Archer & Anna's sculpture garden

April 8, 2013

Brookgreen Gardens near Murrell's Inlet, South Carolina is the grand winner of gardens. It is a spectacular outdoor sculpture garden of 9,100 acres. There are over 2,000 species of native plants, more than 700 extraordinary sculptures, and a 50 acre wildlife park.

Some of my favorite sculptures include Don Quixote, Rosinante and Pancho; Fountain of the Muses; and Pegasus. They are made of different mediums like aluminum, limestone and granite.

Surrounding the gardens are the remains of the rice fields of four different plantations now being reclaimed by Nature. The rice made fortunes for the owners before the civil war. Now the land has a new life as a famous garden. I wonder what it will become a hundred years from now.

This is the scupture at the entrance to the Park.

This variety looks a lot like a human. It thrives near tulips.

The birds are so tame inside of huge netted environments.

I don't think this guy noticed I was trying to read his newspaper.

Resurrection fern and Spanish moss grow on centuries-old oaks.

I liked the logo on the giftshop door.

Castle on the beach

Sunday, April 7

Near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

This morning in the bright spring sunshine sitting out in the quiet parking lot, We looked through the Map Atlas planning future travels. Some of the highlights ahead are Concord, Massachusetts where Thoreau wrote Walden while living near the Hawthornes, Alcotts and Emerson's.

The National Park in Maine, Acadia, is on the list, and we will cross into New Brunswick then drive on to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. We will be in Canada about six weeks coming south through Quebec and Montreal and Niagara Falls. I am looking forward to seeing all these places for the first time.

Ellie's brother and Wesley invited us to their home in Murrell's Inlet south of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for a potluck at 12:30 pm. Wesley is a yoga teacher and some of us are going to her class this coming Wednesday.

I had checked out Huntington State Beach in the driving rain coming north from Charleston last Thursday and wanted to bicycle there when the weather was sunny. And what a beautiful day for biking it was!

I biked out over the causeway watching the birders watching the birds and photographing them with long lenses, then bicycled the winding paved road 1.2 m down to the Atlantic coast and rode along the ocean on the hard-packed sand. Circling back into the Park I arrived at Atalaya, the castle/home of Archer Huntington and his sculptor wife, Anna Hyatt, and toured the sprawling remains and visitor center.

Anna designed the wrought iron window coverings.

Layout of the house around the courtyard

The courtyard with palmetto palms.

Want to know more?

These next three photos are from the Internet; they capture the essence of Atalaya.

Fort Pulaski, Savannah, Georgia

March 24, 2013

Fort Pulaski is located on Cockspur Island, Georgia, near the mouth of the Savannah River. The Fort commanded seaward approaches to the City of Savannah.

Near the end of the Civil War the rotating cannon ammunition created by the North could go farther and do more damage than anything before; Fort walls were knocked down and the South lost the Fort. This battle determined that the age of fortification for defense was at an end.

(Wikipedia photo - click to view bigger size)

In this photo I have already walked the bridge over the moat and turned back to take a picture. Hmm, looks like I just passed a Union soldier!

Here is the demonstration to teach us how to shoot. This soldier was accomplished and could shoot three shots in one minute.

He is letting us know not to stand in the line of fire.

Down inside the Fort the brickwork is beautiful.

Cannons protect the Fort from tourists.

This is a photograph from Civil War times of soldiers playing baseball in the background, one of the earliest known.

Here is a look from up on top looking down on the area shown in the photo.

Oh, yes. We went to lunch at a local spot afterward. What do you think is on the plate?

(Grouper, cheese grits and hush puppies.) The cole slaw was pretty good.

Jekyll Island: Playground of the Priviledged

At home on Jekyl Island. How do you like my charming cottage?

 

 

Jekyll Island is an island off the coast of the Georgia; it is one of the Sea Islands and one of the Golden Isles of Georgia.  The historic district consists of a number of buildings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The island is also full of wildlife.

The State of Georgia owns the island now, 7 miles x 1.5 miles wide. Georgia bought the island from the descendants of the 19th century Jekyll Island Club. The island is self-supporting.

There were only a few of us riding the tram on this cold but sunny day, with a knowledgeable guide who took us inside two of the "cottages".

Du Bignon had inherited the southern third of the island from his father and purchased the rest of the island from his siblings with the help of his brother-in-law Newton Finney and an investor.

Their plan to sell the island as a winter retreat for the wealthy came to fruition on February 17, 1886, and the clubhouse was completed in January 1888. Fifty-three members purchased shares for $600 each, and a limit of 100 members was imposed to preserve the club's exclusivity.

From 1888–1942 the club opened every January, except a few because of yellow fever outbreaks, to accommodate some of the world's wealthiest people. Members and their families enjoyed activities such as biking, hunting, horseback riding, and tennis, and frequented the north beaches. Some of the more esteemed members built mansion-sized cottages that still stand in excellent condition today.

Some of the wealthy men of the Jekyll Island Club were Henry Hyde, Marshall Field, John Pierpont Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, and William H. Vanderbilt. (Thank you, Wikipedia, for your help.)

Here is your guest cottage, in case you should stop by.

With wonderful, towering oaks all over the place and a garden ears staff, living here must have been like being in a big park with all your pals living nearby.

There are miles of bike trails. I hope to come back to this place one day.

Outside the Rockefeller porch is this little put-put car used by the family to get around.

Mrs. Rockefeller's beloved red carpet.

This is Mrs. Rockefeller's guest for tea on the front porch, just a century late to the party.

Protected from commercial development, the beaches go on and on and on . . . .

Resilient trees hold up through storms and hurricanes.

The families of the original club members often dined together in the Club dining room. This is the menu for a dinner held on Washington's Day. Anyone for Jekyll oysters on the half shell?

Frederica, a British settlement 1736

Sixty miles south of Savannah on the Atlantic coast, Georgia's fate was decided in 1742 when Spanish and British forces clashed on St. Simons Island. Fort Frederica's troops defeated the Spanish, ensuring Georgia's future as a British colony. Today, the archeological remnants of Frederica are protected by the National Park Service.

There may be little left of their construction on this peaceful site, but one can imagine the English- style village raised inside the Fort walls for protection of the working people who came over the Atlantic from England and Scotland to settle.

Some people stayed and prospered, some died, some ran away, and others returned to Europe after a year or two. It must have been daunting to live in a British outpost on a strange continent far away from the sophistication of Europe.

An artist's representation of the Fort in the 18th c. (not my photo).



Fort Frederica was established in 1736 by James Oglethorpe to protect the southern boundary of his new colony of Georgia from the Spanish in Florida. Georgia began with philanthropic purpose. Eventually Oglethorpe brought over about 1,000 soldiers to defend the colony from Spain.

You can see the last of the fortifications and cannons pointing out to sea to discourage those Spanish intruders. This is what remains of Fort Frederica on the waterfront.

The place felt a little eerie, late in the day and mostly empty. this is the remains of the Fort Frederica barracks.

The signposts show where the few streets went through the village.

Imagine this as a busy street one day in 1740.

James Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) was a British general, Member of Parliament, philanthropist, and founder of the colony of Georgia. As a social reformer, he hoped to resettle Britain's poor, especially those in debtors' prisons, in the New World.