~a long weekend~

   

Sullivan's Island, South Carolina

~~~~~

Everyone is heading back home now - some heading west, another north - after a wonderful weekend.  We all stayed up much too late and woke up...much too late - except for a mid-morning spent with The Dan and Stanley in tow:  roaming the beach, sniffing dog butts, rolling in the ocassional washed up horseshoe crab, and dreaming of catching brown pelicans.  Happy dogs. 

I think the clouds in the sky at sunset were the only ones we saw all weekend.  We'd walk to one place for happy hour, another for dinner, another for dessert, and another for a nightcap.  We wandered - walked slowly, talked more than we walked - it was perfect.

~~~~~

 My friend Jeff carved me pumpkins once again - his are always fun, creative - a bit out of the ordinary.  There were placed around the inside of the beach house during Friday's gathering - where the quite realistic plastic palmetto bugs were placed in each Dark 'n Stormy. 

What is it about a carved pumpkin?

I love them. 

One of my guests carved her first pumpkin ever that night.  (Oh - and the seeds were roasted).  I remember as a child carving the pumpkin, lighting it - and then running down to the road once it got dark to see it from a distance.  Later, as an adult in Michigan, I could grow all of the pumpkins that I wanted - hence, carve all of the pumpkins that I wanted to carve - hence a monster was created (me!).  I like carved pumpkins in groups, clusters...herds.  I was telling my friends from more northern climes how a local place here starts growing pumpkins in August - so they essentially by October have a field of pumpkin vines - and then they 'bring in' pumpkins from much further inland (or out of state) and place them in the 'pumpkin patch'.  Isn't that somehow...wrong?   Oh, I suppose it's okay - but for some reason it makes me feel a bit sad to watch the kids run around the patch each year.

As for costumes - there were a few.  One of my doctoral students came as a scientist with ebola.  He was...to put it quite mildly, a bloody mess.  And infectious...frightened?  Ahhh...he didn't scare us. 

~~~~~

So, I'm back to my less sandy abode - realizing that my own home and garden need quite a bit of attention.  There are signs of fall - the river birch is shedding it's vaguely yellow leaves, ones that I will leave in place this fall because the area all around it will get mulched soon - turned into a narrow walk way between a perennial boarder and a cluster of roses. 

I'm also - rescuing another dog today. 

It's a long story (no, actually it's a short one) - a skinny, skinny stray english pointer was rescued in Pensacola, Fl by a good friend who drove her up to my pumpkin carving friend's parents home (aka the Peanut Riders) in the up-state and they are driving her down to Charleston today.

Just don't say it.  I know it's nuts.  But they were desperate for a home for her.

~~~~~ 

The long weekend out at the beach is over - but it certainly was a nice time.

Sullivan's Island Lighthouse, South Carolina

Comments

[Vera]

Beautiful photos.

[Les]

I love the first photo. Another dog you say? You're good people and we want to see pictures of the rescue.

[Pam]

Thanks Vera - last night was just a beautiful evening out at the beach. We just stood there, watching the sun slowly set over the marsh - generating great color on the ocean side.

Thanks Les- it was a beautiful evening. And I just posted a new dog pic - she's a tired little thing.