“Gravetrotting” With My Charleston Students

Hurricane Florence caused the cancellation in September of two of my Monday night College of Charleston classes. Since 2015 I have taught a unique course called “Beyond the Grave: What Old Cemeteries Tell and Teach the Living.” Charleston, especially its Historic District that the CofC campus is part of, makes a great place for such a topic of study and exploration.

I had some fun with the class photo below. Go to the end of this post to see what I did with the picture in the fun (and free!) Kizoa video/slideshow platform.

So, last Monday with Hurricane Florence no longer a threat we had class again and had a lot to do to get back on track.

We took a walk to a pair of nearby old churches, each with small but interesting graveyards. In the above photos, we are at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul, an Episcopal church on Coming Street. 

Magnolia Cemetery Birds and Graves

A visit today to Charleston’s historic Magnolia Cemetery lead to a plethora of plentiful photography, as it usually does for me.

I did photograph a few birds, including the Black-crowned Night Heron seen above. I had not seen one of these in a while  so I was excited!

The smaller birds I’m not sure about. I’m going to whatbird.com for some help. Sue enough, as always whatbird.com’s bird identification forum members came to my rescue. The small shore birds in the above photos are Solitary Sandpipers. This, I believe, is the first time seeing or photographing this type, making it a lifer bird for me. Cool!

My "Hurricane Florence Beard Challenge"

Day 1- Flo Beard Challenge

I had a lot of unexpected time at home with Hurricane Florence threatening the Southeast coast. At school Monday, Sept. 10 we learned from South Carolina’s Gov. Henry McMaster that state agencies in half of the state’s counties closest to the coast would be closed indefinitely starting the next morning.

Florence at that time was a Category 4 hurricane and would at times increase to Category 5 in the following days. So it was certainly a wise decision by the governor. Better safe than sorry!

Florence: Tense and Intense!

Today is Wednesday and in just a few days Hurricane Florence will pay Charleston and the Lowcountry region a most unwelcome visit.

I will be posting about our “Flo Blow” when and if (!) I can. With school canceled until further notice I got in tennis this morning, thinking it may be the last chance to play in a week or more.

After tennis, I stopped by the College of Charleston to run an errand. The campus was very quiet. I took these photos of historic Randolph Hall and Towell Library, both in the Cistern Yard. The buildings date to the 1820s and 1850s, respectively, and are still a vital part of the school. They are buttoned up for the hurricane.

Be kind Florence. Let’s hope and pray your bark is worse than your bite.

Randolph Hall, still the main administration building 

Towell Library, now CofC’s Office of Admissions 

Beach Treat: Edisto Island!

Our Plan B gets a grade of A+ on Saturday! Kiawah Island’s county park was the original destination but the traffic off the Highway 17 turn looked bumper-to-bumper and the prospect of an hour plus in that mess lead to us instead driving a little farther in light traffic to the beach at Edisto Island.

Edisto was not too crowded and we were able to park (free!) close to where we would set up our chairs. 

The weather was ideal for catching some rays and the water temperature was perfect for swimming. For photography the clouds were quite picturesque.