Cherry Grove

So there I was on the pier at Cherry Grove taking about a zillion images of the beach and the cottages when I spotted a wedding taking place on the beach. It was a beautiful day for a wedding; there was a slight breeze and not a cloud in the sky. I hadn't seen a wedding on the beach for years, not since little Mary K got married years ago, so I thought I'd just watch for a while. The longer I watched, the more I laughed. I couldn't help it. Then I started taking pictures because I knew this was going to be a post on my blog.

Remember this was the middle of March and the beach was not crowded. Most of the people behaved as though this happened all of the time. I guess they were trying to mind their own business and not intrude. People continued to walk their dogs and play in the sand. But there was one man who was not going to let a little thing like a WEDDING stop him from what he had on his list to do that day...search for metal, i.e. gold! For the sake of anonymity, let's just call him Floyd.

Here's Floyd at the beginning of the ceremony. Trying to act nonchalant, as if nothing is going on. But wait, there's more.

He continues his quest for gold. If you want to know more about this "hobby," go to www.aquaexplorers.com/metaldetectingbeachhunting.htm


Then he moved...and woke up!

He stops for a minute to watch the proceedings.

Floyd realized that this was going to take longer that he wanted to wait. The ceremony was over, but the picture-taking began. He figured there was no way he would be able to search that area so he starts to leave.
Bless his heart. Bye Floyd, you made my day.

Meanwhile back at the ceremony...I'm not getting this shot. One, she's getting her dress wet, and two, does she really want a shot of her back side?

I'll bet they're trying to figure out how to get those people out of their 2011 Christmas card shot.

This is the last image I shot before racing off to find Floyd. I think I might trade my camera for a metal detector. On the other hand, I'm getting kinda good at sneaking around so I might look into private investigating. So much to ponder.

YOU TELL ME

I applied for a popular art show in another state and recently received THE rejection letter. Several weeks later their website posted a list of all the artists that were accepted. Being the competitive person I am, I checked out each of the photographers to see how I compared as a photographer. So here we are. I have inserted two images below.

One was accepted and one wasn't. One is mine and one isn't. Mine was shot last year at Brookgreen Gardens. One was shot in the summer and one in the winter, thus the lack of leaves in the top image. I converted mine to black and white to make it easier to compare.

Tell me what you think. Can you guess which one is in the show?

It's A Nab For Heaven's Sakes...

NOT a sandwich cracker.

A couple of months ago, George, my stepson, (he really is a bright kid...graduated from Calhoun Honors College at Clemson) was in the car with us going to Charlotte. We made a quick stop at a rest area where we bought some snacks, a.k.a. junk food. As we continued our trek north on 85, I opened a pack and said to George, "Would you like a NAB?" His reply, "What's a nab?" What? It was like a knee jerk reaction. I looked at Tom and he looked at me in total disbelief. Shocked. Speechless. Reading each other's mind, we were thinking, "What did he just say?"

I ask you this. How could anyone raised in the south or even the southeast, not know what a NAB is? Since I am his stepmother and he didn't come into my life until he was fourteen, I take absolutely no responsiblily for this blatant failure in parenting.

But wait, there's more. One evening a few weeks ago, as I was watching television as I'm prone to do anytime after 8:00 A.M., I saw a commercial that almost caused me to hyperventilate. They were advertising NABS but were calling them "sandwich crackers." Help me Rhonda! No one, and I mean no one who I know calls them sandwich crackers. They are quite simply, NABS.

So to quell this confusion this is a NAB.

And this is a pack of NABS.


It's that simple. Will someone please tell the Lance people.

A Southern Snow

My sister just called from sunny California to give me an update on the weather. She does this when she knows I'm freezing here in the south. It seems that it's somewhere around 75 degrees there and it's a balmy 45 degrees here. For those of you who care, it's 10 degrees cooler than it's supposed to be...and I'm not happy.

All of this weather talk reminded me of the snow that we had a few weeks ago. It started on a Friday afternoon and continued through the night. The images below appear to be black and white because the snow was falling so fast that it completely blocked out any light.

The next day the sun appeared but the snow stayed with us for much of the day.

Looks just like cotton candy.

I hope that's it for snow this winter.

Note: I wrote this post a week ago, thinking the snow was over for the winter. Today (March 2nd) it's here again. As my friend Susan would say, "Oy vey!"

The Flowers Are Blooming at the... Part II

Southeastern Flower Show

As you can tell, the flowers were absolutely beautiful. They even had grass. Most of it was mondo, but I though this was pretty, so green, so spring and no bugs, no fire ants.


This is a quince; my new favorite flower. Well actually it's a bush. I've got to get busy and try to find one for Tom to plant. I know he's going to be thrilled. Where is the shovel?

So there I was in a great mood, walking around silently planning a garden, when I spotted the photography exhibit. I walked back and fourth, pacing both sides of the exhibit, wondering why my submissions had been refused. I still don't get it. I noticed one photographer had nine, count 'em nine entries. Not fair. Obviously political. Humm. Maybe if I bought a macro lens. Something to think about. Here is one side of the exhibit.

Yep, I was having a mood swing. An African photo shoot is not in my future. I'm not getting this image.
My mood was getting worse by the minute. This image won first place. It is obviously a black and white. It was good. Not my taste, but obviously good enough to win. Could this be sour grapes on my part?
Just when I was feeling sorry for myself, guess who I bumped into? None other than P. Allen Smith! Another mood swing. Things were definitely looking up. When I saw him, I laughed and said, "I didn't know you were going to be here!" (Like he should have called me first!) I told him that I just had to take his picture. He and his escort laughed, and she offered to take a shot with the both of us. What a hoot! What a gentleman!

A few minutes later he began his presentation. For those of you who don't know who P. Allen Smith is, go to his website: www.pallensmith.com. He is an amazing garden designer and represents Bonnie Nurseries. I have one of his books and he's often on the Today Show.

As he spoke, he walked among us, asking questions. He combined sarcasm and humor as he entertained us with his vast knowledge of garden design.

Oh no, here he comes toward the back row. Please, please don't ask me a question.

He did. Something about me growing lettuce. If he only knew. The only thing green about me was the scarf I was wearing.

The Flowers Are Blooming in Atlanta At The..Part I

Southeaster Flower Show!

Earlier this week I volunteered at the flower show. Trust me, I know very little about flowers, but I do love them. My job title was a "runner" which meant that I took plants from the "passers" table to the show where the "stagers" placed them in their sections to be judged. Before last year I didn't know that folks could bring their plants and flowers for competition. I think a lot of garden clubs and master gardeners participate because the process is rather complicated and they thrive on the competition. As a thank you for volunteering, I was given a free ticket to the show. So two days later and I was there with my camera ready just immerse myself in spring.

This was what I saw when I first walked in the room. Six gorgeous cherry trees. Earlier I watched as the workers used a fork lift to place them in their planters.

Vignettes were located near the entrance. This was one of the larger ones. They are full of ideas for those who are ready to put thousands of dollars in their yards, thus transforming a plain old yard into a garden!

Obviously there were thousands of flowers. Here are white snapdragons

and pink snapdragons,

and a variety of snapdragons. I like snapdragons but not one lives in my garden. (This image was blurry so I just added a touch of photoshop.)

And there were lots of shops. Here's a cute one.

Oops! I have a stud finder (Home Depot), but do I need this?

Then I saw this. I needed one, but couldn't decide on a color...so I left...the shop, not the show!

Placed near the vignettes were tables that were judged. This is one of them. I try to stay apolitical on this blog, but I thought this was pretty darn creative. They didn't win. If you peek behind the water bottle, you'll see Al's pic in the chair.

That about sums up Part I. The second part will include the photo competition and a very, very special speaker. Did my photo get in the exhibition? Do you know the famous garden planner? Stay tuned.

It Was Too Soon

My sister and I just returned from a short visit to our hometown. The purpose of our trip was to attend a memorial service for a family friend who had passed away after a long and painful illness. She died too soon. I know we always think that, but she did. She was only fifty-nine. Although I didn't see her during her illness, her mother kept us informed throughout her struggle so we knew how hard she was fighting to live.

She was fortunate to have the comfort of lots of family and friends. At the service I met her two beautiful daughters...very strong...had their mother's gorgeous looks and her personality. It was a pleasant surprise to meet her granddaughter who looked just like she did when she was her age. Both Karla and her husband had many, many friends, some of whom were members of the theatre group at the local university where her husband is on the faculty. Our Karla was a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, aunt, niece, and a friend to many. I will always remember her smile and her infectious laughter. She was an inspiration to us all.

F.Y.I., Karla's the one in the highchair. That's me probably trying to sneak a piece of cake! This was just one of our many, many birthday parties...thanks to our very loving parents. I bet Karla's mother, Doris, made those fancy hats.