Happy New Years 12-31-12

Happy New Years Everyone.

May your troubles be less and your blessings be more and nothing but happiness come through your door.

Ready to Party 12-31-12

Ready and waiting to ring in the New Year

Golfing at Wilbrook in the winter 12" 12

You may remember that last month I was very enthusiastic about Wilbrook Plantation.

We decided to play another 9 holes there today and found it a tidally different course .

All of the fall color was gone, leaving only the Spanish moss laden trunks of the dormant bald cypress 

In spite of the blue skies and sunshine,. and the well-maintained greens, the rice paddies and marshes seemed a lot spookier and the waterways a whole lot lot colder than they had  a month before.

 

The good news is that we have the course to ourselves in the winter, so we can slow down and really take our time  on each stroke.

Kat Walk 12 '12

One of the benefits of  winter is that the re are fewer golfers, and  by the late afternoon we can usually take Kat for a walk along the edge of the marsh and the woods that border the 17th and 18yh fairways.   A half mile  each way is a long long walk when your legs are only 4 inches long, but it's her favorite thing to do.  She'll pm;y go that far if both Bruce and I go with her. If we don't initiate the stroll, she will stand at the door and cry for us to open it then stand outside on the porch calling for us to join her.

Merry Christmas to all 1 '12

And a Merry Christmas to All, from our house to yours.

Christmas decor at Our House 12"12

I think we have more Christmas ornaments than a Christmas Store

Every room in the house is decorated

Gof Course of the week: Pawleys' Plantation 12 '12

Today was a perfect day on Pawelys Island . ...72 degrees, lots of sunshine, a cooling breeze and because it is pre-season... no tourists.  We decided to take advantage of the open links and play the back nine on our home course.

 I was driving well today and managed to tee onto the 13th island green for par

Of course Bruce can always beat my score with with his accurate putting.

But who cares about keeping scores when you can be outside on a beautiful day like today.

Super tide at Pawleys Island 12 '12

 

   Flood warnings have been  posted all along the South Carolina coastline today  due to a super high tide. Far from wanting to flee the in-coming tide, Bruce and I rushed to the end of our street  to see what the high tide would do to Pawleys Island Marsh. In short, it turned it into a  gigantic mirror. With no place to go, many of the marsh birds huddled together on bits of debris like a still life stranded between an infinite sea and sky.  It was beautiful.  When I finally got around to reviewing the photos I had taken, I thought I had mistakenly set my camera on a black and white setting.  They were all nearly near monochromatic.  But no, it was just that I was so focused upon capturing the photo ops before me  that I failed to notice the lack of color in the scene.  I love how the gray-scale quality of the sky and water amplifies the stark nearly abstract design of the solid objects.

The Hobbitt: Movie Review 12"12

What is this? Peter Jackson has set off on An Expected Journey to milk every dime from his successful LOTR trilogy. The movie can be summed up by:  Run through the woods, bloody battle; run over the fields, bloody battle; run through the mountain pass, avoid a rocky battle; fall down hole, bloody battle; run out of the hole, more bloody battle.  It has more chase scenes than a James Bond film and more monsters than  your worst nightmare.  But that's about all... running and fighting and scary monsters. Less running  shorter battles,  and  less time spent on scary monsters would have made this an endurable 120 minutes. But as it is, even with motion tilt chairs timed to the action, and hi speed 3d viewing, and the beautiful New Zealand landscape as a background, this flick was boring.

Happy Chanukah, Bruce 12 '12

Bruce has been getting some unusual Hanukah gifts from me this year.

On the first night, he received a 1lb package of  Korean Chili pepper

On the next night, he got a box of 1 qt mason jars. 

on the third night, he got a Korean cookbook.

On the fourth, a large Napa cabbage and Daikon radish

But today it all came together. and I made him four quarts of fresh Kimchi.

It's supposed to sit for a couple of days to let the spice flavors blend, but Bruce couldn't stand it and asked me to leave one jar unsealed.  Even without having time to blend it tastes wonderful.

He said it is the tastiest Hanukkah gift he's ever received.

Golf Game of the week: at Abbrdeen: 12 '12

Today we played the front nine holes of the 27 available on the Aberdeen Course.

I suspect these nine were the least attractive of the fairways, as the other eighteen  fairways all run along  the Little River separate North Carolina and South Caorlina.

Never the less these nine holes were challenging.  The Abbrdeen Club advertises itself as a Scottish type course  with  long narrow fairways and large uneven greens.  Bruce thinks I liked it just because of their logo, but I (we) actually enjoyed the challenge.

Bruce and I both did well especially on our driving.

Brookgreen Gardens Night of a Thousand Candles 12 '12

Once again we attended Brookgreen Gardens Annual  "Night of a Thousand Candles" Festival.

We always look forward to this holiday light extravaganza.  I did get some good photos of the garden at night,  but this year both Bruce and I were a bit disappointed in the event.

For one thing, the Gardens oversold the event and it took patrons forty five minutes of stop and go driving just to get from the front gate to the parking lot.

Then the  the gardens themselves seemed a lot sparser this year than last. I understand the need for pruning overgrown plants, but why not wait until after their major event of the season is over, or at least fill the barren beds with  some annuals .

They had also changed the light displays so that they seemed  quite similar from one garden area to the next.  Bruce liked that, but I thought it monotonous. I liked it better in previous years when there were more areas with colored lights

Of course there were the usual selections of wandering bagpipers, Celtic musicians, bell ringers etc.

and some beautiful  holiday floral displays

But many of those were things I could have enjoyed just as well by daylight. So I am hoping that next year the garden flower beds will be planted  and lit as well as their indoor displays were this year.

Happy Chanukah 12 '12

The first night of Chanukah fell on Dec 8th this year, so while Bruce was out of the house running  an errand, I  put away all of the red and green ornaments and  set the table with blue and white plates.

Our menorah went in the middle of the table

A silver Chanukah bush decorated with blue glass bulbs, dreidels, and chocolate gelt ornamented our coffee table. 

I put my Blue wine bottle collection to good use by setting it up with white candles like a menorah in the kitchen window.

All the specialty foods for making holiday meals was set on display on our kitchen counter.

Bruce looked so surprised and excited when he came home to find the house all set up and ready to celebrate the festival of the Channukah.

Life of Pi : Five thumbs up 12'12

We went to see the movie Life of PI this afternoon. It .is  based upon a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy , explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. And that becomes even more central to his  character  when Pi's family packs up their lives, their animals, and moves the whole kit and caboodle to Canada by ship. Well, that's the plan. Something goes wrong in rough seas outside of Manila. The ship goes down in a haunting scene, and now the stage is set. Sixteen-year-old Pi is shipwrecked in a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a 450-pound adult Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. It's survival of the fittest on the high seas, and things get Darwinian fast. Soon enough, it's Pi and the tiger in it together. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal Tiger named "Richard Parker"'.

We loved this film. I thought the acting, directing, cinematography and the musical score were amazing.  Right from the opening credits, it was arty and visually compelling. We saw it in 3 D. Usually I don't think this technology adds much value to films, but in this case it complimented and added to the depth of the films underlying themes. The script kept true to the book, while the special effects and cinematography brought this incredible story to life with stunning beauty, which is no small feat given the nature of the story. Fantastical elements run seamlessly along side the real, but it is the creation of the tiger is perhaps one of the greatest achievements in film to date. It is impossible to tell when the tiger on screen is an actual tiger or a digitally-created image.

Given the artistic talents of the special effects team, this movie could have felt like one long showcase of digital images, but there is somehow a beautiful simplicity to the film. Everything serves to tell the story. The result is a completely satisfying movie experience. I would recommend seeing this one on the big screen in order to fully immerse yourself in the wonder of the world created by Ang Lee.

New York Diner in South Carolina 12 ' 12

We had lunch today at the New York Diner in Murrells Inlet.  This strange little place with its cheezy looking statue of liberty,  would seem doomed for extinction,  hidden as it is on an out of the way side street.  But word of mouth about its food, and a loyal fan club keeps it doing a booming business. Who woulda thunk!

 New York Diner
920 Inlet Square Dr, Murrells Inlet

Gofing at the River Club 12'12

We did not find the River Club to be as pretty or as interesting as other golf courses in the area.  Its fairways are mostly long, flat, and narrow.  Their main challenge is that one need to be able to drive long distances to make par.  Still, it was a beautiful day to be out of doors.

And a Merry Christmas to All 12 '12

We received our first gift of the season from out neighbors Joe and Julie.  I thought this Poinsettia far too lovely to hide indoors, so I placed it beside out front door where the entire neighborhood can enjoy it's beauty.

Presto Chango 12 ' 12

 As soon as Thanksgiving was over CC dragged down all of the Christmas ornaments from the attic. Bruce swears he left the house to play golf and it was Fall gold and Orange with Thanksgiving decor , and by the time he finished his game and returned home it was  all red and green and Christmas like. Only a few edible squash remained to convince him he hadn't walked into the wrong kitchen

Willbrook Plantation Golf Course '12

I have to admit, Bruce is getting smarter about how to con me into playing golf with him.  He's finally figured out that I like going to places that have cultural significance, are visually  appealing, and /or are at least athletically and mentally challenging...  So he took me to the Willbrook Plantation.  That golf course definitely has all three traits.

Willbrook  is one of the a multitude of  nearby golf courses that are built upon what were once a major Rice Plantations

The difference is that Willbrook has managed to highlight the culturally significance of the area by allowing archeological digs on the property, and documenting these sites with historical markers.

Site  ruins and marker of the original plantation house

These include the plantation house, slave village, slave cemetery headstones,  a rice mill,  rice fields, and the original canal system to irrigate the rice fields

Which brings us to the second benefit of playing at Waccamaw  -  the canal system is based upon tidal input which is constantly ebbing and flowing, and presenting an never ending series of  reflections.  I only wish that golf courses would let artists on-site  to paint.  I could spend a lifetime here and never capture all of the beauty of this place.

 Which brings us to the third  attraction... again provided by  water..  It's everywhere.

You tee off across it, onto a  islands that are surrounded by water.  

You play long narrow fairways that have a canal running along its length,

Or drive over  what appears to be a  large lakes in the middle of the fairways.

And water isn't the only hazard along the fairways some are even more intimidating

Willbrook  Plantation is certainly one of the more challenging courses around , and definitely tests ones  nerve as well as driving skills.

Thanksgiving Dinner Nov '12

Thanksgiving Dinner at the Pawleys Plantation Country Club was awesome.

All the traditional Thanksgiving foods, plus some of the freshest seafood in the nation.

AND NO CLEAN UP Totally Awesome!

Happy Turkey Day Everyone '12

Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours

Happy Birthday CC '12

CC with her new Golf Bag

Guess What Bruce Gave me for my Birthday?

Yup - you got it!

A Bright Pink Golf bag and matching pink golf balls.

Maybe he thinks that if he disguises them in my favorite fashion color,

I will be more willing to spend time playing with them.