  and story telling  skill the artist used in rendering the concept.

Janet with Best in Show

Aprons at the Chapin 1'10

 On Jan 19th my Friends Nancy, and  Janet  and I went to see the cultural  exhibit Apron Chronicles: A Patchwork of American Recollection.  The Exhibit  examines the apron as a cultural symbol that prompts storytelling about the history and culture of family life in America.Apron Chronicles is comprised of photographs, text in story form, and 155 vintage aprons, components which can be easily enjoyed and understood by people of all ages and backgrounds.

Apron Currator" Ellyn Anne Geisel gave a Gallery Talk during the exhibit opening on which explained how the exhibit came into being and encouraged listeners to use an apron as a memory trigger for their family stories.As you can see from the photographs above, many of the participants even showed up in their Aprons

The exhibit will remain on display at the Franklin G. Burroughs - Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach until March 19th. Sunday, January 17, 2010. “Apron curator” EllynAnne Geisel will be on hand at the opening reception (1:30 to 3:30 p.m.) for a gallery talk, giving insights into "Apron Chronicles: A Patchwork of American Recollections", a traveling exhibition from the Women’s Museum of Dallas, Texas, which pairs powerful photography with real-world stories and sentimental ties to the past with 155 aprons. The exhibition, which runs through March 19, shares the emotional stories of 46 individuals, ages 13 to 109, who have unique memories about aprons and the people who wore them.

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Visiting with the Neightbors 1 '11

Had a fun evening visiting with Janet Homes and Nancy Susla

 and David Homes and Harry Susla, and of course

 Sally

Visiting with the Neighbors 1 '10

Janet and Nancy

Dinner with the Neighbors at the Holmes' House

BJ, David, Harry

Snow on Twelve Oaks Drive Pawleys Plantation 1 '10

Turning my attention to the houses  in Pawleys Plantation I began snapping pictures of my neighborhood and of my neighbors homes.

 I started with the Hunt house at the end of our block.

 Its wooden lawn chairs looked oddly out of place on the snow covered ground.

The view west down my street was so different as to be disorientting

 Above is the end of the road between Suslas and Hunt's house

 Suslas House 108-4

Balde and Bowers Homes

Edwin's (Janet and Davids) home

My next door neighbor ( 108-1)

 Nemeth's

Dowling

Butler 85-4

Northwest corner of Twelve Oaks

 Even the photos of rear of the property looked like they were taken at the North pole.

I have a lot more pictures, but these are enough to show what the world looked like  on this beautiful winter morning.

Winter Wonderland 1'10

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland

It had snowed in the night and everything was blanketed in white.

I piled on as many layers of warm clothing as I could find in my closet and headed out the  front door and east, camera in hand,  toward the marsh .

It was still early and I was one of the first to make it onto the golf course.

The snow had already started to melt on the golf car paths,

but elsewhere everything was white and magical.

 Familiar settings like the bench by the marsh where we watch the sunrise looked totally different.

 Even the marsh itself was hardly recognizable.

What before had been miles of golden cord-grass was now a value study in subtle shades of whites and gray.

I walked  across the marsh on the causeway .  The water in the marsh was frozen with little chunks of ice floating around the thirteenth green. 

 The snow laden roofs of the summer homes on Pawleys  Barrier Island stood out in stark contrast to the gray sky. Even the slightest hint of color drew the eye right to it.

Even the trees became art forms.

Visiting with the neighbors at the Shrimp Dock 1 '11

Visiting the shrimp docks in Georgetown SC are always an experience  if for no other reason than all the colorful character one can find hanging around the dock.  For example there's:

"Handsome"

and "Beauty"

And just "Too Cute"

Being Dead Is No Excuse" 1 '10

Knowing that I am interested in Southern culture, a friend from my book club recommended I read this book .

"Being Dead Is No Excuse" is a funny, true, and chock full of recipes for must-be-served dishes at after funeral receptions.Tomato aspic with homemade mayonnaise tops the list that includes Aunt Hebe's Coconut Cake and Virginia's Butterbeans. Those who doubt the import of a table groaning under countless casseroles will learn that "Nobody eats better than the bereaved Southerner. We celebrate weddings, christenings, birthdays, and just about every milestone in life with food. But every southerner knows that death cooking is our very best."

This book was fun to read in that it did a realistic comparison between the habits of bringing food to funerals in the south. Many of us who are living in the south have actually eaten many of the foods described in the book.  It is really part cookbook and part fun read.

While much of the book is taken up with the recipes, it also goes into the finer points of southern etiquette.   For example, it goes into the fine art of writing a thank you ….”  A note from a Southern girl never has a fill in the blank feel.  There is nothing generic about it. A Southern Girl has to stop herself from hushing more than Old Faithful. If she is writing a Thank you not for a toaster, she doesn’t just say thank you.  She tells you every little ole thing she’s ever toasted in it or likely to toast in it. …”   So many of these anecdotes ring true with my personal experience with Southern bred women that after reading it myself,  I passed it on to another  friend who is from the South, and who enjoys both reading about  the southern culture and cooking.

Feel free to enjoy it for a light read and a few laughs but know that the calorie laden recipes it contains are “like ta die for”.

My Father's Secret War 1 '10

My Father’s Secret War, by Lucinda Franks was our selection of the month by our Book Club.

The book is a memoir of the author, Lucinda Frank’s search to learn of her fathers past.   Like all memoirs she makes not claims that the story she is telling is truth… only that it is how she remembers and perceived the events and conversations.   And what she remembers is growing up in a highly dysfunctional family…. What makes this book so very compelling is the honesty and poetic telling of naked truths in a truly real family drama. Everything is here: searing hatred and long-awaited forgiveness ,love's disappointments, parents failings, alcoholism, psychological torture, adultery, rebellion, revelation and resolution.

Her bi polar mother is one minute the perfect mom… the next, a jealous harpy trying to spitefully smother her husband and children with rage.

She  also remembers adoring her father early in life when she saw him as intelligent, courtly; and she remembers learning to hate him as he distanced himself both physically and emotionally.  She blames his unavailability on his alcoholism, his adultery, his shrewish wife.  Then, when he was old, ill, showing signs of dementia , she stumbles across a Nazi hat amongst his WWII memorabilia.  She begins digging for answers, and ultimately concludes that her father was a secret operative for the military.

How does war, and the especially savage nature of concentration camps and assassinations, affect the life of a young man? How does keeping all of that pain bottled inside for decades alter every relationship he will ever have? How did it destroy the love he had for her mother, who waited for him while he was fighting?

Throughout, Franks does not pull her punches. The memoir is packed with honesty, from the deep-rooted spite and contempt to the ultimate understanding and love, and a return of the hero she had long lost. After hunting for the man who was her father, she sees him "through eyes that have no memory" and exposes a great and difficult story with an ending that is not so much happy as it is bittersweet.

This as a engrossing but emotionally difficult book to read. Like so many, I have a difficult time getting my parent’s generation to open up and tell us of their experiences during that time.  It is difficult to love and respect someone you cannot really know. Ultimately, the story Ms Franks spells out, should instill an even higher respect   for those of “The Greatest Generation”.