Dodging Matthew

At the beginning of this last summer we began to plan a visit to long-time friends who live just outside Savannah, Georgia. It had been fourteen years since last seeing each other and they said October was a good month to visit, heat, humidity and mosquito levels would be bearable to us West Coast folk.
So the planning began. We would fly from San Francisco and also visit family and a friend in the city, to make the most of this vacation.
San Francisco provided beautiful weather and an opportunity to visit some exhibits with our friend.

The library is most impressive and was hosting  an exhibit of artist books created to support and recognize the appalling events surrounding the car bombing of the Baghdad booksellers area known as Al-Mutanabi Street. Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) had added a new extension since we were last in the area, so that was also a stop on our visit.

We saw a wonderful exhibition of Los Angeles street photography by Anthony Hernandez, http://anthonyhernandezphotography.com/

After our stay in the Bay Area, we flew to Charleston, SC and had planned to spend several days exploring the area before moving on to visit our friends near Savannah.
Imagine our surprise, when checking into our hotel, to learn that the Charleston area would be under an evacuation order the next day. We had not been paying much attention to the weather situation that was unfolding on the East Coast and so were blissfully unaware that Hurricane Matthew was really heading straight for Charleston. The day of our arrival was Tuesday, October 4, and we had an AirBnB reservation for three nights starting on Wednesday. On contacting the host, they were of the opinion that the storm would moderate and we would be able to keep our reservation.
As you might imagine, that changed to "canceled" in a few hours time.
So here we are with a mandatory evacuation order in place and no room reservations. Our Plan B was to head inland, away from the coast, not a bad plan, but one we shared with about 150,000 other folks! Luckily our rental car had a full tank of gas, as many gas stations were now out of fuel. Columbia, SC, the capital,- was our intended destination, lots of hotels, right! Wrong! We pulled off the jam-packed freeway and learned that there were no rooms left in Colombia.  Really?!  A mad search on the Internet ensued.   The God's smiled on us and we managed to find a room for three nights at a Marriott Springfield Suites.  Big sigh of relief. Columbia was only about 80 miles away, but it took us 6 hours to drive that short distance.  Did I mention the 150,00 other folks with the same idea.
Although Columbia was not in our plans, we decided to explore. The weather was, as you might imagine, not that great, but not enough to stop us from wandering the city.

We were informed that there were not that many historic sites in the city, as most of the city was burned during the Civil War. None-the-less we found several interesting places to visit and there are many plaques with historical details around the city.

I thought the name of this rail station rather curious as it predates the invention of the airplane. Apparently, the words "air-line" were commonly used by railroads to indicate the shortest route between two cities, i.e. a straight line on a map, ignoring any natural obstacles.

While exploring Columbia, we came across the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and the tree above was in the forecourt. We took a tour with a great guide, Frank, who gave us lots of information about the church, not the least of which was that it was modeled after York Cathedral in England.

The interior had many stained glass windows and were all very beautiful. The original pews remained and all had doors to enter. Many of these pews were "family pews" where only the family sat and were usually paid for by that family.

I was amused to see that there were "free" pews located at the front of the church, right under the scrutiny of the vicar!

The churchyard was full of very old gravestones and this one above was brought to our attention. There is a spelling mistake, with scared instead of the intended, sacred, carved in the stone.

We also found the Columbia Museum of Art highlighted by all of the trees on the block adorned with colorful, hand-knitted "sleeves" on their trunks.

There was a wonderful exhibit of large format aerial photographs of many areas of coastal South Carolina. The exhibit was titled  "Eyes on the Edge" by the photographer, J. Henry Fair.

I have always felt that men's clothing in general lacked any real variation from our traditional somber colors, so this store caught my eye, but it was closed! (Maybe just as well.)

With the hurricane still charging up the Georgia and South Carolina coast, we were advised to stay inland through Sunday night. The storm hit Charleston and Savannah on Saturday with very high winds and warnings of record storm surges and heavy rain. Wind speeds at the coast were over 110mph and high storm surges predicted. The eye of the hurricane passed directly over Charleston on Saturday night. Consequently, we had to find another hotel for Sunday night, as all rooms were now booked.   We decided to continue away from the coast and drove to Augusta, Georgia. 

I have often watched the Master's Golf Tournament, which is played in Augusta, and thought the area looked beautiful.   Unfortunately, we were underwhelmed by Augusta in October.  The locals told us it was only a destination in April of each year, during the Master's Tournament.  We were, however, delighted by the Morris Museum of Art, which had a great exhibition of Marty Stuart's photographs of country music stars.

Monday saw us heading to visit with our friends at last. On the journey towards Savannah, we saw long convoys of utility repair trucks heading to the coast, some from as far away as Wisconsin. Great to see that much help was on its way to get power back to coastal residents and help to clear away fallen trees and other storm damage. We arrived at our friend's to witness this sunset over the tidal marsh by their house.

Our friends were lucky that the tree that fell on their house did not do more damage!

On a trip into downtown Savannah we saw a number of large trees that had been uprooted.  There was a lot of debris on the tree-lined streets and parks, but all were well on the way to being cleared.

Many of the businesses in the city were closed, but this candy store was open and we headed in after tasting a free sample of a praline.

And these sweet ladies were hard at work making more candy for all of us.

We have enjoyed watching "The Mind of a Chef" on Netflix and liked a number of episodes featuring the Southern Chef Sean Brock. His restaurant, Husk, is in a restored Queen Anne home in downtown Charleston, so we had to pay it a visit. We had made a dinner reservation the week we arrived,  but the evacuation order meant we had to cancel.   After our visit in Savannah, we headed back to Charleston for our flight home.  We were able to make a lunch reservation just before we departed.  The Southern dishes on offer were delicious and worth the visit.

Lots of tours provided by these horse-drawn carriages. We learned that the horses are very well cared for. In the most part they are horses "retired" from Amish country, and spend half of their year on a pastured farm outside of the city.

We wanted to see one of the famous plantations in the Charleston area and had been told to try and visit the Magnolia Plantation, which we did.

One of the ponds on the plantation, which used to be a major rice producer.

Diane's dessert at Husk, Key Lime Semifreddo.  She said it was as delicious as it was pretty.

I just loved this truck, it's advertising and the request to report on it's driving. I asked the driver if he was able to sample the load he was carrying!
The trip to Charleston and Savannah did not go quite as we had planned, but we made the most of the situation and counted ourselves very fortunate that we found shelter and are thankful that our friends survived the storm with little damage. Our hearts go out to the many folks who sustained major damage and wish them a speedy path back to their normal lives.

Yikes, It's August Already

All my good intentions to keep posting to this blog on a regular basis seem to have evaporated as the summer heat ramps up. At least that is my current excuse. Spring went by quickly with the occasional flurry of activity to get a small garden planted and a few shrubs added to the landscaping. We have not traveled much, mostly visits to see grandchildren and their parents. I think I have a much higher level of motivation if we are traveling through unfamiliar places and I push to record and download the experiences before they become overwhelmed by new ones. I follow a couple of blogs and am always impressed by the dedication it takes to publish on a regular basis. My original inspiration to get Len's Lens started was Shoot Tokyo with wonderful images of Tokyo and interesting commentary. Recently I have been inspired by a different blog, also one about travel and living in other countries and cultures. I recommend that you check it out and live vicariously through the writing. The author has  great style and wit. The World In Between
As I mentioned earlier, we has a wonderful spring with an abundance of flowers and flowering trees.

This is a large Dogwood tree, one of several on the street, they are native to this part of the world. It is also interesting that the "flower" is actually a set of bracts surrounding the blossom which creates the splendid sight that we see.

Here is a close-up of pink dogwood, also plentiful in the neighborhood.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was able to build some raised beds to grow a few vegetables. These went well and we are beginning to get some fresh produce. The lettuce has finished, (does not do well in hot weather)  but soon we are going to have lots of tomatoes.

We have a lot of space in the formal landscaping, so we took advantage of this and planted squash, this is one of several spaghetti squash, that are flourishing.

  

We added bulbs for some color!

Since moving to Ashland I have joined a group that plays Bocce three mornings a week, we are mostly old geezers, but is a lot of fun. Now that the weather has turned warm we begin the games at 8am so that we can finish three games before the sun becomes unbearable. I find the game quite challenging as the court varies every time we play and is very hard to read. 

Since I belong to two photography groups, we occasionally organize photography outings. A favourite area is on the N California coast about 2 plus hours from home. We go to photograph among the redwood trees and hope for fog and rhododendron blooms. This year we missed the blooms and much of the fog despite getting to the location by 8am.

Looking straight up among the trees.

Just a little fog to enhance the sun's rays.

This is Battery Point Lighthouse in Crescent City, California, which is on the way home from the redwoods. Unfortunately we get to this area in the middle of the day which is not ideal for taking photographs.

There are days however, when the fog makes for great opportunities to photograph the ocean.

A friend of ours is co-authoring a book about a local Buddhist temple and asked if I would be willing to take some photographs that could be included, The location is very special with many colorful buildings scattered throughout the grounds.

One of Diane's list of things she wanted to do, after many years, was to pay a visit to Disneyland in LA where she used to visit as a young girl. Since two of our grandchildren were taking a vacation there this year, we invited ourselves for a day to meet them there and to surprise them! They were surprised and we spent a long day with them, right through the fireworks and the parade of lights.

Quite difficult to take photos of moving light shows, it was a lot of fun, especially for the grand children.

Ashland is a town with a large and active arts community above and beyond that encompassed by the Shakespeare festival, As a consequence there are many workshops and classes that are provided and they cater to a large range of interests.  I had a very interesting experience when I had the opportunity to be a model in an oil painting class.

The experience of witnessing artists capturing your likeness from a variety of angle is a bit unnerving. The artists were arrayed in a semicircle such that the view they get and capture is a side of you that you do not normally see in the mirror. This image is of the demo portrait that the workshop leader, Gabriel Lippert painted.

Well this post is a small portion of our summer so far and will set myself a goal of posting once a month. That may not be often enough  for me to make this a regular habit, but it is a place to get back to.

Stay tuned.

March Equinox

We are fortunate to have a Japanese style bath house in our town and have so far managed to luxuriate in it's warm waters a couple of times. It is a place that also serves snacks and green tea.

Our local Japanese style bath house

 Winter has been quite cold and wet, with a lot of snow on the high ground. We are really thankful for all of the rain and snow that is helping the drought conditions here and in northern California.

I was fortunate to have several of my photographs accepted for inclusion in a "coffee table" book entitled, "Ashland, Oregon, Day Trips" by a local author, Barbara Tricarico. The book is available locally or through Amazon.

Barbara at a book signing event.

This has been an active time for local authors, with another friend, Sarah Marshank, publishing her first book, "Being Self - ish". This book is a memoir, Sarah's remarkable journey of her personal search for "self". The sub-title, "My Journey from Escort to Monk to Grandmother" grabs your attention and after I read the book, left me in awe of the strength and courage it must have taken to write it.

We had some nice sunny days in which I took the opportunity to build some raised beds in which to plant vegetables and flowers when the time came in the spring.

This photograph was taken before they were filled with compost and planting mix.

The occasional dry spells enticed us outside to find and make some photographs. We are blessed with many areas of natural beauty, many woods, lakes and trails, as well as interesting neighborhoods.

Up in the woods on the mountain behind where we live, this is my friend David looking for that different photo. The day we went to the mountain was foggy in patches, mostly on the hill tops.

Foggy wooded hills

A collectors truck.

We found this old truck on a flatbed trailer on the side of the road. There are always interesting subjects to photograph if you just take time to look!

When the weather is not cooperating, it is always fun to see what can be found to photograph indoors.

Seed pod

Abstract, look closely!!

But lets get outside again.

Ah! There is my other shoe

Fence art.

Emigrant Lake, which is close by, had become almost totally dry by the end of last summer, but the winter rains have done a great job in bringing the water level back up to where everyone would like to see it.

It is heartening to see a better water level in the lake now, and I hope that it does not encourage a return to our wasteful ways with our water. I think limited rainfall and small to non-existent snow pack will become the new norm.

Water is very important to us all, especially the young, as seen in a recent birthday party celebrated in a water park.
As spring approaches, I am eager to be working in the garden and exploring the garden centers and greenhouses in the area. We do have to be respectful of the weather here in southern Oregon as wild temperature swings happen regularly. This morning as I write this, the temperature was 35 deg F and snow on the hills, but the forecast for three days hence is sunny and 72 deg F.

Lettuce pretty soon!

Just a few frost hardy plantings.

A wholesale plant grower which is also open for resales, Ashland Greenhouses.

There is a house in our neighborhood that always seems to be able to put on a display on any holiday, always adds some amusement to our morning walk.

This time the display combined St Patrick's Day with Easter, an interesting combination. We can't wait to see what the next celebrated holiday will bring.