Early SPRING In Charleston, South Carolina- March 2012

We took off one day last week and visited Charleston, so nice to live so close to my favorite city. It was hot, about 78 degrees, and moved up into the 80's the second day we were there. The great shot I took above was heading back one evening down Church St. St. Philips church is in the background, spring planters delivering their lushness in my path.

I had time for a quick walk before dinner.

I arrived back at the hotel , changed and then we went walking to a restaurant. You can walk to all restaurants, shops, gardens, etc. here.

That is me and my lovebug, we were all heading out to eat, and as you can see staying at our favorite place to stay in Charleston, The Indigo Inn . I was tired, we were tired, as I had been antiquing in the outskirts of Charleston for about 4-5 hours, with my husband and son.

Yes, they were troopers.

This was a nice antique 19C oil I found there...but let's get back to the gardens.

Charleston was already showing its early Spring debut. I took lots of pictures of window planter boxes, as they are everywhere, and I mean ALL over Charleston.

Then various other shots of pretty Spring.

Let me show you....

Purple hydrangeas.

A tulip garden.

White azaleas pushing through wrought iron.

My favorite little cupids in Charleston, that are the only ones I have seen anywhere that are like my identical twins, that I have in my garden, look...

I have to get my behind out and work in my garden as all my fellow garden bloggers are kicking it with their hard work they are showing in theirs.

Ok, back to Charleston...

I'll just be quiet( if I can here), and show you what I saw.

Do you see how Charlestonians cram so many flowers into one windowbox and it works !? I see I could not stay quiet for even one picture frame.

I will try again.

Early evening picture coming back down Church St.

I give up on no talking.

This one was on Rainbow row.

Rainbow Row, famous grouping of colorful homes near the Battery area.

I have said in previous entries, that Charleston has very small front yards, or no front yards. But that does not stop the residents and business owners from putting out overflowing planters, urns and windowboxes for us to enjoy.

I think this entry is running too long, so I will leave you with a shot of some romantic lovers walking along the battery,it was early morning here, they were holding hands, probably in their late 40's or 50's.

They looked peaceful and happy that morning.

Charleston is for lovers you know, they are everywhere, all ages, holding hands, smiling.

Hopefully I will do an entry of just some people holding hands and looking in love and happy, walking about Charleston.

I will also continue this one of some other garden shots and some funny dog pictures of spoiled pooches in Charleston.

Busy day here, running very behind on all kinds of important tasks,

take care all,

Gina

How Strong is Your FAITH ?

There is a church, with a large steeple I walk past in the mornings, I see the steeple , always there not moving, every time I walk. That is a picture of it above. 

I have thought much about my relationship, my faith , lately...and my feeling of drifting from God, or Him being distant from me. I know that is normal in tragedys , to feel off-kilter in your faith. I know that for some people it is worse than for others. I also know that any relationship, with spouses, friends, children, neighbors...is strongly influenced and strengthened by communication.

If you don't talk much with your spouse  or friend, then your relationship will deteriorate.

Likewise, if you don't talk much with God, it will also deteriorate, at least from your end...He on the other hand probably ( guessing here ),feels exactly towards you as He always has.

I have been upset, dis-heartened, by my faith walk, my relationship with God after our Sarah's death. I always believed I had a strong relationship, strong faith in Him. I talked about Him with many people, in person and through this blog.

But since her death, I have closed myself off more, prayed a little less, prayed differently  with Him. It is actually still difficult to pray. I have been further discouraged from reading or hearing different ministers tell their listeners stories about how strong a faith so and so has when they go through cancer and they are dying and they thank God for the cancer, when someone lost their wife and three children in an auto accident and went to church singing and praising God the next Sunday. When someone's blog, after losing a loved one, writes and praises God , right after the death .
I have measured my faith ,or what degree I thought my faith was...against those type of stories and more.
I feel I have fallen short, very short.
I walked , and I considered, and I thought something that on first hearing makes no sense. 
This is it, sort of hard to say, but will give it a go..
I have had many personal and physical trails in my life, as we all have, some truly scary terrible things happen...as we all have probably. God has helped give me strength through all those times. It was never a quick fix, never a BANG this is God, here to help. It was more of a slow , steady strengthening of my faith...over years and years.
Like I said, I have had trails and tribulations , I have caused trails and tribulations.  But none, not one...were this bad. Not even close.

And so when I walked, and thought, and considered...I considered that even though I personally felt my faith has gotten weaker, much weaker...it may  in fact , be stronger than it was before. It doesn't feel stronger , I am having serious issues with trying to trust God , as my anger over my daughter's death is still there.  Comes and goes , fluctuating between deep sadness , anger and depression . I know that internal anger can destroy relationships , any relationship, and I also know that through my anger over this tragedy...I still love God.
Possibly, just possibly, I am thrown into the position of authentic , deep true faith. Through good times, bad times, the worst times. 
Perhaps I am growing ( not of my own choosing ) , and seeing God for who He truly is...and growing to love Him more , to truly know him more , to learn He is more than just the creator of our world , more than just all-loving , all-knowing , perfect entity .

Me and Sarah, last Thanksgiving

So maybe, my faith is stronger than I know.  The fact that He may be developing me how He can use me best after this tragedy is something I have considered, and actually am not in favor of. I know that sounds childish, but when a mother is hurting so badly inside over her daughter's death , a death that cannot possibly ever be for the greater good in this world...as it has caused my world to be much worse. I know many Christians will write me and tell me he can use this tragedy for good, as the scripture verse states, I mentally KNOW that, I have always known that....but it is not remotely comforting to me. Too much daily pain. 
Also, I know for a fact my daughter made this world a better place. Again, none of my reactions probably surprise God, he knows he has a tough case on His hands with me.
  I do ask Him to increase my faith daily.


Remember to enjoy your families over Thanksgiving , when you hug your children, your spouse, your parents...feel their warmth, watch then when they speak , listen to their laughs, enjoy the sound of their voices... affirm their hopes.
Show your love to them , so they can see it.


Be a blessing,
Gina

Wrought IRON Shadows from CHARLESTON, South Carolina

We went to Charleston , SC...one of my very favorite places in the world, if you have followed my blog before. If you are a newer follower, a warm welcome. Or a hot one as it was 95 degrees in Charleston , a city with possibly the highest humidity on the face of the planet. I was in an artsy type of mood , melancholy...contemplating -my- life type of mood for the last few days ( wait, make that a good couple of decades ), but it is more profound of late.

That in turn has caused Mrs. Profound-over-thinker to notice even more than I already notice, which is too much for my own good.

But here , I will show you the shadows of some gorgeous, heavy, chunky antique wrought iron gates and ironwork I noticed reflecting  on the ground in the early morning sunlight of Charleston.

I hope you enjoy these pictures...

 I love the heart in this gate. I saw many hearts in gates here...once I stopped and looked at them more carefully.

 See...lovely shadows.

Artwork outlines courtesy of God and His sunshine.

I will throw in this shadow on a sidewalk that I was walking down, I loved the crape myrtles draping heavy with their blossoms, creating outlines for anyone who could truly notice. That morning I walked was full of birds singing , clip-clopping of horses hooves from the carriages that give tours, and lots of going around construction crews renovating homes.

I did not have my headphones on this time, as I had to bring water it was so hot, and I had my camera and key as well.

A gal only has some many hands right ?

The evening before I got caught in a torrential downpour about a mile from the hotel, with way too much to carry and to get damaged if they got wet.
I went under someone's porch for awhile, but did not want to appear to be a vagrant...a wet vagrant...so I made my way out into the rain again.

I looked like a drowned rat when I walked back to the hotel.

So this time, I edited my carry-on items for my walk.
Not in case of rain...simply to make my walk lighter.

That afforded me the added benefit of Charleston's own daily sounds.

Nice.

 The sun started to get too high overhead, which meant time was passing and I had to head back to our hotel.

 Here is me and my love-bug  later, getting ready to go out for some dinner at a restaurant that had a live jazz band , and then off to walk around Charleston at dusk at the water park. It was still 95 degrees at 6:30 PM.

Our son's favorite thing at this hotel was racing up the elevator to beat me, who always takes the stairs here, to get to the room first.

I won 90 % of the time . Only because it was only 1 flight of steps up, and he had to wait frantically pushing elevator buttons, the joy children derive from elevator buttons !

I have more entries I will post with many more pictures of wrought iron accents , and some gardens and miscellaneous shots around Charleston.

More later,

Gina

 "Be still, and know that I am GOD. " Psalm 46:10

SPRING Garden Views of CHARLESTON, South Carolina

 

Walking through the downtown historic neighborhoods of Charleston, South Carolina is something every gardener, and garden lover should do. So many ideas, so much inspiration, and since land is at such a premium here....home owners seem to go out of their way to cram as much beauty as possible in their yards. In this entry I will show some small gardens I found, some sights and glimpses of overflowing gardens, and the a little something about the Dock Street Theater ( the oldest  theater in the USA ), and give you a head's up on the best candy shop in the city.

Here we go:

Lots of entry gates into side gardens, this one was left open

Famous cobblestone streets here, these are not everywhere, but enough for you to see them now and again

Lots of small statues on top of fence columns here

Favorite views you can see, are through the typical wrought iron gates and fencing ....into the gardens. I am always mesmerized by these glimpses into someone's gardens.

 Another side gate leading into a yard

I

I took a picture of this lovely windowbox planter, and then coming around the side...I startled the homeowner, who was gardening in her small front yard. the pictures below are from her garden, I believe her name was Barbara, because after I talked with her a bit...and I was walking off, I heard a neighbor walk up and say  her name.

She likes to use monkey grass as much as I do ! Great for bordering here.

Goodbye to Barbara's garden and off to more !

Japanese maple overshadowing foxgloves & boxwoods.

Opposite side , flanking the other Japanese maple grouping.

Lots of center round accent areas in the gardens here, anyone can do this at their home.

Overflowing azaleas

Lady Banks rose is everywhere here

I loved this, it reminds me of an area in my front yard that I made a circular accent area last Summer.

Here was a rose garden with brick herringbone accent pathway

I took this shot near the Coast Guard station there on the Battery. A bunch of women were having a tea party on the front porch of this house, I called out that I was simply going to take a picture of the garden in front...they all jumped up and hid. They had dresses and hats on.Too funny.

A renegade rebel homeowner on the Battery in a gazillion dollar house , that decided to give the Historic Foundation a thumb to the nose and put two of these out front , flanking the porch. A neighbor down the street has two pigs on their porch. I was thinking, amusing for us to see, but if you owned a 6-20 million dollar home on the Battery , and had your house done in the beautiful traditional Charleston style...then this wouldn't be so funny everyday.
Guess I'm a fuddy-duddy about Charleston showing it's true glory.
At least these are better than the two large pigs two houses down.

 This entry is getting too long, I have about 20 more pictures , so I will make another entry later. I am going out to my yard and trim some of my bushes, with my trusty garden companion shown below.

 She can look rather regal when she's not being such a spaz of a lab , like she typically is.
More later, bless you today !
Gina

" These commandments I give to you today are to be in your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. " Deuteronomy 6:6-7