A trip back to 1780's

                                                                      Mural of the Cornwallis House at Historic Camden located on Broad St. Camden, SC

Even tho I live in the South and tons of Civil and Revolutionary War history lay at my feet I'm more into Ancient History. I do however run across much of the more recent American history when I take a day trip. So the very last South Carolina battle of the Civil War was fought in Boykin, but I never got the scoop on who won that battle... Well doesnt matter...the main reason I visited Boykin was to see the old buildings and the mill pond! Oh did I mention they had a mill? A 1792 Grits and Meal Mill still in operation!!! Amazing right?

                                                                   Boykin Mill c-1792

                                             The mill pond with old us Hwy 521 bridge over Swift Creek

The old highway was called the King's Highway and made it's way to

Charleston where goods arrived in the harbor. 

                                                              An Anhinga flew over

                                              Old Farming equip and Stores in Boykin

                                                     The Swift Creek Baptist  Church c-1782

    These Windows 16 over 16 and each pane is aprx. 14 inches tall...The windows are huge...

Its always fun to visit small towns, Boykin has a population of about 200 souls and I think they all have the last name of Boykin! This also home of the Boykin Spaniel a water retriever.

(All these photos were lost so I recently went back and took photos again, most of the operations of the mill are now closed 2021)

Some Things that caught My eye!

This morning I took the dogs for the usual walk, my friend Caroline didnt make it this morning, we have been walking together for sometime now...she goes one mile I go two, she is recovering from a recent surgery....so it was just me and the Girls~it's getting hot we are going to have to get out earlier! Later I ran the mower over the grass (mostly weeds all cut the same height to resemble grass..lol) and then I took a few shots of the flowers blooming in the yard...We dont have many but we have a variety!..

Stargazer Lily

                                                                       -Gloriosa Daisy

Here's a sweet Red Bellied Wood Pecker 

                                                       Mr Fuzzy never far away 

This one is not far off ready for the pan!

A sweet Pea!

I love the deep crimson of this day lilly

Here are the girls looking very happy!

Artful Marriage

Today I need to get my mind off the real world and just seek out a peaceful place to enjoy my hobbies. This week has been plagued with bad news both for the World and for my family personally..we lost one of our own this week....my sis's dog Jake has passed from an Earthly Journey to a Spiritual One...rest in peace my old friend.. Artistic endeavors are just the answer when Im seeking solace from reality. I have been working on a project that I hope will be finished in the very near future! I had this brain storm idea over a year ago to sort my photographs, edit them to my liking and combine shots I took of junk yard cars with landscapes taken while on my travels...so I've made some progress. It has been so much fun "marrying" the car or truck with the landscape that best suits it... I will make up at least 13 of them and for a calendar-- I HOPE!.. Its been a challenge to find a landscape that matches the month/season it represents which I hadnt even considered...thankfully I have something from every season-- I think! Im a bit short of snow scenes but do have a few that may work.

Jake RIP 

APRIL for calendar project 

AUGUST

In the Year 2025 if Im still alive..

When I took this photo to me it represented the moving of time, for everything exists in time, the wind, the rain, the Sun, the darkness. I called it Restless Wind, but now Ive decided to rename it--Restless Winds of Time--

I still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up...do any of us? I know what I want to DO but how to attain that freedom has me perplexed. I always thought there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...lol --NO Im only kidding,-- I know how hard work pays off...but it also robs you of those hours that make up a lifespan...in the end Memories of our TIME is actually all we have--nano-seconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months ---look at all the ways we measure time!

What if we didnt? What if I told you to forget what day it is, what hour and the date of your birth, and to stop thinking of time as having a beginning and an ending...could you do it?

Probably not. We are so programmed to think in increments of time that it would take many sessions with a hypnotherapist to erase that from our psyche.

If you had an infant and you lived in the back country away from civilization and you had no calendar or time piece at hand and said nothing of keeping, killing, or making time...that child would still develop a sense of time....with the rising of the Sun, and the waning and waxing of the Moon, time would show itself and become a part of that child's cycle with the Earth.

From as far back as we can find artifact and writings, humans have been very preoccupied with keeping time and chronicling events of their lifespan. (Just look at the Blogs we keep to chronicle events of our own lives=time) Huge pyramids were built so as no one should forget Pharaohs who were viewed as Gods or declared themselves to be Gods...huge temples to bear witness to one individuals time=life spent here on planet Earth...

The ancient Mayans, the Aztecs, the Incas all kept track of time in ways we dont understand but we do know it works perfectly, even today. In fact they were probably better time keepers than we are. Comparing a digital clock of our time to the Water Clocks of the ancient Egyptians and their Obelisks, and Sundials ---well there is no comparison...time keepers of that era will work even today, but would our time keeping machines be working in 2000 years? Did you know that 1.78 people die every second...I used this life span calculator to calculate my death year -- 2025..so that means I have roughly at this moment 504,575,759 seconds left to figure out what I want to take with me in the year 2025...will there be a temple to remind the ones yet to come that I was here?

Only stone can stand the test of time, thats why the Ancients kept their legacies and ideas on stone...a DVD can not withstand the test of time, neither will a book, a painting, a carving of wood, but put it in Stone and it will stand up to time.

I am watching a DVD series I picked up at my library called Secrets or Archeology...and its been fascinating to me since one of my hobbies is Ancient Civilizations and Culture and Im learning what to look for in the future by looking at the past. I just used up 1,000 of those seconds writing this blog...

Maybe I want to be Indiana Jones, when the clock strikes 000,000,001--.

The Beauty Way

Seeing the beauty in life is not always easy. Some people are pressed with their backs against the wall wide eyed looking for a way out...others like me have the yearn to do so much, but just ordinary circumstances get in the way of fulfilling all the desires of the soul. So when you can not go to beauty...bring beauty to you.

I try to be frugal and in my mind everyone has a God given right to live in peace and tranquility...Im so thankful to be living in peace, even tho- its not perfect and I get the feeling that many Americans live a life of slavery---slaves to the work a day life---getting 2 weeks out an entire year to spend time doing what brings beauty to them...

but still within reason we are free to walk away, free to make a choice, and free to see the beauty in what we do, and to do it because it brings beauty into our lives.

With all that said I thought of the beauty of an adobe...overlooking a red sandstone bluff, and each evening the sky is a spectrum of color as the Earth moves around the Sun...and I find myself enmeshed in beauty~

The Navajo say:

May there be beauty before us.

May there be beauty behind us.

May there be beauty above and below us.

May there be beauty all around us.

... find the center of harmony in the way you think, the way you live, and the way you bring what you desire into your life and therefore into your spirit...

Today I placed beauty in my heart and it gave me so much in return.

Maybe beauty is your impression--

In the Winners Circle~

Watching the filly win the Preakness stakes brought back some memories for me. This memory took me all the way to 1973, yes it was a very long time ago, in a place far from here that I found myself in the winners circle holding the bridal of a winning filly!..Her name was Tropical Heat and she won handily with Eddie Maple onboard and I was her groom! What a great horse she was-- and my boss (standing to the left of me) one of the only female trainers of that time was so proud of her accomplishments...its an old memory but a good one...Here is a poor snapshot of a very old winners circle photo, its sun faded and yep she blocked my face, (thats me in the yellow shirt behind her face holding her bridal) I'll tell ya I was SMILING very big!





I was dismayed when next the boss ran her in a claimer, she didnt win and we lost her~ I walked back to the barn alone carrying her halter, and bridal in my hand. I sure missed her she was the sweetest of my group of 4 horses that I "rubbed". They gave me a tough Stallion who's name I have forgotten-- to replace her in my string-- to keep it even in the shedrow...he ran in a stakes race, broke down (bowed a tendon) on the backside and had to be retired...he came back here to Camden was put out to pasture...after weeks of my care on both front legs. He had good breeding and was a stallion otherwise he would have been put down...thats why I was happy to get out of racing, horses are treated merely as an investment, not as the beautiful creatures they are.
I'll be waiting to see if the filly Rachael Alex. runs in the Belmont Stakes if she recovers from this race well I think she will...if she does I hope she has a good race!

Adventure prone!

(me on a roadside in Montana videoing a glacier view across the road)

Time has a way of making everything clear as glass! I find myself in the middle of making some decisions that could change my life forever!

 How true it is when one door closes another opens! I just recited that very quote to a traveler who is making his way across this country on foot! I know he has had a remarkable journey over 3,000 miles walking from East to West...and now its coming to an end and he was having some thoughts of "where to go from here." I know he will find his niche.

You know that other saying...you cant see the forest for the trees? Well I was so surrounded by trees, metaphorically speaking, that I couldn't see the forest...so when I cut a few of those metaphorical trees--behold a path-- with such exciting possibilities that I'm afraid to write about it yet!...I don't want to sway the Yin/Yang that has brought me to this point. I had a dream many years ago...to ride my horse across the country...after reading the book by Peter Jenkins, called Walk Across America. IT was so inspiring, but I had just married and made a promise to have and hold for better for worse, so the timing was way off.

Then my beloved horse Sundance passed away of old age...while I was busy raising my son and turned all my attentions to my family...and my dream sort of faded in the background. I've had some wonderful adventures in my life, in a way I always said I was Adventure Prone....at the age of 17 - 21 rode Race Horses for a living!..yep in those days I was young and strong and weighted in at about 127 lbs!..OK it was a very long time ago...and I took up SKIING and traveled to enjoy skiing in the East, North East and in the mountains of Colorado. I was a contestant of the Anything Goes Road show and made a fool out of myself on TV! 

Then my sisters and I all in our 40's in 1995 & 96 backpacked over 80 miles of the Appalachian Trail. That's not the only backpacking trek we made we hiked the Savage Gulf in Tennessee, and we found out why they named it Savage Gulf...we made other camping, hiking, backpacking, canoe trips, kayaking the keys in Florida, until ....

In 1997 when we were to do our third hike on the AT, driving to the airport to pick up one of the sisters.... I was nearly killed in a high speed car crash along with my MOM. We survived but it took a lot of praying and hard work. 

 To celebrate LIVING.... as soon as we could we took off on an 8,000 mile road trip on the highways of this country traveling from SC to California and then up to Montana and every state in between and visited almost every big park in the west. Mesa Verde, The Grand Canyon, The Mohave Desert, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National park, Yosemite, Virginia City, Sun Valley Idaho, the Salmon River, Glacier National park, Yellowstone, Cody Wyo, Mt. Rushmore SD, and the Black Hills, the Buffalo Valley of Arkansas, Tupelo Mississippi, just a few of the spots we spent time in....What fun we had.

 That same year I went white water rafting in Colorado River! I just couldn't get enough excitement so that next year my sister and I took off for an Alaskan Adventure!..We flew into Anchorage, rented a car and drove 1,600 miles of Alaskan highways including the great pipeline highway to the Artic Circle, we camped outside Yukon Alaska, and took the bus ride 80 miles into the wilderness and camped at Denali National Park...seeing 38 grizzly bears in all...and the excitement doesn't end there.

 A few years later that I got itchy feet and moved to New York City...I got into emergency medicine and went back to school and became a Paramedic! Being a paramedic in one of the largest cities in the world can give you a big rush. I was there for the 911 disaster, witnessed it and worked in it...and then burnt out and retreated, wrote a book about my childhood adventures and came back to home to think about all of that, and wonder whats next?? 

 Well I will never cease to have adventrues in my life... Now an opportunity has presented itself for me to be part of a team going from East to West on the American Discovery Trail...NOTHING has been decided but just thinking of it makes my heart race...

Mother Goose!

It's Mothers Day and My Mom has been away for a week but arriving home today...Im looking forward to having her here again. We have a new book to listen to we enjoy hearing audio books while we eat our meals...and once again its a Tony Hillerman Mystery, The Dance Hall of the Dead--should be very interesting! Last week we took a trip to Swan Lake and enjoyed all the birds and trail around the lake. This one goose took up with Mom and they were instant friends...check this out.

  So they met and Mother Goose made the first move to get to know each other and Mom offered her cane up for inspection and the goose approved and suddenly there were 3 of us...she joined right in our procession..Then when Mom needed to sit and rest a bit our new friend had snack of grass and we enjoyed the shade....soon she tired of our slow pace and went off on her own but for a while we enjoyed her company!

Enlightened or Evaporated? Life

The ancient Mayans knew more about time than any other civilization...we are only just NOW catching up to them in our efforts to understand time and our connection to it and our connection to the Planet and the Universe. Time moves through the universe in a forward motion and in a cycle...everything in our universe is made up of cycles. The day-night cycle, the seasonal cycle- the tides-moon cycle, the cycle of a woman's body, the death-birth cycle. Some people believe through religious faith that they will live forever....I saw we already DO. My DNA which has my fathers & mother's DNA was passed to my son...my DNA will go forward with time & space, since space is the vessel carrying time along on its forward march --to what? Some believe we have expanded from our center The Big Bang..and when 2012 comes we will begin to contract..like a rubber band now stretched to its fullest size it will now retract and we will move BACK in TIME!..WOW I dont think if we do it means we will see our Great Great Grandmother again, but we will see our Planet and the Universe renewed...

All the past Era's of time have found this Earth in various stages of growth..we had an intense cooling off period, we had an ice age, we had the age of dinosaurs, now we have the age of man, and what is next?? No one can say...

Well as the Mayans knew and now we know, time will soon be coming to a completion of a cycle. Every circle has a beginning and an ending, it doesnt mean the Earth will END, or cease to be, not in my mind, it means we will be entering a new era one not seen for roughly 26,000 yrs. We come into a cycle where we ,the Earth, are aligned with our Sun, and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy...all in one alignment...and that will occur on Dec. 21, 2012!

This will end an era of time, we will be leaving the constellation of Pisces and entering into the age of Aquarius, finally!..What does all this mean for us, humans? No one knows!...All we do know is our Universe has gone through 4 "worlds" 4 cycles and now we are entering the 5th world. The Navajo believe that man is living in the 4th world after coming up from the 3rd world creeping up through a reed from the watery world...fascinating idea...since the Bible record mentions a great Flood on the Earth.

We have drifted the furthermost point from our center and now we will be returning closer to the source...maybe it will be a time of peace and renewal not just for the planet but our Spirits as we have drifted so far from center...its evident by our complacent idealism. Ive done a bit of reading about his event and according to the Mayan Long Count calendar , or the measurement of time will be reset on that date to 13.0.0.0.0 and we will begin again, closer to our center...So I guess we will all have to see what happens!

So the cycles of the Earth and of Life brought this piece of art to me...I simply call it LIFE!

(ps: check the History Channel this week, they had a story called Ancient Astronauts--some very interesting stuff ancient history connecting to the Mayans, the Ancient Egyptians, and much more.)

Art comes in many forms

Its been a couple of days since I posted anything, Im sort of weaning myself from the Blogging. I do enjoy reading though and sometimes I make a comment, but Im trying to be quiet and listen more than talk, and learn more than teach, stay more quiet...in the background. I dont know if its me or not but it seems that everyone is very wrapped up in themselves these days, when you try to speak to someone they wont let you finish a sentence...a complete thought never seems to make it from brain to lips these days. It seems people dont really want to listen as much as they want to talk and hear themselves talk..

Im a student of the Navajo way of life. They wait until another stops speaking and finishes their idea before speaking...its not the Navajo way to interrupt someone by not allowing enough time for one to completely finish a thought and speak that thought before you insert your own words into the conversation. What some mistake as slowness is actually a learned behavior of allowing time for words and complete thoughts to be spoken...slowly and with respect. I think all of us could benefit from this method. The art of converstation!

So with that said, up there is a little artwork I finished...I call it Sun-Set Window, It began as a watercolor in my little sketch tablet and then I photographed it and finished it with some digital software, giving it more of an abstract feeling. As Ive said before I dont really enjoy painting, but I do love drawing and doodling as I call it. Digital painting is something I love to do... and Im quite good at it, even if I say so myself! Unless you have ever tried it, you may not be aware that 'artistic talent' is very much involved and necessary for a good outcome. Its like any other form of art, you cant teach someone how to do it, they either have the knack or they dont. You can teach them how to use the tools, but technique is something that you are born with or you hone with practice and determination.

This is what I like to do, no galleries for it as yet, still shrouded in skepticism and controversy. Is digital art real art? I image if you like it then its art..thats the way I look at it. Some people think splatters dripped on a canvas is art, and that chimps and elephants are artists, so anything goes!..

Long ago when photography and camera's were invented it was a spectators sport!..A spectacle, an odd thing. Artists declared it was NOT art...but today its widely accepted and much money is spent purchasing photographic art. I too love photography and I've been practicing that craft for a long time as well. Never tried to make money with it, but certainly wouldnt turn down the opportunity.