Savannah

Well, Chelle and I drove down to Savannah today as planned. It was an ultra quick visit, sort of a whirlwind actually. If we had not had the gps we would still be wandering around in some neighborhood down there saying "I *think* this looks familiar.... did we go down that road before?" It's easy to get lost in Savannah. Our walking around was hindered by a mack daddy of a blister on my pinkie toe. Actually my innermost will to live was hindered by said pinkie toe blister before it was all over with. I now have 14 bandaids on the festering wound and will be having the whole left foot amputated on Tuesday due to the extensive tissue damage I suffered. Other than that everything was quite nice. We ate lunch at a little Thai place and then explored the various neighborhoods in the comfort of the car and off our feet. Savannah has some rock star action on the most average of it's hood's streets. By "average" I mean middle class, smallish houses from the 50's or so. Example....



Not too shabby eh? There are parks every few blocks featuring the same enormous, mind blowing trees as well. It's tree-licious. Here is another example. This next pic is of a dentist office. The tree is all "Hey baby" and just steps away inside someone is getting a root canal. This has to have some profound effect on the overall vibe of the dental experience. I know I would endure the pain with a bit more grit than normal if I could gaze out the window at that phenomenon.

At Times It Was Dangerous.

Tonight can be summed up in a very few words. Scrabble. And... Walk to gas station. Or I should say gas stationS. We went to three. On foot. Why? No good reason. It was something dumb to do. But as the title of the post explains... at times it was dangerous. We crossed a busy highway intersection in the dark. Always a smart move to make. Anyway...I think you will get the overall feeling for the whole night here in this short photo essay of sorts. Note the high math on the Scrabble score sheet.




You will have to click on the above pic strip to see it bigger....

I think we are heading to Savannah tomorrow while Billy stays home to paint. Thanks for tuning in. We appreciate your support in these odd posting times.

Quickie

It has been a busy week... My friend Michelle is here with us and we have been out prowling around Charleston, going for long drives and tormenting Billy with 80's music. Last night while Billy was trying to watch "America at a Crossroads" we were blasting "Let the Music Play" by Shannon. Poor Billy. As you can see those are two media moments that were never really meant to be mixed, shaken or stirred together for any reason whatsoever.

We discussed the concept of a full blown 80's party in the trailer park here... but decided our true theme would be lost on most of the parties attendees. I just like the idea of Air Supply cranking out over the roofs of $300,000 motor coaches while I stand by as host in a pair of pink leg warmers.

I have not really shot any pictures yet this week. And we have not painted. Tomorrow those two things will change though and I will post results. Happy Wednesday and be glad wherever you are that you don't have sand gnat bites all over your ankles they way I do. In parting let me share with you this excerpt about the dear, beloved creature which has been tormenting us here in SC...

"So why does it hurt like mad when a gnat takes a meal from your arm or, even worse, your scalp? The secret is in the mouth parts. Sand gnats don't just puncture your skin like mosquitoes do. Instead they rip it open using sharp cutting teeth located on the mandible. After inserting two sharp, sword-like blades into the skin as anchors, the sand gnat uses the cutting teeth to rip up the skin and get the blood flowing. As if that weren't enough, the gnat then squirts a chemical into the open wound to inhibit blood clotting. The tiny pool of blood that forms is then sucked up through a straw-like structure called the proboscis. Some human victims have allergic reactions to the chemical and must endure itchy red spots or even swollen welts."

Ok then.

Condiments and Round House Kicks.

You know it has been a low key day when I resort to posting these sort of photos. I am mildly justified because we have had an actual request for a condiment line up photo. Somehow I don't feel it is as exciting as one would have hoped.... but it's what we are currently packing in the fridge.

The fridge itself is always kind of a puzzle-esque masterpiece. It's not too bad right now but sometimes stuff is crammed in there in such a way you have to really put on your thinking cap before you try to pull out the cheese slices because you may cause an avalanche of olives, avocado and oranges if you do it wrong.





Wow. You can hardly contain your excitement right? I mean...this is not something you see every day unless you happen to own a refrigerator yourself which I am quite sure none of you do.

Now for something you'll really like. I have spent the better part of the afternoon contemplating THESE . How did I live this long without knowing about these pants? Apparently I'm not the Norris fan I thought I was. If you did have these jeans you could then get yourself one of THESE to wear with them which would probably get you into situations where kicking people in the face may become necessary for self preservation. Because secretly...we all want to kick someone in the face with style and in complete comfort.

So here are two more new paintings from Young William. He's doin' a fine job.





Tomorrow we are supposed to get a "We're all gonna DIE!" type of storm coming through here. Hail, "damaging winds" and rain. I am not feeling so confident about the concept of hail in relationship with the roof of our cozy little tin can here. So everyone please cross your fingers and your toes that we don't get creamed. We will let ya know how it goes.

Good Eats and New Work

Well our rainy day ended up brightening up and was actually pretty nice. I did have a low moment at the laundry mat (my least favorite thing about this way of living so far is the issue of having to use the laundry mat.) But Billy got a lot of work done today while I was being hassled by weirdos and their dirty undies.

We spent the early evening making dinner. We had lots of fresh stuff like heirloom tomatoes, fresh mint, fennel and poblano pepper so we decided to make falafel. Any fresh veggies go great with falafel. We always make our version of cucumber raita to go with this dinner, the recipe is plain yogurt, chopped up fresh cucumber, minced fresh raw garlic, chopped fresh mint and salt and pepper, it's simple. It is a perfect compliment especially if you are going to pour on any kind of hot sauce which we also always do. Otherwise we just use a box mix for the falafel, something like THIS one. We grilled the poblano pepper as well as a red bell pepper and wrapped the fennel bulb with garlic and mushrooms in some foil and threw that on the grill too. I use arugula for the greens because it's flavor does not get lost in the mix. We found a killer hot sauce made here in SC. This company (Gullah Gourmet) is so cute and we have tried a few of their sauces and all of them so far have been fantastic. The one we used to tonight is the Vidalia Onion Peach Hot Sauce. It seems like almost every single product is vidalia onion based... but once you try them you can see why. They are super yummy and their product labeling is brilliant. Oh, and I always warm up some soft flour tortillas to wrap the stuff up in.

If you have a hankerin' for fresh veggies and a creative night in the kitchen bust out with some falafel. It's one of our fave dinners... but the real challenge is perfecting your form in building your tortilla full of stuff. Inevitably Billy always ends up proclaiming that his wrap is too big to pick up.


Here are Billy's latest two paintings... both are scenes from Hunting Island State Park. I am really loving the way he is infusing the whole piece with color...even the sky has subtle pinks and yellows. He is really putting out some atmospheric work and it is fun to see him painting the actual places we are staying.




Both of these pieces will be up on eBay this week.

Rainy Day Thoughts

After a not so good night's sleep (heavy rain on the roof of an aluminum shell can be pretty loud people) we are having a low key day of reading and just hanging out. Last night we watched a program on PBS's Independent Lens series called "Black Gold" about the coffee producers of Africa. As they state at the beginning of the program, on the world market coffee is second only to oil in trade. OIL. Are you with me on that? Coffee is a really, really big deal. The next thing you need to know is that a lot of people in certain regions of Africa, Ethiopia in particular, are completely reliant on coffee as their countries most prominent source of income. Millions of people are involved in a life or death sort of relationship with coffee... and I don't mean people who think they will die if they can't drink a whole pot of coffee every morning before they start their day. Coffee prices are at a 30 year low and the producers literally make next to nothing off their product they take so much pride in and work so hard to maintain. Why am I telling you this? I dunno...just to get ya thinking about it I guess. A gentle reminder to actually consider where the stuff comes from and there are humans at the other end of our cups of joe we get from Starbucks or wherever. Billy and I try to buy fair trade coffee when we get coffee for home. It is a lot easier to find even at your regular old grocery store anymore than it used to be. But I will admit to (especially this winter) being a junkie for Caramel Macchiatos from Starbucks. I paid around $3.00 apiece for those drinks and the person at the other end of the spectrum is making like 50 cents a day for the work they do to produce the beans. It sure does put an ugly dent in the pleasure factor when you know that. It's something to consider when you buy coffee or for that matter chocolate or any other number of harvested, hand crafted products. If you are interested in learning more about Fair Trade products THIS is a great website to check out.

Ok...I will step off the soap box now. I don't think I will have too much exciting news to post this week. We are sticking close to home and working for the most part. Billy is painting right now indoors (because of the rain.) My best friend Michelle is coming this weekend from Martha's Vineyard to spend a week with us so we are trying to get ahead.

I will leave you with a picture of Grill Master William McLane cooking on our new "little girl." We had been discussing buying a small propane grill for awhile and I had shared this idea with my Mom. A few days ago while on the phone with her she asked me "So what's the story on the little girl?" And I was all...."What little girl? What the Hell are you talking about?" Yah...obviously she had said GRILL not GIRL...so there you have it. We christened the little girl with tofu dogs and corn.

As Easter-y As I Get.

I set out this morning to take photos. Of Easter-y stuff. I was not sure what that meant exactly... but I was ready and willing to try for a theme of sorts. I suppose I could have taken photos of ladies in silly hats and little girls in poofy dresses leaving church or I could have even gone to the grocery store and photographed pink sugar cookies shaped like eggs. But I did not do that. Instead I found myself at The Magnolia Plantation. I paid the entrance fee of 1 million dollars to see the gardens (it costs 2 million if you want to see the house as well.) There are 51 acres of gardens so I guess it is worth the high price you pay. I took my highly confusing map and set off on foot through the maze of walkways. I took a lot of photos and it seems they are mostly of creepy cherub babies and billowy maiden statues. So there you have my Easter photo theme. It's as Easter-y as I was able to get. I kept a sharp eye out for any rabbits who may be passing through but there were none. They were too busy elsewhere today I guess.








Billy stayed home today to paint. He set up out on the old grounds of the plantation (now a campground) where we are staying. There are a bunch of great big old oaks out there and he is working on a piece involving them.

People (I won't say WHO...but you know who you are) have been pestering me for days about our Easter dinner. I did my best to appease your worries. I made bow tie pasta with asparagus and we also had some fancy pantsy bread made with rosemary. And wine. And we had fresh flowers on the table. And a candle was lit too. Easter Dinner.


Now Billy is laying on the bed occasionally wailing out a weak sounding cry of "Brooownies!" So...that will tell you how the night will wind up. I'm making brownies. Right now.

Loquat Bombings in the City

Yes. Loquat (click it for more info on loquats than you ever knew existed.) I was hit in the head by one while dining at 82 Queen today and I still have a large crunchy sticky spot on top of my head to prove it. Our lunch was actually a pretty amusing experience. We were seated out back in a lovely little patio area surrounded by old brick buildings and great old trees, statues, arbours etc. it was very quaint. Until the loquats began to splat and bounce off the table and my head. When I looked up to get a look at where my assailants were descending from I immediately spotted a 5 foot long giant snake directly above my head in the tree. After a 1.7 second spike of pure panic I realized it was fake. The restaurant had placed it there in an effort to keep birds and squirrels at bay... nobody wants poop in their soup. Although sooner or later some poor woman may have a heart attack when she glances up and sees the fat serpent in the tree above her head and does not realize it is plastic. Our food came and wow....WOW. I had fried green tomatoes over grits and Billy had barbecued shrimp and grits. I ate 3/4 of mine and immediately felt like I had consumed a quart of warm mayonnaise. It was good food but entirely too fried, rich and indulgent.


After lunch we wandered around downtown on foot for about three hours poking our noses into galleries and reading the menus posted outside at all the shmaltzy restaurants. Charleston is really a great place to explore on foot... I would recommend avoiding the Market Street area though. It was over the top touristy and kind of gross. My general rule of thumb is when you encounter a Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory head in the opposite direction.



Charleston has a lot of nooks and crannies...little alleyways and gardens you can get a glimpse of down courtyard corridors. You can really feel the age of the place and it is very well maintained in the French Quarter. The parks are beautiful as well...



We capped off the day with a fat slice of Toll House Pie from a place called Kaminsky's Cafe. It was in the heart of the creepy Market Street tourist district but it was dealing out mean looking desserts so we grabbed one to go and took it out to the Waterfront Park to devour it. Then it was HOME PLEASE....I think I am gonna be SICK. Another piece of advice... Tollhouse Pie on top of fried green tomatoes and cheesy grits is just not a great idea. I have a long way to go before I can hang tough with some hard core Southern eatin' I think.

Charleston!

We finally made it to Charleston. We have had so much anticipation of arriving here... for a variety of reasons. My best friend is considering moving here and is coming down for a week long visit while we are here so that is the main reason for the interest.

Our camp site is just about 15 minutes from downtown and is pretty decent. It's not as nice (aesthetically) as the last few places we have stayed but it is really close to town so it works. We drove in yesterday even though we were so tired we felt like we really may die. Charleston is a total mind blow. I guess I did not really know what to expect but A. It is WAY bigger than I expected and B. There is A LOT going on in town. The historical buildings/architecture are just fantastic. I am all about any giant old waterfront mansion that's painted pink from head to toe and is surrounded on all sides by enormous oaks and flowering bushes and trees. I will post pics once we get down there in earnest and see more stuff.

So we are settled here for three weeks. After that we have no idea where we are going. Feel free to make suggestions on places North of here on the coast you have been or know about which are good. This would include North Carolina and/or Virginia.

I wanted to mention one really interesting place we visited down by Hunting Island. It was Penn Center and it was a beautiful little town to see. Click the link (Penn Center) to read a bit about the historic info on the place and see some amazing old photos. It really felt like stepping back in time to be there. The buildings and the area are really being well cared for. Billy really wanted to try the nearby Gullah Grub Restaurant but they were not open any of the times we passed by with empty tummies. So it is something to plan a return visit for.

I'll be back to post new pics as soon as I have some to show off. We need to set to work painting too... and I will post new work as it is finished.

BIG POST. Lotsa stuff.....

So we drove almost 20 miles today just to find internet access. It was worth it. I am sitting here devouring a perfectly tasty hummus wrap and a sweet tea at a coffee house in Beaufort while working online.



Arriving at Hunting Island State Park (SC) we were greeted by the camp hosts… “Welcome to paradise!” I could not imagine this place was going to live up to such a bold statement… but it really kinda does. We are tucked back in a deep woods, surrounded by huge old oaks and palms. The beach is about a 4 minute walk from our front door and is enormous, wild and stretches on for miles.



Once we parked our peanut and started to get set up we were greeted by the *other* camp hosts… a family of deer who visit on a daily basis lookin’ for a snack. You can feed them straight from your hand. I was insisting on a whole foods diet….fruits and veggies and an occasional piece of grainy bread. Then our neighbors landed and I watched in awe as a kid fed a single deer an entire bag of Cheetos. So much for the whole foods diet. Anyway… we have also been feeding the 14 million red cardinals who reside in these woods. There are considerably less bugs here (which is weird) and we have fallen in love with the beach where you can find beautiful shells when the tide goes out. It is hard to even consider working (painting) while here, there is too much other good stuff to be doing.

Billy did head out on Saturday and set up out on a stretch of beach to paint a wind swept old tree. I worked outside back at the trailer and finished a small barn landscape I had started back on Hilton Head. So we have gotten a little bit accomplished while here.

It is extremely windy out here most of the time, which I have tried to demonstrate visually for you here...



We have had some low moments with the meals on wheels.... I told you we would eventually. It has been a 'back to basics' sort of mentality ruling in the kitchen for the past week. You can't get much more basic than pb & j.



We will head out again on Wednesday morning to head up to Charleston, SC. Once we get set up there we should have full internet access the whole time. Until then....