Jamestown Settlement, Jamestown, Virginia, USA

Jamestown Settlement is the State of Virginia's living history museum and offers a recreation/reenactment of the 17th century life and events.

It includes a Powhatan Indian village recreation.

Inside view of one of the imagined living huts.

The structures were covered with woven marsh grasses.

A costumed re-enactor weaving a basket in the sunshine on a cold winter's day.

This is the style of the three ships that sailed from England in 1607. Following the prevailing ocean currents, they sailed from London via the Canary Islands, the Caribbean Islands, and then to Virginia. The Susan Constant was the largest of the three and carried 54 passengers and 17 crew. It was 116 feet long - for perspective that's about one and a half tennis courts long! The passengers were mostly kept below deck to stay out of the way of the working crew. Imagine that - stuck below deck in a VERY SMALL space in close quarters on a heaving, rolling ocean for four months. And today we complain about being uncomfortable on an airplane for a few hours - get a grip.

The colonists constructed the James Fort to protect themselves from raids by the Spanish or local native population. They used the typical thatch construction still in use in parts of England today.

And the pecking, squawking, scrabbling chickens were underfoot as well.

I always like to romanticize the "discovery" of the New World but, it was more accurately about making money. The colonies were principally economic ventures - to bring back goods to make money for the London companies who sponsored (paid for) the trip. Even the "passengers" were simply employees of the company.   It turned out tobacco was the mother lode of the New World for the Virginia colonies - not gold, gems, or other riches. Ironic that four hundred years later tobacco has become the evil weed in this country.
  Go figure.

Grommet Anyone?, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA

I'm not sure when the humble grommet came in to use - but it wasn't in old Willliamsburg.  Instead, folks placed small round stones along the edge of the canvas or fabric and and tied string/rope around it to be able to attach the fabric to something else. Who would have thought.......

I've always liked grommets, but mostly just Wallace and Gromits.

Jamestown, Virginia, USA

In December of 1606, three merchant ships left England and later landed in Virginia in Spring of 1607. The 104 men and boys on the ships chose to settle on the banks of the James River. This became Jamestown, the first permanent settlement in what would later become the United States. Note that was thirteen years, that's right, thirteen years! before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts in 1620. So how does Plymouth, Massachusetts get away with calling itself, "America's Hometown?" Clever of them, I'd say.

But why settle here in Jamestown? It was a disease-ridden, bug-infested swamp. Turns out though, it was on a defensible spit of land into the James River (named the Powhatan River by the natives) with good visibility of anyone approaching by water, it had a narrow isthmus separating it from the mainland that was submerged at high tide, there was deep-water adjacent for tying boats to the trees, it was unoccupied by natives, and the water was "sweet" (not brackish).  As it turned out, it was only temporarily sweet due to the winter runoff.

At that time, virgin forests covered the vast majority of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. It was a bountiful land and the natives already had systems of trade and commerce between their own scattered communities. After the long journey over the sea, the English settlers were astonished to see the abundance when arriving in May of 1607.  George Percey recounted that the land was" full of fine and beautiful strawberries four times bigger than ours in England."  Virginia was a paradise.

One of the earlier industries attempted by the settlers was glass-making since demand for glass in Europe was not being adequately met. Making glass was not easy back then.  Today, the mixture is heated to 2500 degrees Fahrenheit overnight. In 1608, it took up to two weeks to get the furnace hot enough. Glass is made of sand, soda ash, pot ash, and lime - sand from the beach, soda ash from burned seaweed or marsh plants, pot ash from burned wood ash, and lime from crushed oyster shells.

A demonstration glass-making house stands today nearby the original remains of the 1608 location.

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Painting, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA

This blog post is less about Williamsburg and more about me messing around with a newly discovered camera setting: it's called HDR Painting.  It is an in-camera setting. Very little post processing by me and that was mostly just cropping.  But first, a little local history..........

Williamsburg was originally Middle Plantation, a 1632 fortified settlement located on high ground on the peninsula between the James and York rivers. It was renamed Williamsburg after the capital of the Virginia Colony was moved there from Jamestown in 1698.

Today, Williamsburg, Virgina, is probably best known for "Colonial Williamsburg," an historic area restored to present the appearance of life in the18th century. Also very popular for tourism (and students) is the adjacent College of William & Mary. The college was chartered in 1693, and is the second-oldest university in the United States (behind Harvard which was chartered in 1650).

Bricks, bricks, and more bricks.............. bricks are popular in Williamsburg.

So are moss and lichens on the bricks.

And even curved bricks.

I'm not sure how the software works.  Sometimes it explodes the colors ..........

........and sometimes it captures just a hint of color.  Perhaps it's the angle of the light, or the falling rain, or just plain old magic?  I'll go with the magic.

Magnolia blooms.

A split rail fence.

Goodbye Charleston Area, South Carolina, USA

It is time to say goodbye to the Charleston area and start heading back towards home in the Northeast.  It has been a great two months of weather, experiences, and people.  I hate to stereotype but, folks in the south are different - not in such a hurry, more friendly, more willing to smile, not so quick to honk their car horn and/or give the one-finger salute - it's a nice place with nice people.

Here are some last photos from the trip - sort of a "catch-all" of images that I didn't fit into any other blog post.

Mt. Pleasant has a very pleasant park on Pitt Street with views of Sullivan's Island, Charleston Harbor, the distant Ravenel Bridge, and the saltwater marshland adjacent to the Intracoastal Waterway. A nice place for a walk, jog, saunter, mosey, amble, or kayak - or to just sit a spell and enjoy the sunset.

A clever bumper sticker seen in Mt. Pleasant.  It is available for sale from an animal rescue and adoption proponent, LoveYourBuddy.com.

"Timbo's Hot Boiled Peanuts" roadside stand - I won't ever see that in New England.

These are some brightly colored shoes.

Why so many metal roofs in this area? Seems like using metal is more common than using asphalt shingle.

At least you won't see this sign beside any New England lakes and ponds.

I like towns where shopkeepers put out water bowls for thirsty dogs - and it's only February.  That suggests lots of water bowls when it really gets warm.

An entrance door on an alley in the French Quarter.

A restaurant, Husk, in downtown Charleston. Outdoor tables when the weather permits. I don't know about the food - we didn't eat there - but I like restaurants in old houses.

Among Azaleas, Spanish Moss, and Crepe Myrtle trees,  this Unitarian Church cemetery in downtown Charleston looks like a beautiful place to spend eternity.

Low clouds during a storm.

I have a feeling of connection to this area - through two months of wandering and visiting, talking and walking.  My visit was enriched in very large part by concurrently re-reading three of Pat Conroy's novels during my stay, "South of Broad," "The Great Santini," and " The Prince of Tides." He is perhaps the most powerful writer of fiction I've ever had the pleasure of reading.  And reading him again while walking the very streets and towns where he lived and where many of his themes and ideas originated has made for a more complete local immersion. By almost any criteria, Charleston and the "Lowcountry"are great places to visit on this planet.  Goodbye!! 

Last Look, Isle of Palms, South Carolina, USA

It is time to say good-bye to this fine island.  We have had a very enjoyable stay.  It feels good to be here - the beach is beautiful, wide, and flat, the houses are cared for and look welcoming, the people smile and speak, and the dogs are jubilant and friendly - Isle of Palms is an all around great place on the planet.

I enjoyed one more beautiful sunrise before leaving.

The Isle of Palms pier.

Ocean Boulevard - closest street to and parallel to the beach.

A modern house that combines current lowcountry style with a hint of the old Charleston piazzas (porches) on both the first and second floors.

Kitschy, cute, or tacky - you be the judge - it's a large oceanfront house available for short term vacation rental at about $12,000/week in the summer.

Even the birds live well here - a housing development for Purple Martins.

There's a reason I'm sitting here alone on the beach - it is rather chilly, the wind is blowing about 20 knots, and the swirling dry sand feels like sand blasting - sensible people are indoors - but I did run into a couple from Maine shortly after this photo - they were both in T-shirts and shorts - hearty folks those Mainers.

One of the reasons the Isle of Palms beach is so clean is they make it convenient to throw away your trash. The beach is lined with these 55-gallon drums just for trash. The barrels above are awaiting their duty assignments. I wish they had chosen a less garish color but they are hard to miss in bright yellow.

And on a stormy day, the beach looks and feels transcendent by the light the storm clouds create and the reflective mood they evoke.

But then the clouds move on, the tide recedes, and oh, what a beach - flat, hard-packed sand, and great for walking miles and miles with nothing but crashing waves, whistling wind, and mindless random thoughts.

I have never seen a gull dancing along the leading edge of small waves until this one. It seemed like a game of some sort. Maybe he was soaring the face of the wave like the pelicans seem to do or, maybe he was just having fun.

My months here have reminded me that beauty is almost everywhere - I am remembering how to slow down and look for it, find it, and really see it. Goodbye, Isle of Palms!!

Middleton Place, Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Middleton Place is a National Historic Landmark and home to America’s Oldest Landscaped Gardens. Centuries-old camellias bloom in the winter months and azaleas blaze on the hillside above the Rice Mill Pond in the spring. In summer, kalmia, magnolias, crepe myrtles and roses accent a landscape magnificent throughout the year. The Gardens have been planned so that there is something blooming at Middleton Place year-round. Built in 1755, Middleton Place was home to a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

This is our last tourist outing in the Charleston area. Soon, we head for Williamsburg, Virginia on our slow way home.

This is a photo of their bulletin board near the entrance. It is also on the website linked above. It wasn't quite so green when we visited yesterday being winter.

Sheep graze in the greensward. (See if you can use "greensward" in a sentence and not sound funny - me neither - I don't remember ever even seeing that word before.) 

This little lamb better pay close attention to his surroundings..........

.........when critters like this one are lurking not very far away.

Southern live oak.  Supposedly, the term "live oak" refers to the members of this tree family which retain green leaves all year.

Crepe myrtle trees - sort of reminds me of eucalyptus and/or sycamore bark.

Azaleas starting to bloom will soon blanket this hillside.

The camellias already bloomed and then, by mutual agreement, hurled themselves screaming from the bush while still whole.........

....while the tulips danced nearby smirking with their blooms still firmly attached.

Imagine being given a block of marble and then trying to carve (chisel) something.  Here's a foot from one of the statues. Extraordinary.

And there were even beautiful young nymphs frolicking about in the gardens on this summer-like warm day in February........