More Flower sculptures and flowers

As promised, here are the rest of the critters from our flower festival. They are an art form all there own.

Our first picture here is an early morning ape. He has his cup of coffee and is holding his newspaper high. The ape is a much improved repeat performer from last year.

This odd fellow is a Bearcat from Lander U (where I earned my BSN). I have never seen one wandering around, except on campus and I suspect that one is a guy in a suit. Oh well, go Bearcats!

This, in case you are not from The South, is a University of South Carolina, USC, Gamecock. There is a lot of rivalry over who supports what football team and this is a Southern favorites. He is about 15 feet tall.

I think this one  is just plain sweet. A flower pony. He is slightly larger than life size.

Once again, this year, the Mama and Baby Elephants are my favorites. The baby is a fountain!

This exotic looking beauty was growing over a fence in Savannah yesterday.

Lilly

I don't know what this is, I stuck my camera through a fence to take the photo. The ball of flowers is about 8 inches across and grows on the end of a two or three foot long stalk.

Pretty colors,

See the Katydid?

Have a great Monday and enjoy the sunshine!

Kat

One dozen flowers as promised

All of these were taken the day after the Flower Town Festival.
They are in the Unitarian Churchyard, downtown Charleston SC.

I think this is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

I hope they make you smile.

Cheers,

Kat

Flowertown Festival, Worth Waiting For

Last weekend we went to Summerville South Carolina for the Flowertown Festival. These are the promised pictures. Summerville is near Charleston SC and the coast so spring arrives quickly. The Festival is an annual event to raise funds for the YMCA. It is held each year when the Azaleas are blooming. Summerville is full of Azaleas. They come in several different colors and the bushes can get to be quite large.

Summerville started out as a place for wealthy Charlestonians to get away from the heat and illness of summer. It is full of wonderful old Victorian homes, and azaleas. One weekend a year, it is also full of people.

Many of the lovely old homes are open as Bed and Breakfasts now. This is the Flowertown B&B.

The festival centers on Azalea park. Lovely walks are lined with trees and Spanish moss. You can find peaceful areas even in these crowds.

Summerville is a sidewalk community and most homes have porches, the two seem to go together. This bridge allows the sidewalk to cross a canal in the park.
Since it is a flower festival, there are quite a few vendors with plants and garden equipment. I can't find the name of this plant but I thought it was interesting.

They set up a stage for live acts. This group of clowns were quite popular with the children.

This vendor is selling Bonsai. I have always loved these tiny trees.

Other vendors sold everything from potting soil to jewelry and clothes for pets. There were artists selling paintings, photographs and a couple of people were doing caricatures on the spot.

If you look closely you can see this river of people extends way up. Literally miles of people. Everyone seems to be in a good mood.

This is a different sort of flower. It is on the long needle pine tree and it is the source of the yellow dust that is starting to feel the air. I, and a lot of other people are extremely allergic to it. Summerville is about a four hour drive away from us and their weather is a little warmer than ours. Our pines are usually a week or two behind theirs.

They had rides set up on main street. If you look past the ride you can see a stately old home. It almost feels like you are in two times at once, the modern and the old. This is usually a quiet neighborhood yet the locals don't seem to mind at all.

This is my favorite flower photo from the trip. I don't know what kind of orchids these are but they are beauties. Some orchids are native to the swamp lands around Summerville, these were for sale at one of the many booths.
To see a picture of us at the festival, click here Flowertown news . I have lots more flower photos and will try to post some in a few days. For now, I hope you enjoy these. For those of you who are still having cold weather, I am thinking warm thoughts for you and this summer when we are WAY too hot and miserable, you can think cool thoughts for me. One of my Sisters lives in Idaho and they are still getting snow.

The birds are singing and I have got to get some homework done. Have a great weekend.

Cheers!

Kat

New Blog Heading

My Hubby pointed out to me the other day that while, “1825” is when the Realtor told us our house was built, that may not be correct. The original records were destroyed in the Abbeville Courthouse fire years ago. One source, Greenwood County, A History by Ann Heard Bowen, says about our house “was built in the 1830’s by the Reverend James Chiles”. (It is interesting to note that the British Houses of Parliament as they appear today were built in 1837 and Biltmore in North Carolina was built in 1895.) I decided to change the whole banner while I was at it. The new background pattern is from the Graphics Fairy’s blog, she is on my list of favorites if you are interested.
Hubby and I had Tea on the balcony the other
morning. We sat up there and listened to the birds for the longest time. It is the most peaceful place. Someone at work recently asked why I would want to live in a place like that. I just smiled.

This is my Sweet Hubby!

I am working this weekend, see you soon,

Kat

Goofing Off

I am not sure if I have mentioned it before on this blog or not, but I have been taking a very difficult Chemistry class this last semester. YIKES. I passed, not only that, I passed with a decent grade (thanks in part to a good friend who dropped what she was doing several times to help me with the math). I have a few weeks off before I jump into my next semester and I feel like the weight of the world has been removed from my shoulders. Sure, I have other things to worry about, but having this one worry removed has made the others easier to deal with.
Have you ever seen the Disney version of "
Hunchback of Notre Dame"? There is one scene
near the beginning of the movie where a riot breaks out. (No worries, it is a Disney riot).
Anyway there is a scrawny old man in the stocks, the stocks get knocked over and they
break. He jumps up and shouts "I'm free, I'm free," takes two steps and gets trapped some other way. He gets free, shouts out "I'm free" again and again gets stuck. Well, there are times when I know exactly how he feels. Right now, I know how he feels when he really does get free, goes home and puts his feet up. (No that part isn't in the movie, but I just know that is how it works out).
He probably realizes that as soon as the riot is cleaned up, the soldiers will come looking for him to go back in the stocks, but hey, for now, he is free. I have plenty of worries and lots to do.
Next semester I will be taking Spanish and an
Economics class. For now though, I am enjoying the day.
Today I am posting some of what I have been up
to. The first picture is of course my barn. (A familiar subject) the second is someone's old fashioned bicycle that I took a photo of last time we were Downtown Charleston. Before you get too impressed, yes, I can draw and I am not bad at it, but these two little beauties were done on my computer with photoshop elements. I really like the way they turned out. I have more ideas in mind. I may frame some prints and attempt to sell them. (We will see)
The next two are digital scrapbook pages based on this blog. One is the camping entry the other is last week's "Obsession". Photoshop Elements of course. I really like digital scrapbooking. Even if I only have a few minutes to play, I can. No Mess. The background for the camping layout is one of my photos that has been altered. I experimented with different settings till I found something I liked. I will use this method again. The background for the Obsession lay out is a digital paper by Katie Pertite. It was a freebie downloaded from the http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/techniques/digital/index.html

Scrapbooks Etc website. (I have a blog over there

and several online friends who do amazing things). If you are interested in scrapbooking, have a look.

This pretty blue flower is growing next to my mail box. I have attempted to take photos of it several times but no matter what time, I never seem to be able to get the color right. O.K. I have a little extra time to play soooo, I made a copy layer, and played with filters until the flower looked like it was supposed too. That left the background looking very odd. Next I used the background eraser to erase the odd background. This left the altered flower in the front and the natural background in place where it should be. Once again, I am pleased with the result.

The photo labeled "Exotic Beauty" is just that, I have no idea what kind of flower it is. It just makes a great picture. It was also taken Downtown Charleston. If you ever get a chance to visit in the spring or early summer,

Take your camera and walk through the old

neighborhoods (The big houses and best gardens are South of Broad street)

The cat, well, it is a cat and it is being a cat and I just liked it. I think the photo came out great so I wanted to share.

I don't know what this is, I thought it was a Trillium, I looked it up, nope, it's "Not a trillium" pretty though. I looked it up on google images, great way to identify things. You can also spend a considerable amount of time getting "stuck" in the interesting things you link to that way.

The handsome man on the bench is my own sweet Hubby. He spoils me rotten. He made German Apple Pancakes for breakfast because of Mother's Day.

I don't usually blog about my children, but I will say in honor of this day, that I have the best children a Mom could wish for and I am (and always have been) quite proud of them.
Last but not least, I stepped outside the other
night to try to record the frogs serenade. When I returned to the house, Spontaneous was just
irresistible. I certainly couldn't ignore that now could I? I took the picture, she let me come in, then I picked her up for a good petting and cuddling session. That expressive little face!
Happy Mother's Day folks.

Kat

More signs of spring

It is too pretty to be a weed, I prefer volunteer.

I don't know what they are, but I like them.

These are just outside my back door.

We received a lot of rain this week. Now everything is turning green.

First spotting of the season. These little guys are adorable and they keep the bug population low.

We call this the ghost bush because most of it is covered with lichens. This spring it surprised us by blooming again.

Not bad for a bush we thought was gone.

Dandelions are under appreciated.

The azaleas just started opening up.

Spring is one of my favorite seasons. Everywhere I look right now, there is something wonderful. Hope you are enjoying it too.

Kat