A Rosy Sunday Morning Thanks to Mr. Grosbeak

A casual Sunday morning, sheltering in place on the back porch, reading the newspaper and drinking coffee. Another picture-perfect spring day was unfolding.

Quickly, it got even better when this fancy fellow stopped by my all you can eat bird food buffet just 15 feet away from where I sat.

Knowing the time it can take to get through the Sunday paper I had my camera at my side. Glad of that I was!

Pandemic Pandemonium- Corona Leave Us Alone-a!

“Wild and noisy disorder or confusion; uproar” is the definition of pandemonium. Pandemic we all know as a worldwide epidemic.

“Pandemonium” may not be the best word for the headline of this post. The past several weeks have not been filled with wild and noisy disorder. COVID-19 has been the silent killer causing an orderly shutdown of societies around the world.

Early March appointment at my dermatologist. Just a precaution
after I said at check-in that I had recently been out of the country. I was
in Portugal in late January/early February but told the
woman I was in Italy. I don’t think she thought my joke was funny. 

But, hey, I like alliteration so I’ll stick with Pandemic Pandemonium.

It would be a sin if I didn’t post about the coronavirus crisis, the most disruptive world event since the 9/11 terror attacks 19 years ago.

So far, my family and I have been spared hardships. For that, I am grateful to God above. With our children living in New York City and Chicago, Alesia and I have worried about their well being, especially #1 son in the Big Apple.

What I want to do in this post is share my photographs that capture the big and little picture of what much of the world has been seeing and experiencing.

Alligator’s Pearly Whites

An afternoon excursion on a pretty spring day led us to the nearby King's Grant neighborhood that 

has a nice park where a golf course used to be.

Azaleas!

It should be an uplifting time of the year here in South Carolina’s Lowcountry with winter giving way to spring this week. But there’s a certain bleakness to life today as America shuts down in unprecedented ways so coronavirus won’t claim lives on an epic scale.

So the beauty in our yard right now provides a bright and colorful contrast to the daily drab and troubling news of this worldwide pandemic.

The only bad thing about azaleas is that their blooms do not last long. So we all must enjoy them while we can!

Southern Living magazine calls azaleas "the number one must-have plant in the South." Well, we've got a bunch of them in different colors so that makes me happy and proud.

Music To My Ears!

Asheville, N.C.- As the nation and world cancel major events amid the growing coronavirus pandemic, rock music throbbed through a thousand fans at the Orange Peel.

Alesia and I saw one of our favorite bands during my Spring Break this week. Silversun Pickups was as good as hoped (even better!) March 11 at this venerable venue.

Hello Cedar Waxwings!

I don’t often see the interesting masked Cedar Waxwing, but have twice the last two weeks, once in my backyard and then in my front yard. They like the berries on our holly shrubs- and the water in the birdbath. American Robins have been accompanying the Waxwings. The two birds seem to be partners in crime!

This first photo shows the Waxwing’s yellow-tipped tail and red-tipped wings.

Visions of Portugal: Liking Lisbon!

Thanks (many!) to my wife Alesia I had the golden opportunity to visit Lisbon, Portugal where Alesia was on a two-week business trip. My trip, from last Thursday to Tuesday (Jan. 30-Feb. 4), was a wonderfully enriching experience.

We stayed at the Sheraton Lisboa Hotel and Spa, which is centrally located in the city. Our room on the 25th floor had a great view of Lisbon, the Tagus River, the red 25 de April Bridge and the majestic Christo Rei (Christ the King) monument (seen at the top of this first photograph).

My one-word impressions of Lisbon and Portugal, in no order: ports (as in wine), tiles, mosaics, friendly (as in the Portuguese people, many of whom speak English), historic, cod (fish), discoveries, fishing, navigation, churches, monuments, and steep (streets).
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To follow are my visions of this ancient city, one of Europe’s oldest and most historically influential.

January Bird Bounty

The new year and the recent cold spell have created a busy time at my bird feeders. I had been noticing the increased activity.

Finally, on Martin Luther King Day I spent some time seeing if I could get some nice camera captures.

This photo shows several Chipping Sparrows (a "tournament" is the collective name- who knew?) and an Eastern Bluebird on my rather elaborate bird buffet.

The Cost of Slavery- the Hutchinsons of St. Bartholomew's Parish (Colleton County, S.C.)

Hercules- $750. Hector- $700. Marlborough- $350. Molly- $600. Mary- $300. Betsy- $50.

These "Negroes" were slaves belonging to planter and lawyer Leger Hutchinson, Esq. And these were the values placed on each of them. A document like this truly brings slavery to life and light.

Leger died in 1815 at the young age of 24. He was part of a line of Hutchinsons who owned large rice plantations and hundreds of slaves in South Carolina's Lowcountry. Specifically, Leger was from what was then called St. Bartholomew Parish. Today it is Colleton County.

Remote ACE Basin Cemetery Revisited

Such a remote part of the Lowcountry. But people did live and die there. This week we drove about 40 miles south of Charleston to the ACE Basin, to the Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, to the Boynton Trail within the vast nature preserve. Its address is barely on the map (or internet) too: Green Pond, S.C.

After more effort than I thought it would take, we found what we were looking to find. A very old cemetery that may have burials going back to the 1700s. There are five visible grave markers here.