Update on Pool and Rabbit(s) - PLURAL!

Last night Mike was watering inside the pool enclosure and sprayed some toward the poolhouse--and two little rabbits hopped out! This was after he had seen (and almost eradicated) an adult rabbit earlier in the evening. He was glad he hadn't after seeing the babies. So, apparently we did not have one rabbit underneath the poolhouse--we have a nest. Therefore my remaining cucumber plant and three squash plants are not out of danger yet.

Here are two better pics. of the pool - uncovered now. The wildly colored Adirondacks are the result of a huge impulse I had last spring. And the rabbits are living under that small deck in the above picture.

Mike has been doing a fabulous job with our lawn this summer. It's amazing the way the flowers have kept going even with the lack of rain. We are becoming believers in perennials--everything in front of the garage came up by itself this year. (pink lantana, black-eyed susans, and two hibiscus--unfortunately they turned out not to be the giant kind like last year's which is still on the side of the house, but not blooming yet).

They never cease to amaze. . .

When Andrew came home from college for the summer, I fully expected him to grow his hair out "longish" like he did last summer. So you can imagine my surprise when he came home from the barber on Thursday with this haircut! I have a hunch he is going to try to grow a "soul patch," as knowing him he needs to find some way to be a non-conformist. I'm not complaining. . .

And, since it's Mother's Day, here's a shot of my daughter who now "looks down on me," especially when wearing 3-inch heels for church:

And one of my two children together, who had a lovely card waiting for me this morning--something that is more precious than a gift, especially when I know most of their money is going for GAS.

Transition to summer

This is Andrew's room. Look closely. I go to pick him up from college today--he will be home working for four months, and his room will not look like this again until he goes back to school. At which time Mary Lee will re-appropriate his room and once again it will not look like this. So it may be years until we see it this nice again.

He has had a wonderful year. Maybe hasn't studied like he should have, but he has had a great time. Come to think about it, that's sort of typical of his life.

It will be another change of a summer. It will be different having Andrew "home from college" instead of "always lived here." It is the summer before Mary Lee's senior year, which also is an entrance into a new stage. Even though we will have adjustments again, I am looking forward to good times.

Birds and Hobcaw Barony

It's so nice to be at the beach.

We've seen a couple of the beautiful birds (painted buntings) pictured in the previous post. That is always one of the highlights of coming to this place. We now know where they usually "hide out," and they are so beautiful that it is always a treat to see one. (Mike and my mom got the best look at one three years ago--it is a reclusive bird to some degree--but we usually see at least one when we are here.) Other than that, the temperatures are so hot that there isn't much to see.

Yesterday we (Mike, Andrew, and I) toured Hobcaw Barony, the 17,500 acres of private land right next to DeBordieau that has a rich history--deeded in 1715 as a reward to a baron of King George, later carved into 11 rice plantations, and purchased in the early 1900s by Bernard Baruch, a self-made wealthy financier who was a counselor to presidents from Wilson to Kennedy and who was a SC native (that's the important part). His daughter Belle, who later purchased his land, deeded it to a foundation for research, so it will never fall into the hands of developers as so much beach land has. The land is rich with natural habitat of many types, and contains much history.

As part of the tour we went through Hobcaw House, the large home built by Baruch for use from November through April. We saw the room where Franklin Roosevelt loved to stay, Winston Churchill's favorite chair, and much other historical memorablia. The guide told us how the guests to the home would get up and hunt ducks until late morning (sometimes bringing down 100 per person per day), come in and rest awhile, then go to a nearby plantation and hunt quail, and worked into all this was fox hunting and deer hunting also. I could see Mike wistfully imagining what this kind of lifestyle would be like. I poked him in the arm and said "Too bad you weren't born into fabulous wealth, isn't it?" He immediately shot back, "Or at least married into it."

Sorry, buddy, you've got who you've got!

Farmers' Market

Today I shopped yet again at the Anderson County Farmers' Market. It's open Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and I love to go there. Even if some of the produce is slightly higher than other places, I like buying vegetables and plants directly from local sources. Even though there wasn't supposed to be any corn this summer due to the freeze and the drought, a few farms have produced some, and it is delicious. I've also bought cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, new potatoes, and much more. And, we've enjoyed the hibiscus so much, as well as lantana and re-seeding vinca, that I am getting more and more interested in perennials. I want to get three more hibiscus plants, but they won't be available for another month, so I settled for three lantana plants this morning. (And five black-eyed susans, but Mike doesn't know yet that he's going to have to plant those tonight too. Please don't tell him.)

Independence Day 2007

"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism." --Erma Bombeck

An Overcast Day

Yesterday was rainy and cloudy, an unusual occurrence in a South Carolina July. The temperatures never got out of the 70s. I took my dear friend Nancy out for lunch for her birthday to Sullivan's in downtown Anderson. It's located in an old hardware store and it's got personality all through it. Mike and I like to go there from time to time. At lunch it's very reasonable, with an interesting menu, but we don't go for supper without a coupon--too expensive. The teachers at school go there occasionally, like during the half days at the end of the year, and we've made some fun memories there.

Mary Lee is gone to Southland Camp for two weeks. I miss her.

Seventeen blooms!