Calla lilies have all kinds of curves - the spiral as the bud opens, a flaring trumpet around a tight yellow ovoid, gentle waves and curls. Was it serendipity that three of the places I went around Charleston showcased different colors of the flowers?
The white was blooming at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens.
The pink was in Boone Hall Plantation’s garden.
The yellow was in a first floor window box in downtown Charleston.
I visited Charleston SC at the end of this past April. Walking around the old downtown part of the city was quite a treat. I enjoyed the architecture of the churches and houses -
The houses use every bit of ground not covered by building of sidewalk as garden area and the climate lends itself to a lushness that is quite appealing. It was an enjoyable and educational vacation destination.
I have been on the road quite a lot the past few weeks. There were some long stretches where I was driving and kept myself focused on that activity rather than noticing too much of the scenery. This blog is about the times I was not driving and the road itself drew my attention.
There was an unpaved road of an oak allee. In the 1860s, the trees would not have been as massive but the road would have been like this - a white, sandy track near Charleston, South Carolina. I saw it on a tram tour. It is just a road to nowhere now since the plantation house is gone.
I posted about the Ravenel Bridge a few days ago. This picture shows the approach to the bridge and the graceful arc the bridge makes between the supports. The traffic moved at highway speeds the 10 or so times we crossed the bridge. Is the beauty and uniqueness of the bridge distracting enough to cause accidents? I didn’t see any but was glad I was not driving.
On foot in Charleston, we walked along tourist clogged sidewalks on Church Street. This was a place where being on foot was better than being in a car. The palm trees and window boxes added color to the brick and ironwork of the buildings. And sometimes the street pavement was cobblestones rather than asphalt!
The bridge and tunnel between Norfolk and Hampton, Virginia was another opportunity to photograph the road from a passenger seat. The choppy water under the bridge sometimes formed white foam against the pillars of the bridge. The tile in the tunnel reflected the red tail lights.
And now I am home again - for a little while.
Boone Hall was a pleasant surprise. It is across the Cooper River from Charleston SC. It started out as a cotton plantation, supplemented that crop with pecans and a brick yard, and now is a farm using precision growing techniques for fruits and vegetables offered in their own store and pick-your-own. The only cotton grown now is a small test plot that still showed last year’s crop when I was there in late April.
The brick slave cabins with clay tile roofs are unusual; slave cabins were usually built of more flimsy material. But Boone Hall included a brick yard so the cabins for the slaves associated with the house were built of bricks. The cabins have displays and recorded narrative to explain the life there prior to the 1860s.
The gardens are full of hearty flowers of the season and the mature oak allee dates from the 1600s. The people in the picture provide some notion of the size of the trees.
There is a two story cotton gin that had shored up walls - awaiting renovation. The gin was on the top floor and there were holes in the floor to push the cotton below where it could be baled for shipment.
Interesting ironwork is part of the Charleston scene - and Boone Hall’s gate is no exception.
There is always a lot to do at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens (near Charleston, SC). When I was there in late April, it was still cool. That meant that there were still a few camellias but the azaleas and irises were blooming too. There was plenty of activity to see from the boat tour through the old rice fields: lolling alligators, hunting herons/water birds and plenty of duckweed to reduce mosquitos (even though it was too cool for insects to be very active anyway). The huge live oaks with graceful veils of Spanish moss (all the tour guides emphasized that it is not Spanish and not a moss…it is an epiphyte native to the Americas) were everywhere. The gardens were a contrast of natural, formal, and escaped vegetation. It was obvius they had been gardens for a long time and still constantly changing - both from the efforts of gardeners and the natural environment of the place. There were crepe myrtles that were growing quite happily among dense natural vegetation that had taken over at the edge of one garden area. I posted about the peacock at Magnolia Plantation last week. I took so many other pictures that it was difficult to pick the 25 in the slide show below. Enjoy!
The Audubon Swamp Garden is part of Magnolia Plantation and Gardens near Charleston, South Caroline. In late April, the egrets were nesting. The alligators and turtles were trying to warm up on a cool cloudy day. The boardwalk had quite a few photographers - some with fancy tripods and big lenses that were capturing the many birds and reptiles of the swamp.
The high point was an anhinga with hungry chicks.
This was my second trip to this location. Back in 2008, we were a few weeks earlier and the egrets were still doing mating displays rather than sitting on their nests with eggs or hatched chicks. It was a warmer day as well. Every platform held either an alligator or turtle. One held both - and the big excitement of the day for us was when the alligator ate one of the turtles!
A new electronic gate had been added to the garden….and the metal sculpture was new. I particularly liked the fiddling frog surrounded by spring green leaves.
The Ravenel (New Cooper River) Bridge is between Mount Pleasant and Charleston, South Carolina. We drove across it at least 8 times while we were in the area a few weeks ago. It is a landmark from so many vantage points around Charleston!
I took pictures from Patriots Point - from the parking lot,
from deck of the USS Yorktown air craft carrier
and from the picnic area -
and the South Carolina Aquarium
and even Charles Towne Landing.
I was not driving so was able take pictures from the front passenger seat as we drove across. The slide show below are my favorites.
Spring is a few weeks behind the norm but it is quite lush at this point. The iris bulbs that I moved to a sunnier bed last fall have very fat buds. They are quite happy with the change in location and will provide fill for the area until the new azalea bushes we planted this spring can reach their full size.
Our tulips were mostly browsed by deer very early. We only had two that managed to bloom.
I forgot all about the chives that have come up for years where we now have a young sycamore. There is some weeding that will need to be done there.
The usual bird’s nest under the covered deck had multiplied this year; there are two at opposite ends of the support beam. The cats will glare through the boards of the deck at the robin chicks - unable to do more than catch a glimpse of the drama under their feet.
There was a slow moving bee on the dandelion. The air temperature was just warming enough for insects to become active.
The tulip poplar blossoms are still tight buds. I was surprised at how intact the shell of a bloom from last year still seemed to be after the buffeting of winter and spring winds.
Most of the violets that grow in the deep shade under the deck were done but one lingered.
The sweetest scent of the walk around the house was from a bush in bloom. I was surprised that insects were not buzzing around it. Usually they are. Perhaps I timed the walk perfectly - when it was still cool enough for the insects to be sedentary.
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
Lionfish Attack The Gulf Of Mexico Like A Living Oil Spill - Yikes! In 2 years, the reefs in the Bahamas lost on average 65% of their small prey fish…and 40% of the larger fish.
Comet Will Come Close but Most Likely Miss Mars Next Year - This could get pretty exciting.
Peel-and-Stick Solar Cells - Maybe solar cells will get tremendously easier to install
Science as Art: Nanoscale Materials Imitate Everything From Flowers to Frost - The beauty in the very small from the Materials Research Society
Digital Public Library of America - Opened on 4/18/2013.
Pearls and The Puzzle of How They Form Perfect Spheres
A visual look at 7 things that make us feel good about work - Infographic from TED
Video of the Week: Visualizing 150 Years of Health Data - and links to other visualizations and learning modules about visualizing data
Superstorm Sandy Shook the U. S., Literally - The storm had the impact of magnitude 2-3 earthquakes that went on for hours and hours
MandalaZone - Mandala’s by Peter Patrick Barreda
Amazingly Detailed Macro Portraits of Bugs - Flies and spiders and dragonflies and mantises.
Brookgreen Gardens, located south of Myrtle Beach, SC, is more than plants. It has many sculptures spread throughout the garden areas and in museum type displays. There is a Butterfly House (photos in an upcoming post) and opportunities to learn about the history of the area which was colonized as indigo and rice plantations.
We were too late for most of the azaleas and camellias but the iris were beginning along the edges of the water. There was lush greenery and the black masked squirrels abounded. There was sculpture everywhere - sometimes as the center piece of the garden and sometimes almost hidden in foliage. My favorite was of a dancer with swirling skirts.
I found myself interested in the faces of the pieces and picked some of the best for the slide show below.
The tickets for Brookgreen last for a week and I found it was well worth taking more than one day to see the place.
It is good to be home again. I was up in time to catch the sunrise yesterday. The picture above was taken a few minutes before sunrise at 6:03 (sunrise was at 6:09). This time of year the view of the eastern horizon from our house is obstructed by trees. The oak tree in the foreground is full of blooms and rapidly growing leaves. But the clouds captured the color of the day’s beginning. What a difference from the sunrise over the Atlantic from a South Carolina beach I posted about a few days ago!
Observing sunrise is one of my favorite ways to start the day. The more beautiful it is - the more positive I feel about the rest of the day.
On my first day in South Carolina, I saw a peacock sculpture at Brookgreen Gardens - marking a path into the gardens near the visitor’s center. The sculpture captures the haughtiness of the real bird that I saw the next day at Magnolia Plantation & Gardens. The bird displayed for visitors standing in line to get tickets. The patch of grass and nearby fence was its stage. Periodically he screeched and was answered by peacocks elsewhere on the property. He seemed to enjoy the attention of people but needed the connection to others of his kin.
Peacocks must be one of the most dramatically plumed birds on the planet. Their feathers are long and lush with color and pattern. Did the idea for long trains of formal gowns (and the bustle that was fashionable at one time) come from the peacock’s tail (see the picture of the peacock on the fence at the right)? The color is structural rather than from pigment so it does not fade. I have some peacock feathers that are almost 30 years old and, while physically fragile, they still have their brilliant colors.
Last week I was in South Carolina and managed to get up early one morning to catch the rise as the nearby beach - Surfside Beach, between Charleston and Myrtle Beach. We checked weather.com for the sunrise time the night before and got to the beach about 6:20 AM which was just before the sunrise. The moon was still out.
The sky was full of oranges and reds when we arrive but the sun had not broken the line of the sea at the horizon. It was clear so the light simply filled the sky above the waves. The sun peeked over the rim of the ocean and the reds faded away to oranges and pinks.
We walked along the beach, picking up shells. The morning chill and damp kept us away from the water but the damp sand made walking easier.
There were other things to notice: the people surf fishing (they did have their feet in the water), walkers that briskly made their way along the beach, birds feeding at the boundary between sea and beach, pelican skimming the waves flight in formation toward the north, seagulls chattering, and at least one other with a camera there to capture the sunrise like me.
It was an excellent way to start the day.
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
The Cancer Tradeoff - Robert Austin argues that cancer is a natural consequence of our rapid evolution
Dinosaur Embryo Graveyard - From southern China
Like People, Bees Learn From Watching One Another
Breathtaking Photos of Colorful Rock Formations in China - Vibrantly colored exposed rock layers
Plant DNA Largely Unchanged - We have a tulip tree at the edge of the forest in our backyard….and it is pretty much the same as trees that grew in the time of dinosaurs!
Nanoparticle Disguised as a Blood Cell Fights Bacterial Infection - An idea about what comes after antibiotics for bacterial infections….something completely different
Breathtaking Photos of China's "River of Poems and Paintings" - Seems like China is a theme for this week….this is the second gleaning about that country
Research Aims to Settle Debate Over Origin of Yellowstone Volcano - Mantle plumes near subduction zones are more complex that the previous models depicted
Light Paintings Created with LED Wakeboards - Even the photographs show the motion of the athletes…but watch the video too to understand how much work went into the production.
Snowcano - Volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula…and I see that ‘volcanoes’ is another theme for this week although Yellowstone and Kamchatka are quite different.
Today is a savoring of the vacation I had back in March in Arizona. I’ve made some collages of desert images.
Barrel cactus, lizards, cholla fruit, the edges of aloe, lichen. The eye searches for anything that is not the color of sand. The very sparseness of the desert highlights the shapes and colors.
The sky seems bluer in the desert. The tall spires of the desert spoon are not colorful but their shapes are classics of the desert.
And what about the saguaros and aloes. All the shades of green are there. One even has leaves outlined in white.
So - hear I am more than a month after the vacation - still enjoying the time in this place very different from the lushness of Maryland.
Plants are full of curves - gentle curving petals of a deciduous magnolia,
The cups and spirals of young leaves that will flatten out as they expand to their mature form,
The graceful white markings that follow the veins on a tropic leaf,
The round nuts on a palm,
An old smooth edged leaf caught by deep green leaves,
And the folds of an amaryllis bud.
Are there any straight lines in nature? Or is ‘straight’ simply a matter of perspective - where we don’t have a large enough view to discern the curvature?
The Angel Trumpet flowers draw my attention every time I see them. What is it about Angel Trumpets that are so riveting?
Perhaps it is that the flowers hang downward instead of reaching for the sky and that their white or off-white color stands out from the abundant green foliage of the plant.
Or it could be the long tubes that are buds of the flower. They are so neatly rolled.
And then there are the spirals as they begin to unfurl….the spiral from the center and the spiral at the tips of the petals.
And then the petals are unfurled completely and the 5 rays from the center are visible
As they turn upward to make the trumpet.
There is a lot to notice about these flowers.
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
Bald Eagle Nest in Washington DC webcam - The chicks hatched in March. The nest is on the grounds of the Metropolitan Police Academy. The nesting pair has used the site for several years and successfully fledged young birds.
Clever Designs Built With Repurposed Egg Shells - I love the idea of starting seedlings in egg shells!
Mining Books to Map Emotions through a Century - Emotional archaeology through the written word
Former NBA player recalls the time he saved a dolphin by reaching his arm down its throat - Sometimes the serendipity events of life have tremendous meaning
Computer Scientists Develop Video Game That Teaches How to Program in Java - A trend for teaching in the future?
Radical Roads Drive Robot Cars - Autonomous cars….changing highways
Geography in the News - Maple Syrup Time - A rite of spring!
NASA May Be Towing an Asteroid to a Planet near You - Wow! Really?
Gaining and Losing Shares - Population distribution by region, 1790 to 2010 from the US Census
Rare Disease (infographic) - from TED
Crystal Clear Snowflake Photos by Don Komarechka - In celebration of the end of winter weather!
In mid-April - the deciduous magnolias were the highlight of Brookside Gardens. They come in many varieties although they are generally pink or white. The petals are generally large although there is one that had petals that curled like ribbons. Many times the petals are pink on the outside and white on the inward facing surface. Healthy trees are dense with blooms on otherwise bare branches.
The grounds were covered with new growth. Fiddleheads and native plants are coming up through the mulch everywhere in the gardens.
The tulips were just beginning to open and many of them looked like they had been damaged by the extremely cold weather in late March. I am always drawn to the blending of the yellow and orange tulip petals in the sunlight.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from 2023:
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