January Day-trip to Columbia

A Christmas present for Duncan was three day-trips, one in January, one in February and one in March to get us through the winter. Last Saturday, we went on the first:  sight-seeing in Columbia (that would be Columbia, South Carolina.)

We visited Riverbanks Zoo, the Botanical Garden and checked out the statehouse grounds.

One of my goals for the day was to see a giraffe. They are weirdly elegant creatures.

We were very impressed with the zoo. They had a lot of most of the animals (15 kangaroos, 6 elephants, 8 - 10 giraffes), nice habitats and good views. It was cold enough for hats and gloves, but sunny -- a great day for the zoo!

Rather than bore you with individual pictures of different animals, I just made a collage. (To see better, press the "control" and "+" key as many times as you want to. When you want to return everything to its original size, press "control" and "0"

The Botanical Garden was an easy walk across the Saluda River from the zoo.

Not sure what this plant is but it was definitely planted to be interesting in the bareness of winter.

We saw lots of these glass ornaments throughout the grounds. They give some color and interest to a garden space in January.

Here is Columbia's Capitol Building. The center palmetto tree is a metal sculpture.

Here is the controversial site of the Confederate Battle Flag on the statehouse grounds. It is on one of the sides of the building, the Memorial is nearly to the sidewalk, and the flag is behind it -- in this picture, hanging quite limply. I can't believe they even have a discussion about it. The flag should go.

I'm sure it was installed to appease the critics of the flag, but there is this really nice African-American History monument on another side of the statehouse grounds. It is in two arced panels depicting the history of African-Americans in the state. This side shows slavery to freedom beginning with slave ships, showing the Civil War, finishing with Harriett Tubman at the far right.

From the other panel, this detail memorializes Briggs v. Elliott, the first of five cases that combined into Brown v. The Board of Education. Briggs v. Elliott challenged segregation in Clarendon County in 1952.

If I had visions of dining at a toney little Capital City hot spot, I had to remember who I was with and who's Christmas present this was. We had dinner at Sandy's Hotdogs -- a joint Duncan remembered from his days as a Park Ranger at Congaree. It reminded me of the Yum Yum in Greensboro. The entire menu was hotdogs and ice cream. And I have to admit, for a hotdog, it was really good.

Stay tuned to see where we go in February.

Christmas Holidays 2011

It's been a lovely Christmas holiday; Mom here for a week, time off from work. Today is the last day of the year. I'm doing my annual out-with-old-in-with-the-new cleaning/reorganizing ritual and Duncan is cooking up a storm in the kitchen. I'm not sure what is to come, but I saw a can of collards so I think I was successful in talking him out of cooking fresh ones. Here are a few pictures:

A couple of weeks before Christmas, Duncan played Santa Claus for a Charleston Animal Society fundraiser. He overcame his aversion to the camera because he loves cats and dogs AND dressing up like Santa!

This is that moment when we've done everything we're going to do to "get ready" and we are just enjoying Christmas at home. Notice the framed envelope over the fireplace addressed to my Grandfather., We'll come back to that in a minute.

We did our annual Christmas Day Walk on the Beach. It was cold enough to bundle up, but not freezing. We hit it at a good low tide, so it was great for a walk.

Christmas Dinner was a picnic after our walk at the Folly Beach City Park. Ham biscuits, deviled eggs, fruit salad and tea. Yum!

Here we are among the "public art."

Too bad he doesn't have on his red suit. . .

Mom keeps passing along family treasures. This is a pearl handled quill pen that belonged to my Grandmother Bowles. Mom says she feels sure it was a special birthday or Christmas gift and is the one she used to write all the letters to Granddaddy that we have saved. (Go back to the large framed envelope over the fireplace, THAT envelope was addressed with THIS pen.)

More treasures from the Bowles family:  Mom's note says these two pieces of silver were a wedding gift to Grandmother and Granddaddy in 1913 -- and since they eloped, there probably weren't many wedding gifts -- so, very special.

And this final family treasure: Recently I told Mom I didn't have many pictures of Daddy, so she made special albums for me and each of the grandchildren. This is Daddy and me at Christmas in 1996.

Christmas is Coming to Our House

It's a pretty big deal for us to put up a Christmas tree. Most years, especially if we're traveling, we don't. (Not having children grants you certain freedoms). But Mom is spending a week with us this year, so we're pulling out more stops.

It's not leaning, is it? Damn!

Charleston Parade of Boats

Early in the month we went kicked off our Christmas season by going to see the Charleston Parade of Boats.

It's blurry, but squint your eyes and use your imagination and maybe you can tell this boat celebrated Christmas At the Beach. There's a flamingo and a jumping dolphin. Sailboats paraded at their own pace behind.

December 4th and my summer flowers are still blooming.

When Mom visited in October we bought this Debutante camellia. It blooms now and the Lady Claire blooms in Feb.March.

We've had one night when it threatened to go below freezing, but the following day it went up to over 70 again. I recently said I wished it would get colder so it would feel more like the holidays and someone told me to be careful what I wished for. True, true. So, I'm enjoying this e-x-t-e-n-d-e-d fall.

Thank Goodness

After years of mom telling me the point of living is not just to "be happy" I find myself, for the first time, -- happy. Content -- OK with it all.  And thankful. So it CAN be happy people who are thankful, but I get what they're saying. Thank you Mom.

This year I find myself particularly thankful for:

• The courage to change jobs -- again. Knock wood, it seems to be going well.
• Something has shifted in me and I've made peace with staying in Charleston longer.  Duncan got a boat and I bought a bathing suit somewhere not Costco. Whoo-hoo, at this time of our lives we live at the coast and we're going to make the most of it.
• Doors on closets
• Teachers
• My high-tech achievement of the year -- transitioned to a Mac and a phone that is smarter than me.
• My low-tech achievement of the year -- I've learned to knit and am almost done with a "twirly" scarf - a very forgiving 1st project.
• Knowing more people who like to play Bananagram 
• It has been a year relatively free of committee work. That's about to change so I'll take a moment to appreciate it. 
• Those big things that I've mentioned in years past remain constant -- very thankful for Mom, Duncan, Duncan's job, health insurance, many good and dear friends. Very thankful, these are truly big - really the only things that matter.