On Saturday Granddaughter Mina sent me a picture of this turtle, which was next door. She identified it as a “pet,” and I thought she was joking.
My first question: what kind of turtle is it?
She thought it a tortoise.
I could not find such a large tortoise in the list or images of native South Carolina turtles.
Along the google way I found this verbiage on identifying types of turtles: “If you know what to look for, you can spot the differences between freshwater, land, and sea turtles. Freshwater turtles are often small with flat feet. Land turtles, called tortoises, have big, round shells and flat feet. Sea turtles that have smooth, flat shells and flippers for swimming.” So tortoise is a category. But what kind of tortoise. Seems larger than the ones I looked at online.
And I found that the carapace pattern is called “rings.”
Aha! On Monday, I tried again and GOT IT. It’s a Sulcata Tortoise.
It’s finally cooler–so I went with son Bryan, Corinne, and two of the three girls to the Isle of Palms beach around 11:30. We arrived with chairs, lunches, water, and all the beach toys–which involves a ride to an access path on the golf cart, which also pulls a little blue cloth wagon filled with all one would need at the beach.
It was a wonderful outing, and I swam with Corinne and granddaughters. We all like to body surf, which I had not done for 30+ years. It was so much fun. It was full high tide with very little current, and the waves were perfect. Here I am with the granddaughters, just out of the surf.
Here are Bryan and Corinne–both of whom spent some time looking for shark’s teeth in the wake of the falling tide. But, more on shark teeth in another post. Note they wear sun-protective tops, which means that part of one’s body does not need sun screen. I have a good top too.
Corinne packs an awesome lunch for her family. Each has an individual Bento box filled with healthy food, and there are other snacks as well. (I bring my own lunch given my food issues.)
Here is Corinne unpacking the lunches. Her wide-brimmed hat protects her face, ears, and neck.
After lunch, the tide had dropped enough for Bryan to dig a hole that reached water, so he could make a sand castle. He loves doing that and has not had time this summer to make one, given all their summer trips away. This one is small compared to his usual sand castle efforts that are better started at a lower tide.
Building the sand castle becomes a family effort eventually. Those chairs in the background are ours, and you can see the blue wagon that carries everything but the surf boards, which go on top of the golf cart. I have a wagon like this one that I used for quilt retreats. They fold up and store so easily in a small space.
We swam again, we three wave riders, while Bryan built his sand castle.
I left them when I felt my Maine-white skin starting to get burned. My tan is better now, but not anywhere it needs to be for sun protection here. Once home I showered, washed all the beach clothing/towel, made a big espresso, and settled in to rest and read.
I can still remember vividly when I got my first library card at the library at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana. I was about 9 or 10 I think and could ride my bike there on my own. I have never lost my wonder and excitement about libraries, which eventually led to the time I spent in the stacks at George Mason University’s campus library and libraries also available to me in the Washington, DC, area, like the big national library downtown.
My local library here is the Wando Mt. Pleasant Public Library. It is less than 10 minutes from my house–depending on how many red lights one encounters. It is very near Wando High School, which makes sense. Wando is a big name here–for one of the three BIG rivers that reach the coast around Charleston: the Wando, the Cooper, and the Ashley.
I visited the library one day this past week to get some new “pleasure” books to read. I read nonfiction all the time, but mostly online now. I also wanted to check out this local library more thoroughly than I had before now. The local library can tell you a lot about one’s community.
There is a kiosk in the front of the library where you can pay $1 for any books there you want to buy. There are always good books on that kiosk. Basically, I “rent” some books so I don’t have the pressure of reading them in a hurry. When I’m done with these books, I’ll return them to the library. These days, I read at my noon dinner and afterwards with my espresso coffee–as I hand-sew at night, often until quite late, while watching something on tv.
From the outside, the building is low and not impressive, with lots of parking. Inside, the spaces are filled with light, color, and exciting places to investigate, especially for young children. There are so many windows, each with a nice view. *Note: I can’t have (library policy) and don’t want people in any of my pictures, so I cropped the pictures I took to take out people. A person’s right to privacy is a cherished issue for me.
Here, in the children’s section, there are wonderful nooks that invite exploration. On a weekday morning, I was surprised by how many parents, including lots of dads, and how many children were in the library. This nook has some entrances that are low to the floor, which must surely call to a child. The “balloons” rise to the sky, which is very high in this alcove.
There were LOTS of cushioned reading places in front of windows–and only this one was not occupied by a parent reading to a child.
The inside of the children’s section has two very long swirling, serpentine shelves of books, each topped with books that, hopefully, draw a busy child’s attention. And note the little table nestled into one of the curves.
The ceiling is high and industrial which gives the library a sense of space and light. Note the meeting room in the far right corner. There are lots of these meeting rooms scattered across the library, some big, some small.
There are banks of computers everywhere in the library–two banks here, but I cropped one bank out of the picture as children were seated there.
The juvenile/young adult section is more traditional, but here, too, there is color and whimsy and a beautiful view.
And look what I found as I wandered the halls and passed meeting rooms: a whole room of sewing machines that one can use!!! And there was a woman using one.
The adult section, which one encounters upon entering the library, is also quite large. And I returned to it to look more closely at the kiosk where I could buy some books.
I came home with three books that I am looking forward to reading. And as I said above, after I am done, I will return them to the library so someone else can “buy” them to read.
It is slowly getting cooler, so I am, again, thinking of walking the beach. And, maybe, swimming again, too. But today I need to make a run to Costco and to return a split hose extension to Loews.
Yesterday I used the air fryer to cook chicken, some corn on the cob, and a broccoli/carrot mixture–so I have food for today, which makes it a “free” day for me.
Between the Mt. Pleasant, in Charleston County in South Carolina, and the string of outer barrier islands, lies a wide salt marsh.
Beaches and sand dune systems form on the side of a barrier island facing the ocean; the side facing the shore often contains marshes, tidal flats, and maritime forests.
The salt marsh here is beautiful, and here is a link to some pictures of salt marshes. I wanted to stop on the connector highway to take a picture for you, but I don’t feel safe to stop on the side of the busy connector, never mind getting out of the car.
When I arrived here last December, the salt marsh was dormant. The grasses had died back and were brown. Now they are a lush and tall verdant green.
The areas between the islands and the mainland are “tidal flat” wetlands. They can be mostly mud if near where a river comes into the sea. They are “swamps” if trees and big shrubs are involved. And they are salt marshes if they open, grassy, and lined with ribbons of canals.
These salt marshes are the ecological guardians of the coast. Their grassy and sinuous channels fill and drain with saltwater as the tides ebb and flow, providing food, shelter, and nursery grounds for birds, fish, and other wildlife, ranging from dolphins and otters to snails and turtles.
Healthy salt marshes cleanse the water by filtering runoff, and help other ecosystems, including oyster reefs and seagrass beds, thrive. Conserving salt marsh helps people, too. Marshes can reduce erosion, stabilize shorelines, protect against storm surge, and support species that are crucial to recreational and commercial fishing, hunting, birding, and other activities.
The above information is in the link below, if you want to read more.
In Maine, I used a man called a “grinder” to sharpen knives and scissors to perfection. The knives I took once a year or so and then sharpened with one of those metal sharpening rods (a “honing rod”) as needed.
But here I have not needed yet to track down a person or place that sharpens knives. And, honestly, back in Maine or Virginia, dropping knives off at a store where they are sent out somewhere wasn’t ideal. I’ll call one of the local quilt shops here to find out who sharpens their scissors. That’s how I found the Maine grinder.
But, a Maine friend told me she had purchased an electric sharpener recently. I used to have one of those, and in time it wore out. I didn’t know they wore out but they do. My friend told me the one she bought. Like me, she cooks a lot and loves having sharp knives.
When I read the comments online at Amazon about the one she got, people loved it, but a few comments educated me about the angles these kinds of sharpeners use. Different sharpeners use different sharpening angles–often from the same manufacturer as people “in the know” do prefer one or the other. Who knew?
I settled on this one–as apparently its angle made a sharper knife edge. It will also sharpen serrated knives. And, it was a bit cheaper too. And note that there are VERY precise and exact instructions for sharpening knives. VERY. You don’t just run knife through the left two sides–often one only needs the far right slide–like with serrated knives.
Oh boy! My knives are SHARP! I even tried my steak knives–which were a wedding present back in 1966, so they are 57 years old now and have never been sharpened. They had serrated edges at the point for about an inch that were mostly worn away–so I just sharpened them as usual. (Their blades could use a polish session.)
Oh my heavens!! They are so sharp now–and a pleasure to use. I would have never taken these all to a grinder to sharpen. It never occurred to me.
This one I sharpened too–the sharpener sharpens the points on a serrated knife.
The grinder in Maine was not horribly expensive, and he also sharpened scissors. But the cost of doing all my knives and scissors did mount up over time. This new sharpener is cost effective from that standpoint.
So, now, I’ll figure out the scissors. As you all might know now, LOL, I sew and cut a lot. Some of my sewing scissors have a partially serrated blade which must NOT be sharpened.
Also, as you might know, all people who do sharpening work are NOT equal. You have to find a good one. That’s why I’ll call the quilt shops.
And I will, sooner rather than later so I’m ready when the need arises.
The Sable Palm is a palmetto, but I mistook that in an earlier post and called a regular low shrub that is also a palmetto and called a palmetto the South Carolina state tree. The Sable Palm is the real state tree and is on the South Carolina flag.
Here’s a link to that flag if you want to see what it looks like.
And here’s what the blooms look like. They have been “blooming” for several weeks now.
Here’s a close-up.
Fruit does form after these blooms–a tiny pea-size darkly colored edible fruit–but it is mostly seed and skin.
Local people say that when the blooms die back, they are a mess to clean up. That is probably also true for the palm fronds when they die as the tree grows upwards and forms new palms.
The dried upwardly facing pieces on the trunk are the remnants of old palmetto fronds that died. This area of the palm is called the “boot.”
And that’s all I know about the South Carolina state tree for the moment.
DIL Tami Enright shared this informative interview on South Carolina ETV the other day.
I think some of you might enjoy it.
Tami is a co-founder of The Bee Cause and its Director. The Bee Cause now has hives in all 50 states and in some international countries.
In this video, Tami not explains the history of The Bee Cause but what we can each do in our lives to help create a habitat for bees. Small acts can make a difference.
I’ve been worried about this tree in my front yard–a willow oak planted by the developer.
These trees are hardy here, yes. But they will get HUGE and will dwarf the house, the front yard, the street and the neighborhood. Plus the roots that develop get huge and thick and can spread far and wide–disrupting…the street, the driveway, the house foundation (?), and so on. I am hearing some real horror stories.
So, I contacted Estaben Hernandez (EstebanHernandez Luxury Painting). Estaben is also a carpenter, and his brother has a landscape business. These two guys are a part of a network of young men who are hard and willing workers. Estaben made taking out the willow oak and replacing it with a gorgeous Crape Myrtle an easy event. And I am so grateful. He and his guys chose a beautiful tree for me. (I wanted a watermelon pink color.) And the willow oak went to one of the guy’s brother’s house, where there was ample room for it.
I made a trip to Loews and got new pine straw for these two beds and put it down myself. The pine straw is light to move and easy to put down.
Now, all I have to do is pay attention to how much water this new tree is getting. And I already do that with the grass and the beds I have planted. (The roses are blooming like crazy again and are so cheerful. The flowers are smaller, but that’s due to the heat.)
I find myself following the afternoon thunderstorm possibilities–especially in the strong heat we have had recently. (It was 102 on my back porch one afternoon last week.) You would think this storm would have provided some good rain. Well, it did for some west of me. For sure. We didn’t get one drop out of these scary clouds.
But we did get a good rain a day Saturday evening. So I’m good on the watering for one more day. I usually water early evening, so the plants can take all the water in without the sun drying everything out too fast. The night temps are in the 80s, so leaves don’t stay wet long. Plus, the extreme heat would fry a plant’s leaves that were wet if I watered during the day. Early morning watering might be ok, but is not as ideal as early evening watering.
Today it is a bit cooler. High 80s and into the 90s mid to late afternoon. It is late July in the tropics–and August is coming. My house is cool–I run a dehumidifier upstairs in the afternoons–and floor fans on low to keep the air moving–and that helps a lot. High humidity makes everything feel hotter.
Daughter-in-Law Tami showed me this video of the hive in her back yard recently. And I saw the hive for myself last Sunday.
I’m really interested because I’m going to get some of the honey from this hive in the near future, yes, but also because beekeeping is a very big practice in my family and in this area.
Tami told me that some of the bees are outside the box for a variety of reasons: it’s hot and humid here now with temps in the mid to high 90s, the bees might be contemplating a swarm from the hive, and/or it is crowded inside the hive as there are now a lot of bees. The presence of bees outside the hive is called “bearding.”
Tami also said that it is very normal for bees in a hive that is this healthy to create a swarm and that beekeepers should let them carry out that intention if the bees want to swarm. Reducing the size of the hive by some bees swarming gives the remaining bees a chance to rest. It also gives them time to clear out the mites that can and do infest a hive. Mites, Tami, said are the number one danger to a bee hive. Mites set up and live in the empty little wax hexagon cells the bees have just created to store their honey.
There are FIVE “supers” (the narrow upper drawers) on this hive, which means that there are a lot of bees involved and that they have had to work hard to try to fill up each drawer as it is installed. She will harvest three drawers in the near future, especially if the bees swarm, as that will leave less real estate at mid-summer for the bees to try to fill with honey. The bees will need two supers of honey for the winter–more than that means they have to keep a lot of the hive warm all winter, which is also hard on the bees who need to rest in the winter.
Here’s the hive earlier in the year with three supers installed. The bottom thicker box is the brood box where the queen lives. (I think that’s right.)
Here’s a very bad picture of Tami. She is the co-founder and director of The Bee Cause, an organization that strives to preserve bees and to educate people about bees. The Bee Cause now also tries to educate people about the natural world and how humans interact and are impacted by the natural world–which includes the destruction of natural habitats. Bees, for instance, alongside other pollinators, pollinate most of the plant crops that humans rely on for food. If bees and other pollinators are killed by human practices, the end result will be a huge loss of the foods that humans need.
Here’s some recent honey from a beekeeper who works closely with Tami. This honey is the honey that I keep on hand all the time.
Honey is also a wonderful medicinal–both to eat and to use for wounds. But that is a tale for another day. And honey does not really go bad and can remain viable for thousands of years.
Honey and some maple syrup are my only sweetners.
And now you can understand that I am trying to do my part by planting plants that bloom and, therefore, nurture pollinators. And, also, why I am trying to create a healthy habitat around my house, as with the use of pine straw bedding that provides a home for many creatures and hand-weeding my new sodded grass until it gains enough purchase to thrive on its own–which it now has.
Finally, perhaps you can understand also why I am very sad at the amount of chemical use taking place in my new neighborhood and in this region–herbicides for the grass and “weeds” and insecticides for “the bugs.” Note that spraying Round-Up (glysophate) for weed control is very dangerous for people. We know that now. The data is very clear now. And indescriminate spraying for mosquitoes kills ALL the insects, bees included.
I am not against judicious use of chemicals when needed around a house. Chemicals that kill termites, for instance, can be put around the foundations or into traps set near a house’s foundation. And inside baiting for roaches is confined to specific spots. In Maine, we had to solve an infestation of carpenter ants and…ick…bedbugs brought in on our luggage. Both solutions were chemical.
The natural world has a power of its own, you know. And we violate it at our own peril. We are, perhaps, a self-solving problem for the natural world.
Louisa Enright's Blog 