Concentration

I was so impressed today with with this young boy, who I saw sitting in the pew in front of us, while waiting for Mass to begin. He had turned his pew into a desk, and was writing with great concentration. I was impressed that instead of sitting there squirming around, he found something useful to occupy his time. Later, I was able to see that the purple sheet of paper said "Children's Worship Bulletin" on the top. How cool is that idea - something for kids to do. His dad said there were puzzles, and when you put all the answers together, there was a lesson in the answer. So I love all of that, and the bright red hair! What a cute kid!

The White Pig

One of the pleasures of Charleston is walking the streets. There are architectural treasures everywhere from entire houses to small details. Window boxes are everywhere and they are so well cared for, that it is astounding. I will have to show you a house or two, but I thought I would start with this window box and window. I photographed about half a dozen "ordinary" window boxes, then I saw this one. It was the white pig that grabbed my attention at first, but then I loved that the plantings were non-symmetrical - it makes the picture far more interesting, in my opinion.

Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter at the entrance to Charleston harbor was where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. What is interesting about these 6.4 inch (100 Pounder) Parrott guns is that in the 1890's, they wanted to strengthen one wall of the fort, so they filled in the casemates with sand, with these guns still in place, completely burying them. In 1959 The site was excavated, revealing these guns. Had they not been covered, they most likely would have been cut up for scrap. I love the architecture of forts, with the multiple brick arches. It is really wonderful, and extremely rare, to see this many guns in one of these forts.

Spanish Moss Week

I still have a ton of photographs from Charleston, so I will be posting some for the next week, I think. Spanish Moss makes me nuts, it is so beautiful! There were a number of places where the moss was on the trees - I have showed you one scene already, and here is another. I have trouble putting into words the feeling that I get from this, but it feels mystical, or haunting and seems to conjure up ghosts. It is interesting that "spanish moss" is neither Spanish OR moss - it is not related to either moss or lichens. It is an "air plant" which absorbs nutrients (especially calcium) and water from the air and rainfall. I won't really post Spanish moss photos all week, but I do have a bunch of them. You might want to click on this to see it in a larger size.

The Interview

What an amazing day today! I received a call last week that ABC Eyewitness News in New York wanted to interview me for a story about my Zero G flight and the Senior Wish program. Today this very cool van with a satellite dish on the roof pulled up to the house. It was fun talking with Tim, the reporter, and Steve, the cameraman. We "talked shop" for a while before the interview. They had video done before the flight, and from cameras in the plane during the flight, and they put it all together with parts of my interview, and it was broadcast at 5:30 today! Wow, what a thrill! An amazing day indeed.

Middleton Place

We went to visit one of the plantations that are in the Charleston area. Middleton Place has magnificent gardens, a mansion, and farm animals. Unfortunately the main mansion, and this structure, called the "North Flanker" were burned to the ground by Union troops just two months before the end of the Civil War. This fragment of a wall is all that is left of a building that was a large library. And of course I love ruins. What really made the photo for me were the tree branches covered in Spanish Moss. The moss lends such a mystical feeling to the landscape, I think.

Captains Courageous

So my friend Ken has been sailing since he was a young boy. I didn't come to sailing until after I started working on Long Island. We had a Lightning sailboat for about 6 years, and sometimes I miss being out on the water. For about 5 years Ken had a magnificent 32-foot Sabre sailing yacht, but I never got to sail on it. He has salt water in his veins, so now he has access to a J 22 sloop, and we took the boat out on Charleston Harbor the other day. We started out with gentle breezes at the beginning, but then the wind picked up, and then we were rewarded with a great sail. I was amazed at how long it took me to feel comfortable again at the helm when the wind picked up. But it gradually came back, and it was a great day on the water.