The Rest of the Charleston Garden Photos I Started Sharing Last Week

   Hi everyone.  Can you believe it's the last day of April? This past month flew by. Now that winter is gone, could we slow down things just a little big? (grin)  I'm not around much during the day today (Thursday) with a couple of appointments, so I probably won't get to stop by your blog until later this evening or tomorrow.

  I thought today I would finish the photos I started in last Thursday's post. All these photos are from when I visited Margnolia  Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina a couple of weeks ago. Here's that first post if you missed it and are interested in it: Magnolia Part 1.

  I will also be linking  up this post to Nicole's Friday Face Off and Gillena's  Friday Lunch Break    because tomorrow is the first of the new month which means I will need to  share a new page for Art Journal Journey. I have some  faces at the end of this post. 

   So let's go back to the garden.😀

  After the American Civil War when the slaves were finally freed and rice farming wasn't as advantageous, the family who owned this property needed a find a way to keep their 400 acre plantation. In the late 1800's they planted azaleas and other flowering trees and created the garden. They then  opened it up to tourists who originally would arrive by boat from the Lesley River.  I found this old postcard online and  thought it was an interesting view to the story of this garden.

   Here's the Lesley River  along the gardens now. I like to imagine what it was like when this  waterway was the main transportation route because the road (which is obviously now paved and well traveled) at that time was a dirt track through the woods. 

     Now the house and grounds are  open to the public. I had hoped (besides seeing blooming azaleas) that I could also get a house tour on the day we visited, but those were all full. In retrospect that was OK because we still managed to spend a full afternoon just walking around and enjoying the grounds. 

   I think it would be grand to have a long driveway with such a wonderful oak ceiling and leafy tunnel. Of course  in New Hampshire it would be bare branches half of the year and during winter storms branches would break and block the way so I guess it's best to leave it for the south.

There are several trails to walk, and the one we were on came out through these moss covered beauties.

The Spanish Moss is so cool.👍

      You can see another passe azalea😞 in the photo above. If I ever get back to this area, I hope the azalea's will then be in bloom. 

     Then we had a glance of the house and the more cultivated gardens around the house. Those gardens were pretty, but not as fun as the wild walk I shared last week. But I bet a couple of weeks earlier they would have been gorgeous when the azaleas were blooming.

   Even though I never made it into the house, I did enjoy checking out this wide veranda. 

And I got a few funky/weird photos when I peaked in through the windows.

  The other cool thing up around the house were the peacocks that roamed around. Here's my face for Friday Face Off. This handsome guy was sitting in the cool shade of a small table area. We had stopped at the snack bar to get a cold drink since it was 95 degrees F/35 degrees C and when we sat down we noticed him.

   This other guy was shuffling around with his huge gorgeous train. It must be quite the burden for these birds to drag around their big tales. All just to impress the ladies.

     I was quite interested in the arrangement of the tail feathers.I didn't realize the visible eyes lined up down the middle when the tail was opened. I aso spotted some tucked into the side, but they were not so visible.

  For some reason when I see peacocks I think of Flannery O'Connor's short stories. If you aren't familiar with her, she was a mid-twentieth century southern (US) writer who was very interested in birds. She thought of  male peacocks as the king of birds, which with  their gorgeous colors and that tail was an apt description. She mentions birds in her stories, but her stories are not about birds.

  Hope you enjoyed your visit to Magnolia Plantation and Garden. When I post my next trip post it will be to  visit Congaree National Park which is a couple hours inland from Charleston. Until then, have a super day.

Last Friday in Vermont

    Hi everyone. Happy end of another work week for many people. Today I am joining Nicole for Friday Face Off  and Gillena for  Friday Lunch Break.

    Last Friday my husband and I took a road trip over to Norwich, Vermont. I wanted to visit the King Arthur Flour baking store. (You can check out this post: T Day-Trip to King Arthur Flour if you're curious about the baking store.) Plus the change of scenery was nice.

 One place that is fun to visit (besides King Arthur's baking store) in Norwich is  Dan and Whit's.  Dan and Whit's is an old fashioned general store, and their motto is

  It doesn't look like much from the outside, does it? When you walk inside it's like walking into a mini-food store. If you didn't know better, you might grab a snack, a drink, or maybe lunch from the deli in the back. But if you wander behind  the deli, (and it seems like you are walking into  the employee only section)  this store seems to go on and on. You'll never know what you'll find there. Here's a small selection.

There's garden supplies of all kinds, not just seeds.

It's  sap season so maybe you need maple syruping supplies. You can get everything from the tubing you run from tree to tree along with buckets and syrup bottle.

I haven't seen one of these sleds in years. I didn't know they still made them.

And if you have horses, there's a selection of supplies besides this grooming block. They have dog and cat supplies too.

     They also sell some kitchen supplies. If you have anything you need to can they have what you'd need, or if your oil lamp needs a new wick you can get those too. And you could get a ladle, a tea cup. a serving spoon or lots of other things too.

   My dogs are old, but I took this next photo of these orange  fleece dog coats because I could have used them during hunting season when the dogs were younger. Then they had the energy and sometimes would  run off into the woods behind the house. Well maybe the next dog (some  day in the future) will need one, and I'll know where to get one  should that be the case.

And even though I don't need any, I love Soulmate socks.

Isn't this a fabulous old chest in the hardware section?

And if you're brave enough (or able enough) to climb up these steep old stairs you'd get  to the clothing section.

    They have some work style clothes for sale, and of course, Dan and Whit T shirts. Plus there is this cool old stage.  I wonder if this building was an old school at one time.

    Even the floor and a couple of those hanging lights look vintage.

     I wouldn't mind a couple of those old filing cabinets  in my house. I wonder if they held student records back in the day; that is if this building was an old school.

      And here's my face for Friday Face off. I really like this photo. I just wish the floor vent wasn't there, but even with it there,  I still really like this photo.

     It is always fun to walk through Dan and Whit's to see what you might find. I love that's it's an old fashion store and not a big box store and also that it hasn't really  modernized all that much. There's enough of those modern stores around everywhere else. 

     That's all for me. Have a great Friday and start to your weekend.

Recycled Student Garden Art

      Hi everyone. Happy Friday. This weekend is a long one here in the US called Memorial Day. In my area it is also the start to summer "season", not  an actual astronomical season but the time when places start to get busy with tourists. I wonder how this summer tourist season will go since Trump put the tariff on Canadian goods. New Hampshire and other northern New England states  rely on a large number of Canadian Tourists, and they're understandably angry. Americans who live far from the border might not understand that, but here in New England, especially Northern New England, Trump's tariffs have definitely hurt that relationship. I'm sure that's true for many other border states too. 

     OK, this post is not to be me ranting.  Today I am joining Nicole for Friday Face Off and Gillena for Friday Lunch Break. If you'd stopped by my last 2 posts (Wednesday/Thursday ) you might have seen that my local botanical garden had reopened for the season, and that I visited last week with a friend. In part of the garden they had a special art exhibit with pieces made by students at a few local middle schools. It was really fun art, and some of it even had faces, so I thought I would share that today.

     This is what we saw as we approached the display area

     Much of the art was flowers made from recycled bottles. The day we visited the teachers were there putting up the displays, and one of them explained to us that the kids raided the recycle bins at school to get their materials for these pieces.

   Many of them were flowers, but not all of them were. According the the teachers, the kids used Sharpies to color the bottles and scissors for any cutting they needed to do. In some cases they also used a few other embellishments.

From the back you may wonder what flower this next photo is.

But it's not a flower, just a fluffed up little bird. 

I'll finish with this flat backed little frog.

    It was a fun little exhibit, and I hope, when it is done with, these recycled pieces don't get thrown back into the recycle bin, or worse yet, the trash.

   Have a great Friday and start to your weekend.