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”.

It's Cccccccold 1 '10

Oh man it is ccccccold   The low country is breaking all records for cold weather today.

Just in case you think I am exaggerating ... here are some photos I took around the area today

Yes that is a frozen solid water fall

And here's a different fountain.  Even the poor palms are shivering

Avatar 12 '09

Avatar Poster

 Bruce I and our friends,  Jim and Becky  Sullivan went to an afternoon matinee of the movie Avatar.

CC, BJ, Becky, Jim

I was expecting a  well thought out cartoon, but was instead stunned by the realism James Cameron has managed to instill reality into the 3d  animated characters.

Everything from their facial expressions,

 to their body movement was flawless.

Even more enchanting was the extra-terrestial planet filled with exotic creatures and floating islands.

I don't think I have ever seen anything quite so  magically beautiful  look so real .

Granted, the plot was a little tires, but that was the only fault I could find with the movie.

In all other ways it is promising to become a classic.

It is certainly one of our top all time favorites.

If the acting and  the cinematography in this film doesn't win an Academy Award, then there is something seriously wrong with the Awards process.

Sherlock 12 '09

We went to see the new Sherlock Homes movie last night and thoroughly enjoyed it .
Kudos to the director for  casting Robert Downey Jr in the Role of Sherlock Homes.  Sherlock Holmes benefits from the elementary appeal of a strong performance by Robert Downey, Jr. He has given  the stuffy old image of Sherlock Homes a much needed update.  Indeed the character now can even be thought of in terms of action, laughs, capers, fun  To see him as Sherlock Holmes now feels natural, inevitable... Elementary, even!

Robert Downey Jr. brings the legendary detective to life as he has never been portrayed before. Jude Law stars as Holmes' trusted colleague, Watson, a doctor and war veteran who is a formidable ally for Sherlock Holmes.

Rachel McAdams stars as Irene Adler, the only woman ever to have bested Holmes and who has maintained a tempestuous relationship with the detective

 Kelly Reilly will play Watson's love interest, Mary.

Mark Strong stars as their mysterious new adversary, Blackwood. 

To summarize the movie's  plot: Just fresh off capturing and witnessing the hanging of Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), an occult serial killer, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and Dr. Watson (Jude Law) are stunned to hear rumors that he has resurrected back from the dead and resumed his killing spree. To complicate matters, Watson is planning to get married to pretty Mary Marstan (Kelly Reilly) and move out of good old 221b Baker Street to Holmes great despair. Holmes, hilariously resolved not to let that happen, attempts to sabotage his friend’s proposal while hunting down Lord Blackwood. Holmes perks up considerably though when his tempestuous old love interest, the fetching Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) pops back in town for some mysterious business.

I'm sure that many purists, who know of Homes primarily from earlier film renditions, will take issue with the edgy way Sherlock Homes' character is portrayed. I for one an  glad Ritchie gave a modern face-lift to the character because the original work itself is open to interpretation and I believe this portrayal  would bring a new generation of people to get interested in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work

Brookgreen's Night of a Thousand Candles 12 '09

Once again we are  celebrating the holiday season  by attending Brookgreen Garden's spectacular holiday light show:  Night of A Thousand Candles

BJ 

I firmly believe this is one of the best Holiday light displays in the country

CC in Children's Garden

Lollypop trees in Children's Garden

Every inch of the garden is illuminated

  Even the stars and the moon in the heaven are lit more brightly 

The  Dancing Water Nymph Pond is always my favorite out of doors display

Christmas dinnerware from Attalaya

But the indoor display of local holidays past is interesting as well

The grounds of Brookgreen were once part of a Hunt Club

Happy Channukah 12 '09

Happy Chanukah to you and your loved ones

 From our home to yours

Our Chanukah Bush

Seacoast Artist Guild Fall Show 12 '09

Bruce and I attended the Seacoast Artist Guild's Fall Show and Sale this evening.

It was held in the Art Works Gallery in the Litchfield Exchange Building

 The show was well attended by both artists and art lovers

( especially the refreshment table).

 

I must admit I was impressed with both the quality of the art and how well it was displayed.  This group really sets professional standards for its members

I am glad.  It's nice to see that my  local art community is thriving.