Charleston Walker

Now that the 2015 holiday season is ending, the Flower Walker finally has a few minutes to post a couple of her photographs from the past few weeks. It was an incredibly warm December, and as I pen this post, I am reminded of the irony of seeing my hibiscus plants still blooming on my front patio while my camellias, elephant ears and coleus are in bloom on my back patio. These plants just don’t usually bloom in the same cycle together, but it makes for an interesting garden!

Charleston could not have been lovelier than the city was this past December with historic buildings and private residences all decorated.

And my back patio camellias finally came into beautiful bloom!

We headed over to Edisto after Christmas and spent a lovely day at the Hollings ACE Basin Preserve. The live oaks and Spanish Moss were beautiful!

Then back to Charleston and had a lovely walk at Hampton Park where I photographed these prehistoric looking Mustard Green plants.

And then on New Year’s Eve, I finally made a Lemon pie with those ripe lemons growing on my front patio step for the last several weeks!

 

 

 

My friend Elizabeth joined me for a history and photography walk with Joyce from Charleston History Tours. Joyce does terrific “Picture Perfect Walks” and filled us in on the history of this fabulous city. She also provided great pointers on where to capture shots. Despite our love of history, Elizabeth and I really wanted her to focus on the photography, and we were not disappointed.

The weather generally was overcast but we did have blue skies peeking throughout the walk.

As we walked the historic area Joyce told us about what is probably the oldest structure in Charleston, this charming little pink building that dates back to the late 1600s and originally was a tavern. It recently was sold to an art gallery.

We saw some of the city’s most historic churches.

But, for me, the flowers stole the show!

I even found a beautiful summer Morning Glory still in full bloom.

Of course, there were signs of fall all around.

We had a terrific photo walk and finished up catching a photo of ourselves reflected in a store window.

It is finally beginning to feel like fall in Charleston–cooler weather today with a high of 61 degrees! Headed out with my little Canon S-95 to walk on Queen Street down to the Waterfront Park. With the wind really blowing, I had a hard time getting a close focus on flowers, and decided instead to photograph Queen Street’s lovely flower boxes. I love these flower boxes and have followed them in four seasons of plantings. With the warm temperatures here several boxes, like mine on Poulnot, are still dressed in last May’s flowers. I plan to do a change out for winter season later this week. Here are some of today’s photos:

It is election day in Charleston, and we will make our choice for a new Mayor to follow longtime Mayor Joe Riley, one of the nation’s truly great Mayors!  I voted early this morning and did my Flower Walk around Colonial Lake dodging rain puddles at every turn. Loved seeing the reflections of trees in the puddles!

Again today the overcast skies brought out the vibrant colors of plants and flowers.

The roses on my patio, including this sweet little Crepuscle Rose, got a good soaking.

No doubt the rain will hamper voter turnout. A run-off is likely. We’ll see.

Woke up to a warm and humid morning after a heavy rain last night. Overcast skies brought out the vibrant colors of my patio coleus. I headed out to lovely Tradd Street and saw several coleus arrangements. I love the different colors and textures of coleus!

While on Tradd Street I also saw orange trees full of fruit in a resident’s front yard.

Most of the oranges were still covered in water from the rain.

Also saw some gorgeous cannas. We have not yet had a frost and many cannas around the city are still in bloom.