Retirement rambling

Moving again

2009-11-30T18:11:00.000-08:00

Where did the last two months go?I have to be a masochist since I subjected myself to moving yet again.I'm still officially at Edisto but I bought a little house in Oxford, GA where I lived for more than 20 years. I was able to get stuff out of storage that had been there since Howard and I had a parting of the ways.I've wrestled with rugs, big boxes and all manner of heavy storage bins but I've finally gotten most everything in this house and was able to host Thanksgiving here.

The house was in pretty good shape but needed updating. It still does but it has been painted, inside and out and I put a light hickory laminate over the old dark tile floors. Now I am working on planting some perennials and shrubs that will bloom in the spring.

As much as I love Edisto, Oxford feels like home and I'm enjoying my old friends, church and the sense of community that is here.However, I'm a gypsy at heart and look forward to going back to Edisto next week.

The second photo is part of the new Oxford Trail that begins off my street.

September Song

2009-09-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

Fall is here. We've had two frosts last week and after the big Labor Day weekend, there are no campers to be seen.I have beautiful sunflowers in my front yard and some very large green tomatoes.

My neighbor and I hosted our second annual tea for about 15 ladies. We all wear hats to this event. A couple of friends and I decided to add wigs, as well.

I was full and overflowing over Labor Day. Two very nice women who are regular customers asked if they could have a wedding here. I was honored.

It was a beautiful ceremony and they stood in my front yard and looked over the Bay as they said their vows. They are both in their fifties and have been together for 16 years.

Without a break all summer, last week some friends and I took a mini-trip and went to Lunenburg and Liverpool for two days.We saw some beautiful scenery, including the Ovens which are sea caves.

The pictures have gotten all bunched up and I'm not savvy enough to know how to move them. I will add one more that I took last weekend when there was a full moon. I plan to start home on the 16th.

August on the Bay

2009-08-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

The batteries in my camera are dead and getting the lithium kind I need will mean a trip somewhere at least an hour from here so I might not have photos on this entry.

I'm sitting here waiting for Hurricane Bill to do his thing. He is coming in as the normal tides are the highest in the summer. That could be interesting.All of the coastal provincial parks have evacuated but I'm staying right here with an almost full house. I did get my neighbor's grandson who speaks French to translate for me as I convinced the French family from Quebec who speak no English to move from their tent into a cottage for the evening. They seemed relieved.

Fishing has been good for striped bass. A number have been caught right off my bank, one 35 inches long.That 's" some big" as they say up here.I'm trying to get photos to post in the Bass River general store for free advertising.

Temperatures have been very high the last couple of weeks, upper eighties and even nineties.Friends keep asking me if I find it hot. I tell them "yes, if I were home, I'd have the AC on".There's usually no need for it here.

It's Tuesday now and Bill was merely weak Willie. The wind and rain here were no more than we often get but we did lose power for a couple of hours.I have batteries for my camera and all is well on the Bay.

Cool July

2009-07-17T15:31:00.000-07:00

Half of the summer is gone and I realized that I haven't written anything lately. Today is a good day to catch up. It is 60 degrees, threatening rain and no customers in sight. I do have two tent sites occupied , one cottage and one RV tonight but that's not much for mid July. Between the economy and the cool, rainy weather, business is way down. In fact, we've had only four dry days in July.

I've had a number of family and friends here this summer and they have enjoyed the sights and the food. Lobster is cheaper than chicken. It just went up to $6.00 a pound.

Obama is very popular in Canada. I wish I had bought hats for all of my friends here.Nova Scotia just voted in the New Democratic Party, getting rid of the Conservatives who have been in power for years.It looks as if we all got our change.

There are lots of stories I could relate but will save those for later.

I got here June 5 after four days on the road with the little guys. They were very good on the trip up here.I was thankful for video games and CD's.We did have some adventures, such as putting up the new tent on our first night on the road in PA. It was 93 degrees with mosquitoes the size of small birds. Jamie tried to help but wasn't tall enough to hold the poles. With his help, we did get the tent up after an hour. We had peanut butter sandwiches and were in bed by 8:30. Thunder woke me up about midnight. As the boys slept, I frantically put up the rain fly and got the cats back in their cage from their mesh kitty walk. Neither were easy tasks without a working flashlight.As I was crawling back into the tent an hour later, the rain came down soaking me. Then we had a mother of a thunderstorm.The boys slept through it all but the sleeping bags got wet.As Sandy looked for his shoes the next morning he stated " I don't like this place".

Annual Getting Ready for Rental Ritual

2009-05-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

At Botany Bay Plantation where I volunteer we have Grunt Tuesdays where we just do work. Just work is what I've been doing this month.As I write all of my furniture is stacked on the front porch as the floors are being sanded and refinished.They haven't been done in about 18 years so it's about time. To get ready for that, I had to move stuff off all of the furniture, no simple task.I took 21 storage boxes down the two flights of stairs to be stored.I hope that is the bulk of it except for the kitchen and some clothes. I slept in the RV last night and ate a Piggly Wiggly vegetable dinner. Luckily, I have a shower downstairs.

While the floors are being done, I'm visiting. Tonight I'm at Kira and Ross's home in Atlanta, tomorrow will be Oxford, then on to Ridge Spring to do some family history and go to a high school reunion.Perhaps I will get some photos of the old people who tend to show up at these reunions.

My plans now are to leave for Nova Scotia June 2 with both grandsons. It should be quite an adventure. More later!

Working with Habitat

2009-04-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

This was the first day of the Columbus Habitat for Humanity Spring Break Build.In March almost 300 college students from 15 different colleges spent their spring break here, building 14 houses in 5 days.It makes one feel good about the younger generation.In addition to the Care-A-Vanners, there are neighborhood youngsters from the Boy's and Girls' Clubs working with us this week.One of my partners today was a beautiful little 8 year old girl who ran errands and hammered nails all day.She will sleep well tonight.

I cannot say enough about how great this organization is and how special to be doing this during Holy Week.When people get decent housing, their lives can change and a cluster of Habitat homes can change an entire community for the better.This is my third build with the Care-A-Vanners and each one is different but the volunteers are all wonderful people who have done interesting things with their lives. Three of the women here are retired teachers.I'm the only single woman here .

Today we did inside finishing work to get ready for the drywall folks.Tomorrow I think we will paint which isn't my favorite job but we do whatever is needed. I'd rather put on siding.About 25 people from AFLAC (without the duck) came today to begin their house. That company builds a house a year for Habitat and pays its employees for the volunteer day.They had twice as many volunteers as they could use for this house and the rest go on next year's list.What a neat way to help the community!

Fishing

2009-03-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

What happened to February? I haven't written anything since January and all I can remember is that this was a cold winter for coastal SC and I suppose I was inside reading or walking on the beach looking for signs of spring. Well, it is here! Today my brother and I spent another delightful day on the Combahee River in his jon boat.He caught the first fish, a small bass and released it. Some hours later my rod bent way over and I had a much bigger bass which I kept. It was actually 2 and a quarter pounds and I'm sitting here still covered with fish scales but will have fish and grits tomorrow!

That was it for the fish but the blackberry vines were blooming, the deciduous trees have new leaves and the wildlife was abundant. We saw nesting ospreys. When a parent presented the babies with a fish we could hear the little ones but they were too deep in the nest to see. There were vultures, cormorants, hawks, herons, little wrens and many we could not identify.The gators were all over the place with one bull gator longer than out 17 ft. boat.

I'll add photos later.

Cold Weather Musings

2009-01-22T08:26:00.000-08:00

The holidays have come and gone and the cold weather has come to Edisto with temperatures in the teens. Luckily, our winter is usually over in February. There were 18 here for dinner on the 27th of December and it was warm enough then for the children to eat on the porch.Jamie and Sandy stayed here with me until New Year's Eve and we had fun playing games and looking for beach treasures.

January has brought friends down to enjoy the beach in winter, from Florida the weekend of the 10th and another group for the traditional MLK women's weekend where we eat too much and drink our share of wine.This year will be especially memorable as they stayed for the inauguration celebration and were joined by special friends from here, Nick and DuBose Lindsay.What a wonderful day!! The media has already given most of the superlatives but for a person who grew up in a segregated south and secretly participated in early civil rights activities in college, it was as one person interviewed said " almost an out of body experience".I can't even imagine what it meant to African-Americans of my era.

I'm making plans to do some camping, volunteer with Habitat in April and choose a destination for my next travel adventure.

Follow-up with photos

2008-12-10T12:44:00.000-08:00

By now I have partially unpacked, gotten some photos developed and talked a lot about my adventures. Today in Charleston I was wearing my South African ball cap and a woman came up to me and asked what I thought of South Africa. She had been there and was thinking about going back. She asked me about my favorite experience and that is always difficult. I usually give three answers, the Cradle of Humankind, the animals at Kruger and the township tour where I saw how many of the South Africans still live.

The last days in South Africa

2008-11-30T11:19:00.000-08:00

I thought I had posted an entry before we left but it didn't go through. The hotel had been having trouble with Internet. We spent the last two days of our trip in Langebann, north of Cape Town. We stayed in the Farmhouse Hotel which was actually an old Dutch farmhouse from the 1600's updated to a small guest house.We were near a national park which was the home for an endangered tortoise, among other wildlife. We saw a number of them as we hiked. Susan and I joined Mary and Phil on a 14 km hike that covered desert and dune environments.It was about 90 degrees that day so we drank lots of water. The scenery was incredible and the beaches pristine. It took us almost 6 hours and we didn't see another person during the hike.

The Farmhouse is right on a salt water lagoon so the view was excellent.In fact, all of our accommodations have had beautiful views.

The plane ride home was long but as comfortable as a 20 hour flight can be. At least Delta fed us at meal times. When I took the plane from NYC to Atlanta, they were selling the snacks.We even had complimentary wine on the overseas Delta flight.I got to Atlanta Thanksgiving evening in time for my grandparent duties to babysit with the boys for the rest of the weekend.They actually sat through half of my photos before they got bored.

Lalapanzi

2008-11-23T07:30:00.000-08:00

We left Hermanus this morning and got to Lalapanzi Lodge about 5 pm. This place is real luxury with white robes in the closet and a bottle of wine chilling in the frig.Too bad we only stay one night but the last place we stay is also supposed to be great. Hermanus is known for whale sightings.When we got there on Friday and walked down to the shore, there were about 6 Southern Right whales relaxing and then cavorting about. We continued to watch them through dinner where we feasted on giant prawns.Saturday AM we went whale watching in a boat and saw several but not really any closer than we had seen them the night before.This whale is endangered, with less than 500 left in the world. They will be leaving this month to feed in Antarctica.

Saturday was market day so we were able to get in some shopping before going to Cape Argulis where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic. It was a beautiful drive through vineyards and wheat fields.On our way here today four of us stopped off at the Klein River for a three hour kayak paddle where we saw lots of birds.My wrists and shoulders are sore.

The weather has cooperated and everywhere we have been has been lovely.

Last Day on Cape

2008-11-20T07:41:00.000-08:00

This is our last day in Cape Town. Susan and I took a township tour this morning and that was an eye opening experience.In one of the older townships three family live in a tiny three bedroom structure which has a toilet, no shower and a sink out in the common room for washing clothes or cooking.The tiny bedroom we saw had a family of five living in it. Two children slept on the floor.Some of the shantytowns still have no electricity but the government has put in a row of porta-potties.Today was hot! About 32C. which is mid-90's in Fahrenheit. We tried shopping downtown at the Green Market but it was just too hot.There is little AC here. We have it in our room but not all rooms have AC.

In addition to touring the townships, we visited a museum dedicated to the former residents of the 6th Ward who were displaced because the government wanted to move the blacks out of the city to the periphery. It is slowly being built back now with those who were displaced the first to qualify for the houses .The old structures were bulldozed down, often with the belongings in them.A sad chapter in their history so much like our own history of segregation before the Civil Rights movement.I continue to be impressed with the cheerfulness and hope of the South Africans I have met.Today I wore my Obama tee shirt and everyone wanted it. Luckily, I still had a few buttons left to give away which they put on immediately.

There is excitement about the World Cup in soccer in 2010 and the airports have large countdown clocks. Our inn in just across from where the new soccer stadium is being built.

In the morning we drive to Hermanus where we will whale watch among other things.I don't know if we will have Internet access again before we leave next Wednesday.Look for photos when I get home and download them. I hope I have some good ones. I took a number of the car mirror when we were in Kruger.

More from the Cape

2008-11-19T06:50:00.000-08:00

Another busy day filled with adventures! We rode up to a large granite pluton similar to Stone Mountain though this one was of volcanic origin. Along with beautiful birds, such as the malachite sun-catcher, we saw new species of antelope, bonebok and blessbok. Most of the antelopes end in bok.

The big adventure was a three hour lunch at Speir winery where we feasted on all kinds of native fare, three kinds of fish, salads, tables laden with fruits and desserts. Many of the people there ate, reclined on couches to rest and drink wine and then ate again. We just ate once. I tried a venison that was very tender and lean. Since there are no deer here, I knew it was an antelope, either kudu or impala.My favorite fish from around here is snoek, pronounced " snook".

I can understand why our trip leaders loved this area so much when they lived here.With a beautiful coast in front of us and mountains behind us, what more could you ask for?

There are still shanty towns and poverty but most of these squatters are from other countries trying to get work in South Africa.The government has improved housing a lot since the days of aparteid, but there are poor people as there are everywhere.The government tries to provide jobs for as many people as possible and the people seem to be very pleased to have jobs and take great pains to provide service.I've seen no workers with attitudes here.

Tonight we plan to go up to Signal Hill for the sunset.

Cheers!

The Beautiful Cape

2008-11-18T07:44:00.000-08:00

When was it in school that we learned about the Cape of Good Hope?Yesterday we went there and also to Cape Point, the most southern tip of the African continent.We were able to see an ostrich family up close, Mom, Dad and five chicks. That was after a tribe of baboons tried to get into our vehicles. You don't dare have the windows down but it's hard to get photos with them up.

We're in Sea Point, part of Cape Town and walking distance from the beaches which are gorgeous! There are mountains behind us, Table Mountain and Lion's Head. We had planned to hike up Table Mt. but the weather today was too windy with fog on the mountain. It is about 3 hours straight up so I may go in the cable car.For you plant lovers, we spent the morning in the National Botanical Gardens, Kirstenbosch. There are just indigineous plants there and many only can be found here on the cape.There were wild geraniums and Cape Everlastings and entire sections of Proteas.

The sounds of Africa have to be the birds, perhaps the turtle doves which coo in all the places we've been or the cuckoos who sound like a dozen cuckoo clocks gone wild.Birds everywhere!
The people are so friendly and helpful and our lodge here looks like a Greek villa with wonderful breakfasts.I even got a pair of contact lens FREE. Somehow I lost one the first day I was here.

I will try to add more at the end of the week.

South Africa

2008-11-15T08:49:00.000-08:00

It has been more difficult than I realized to get on the Internet but I am now at City Lodge in J'Berg and have purchased 30 minutes. Gosh! Where do I begin? This is a beautiful country. As soon as we arrived, everyone asked us about the election and wanted buttons. I brought 50 and could give away thousands.

We spent 5 days in Kruger Park where we saw a pride of lions a few feet from the car and herds of elephants guarding their babies walked across the road in single file. The baby wart hogs were adorable and we saw many of them. We saw giraffes, zebra, rhinos and hippos. The only " big five" we didn't see was a leopard.We sat out by the Sabie River and watched crocodiles and could hear the hippos grunting and the lions roaring from our little thatched huts.An incredible experience!

Today we got a special tour of the Cradle of Humankind where the fossils of the first know humans were found. We saw the caves and even some bones mixed in the breccia. We also stromalotites, the earliest known fossils that are billions of years old. It was a geologist's paradise!The people who took us actually have property there and are friends of a couple traveling with us.They had prepared a wondeerful lunch which we ate right next to one of the caves where scientists have worked.

It is early spring here and it has been hot most days. The plants are also incredible, many having thorns.Aloe is native and grows quite large. Tomorrow we fly to CapeTown where more adventures await us.I've already decided that Jamie and Sandy must see this so maybe in a few years, I can bring them back here.

A Day on the Combahee River

2008-10-30T14:59:00.000-07:00

I spent a few days with my brother and sister-in-law in Beaufort recently. We saw The Secret Life of Bees which was quite good and on Monday, Jimmy and I went out in his new jon boat to try to catch some fish. While we didn't catch any fish, it was a beautiful day on the river.We saw egrets, lots of crows, swallows, great blue herons and a wood stork. Since the weather was still warm, numerous butterflies flitted around the purple asters and the goldenrod.Some of the cypress trees had russet colored leaves and others, like the one in the photo, were weighted down with Spanish moss.

There were several cottages built on the little bits of solid land in the marshes. The one in the photo was particularly appealing with cedar shake shingles and a boat dock under the house.

Fall at the beach

2008-10-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

We had our first cool night last night but today was a beautiful fall day. I spent much of it inside doing my part with the phone bank at Democratic headquarters. I really don't like to make phone calls. I suppose I fear rejection but today I got to call committed Obama supporters to remind them that they could vote early.That was fun because there is so much excitement about the election, especially on the part of the African-American voters I spoke with. One 85 year old lady said " Bless Jesus, I've waited all of my life for this."

Now I have the Malarone for my trip, the newest anti-malarial medication.My friend Susan and I will share it since I have twice as much as I need.I have about $3700 in Rand, the South African currency. The US dollar is about the same against the Rand as it was 8 years ago so that is good news. Gas stations take cash only and we will be in some areas that have few ATM's.

Tomorrow I'm doing my monthly detox fast, drinking only cranberry juice and water.It makes me feel good, clears my head and I usually drop a couple of pounds.I'm hoping to be able to get in my usual exercise on the trip.

This is just practice for the trip where I'm sure I can write about more interesting things.

Nita

Packing for big trip

2008-10-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

I retired to travel and the first big trip is coming up the day after the election.Eight of us are going to South Africa for three weeks, seven Democrats and one Republican.Seven of us hope that we will be celebrating a big victory at the polls.

Packing is always fun! I've ordered Tilley socks that dry overnight, tiny ziplock bags for my vitamins and supplements.Thankfully, I don't have to take any prescription medications.

This is my first attempt at blogging and I've come to it kicking and screaming but I wanted a way to keep in touch with my family while in South Africa.I want to find out how to upload photos before I go.