Thursday Doors

I love wrought iron, and here are two lovely gates from Brookgreen Gardens. Were they forged by a blacksmith in Charleston? I don’t know, but I’m thinking they might have been based on the history and attention to detail at Brookgreen.

Through these gates and down the paths, what do you find beside massive sculptures from artists across the country? Flowers, beautiful flowers, are everywhere you look.

The weather here is foggy and rainy so here’s a shot of some turtles and the small alligator basking in the sun on my last visit.

Happy Thursday, and may you find sunshine in your day. 😎

Linked to Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors, February 21, 2019.

Road trip

A while back the car pulled out and four ladies headed north two hours to Bishopville, SC, to see Pearl Fryar’s very special topiary garden. It’s still beautiful beyond an ordinary gardener’s imagination.

Once we were done admiring this very amazing garden, someone said we should find the Button Museum and check it out. Sounded good. My childhood memories of stringing buttons together to make holiday ornaments came to mind along with the idea of seeing old buttons versus current buttons, gold buttons versus pearl or wooden buttons.

We traveled a few miles, turned down a dirt road, and there was a small sign for the Button King Museum. At first, we thought it was closed, but a nice gentleman came out and invited us in. This gentleman’s father, Dalton Stevens, was the self-proclaimed Button King.

There were definitely lots and lots of buttons, but not exactly what we were expecting.

There were no buttons for sale, just buttons encasing a variety of items like a toilet and the space surrounding it.

Apparently Mr. Dalton had insomnia, and  he sewed buttons on clothes and shoes for something to do. When he needed new challenges, he started on a car, a coffin, a hearse, and a variety of household and musical instruments. I’ve never seen so many buttons in my life and arranged so artistically.

Pearl Fryar’s topiaries I understand. Although, I couldn’t trim even one bush to remotely resemble his creations, I get it. The buttons just made me smile and shake my head because buttons to me mean closing a shirt or used as an embellishment. But, it sure was a trip that provided a lot of laughs. We even watched his visit on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Landscaping and button artistry, lunch out, and a fabric store stop – ah, a good day for the ladies.

There are also good opportunities for feeding my quilting addiction. A couple of us went to a quilting class last Friday on creating a small landscape wall hanging. Today, we’re off to the Coastal Carolina Quilters’ meeting and some new demonstrations, and on Friday is the Quilt Show. Lots of ‘thread’ for me this month.

What’s on your calendar this week?

Thursday Doors

Photo credit: South Strand News

Hopsewee Plantation was built in 1735 and is about 13 miles south of Georgetown, South Carolina. It was the birthplace of Thomas Lynch, Jr., one of the three signers of the Declaration of Independence from South Carolina.

In the 1700’s, Hopsewee was a rice plantation of 13,000 areas. During the Civil War years of 1861-65, it was abandoned, looted by northern soldiers, and the property given to the remaining slaves. Rice was never planted again, but the slaves continued to work the property for their own use. According to historical records, there were 178 slaves there in 1850.

Hopsewee has been preserved rather than restored and is pretty much the same as when it was first built. In 1971, it was declared a National Historic Landmark.

The landscaping is embellished with beautiful camellias everywhere you turn.

The house is a typical lowcountry rice plantation dwelling made from black cypress trees and siting on a brick foundation which creates a cellar. Each floor consists of four rooms off a central hall.  The front door of the home faces the North Santee River which is where visitors arrived since that was the way most people traveled in the 1700’s.

Welcome to Hopsewee Plantation!

Dock for arriving

Front of the house facing the river

Back of the house.

Slaves’ quarters

Smoke house

Tea Room Entrance

Yesterday, I went to a ladies’ luncheon at the River Oak Cottage Tea Room. I enjoyed a delicious meal including lemonade, salad, shrimp and grits, and pound cake with a praline type frosting.

Historic property, delightful lunch, good friends, and we even ended the day with a spectacular sunset.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s doors because I certainly enjoyed gathering them. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. ❤️

Linked to Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors, February 14, 2019

February

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and Life has leveled out to a normal amount of ups and downs.  Picture a happy dance.  🙂

There have been some beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and we also enjoyed some amazing temperatures in the 70’s which allowed for outdoor adventures in short sleeves.

I posted this photo on Instagram and received a message from a local county asking if they could use it for tourism marketing. Why, yes, you can. 🙂

So, what have I been doing on my break? Well, I’ve been fairly productive. I finished the two baby quilts I was working on and got them off to their respective destinations.

Why gray in a baby quilt? Well, the Lattice quilt on the left is going to a baby that has a gray and white themed room. The Kelsey quilt on the right went to a Mom who spends a lot of time outdoors. I thought a fabric panel with animals might be a nice focal point and was able to use some of the same fabric because it went well with the panel colors.

February is a big planning month for northern Master Gardeners. There’s a new Board, new projects, and a lot of online work to be done. I’m back on the Board as of this month and continue the duties of webmaster. That keeps me pretty busy all by itself.

There’s also been a lot of socializing and just plain good times with friends. These snow birds like to have fun, and I try not to miss too many opportunities.

With beautiful weather, there have also been some amazing days with friends at Brookgreen Gardens watching the gardens come to life and enjoying their current Birds in Art exhibits.

Amazing oils and water colors

The art piece on the left is two feathers, and the right one is made out of white paper. Amazing.

I’ve never lived thirteen minutes from a Botanical Garden that I can stop in with friends whenever we want. It’s pretty darn nice. 🙂 Another time, I’ll tell you about the behind the scenes tour we took and maybe a story about some buttons.

For right now, I need to get going because I have a card making class to attend. So, here’s to a great Monday and a delicious Valentine’s Day week. ❤️

Knock Knock

You know sometimes you’re cruising along, and Life stops to make sure you’re paying attention. Well, last week that was the case.

Knock, knock – Life calling. In case you thought you had some modicum of control over your every day activities, forget it.

So, as we move into the last week of January, I’m hoping the knocking isn’t quite as loud.

I haven’t been blogging – writing or reading. Give me another week or so, and I’ll be back, but in the meantime I need to pay attention because Life is being pretty persistent.

Mother Nature did think we should have a gift from her this week to balance out reality, and that was appreciated. My Walking Iris, sitting in front of my Monkey Paw Fern, bloomed. It may only last a day, but it is a real beauty and always reminds me that each day is a gift so enjoy it fully.  💗

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Thursday Doors

Glass is the material of which beach home doors are made of so the views can be enjoyed.

The glass doors may not be extremely interesting, but the buildings and their colors are certainly colorful.

Wonder what my building looks like? Fifteen floors of 15 units per floor – all glass doors.

I’ll try to capture some more colorful doors for next week, but I’ve been busy taking a card making class, out and about, or at my sewing machine.  I had some delicious key lime pie in a jar yesterday while enjoying lunch with friends. It was consumed before I realized I hadn’t grabbed a shot. But, if you stop at Longhorn Steak House, I’d highly recommend it along with the shrimp and lobster chowder. Good eats.

We are set to have four days of really nice weather, so the golfers and the walkers will be happy. Then those two storms that seem to be affecting at least half of the country will send our temps plummeting. I won’t complain about the cold because we won’t have to shovel anything, but I will be monitoring my propane tank at home on-line.

Happy Thursday! What’s going on in your part of our world?

Linked to Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors, January 17, 2019.

Debacle

Yep, it’s Thursday, but there are no doors here so head over to Norm’s place and get your door fix. The nice folks over there will amaze you with their array.

You see, I had to deal with a _______ (insert your word of choice). I had one that was perfect, but it didn’t go with my normally G rated site so I settled for debacle. 🙂

Tuesday afternoon I attempted to log into an email account – click the name of the email account, click the saved password, and on to reading emails. Only that day it didn’t work. I tried repeatedly (envision locked out), I googled possible solutions, tried numerous suggestions, but nothing worked.

Now, I’m into Tuesday night and start to stress out about how many accounts I have attached to this 20+ year-old email address. I found  51 accounts using that email for access from everything like Amazon, the library, to Medical Insurance.

I could put you to sleep with what I did trying to get into some of these accounts to change the email. Remember – when you attempt to change the email, they send the verification or the offer of help to the original email which you cannot open. Talk about ridiculous and frustrating, but that is how the system works.

The bottom line –

Set up a recovery phone number or email address

This account was set up long before these options were available and it was attached to another account, but I should have know better. I should have figured out how to add the recovery phone number and email address.

On Wednesday, I had an opportunity to spend three hours on chat and phone calls, but finally it is open, and it has a recovery number and email. I dealt with five different people, and the last one was the winner. Thank you, Camile.

Learn from my debacle, take some time and make sure you have a recovery phone number and another email for your accounts. Don’t know how to do it? Check your settings or personal info on the account, or Google it. Your blood pressure will thank you. 🙂