Planning for the distant future

Remember the gospel story about the mustard seed growing into the largest of all the trees? Had Jesus preached in the low country of South Carolina, I suppose he would have used the live oak tree for his analogy!

Notice the TINY speck in my hand? That is the seed of a live oak, one of the largest and longest-lived trees in the world. The oldest known tree in South Carolina is the Angel Oak, located on one of the sea islands south of Charleston. At 1,400 years it has endured all sorts of hurricanes, floods, fires, and now of course, human development.

Anyway, I have planted some in our little clay pot, and we will see if they sprout! Given the length of time they take to grow, we will be long dead and gone before this one gets big! Maybe we can make it a family heirloom?

Garden time in South Carolina

All self-respecting Carolinians (North or South) do two things on a beautiful weekend in early April, namely-a. fish or b. garden. As you can see we chose the latter and now have some nice tubs for vegetables and herbs all with their little residents peeking out. AND we have cleared a nice big area for a wild flower garden (less to mow that way).

So we are sore, full of blisters, but pretty satisfied. I must admit though, that while on an errand I passed a fellow fishing in a quiet backwater of the river outside of town and felt that fishing might just be the better choice!

Springtime!

Well, we have been bitten by the planting bug, but I know better than to plant before April 10 which is our last official frost date. Here we have 29 plastic tubs. I carefully drilled drain holes in the bottoms, layered gravel over them, and then added topsoil and potting soil. Two more weeks and we'll be ready!

THEN, there are the banished barrels. I thought they were a great idea (at least they were big enough) but upon bringing them home found them declared "blue" (duh), and "ugly" (huh?) and dismissed to the alcove on the north side of the house. But fear not, whatever I plant in them will receive SPECIAL attention all summer to prove they belong! I suppose that is what I get for being a silly utilitarian with no aesthetic taste whatever.

Of course, the Bradford pears are in full bloom, making some streets around town almost look as though it snowed. Hopefully this is the closest thing to snow we will get this year! The pollen is kind of bad though.

Our goal with the yard is to eventually eliminate most if not all mowing, SO....here is where we will start a wildflower garden. Later we will expand areas of gravel and potted plants.

Y'all will have to figure out which picture goes with which paragraph, because I sure can't figure out how to move them on this post!! And I'm not gonna take the time either, so if anybody knows, feel free to clue me in.

Tea with Zephir and Minkey

Well here we are on Wadmalaw Island, SC with the intrepid duo. Zephir of course, looking quite jaunty in his red beret and scarf, and Minkey looking sedate and happy to be in the heart of American tea country. Okay, well, the only tea country in America. We have exactly ONE working tea plantation, about 40 minutes south of Charleston on a remote and poor sea island the developers still have not managed to destroy! Actually the tea bush is in the camellia family and blooms in the fall. No insects or fungi exist in North America hostile to tea, so they don't have to use pesticides or fungicides. Good reason to drink their tea! But beware the dainty aristocatic ladies of old Charleston...they were reputed to have served Oleander tea to the British during the revolution and made it something of a tradition when it came to unwanted men of various sorts...including husbands I'm sure! Oleander, for those not familiar with the species, is quite poisonous when ingested. It duplicates symptoms of a heart attack and is gone from the body in less than twelve hours. Think about that guys, next time you are inclined to treat your lady poorly!

Where are you Francis?

Where are you Francis?
How did we lose you?
Why have you gone away?

Poor in the body,
Rich in the spirit,
We need you here today.

Our hearts are empty,
Our lives are fleeting,
We know we cannot stay.

We see in you now,
These centuries gone,
Our Savior's image still.
For you and for us the Way.

"Dear God, make me an intstrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love,
Where there is injury pardon,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

Monkey Business

Well, I've been quite dilatory in my posts, anyone care? I will be glad when Christmas finally arrives and we can open our new digital camera. Why? So we can easily post photos of our SOCK-MONKEYS!!

Yes, mature, stable, adults like us do have sock monkeys. Only in our case we took them to Charleston, photographed them sitting on the cannon at the Battery, posing on the new Cooper River Bridge, and sitting at our table in a good restaurant with a nice glass of wine! But we will have to develop the photos for y'all.

I've named my monkey "Zephir" after my favorite monkey in the Babar children's book :) He has special meaning to me because he was hand-made by none other than my wife just for me!

Old House!

With wiring like this we will almost certainly have a haunted house......and we will be the ghosts! I tried to replace an overhead fan in the upstairs bedroom and found EIGHT ancient wires twisted together in an amazing mess. One was bare all the way to the junction box!

Not sure how I'm going to straigten it all out. Apparently the previous owner got the bright idea to run two outlets and a wall switch through the same junction box using a pair of plyers and their own not-too-smart brain.

But I am thankful I found it. And thankful for a place to call home, even if we have to constantly patch and rig things to make it work :)