Greeting From South Carolina

Saturday afternoon at Surfside Beach, South Carolina

The same stretch of beach (with surfers) this morning.   

Dear Readers,
A quick hello from Surfside Beach,  South Carolina. I am spending a few days on the beach to make some repairs and improvements to my my family's vacation home.
Luckily, the house  survived another hurricane season. Of course, as I am writing this, Hurricane Sandy is heading north to New York. On our drive down South yesterday, we felt the storm's effect. It rained most of the way through North Carolina and when we arrived at the beach, the ocean was churning and the tide higher than I had seen in a long time.

This morning however, all seems calm,  though the water is still lapping at the dunes.

Please keep me informed about what is happening in Brooklyn. Stay safe everyone and if you would like to share pictures, please send them my way.  I'll gladly post them.

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Back To Brooklyn...

I  really, really had meant to blog more while I was at the beach here in South Carolina, but the week flew by and  I had so many things to take care of while here.  Hope you understand. 

I am heading back tomorrow.  Don't worry, PMFA will be back with news of everyone's favorite Brooklyn neighborhood by Monday. 

Just one more glimpse at the ocean before I leave here...

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Greeting From South Carolina

Hi, dear Readers!
Am spending the week at the beach in South Carolina.  Mercifully, I missed the freak snow storm in Brooklyn this past week-end. The weather is still pretty mild here by the ocean and we had a great cloudless day yesterday.  Today, less luck.  Its gray and windy and the ocean is churning.
No complaints, though.  I am always happy to be here.
Stay tuned for more photos and for some Brooklyn news I have wanted to post before I left, but didn't have time to put up.
And of course, Happy Halloween to y'all

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Down In South Carolina Once More

Driving South

Green Grass and budding trees

In bloom

Fog rising

An old shed slowly collapsing

Leaning shed

New barns replacing the old

Tin roof and porch

Big oak trees and abandoned house

The inside of a great dinner in North Carolina

This place would do well in New York

A great sign on the diner's wall.

I loved the fork and spoon wall clock

Rainy beach

7 Am at the beach this morning

After a long drawn out winter, it was time to check on the family's beach condo In South Carolina. So my husband and I left New York on Saturday and headed down to Surfside Beach on Saturday to spend a week cleaning, caulking and painting ...and enjoying the ocean, of course. Unfortunately, the cold weather followed us, so that we have had to click on the heat. We have stayed in since we came. (Actually, I think I only stuck my nose out for about 10 minutes yesterday.)
But this morning, a glorious sunrise greeted me when I awoke and as you can see from the photos, the trees and spring flowers are in full bloom here.
I will be here all week long, heading back to Brooklyn early next week, but please send me your photos and news of the neighborhood, so that I can stay in touch with Carroll Gardens. And come back to check out my South Carolina posts.

°°°°°°°°°°°

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Greetings From South Carolina: The Start Of A Glorious Day

Dawn over the ocean here in Surfside, South Carolina.  An amazing sunrise over the ocean gave way to glorious blue skies and not a trace of humidity.


I will be heading back to Brooklyn on Monday. Of course, I will also be resuming my regular posts about Carroll Gardens then.


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Greetings From South Carolina: Rain, Nothing But Rain For Days

My apologies for not posting an update for a few days.  I am still down here in Surfside, South Carolina, where it has rained off and on (mostly on) since Sunday.  That is bad enough, but last night, the wind howled, whipped up menacing waves, which tore away at the dunes.  Rather frightening, I must tell you, dear Reader.

However, even under a gray sky, this place is pretty great and I am happy to be here.  Besides, it seems that Brooklyn has been treated to the same storm.  At least, we did not get tornado warnings down here.

Is there anything I am missing in Carroll Gardens?

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A Day In Georgetown, South Carolina

It has been cold and windy here at Surfside Beach, South Carolina, so a day trip seemed in order. On Saturday, my husband and I met up with longtime family friends Peggy and Ray.

Together, we took a drive south to Georgetown, a wonderful historic town with stunning pre-revolutionary houses, live oak trees and fun shops and restaurants.

On the way there, we stopped at the Old Saints Parish, first established in 1767. We wandered around the attached cemetery and read some of the touching inscriptions on the gravestones.

One of the stones commemorated a couple that was swept away by the tidal wave of 1893.

After a visit to the Prince George Winyah Church, erected in 1750, we spent some time antiquing on the main street and then stopped at the Rice Paddy restaurant, housed in a former bank. As a matter of fact, the old bank safe was repurposed into a wine cellar.

My kind of place!

It was prom night in Georgetown and as we wandered around town, we saw groups of excited high school seniors in frilly dresses in rather fantastic colors.

They really know how to dress up for the occasion here in the South.

We are heading back to Brooklyn on Monday, so Pardon Me For Asking will be resuming its regular 'schedule.'

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Cute Trespassers At The Pool In Surfside Beach

Surfside Beach, South Carolina

This couple just waddled to the edge of the pool yesterday afternoon and made themselves comfortable. They were preening their feathers and occasionally dipped their beaks into the water.

They stayed there for quite a while.

The pool was, however, even too cold for this pair to swim.

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The Restoration Of Surfside Beach's Natural Dunes...And Thinking Of The Gowanus Canal

Surfside Beach, South Carolina

I am sure that there used to be natural dunes on Surfside Beach, here in South Carolina. But then, beach houses were built too close to the ocean's edge, and destroyed them. When my family came here for the first time twenty years ago, there was not one dune left and high tide brought the ocean's water ever closer to the houses.

Thankfully, Surfside Beach along with neighboring beach communities embarked on an ambitious beach replenishment project. A few years ago, sand was dredged from the seabed further offshore and pumped onto the beach through giant pipes. Then, dune fencing was installed all along the beach, and recently, sea grass has been planted to stabilize the dunes. The effort has been successful. The dunes have gotten higher and higher. Sea grass now grows on them in abundance. Birds and other beach critters seem to love this re-created habitat as well.

Yesterday morning, crews from Earth Balance,Inc., an environmental consulting company, were planting rows and rows of Panic Grass plugs to fill in some of the bare spots. Hopefully, these little shoots will take and further protect the beach. It is an incredibly fascinating process.

As I was watching the planting of this native grass, I couldn't help but think of the Gowanus Canal. I hope that in my lifetime, I will witness the restoration of some of its natural wetland.

A blogger girl can dream, right?

The Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn

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