The Oval Drawing Room on the second floor of the Nathaniel Russell House Museum embodies the flaunt-it lifestyle of the mercantile elite of the late 1700s – early 1800s Charleston.
The tea set has plenty of its own bling, with opulent decoration.
Panel mirrors and cornice gilding helped brighten the room for after dinner parties, reflecting candle light.
This home has been restored to its 1808 appearance and is part of the Historic Charleston Foundation collection.
Photos taken October 13, 2021
Middleton Place House Museum under fluffy summer sky.
September 2, 2021
Blue sky this way!
August 23,2021
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, Charleston, SC
On a cloudy day the South Flanker across the great lawn was sprinkled with sheep.
One of the flock is always playing catch up.
July 7, 2021
Prior to the Civil War the main house was flanked by the North Flanker and the South Flanker, which was built in 1755 as gentlemen’s guest quarters and a business office.
Magnolia Cemetery is full of oddities; to me this pyramid is one of the oddest. I think a tree or large limb must have recently fallen as I don’t recall seeing this view before. Or maybe I’ve been too busy watching the birds.
Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, SC
The sheep have free run of the lawn in front of the House Museum at Middleton Place.
A brick fence keeps them out of the Azaleas and garden areas.
Most of the time the flock is pretty sedate, but occasionally one and then all will think they need to investigate something. Sheep, the original FOMO (fear of missing out) creatures.
A troupe of five cherubs are nestled in one of the garden paths at Middleton Place.
You first see it down a straight shrub-lined path, which draws you in.
Last week when I was there some late Camellias were in bloom.
A closer look of the Cherubs; it looks like the statue has recently been cleaned, which rather highlights their imperfections.
Years ago Ted called this statue “Freaky Babies” so of course that is what I think every time I pass it. He a nice B&W version from a visit in February which in a post he aptly named Freaky Babies.Â
Seen through a Camellia hedge across the great lawn, the South Flanker at Middleton Place
March 24, 2021
Prior to the Civil War the main house was flanked by the North Flanker and the South Flanker, which was built in 1755 as gentlemen’s guest quarters and a business office.
From the Middleton Place website:
Both flankers, along with the main house, were burned by Union troops in February, 1865, just two months before the end of the Civil War. The South Flanker was the least damaged of the three buildings and repairs to it began in 1869 and included a new roof, Dutch gable ends and an entry hall leading from the Greensward. Thus strengthened, the South Flanker survived Charleston’s Great Earthquake in 1886 that brought down the gutted walls of the other residential buildings. By 1870 the Middletons had returned to live again at Middleton Place and the South Flanker continued to serve subsequent generations until becoming a House Museum in 1975.
middletonplace.org
Rice field trunks play a big role in controlling water movement in many of the South Carolina areas I explore. Once used for growing rice, private land owners and the SC Department of Natural Resources currently manage thousands of acres of wetlands using this time-tested method. Dikes separate what was a rice field from a major body of water and the trunk is used to move water back and forth.
Last week the water had been let out of the Magnolia Plantation & Gardens boat pond, so named because they give nature tours by boat around the pond. To give you an idea of the size, the perimeter of the pond is about 1.75 miles (3 KM). The pond is a mixture of open water and cat tails / reed clumps. Two years ago the boat channel was dredged and the water seen in the first image is in that channel.
With the low water I was able to get some images of the trunk parts that are normally under water.
There is a wooden box creating a culvert under the dike (think cereal box laying on its side). I have read that these are called trunks because in colonial times hollowed tree trunks were used to conduct the water.
The lower paddle ends of the flaps, which pivot at the top, are adjusted to manage the water flow.
The Ashley River is tidal, so with both ends of the trunk wide open at low tide the water drains out of the pond. Then with at least one end of the trunk closed as the tide turns the water in the pond will remain low. The seals on either end are not tight and there is always some water movement.
Leaving the trunks ends open will refill the pond as the tide raises the water level in the river. Sometimes they are left open for days to wash out the pond or change the salinity level.
The bonus to all this for the nature photographer is that wading and shore birds are attracted to the lower water. Fish are concentrated in a smaller volume making hunting easier and they can poke around in the mud.
At the end of an afternoon walk around Magnolia Plantation and Gardens I passed the river side of the Plantation House. The dropping sun played with the Spanish Moss.
The top of the cupola was pierced by a jet’s contrail; the rooster didn’t seem to mind.
