In the event you've not been to Charleston

This is an unabashed plug for the Old South Carriage company, with the red sashes.

I asked the chatty carriage driver if he had to take a test of his knowledge of Charleston.

"Yes, m'am. Two hundred questions out of two hundred, right!"

It was a grand tour.

This woman filled the carriages with passengers.

 This friendly equine rested his head on my shoulder as I stood in line for the loo. The lav. You know.

Our hundred percent driver. Over his shoulder, the route assigner. There are five carriage routes, dispensed in order, to the next carriage company that sets out.

From here on in I know little.

An important old church.

Wrought iron work. Brick patio.

Church, cemetery, wrought iron, red umbrella in the cooling drizzle.

Pink tree.

Tree roots.

Arches and doors.

Wrought iron swords. Pretty cool house light, too.

Newly relaid driveway.

More wrought iron.

At last, a red door with the wrought iron.

Everywhere, the brick is covered by a plaster veneer. 

A tiny house. Street number is something like 100 1/4. I think it was a summer kitchen.

Wrought iron.

Same house, leaded glass.

Row houses.

A hawk. 

A selfie. The yellow shirt.

Laura had a good time, too.

Home again, home again

 How nice the garden looks.

 

Laura cleaning her souvenirs. 

The entire haul came home in her backpack.

Hard to believe it was not confiscated for smell and put off the plane.

I stepped around to photograph the haul from two trips to the beach.

But I'll also point out, shells are drying on a thirty year old towel.

Time to unpack!

From the deck

Composing and editing on a screen in my lap is daunting! I have not been in South Carolina since I was a teen, and we know how long ago that was.

Carol and Frank live on a lake.

I liked the gold center of this leaf.

Back to the lake, there is an osprey nest on top of the pole, and turtles sunning on the "dock" attached.

No grass to mow!

More lake.

Laura leaving to swim in the ocean.

A restaurant on the ocean for supper.

Enough arguing with formatting. Off to Charleston.

Learning curve

For a year I've had an unused Amazon fire. I saw blogger will take pictures from my phone, and I can access my blog on this device, so I put it in my suit case.

After breakfast this morning I came out on the deck to watch the birds, the lagoon, that trees, Spanish moss. I took lots of pictures. And Amazon only sees the pictures from Ohio. No idea where it lost South Carolina!

So, back to birsa, breeze and sunshine. I'm close to a nap.

Summer plans

A quick tour of our little garden. It's looking good. The pictures are mostly of the northern end, which gets more sunshine and is blooming. The southern end has lots of buds, but no blossoms yet, except Aunt Laura's iris, which are done.

The little bed of hot pinks defy color identification. Magenta? Fuscia?  The scarlet to the right is this year's hollyhock. Past that is the nicely rusting lawn bench, and Stella de Oro is growing nicely through.

One of my favorite things in the garden is the rate the wooly thyme is covering the ground. Here behind the bench it's even begun to grow over my flat stone engraved 'Blarney Stone'.

I bought a Canterbury Bell, to help fill in the north end of the garden. The two butterfly bushes behind are close to opening their yellow buds. Away down, the south end is packed with more plants than I remember names for. The sedum blossoms are set, and two different bushes with blue flowers are getting ready to bloom.

Back up at the house, pig now has a pot of gerbera daisies. All's well with his world.

I think we have summer filled in pretty well. Sunday we're going for a week to the Charleston, South Carolina area, to visit my BFF, Carol. 

In July we'll spend almost two weeks in Wisconsin, and take in some sights. Most importantly, I've arranged a tour of Taliesen. All my reading was that it's stiff walking and all the tours are in the neighborhood of four hours. I'd be left in the dust in ten minutes. I considered sending Laura and Ann, and waiting in the tea room, and then thought, Call Them! Great inspiration; For three week's advance notice, they will make a handicap accessible tour of any regular tour, for no extra cost. Beyond wonderful.

Laura and I will take the Wisconsin Dells boat tour of the river around the bluffs. We will go to Dr. Evermor's Park, built of junk, and Cedarburg, for sure. And some other destinations. That is July, and plenty of time to plan.

I have been weaving, and coming to grips with the fact I must do something about my bone on bone left shoulder. Of course, first I needed a plan, a strategy. I have it! I will see the young whippersnapper surgeon the orthopedic fellow who set my shoulder recommended.  Actually, I was never in doubt about who, only if.

I cannot weave much longer, and don't know about the length of rehab, and all those sorts of things that bother me so. But now I have it!. All the orange thread is woven; I've begun the garnet, and have some more colors staged out. I'll see the surgeon when we come back from Wisconsin in July, and get down to business.

By then I will have three or four sets of colors done, and can spend my "recuperation" getting them hemmed. Always need a plan!