Brookgreen's Harvest Festival Oct 20 '07

Every year Brookgreen Gardens has a Harvest Festival Celebration

The Festival is oriented towards families.

There are pumpkin painting contests

Live music

Live scarecrows

And Scarecrow building contests for families to compete in

Some people take this seriously enough to bring their own props  for their scarecrows

Surfer Dude

D Vadar

Family 1

Others seek to impress with a group  effort.

Here's our efforts

Any way you approach it, its a lot of fun, but doing it alone really made us miss our grand-kids

KAT 10 '07

We were worried about bringing our adopted out-of-door California stray, Ms. Kat Attude  (AKA ‘KAT) to SC and locking her into a condo.  But the choice was that or has her put to sleep.  She was too old to be put up for adoption.  Not knowing what dangers might be lurking in the woods behind us, we were reluctant to let her outside.  As much as she wanted out, she was reluctant to go out beyond the few feet of grass lawn behind our condo.  During the first few months she would only go for a walk further if we would go with her.  Then she discovered squirrels …..and she was off and running.

She has great aspirations (if little hope) for catching one of the swishy tailed critters.  But so far all she has managed to hunt down is one striped skink and several small land-crabs (which she caught inside our screened porch.).  She wasn’t sure what to do with either, so she gladly traded her live catches for a kitty treats.

She still loves to play hide and seek with Bruce. She hides while he seeks.  When he gets close she runs out from her hiding spot and tags his leg and runs to her next hiding place.  She also likes to chase the whiffle balls when he is practicing his golf drive with them on the lawn behind us. 

We had to go to California for Bruce’s medical exams last week.  KAT made friends with the new cat-sitter, Conne, but it was obvious that she was lonely. The sitter said Kat wouldn’t leave her side while she was there, and even grabbed her leg to try to prevent her from leaving.  Kat was very happy to see us come home.  She hasn't let us out of her sight since we arrived.   I think the next trip will be in the RV and we will take her with us.

Susan Sarbach Workshop in North Carolina. 10 '07

Susan Sarbach  is a California plein-air painter known for her colorful landscapes.  She runs a well known art school outside of Sacramento CA., and has recently contracted with Dreamwork Productions to train their animators on color and form.  I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a week -long workshop which she was offering in Cary, North Carolina in October.

The course included lecture and demonstrations, as well as lots of opportunity to practice what we were learning.   

Susan paints every painting in four steps.  ( See the example  below)

Scene being painted

Step 1 block in shapes  with relative value tones

Stage 2 Blend  shapes, adjust values,  and temperatures 

Stage 3 Add highlights

Final painting  with finsihing details

 It was a lot harder than Susan made it look.  But she is an excellent teach and by the fifth day, everyone was making dramatic strides in using her techniques.  Here are three of the other students’ practice  pieces..

Student 1

Student 2

Student 3

Below is one of my practice pieces… Wadda ya  think?

Let there be light 9 '07

The day we  moved in

The stock model  of our villa only had 3 forty watt ceiling lights  to illuminate the 50 feet of the dining room and living areas.   It was pretty dark inside considering that there are no windows on the side walls, only one small window in the front (kitchen),  and a screened porch separates the living-room from any natural light in the back

Living room with addition of ceiling fan light and gallery lighting bar

Dining room with Gallery lighting and ceinling fan light

Knowing this, we had  multiple extra electrical outlets installed in the ceilings of every room during construction.   Bruce has slowly but surely been adding track lighting and lighted ceiling fans  throughout the house.

 Art Glass lighting over the breakfast bar

 There is even lighting strips installed above and below the upper kitchen cabinets to add more work area illumination

 

Southern Style Bar-B-Que cook-offs 9 '07

The South is famous for its Bar-B-Que Cook-offs.   On almost any summer weekend, you can find a cook-off contest being held in at least one of the Southern towns.  As the summer month progress, the competition gets fiercer.  So far, Bruce and I have gone to two Bar-B-Ques … one national, one local.  Each had its own unique flavor (pardon the pun).  So far we have found the food to be okay. (In all fairness, maybe it would have been better if we had come the first day rather than the second).  BUT, the festivities which surround these cook-offs, is more than enough reason for going out of ones way to spend some time at these events.

Our first experience was at the Boone’s  Hall Farm National Bar-B-Que Contest.  This is one of those big national cook-offs like you see on the TV Food Channel Networks.  All the heavy -hitter cooks you see on TV were there. Many make a living selling their “secret recipe sauces” at these events.

Vendors lined up along the river

Vendors at the Boon Hall Barbque cook-off

Many seemed to believe in flag waving as a source of their luck.

The main source of entertainment was some authentic southern jammin'. 

It was held just outside Charleston at Historic Boone’s Farm Plantation.  

 An admission charge covered the cost of a docent led tour the historic plantation manor,

Boon Hall Planation House

and its authentic slave village… pretty interesting  stuff.

Boon Hall Slave Village

Slave Kitchen

Slave House Living quarters

Slave bedroom

Our second shot at one of these contests took place over Labor Day weekend when we attended a local Myrtle Beach Cook-off.   It was held on the sports ground of the old Myrtle Beach Military Base.  Maybe it was just local pride, or maybe it was because there was not an admission charge, but this event attracted a much larger number of both cooks, and apprecianados.   The number of cooks completely surrounded the sports field.

Myrtle Beach Cook-off

Here are some photos of just a few of the colorful cooking set-ups.

The Flag waving took on a local flair at this event.

And of course, those who had won at previous shows were quick to let the judges know it.

Visiting with the Neighbors 9 '07

This little green tree frog came to visit today. I had almost put my hand on the front door handle to open it, when he blinked.  So did I. I couldn't believe my eyes.  I put my groceries down and carefully moved him into the bushes where KAT wouldn't find him.

Pawley's Island Shells 8 '07

Pawleys Island Shells

We find lots of these  pretty ridged shells  at low tide on the  sand bars of the north end of Pawleys Island  Beach.  We have only seen an occasion broken remnants of this shell  on other beaches.  One of the local jewelers is selling gold and silver copies of these as "Pawleys Island shells" as if they were unique to here. I think they are rare relatively rare finds because our coast is gently sloping and their normal depth is far offshore.

 Upon investigation we found out that they are officially known as

Imperial Venus Chione latilirata (Conrad)
Description: 1.5 inches, Rounded, triangular and inflated shell. Large, heavy concentric ridges rounded and often sharply shelved at the top. Ridges fragile on dry specimens ( and the color tends to bleach out with time.. Bottom edge of ridges not serrated. Bottom edge of shell finely grooved. Cardinal and lateral teeth on hinge. Habitat: Lives offshore, south of Cape Hatteras, in 60-to 120-foot depths. Occasionally found on ocean beaches.
Range: North Carolina to Florida.