My Wordless Sunday #16 - in Charleston, SC

Let the Sunshine in.....

Mommy told me something
a little kid should know.
It's all about the devil
and I've learned to hate him so.
She said he causes trouble
when you let him in the room.
He will never ever leave you
if your heart is filled with gloom.

So let the sun shine in
face it with a grin.
Smilers never lose
and frowners never win.
So let the sun shine in
face it with a grin
Open up your heart and let the sun shine in.


Read the whole lyrics here

Magnolia Grandiflora

It is so wonderful to see all the magnificent blossoms of the blooming Magnolia trees.

Read what Wiki has to say to the Magnolia tree

Magnolia grandiflora, commonly known as the Southern magnolia or bull bay, is a magnolia native to the southeastern United States, from coastal Virginia south to central Florida, and west to East Texas. It is a medium to large tree 20-30 m tall with a striking appearance, both in leaf and in bloom.

The leaves are evergreen, simple and broadly ovate, 12-20 cm long and 6-12 cm broad, with smooth margins. They are dark green, stiff and leathery, and often scurfy underneath with yellow-brown pubescence. They will bronze, blotch, and burn in severe winters at the northern limits of cultivation, but most still cling until they are replaced by new foliage in the spring. In climates where the ground freezes, winter sun appears to do more damage than the cold itself. In the northern hemisphere the south side of the tree will experience more leaf damage than the north side of the tree. Two extremes are known, with leaves white underneath and with leaves brown underneath. The brown varieties are claimed to be more cold-hardy than the white varieties, but this does not appear to be proven as yet.

The large, showy, citronella-scented flowers are white, up to 30 cm across and fragrant, with 6-12 petals with a waxy texture, emerging from the tips of twigs on mature trees in late spring.

Hydrangea Flowers

Hydrangea Flowers

Hydrangea flowers are produced from early spring to late autumn; they grow in flowerheads (corymbs or panicles) at the ends of the stems. In many species, the flowerheads contain two types of flowers, small fertile flowers in the middle of the flowerhead, and large, sterile bract-like flowers in a ring around the edge of each flowerhead. Other species have all the flowers fertile and of the same size.

In most species the flowers are white, but in some species (notably H. macrophylla), can be blue, red, pink, or purple. In these species the exact colour often depends on the pH of the soil; acidic soils produce blue flowers, neutral soils produce very pale cream petals, and alkaline soils results in pink or purple. Hydrangeas are one of very few plants that accumulate aluminium. Aluminium is released from acidic soils, and in some species, forms complexes in the hydrangea flower giving them their blue colour.

Read more about Hydrangeas here

WARNING - WARNING - WARNING

With this three (unique) tips you will make it - I guess.....! :-)

Tuesday Special #3

Tuesday Specials

I had an idea about supporting my husbands fine art paintings. I will call it “Tuesday Specials” and will bring every Tuesday one painting out of his collections of pictures of Key West.

The pictures are works painted in Acrylic and/or Oil medium and some of them are already owned in famous collections all over the globe. The originals are available to buy for the art collector and art lovers, starting at
$ 695 up to $ 4’500 based on sizes. There are also prints available to buy. For prizes see our website: www.vanhulstart.com. For special requests please write a email or call: 305-395-0326.

Foxglove Flowers

Foxglove flowers have both positive and negative symbolic meanings. They are said to sometimes hurt and sometimes heal. In the language of flowers, foxglove flowers are associated with insincerity. On the positive side, the common name is said to come from "folk's gloves," with "folk" referring to helpful fairy folk. In medieval gardens dedicated to Mother Mary, foxglove was called "Our Lady's Gloves" or "Gloves of the Virgin."

The scientific name is digitalis, a reference to the presence of powerful chemicals that can heal heart conditions if taken correctly but can kill if taken in large amounts. Foxglove contains cardiac glycosides and was first used to treat heart ailments in 1785. Digitalis helps to regulate pulse rate.

An overdose of digitalis can cause anorexia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and jaundiced vision or a halo effect. Digitalis has sometimes been abused as a weight loss aid due to the gastronomic side effects and resulting reduction of appetite. Digitalis was previously also used as a treatment for epilepsy and seizure disorders, but this is now considered inappropriate.

Foxglove thrives in soils that are rich in iron and coal. New coalfields can sometimes be located by finding masses of foxgloves growing together. Foxgloves are perennials that thrive in temperate zones and like shade, part shade and sun.

Foxgloves come in white, yellow, pink, rose, red, lavender and purple. Foxglove can be grown either through seeds or divisions of plant clumps. The plants range from 2-6' high depending on the variety.

Foxglove flowers look best in the back of a garden and bloom in a pyramid shape with the lowest blossoms opening first and the buds remaining closed at the top. Add some foxgloves to your garden this year to invite the fairy folk to take up residence in your yard!

Read full article here

My Wordless Sunday #15 - in Charleston, SC

Where the Evil Spirits goes...

According to ancient African myth, bottles on trees could catch evil spirits and prevent them from entering a home. In the 18th century, Africans who came to the South as slaves adorned cedar trees with bottles for protection, said Robert Farris Thompson, African and African American art historian at Yale University. The color blue also signified healing powers.

"Bottle trees are an important element of African-American visual culture, they will always be with us - like okra, hominy and black-eyed peas."

read more about bottles on trees here

A Symbol for Hospitality

The pineapple has been a symbol of hospitality since the days of the early American colonies. The legend began with the sea captains of New England, who sailed among the Caribbean Islands and returned to the colonies bearing their cargo of fruits, spices, and rum.

According to the legend, the captain would spear a pineapple on a fence post outside his home to let his friends know of his safe return from the sea. The pineapple was an invitation for them to visit, share his food and drink, and listen to tales of his voyage.

As the tradition grew, colonial innkeepers added the pineapple to their signs and advertisements, and bedposts carved in the shape of a pineapple were a common sight at inns across new England. The legend has continued to the present, and frequently one sees the pineapple symbol in hotels and restaurants to signal the presence of hospitality.

The Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Motel Association has chosen the pineapple symbol of hospitality to recognize and award a property’s effort to achieve the highest levels of guest and employee satisfaction.

By Harris Noble 1999

It's just a Cup of Coffee....!

It's just a Cup of Coffee...


It's just a cup of coffee he's only passin' through
There's nothing more between us than a memory or two
I know what you're thinkin' but this time I'm tellin' you
It's just a cup of coffee he's only passin' through

I'm meetin' him at midnight at the Old Highway Cafe
I'll be home in an hour don't look at me that way
There's nothing more between us than a memory or two
It's just a cup of coffee he's only passin' through

I know I know I know you've heard it all
You think I'll fall right back into his arms
You're nothing but a mirror on the wall
What do you know I've gotta go

No I never bothered to give him back that ring
Yeah I'm wearin' perfume but that doesn't mean a thing
You're only a reflection don't tell me what to do
It's just a cup of coffee he's only passin' through

There's nothing more between us than a memory or two
It's just a cup of coffee he's only passin' through


This lyrics origin can be found here

Wednesday Special

For some reasons I had to change my "Tuesday Special" to todays Wednesday special edition. If you missed it yesterday, it is here now and will be there back on Tuesday again. :-)

For people who don't know what my "Tuesday Specials" are, here is the declaration:

Tuesday Specials

I had an idea about supporting my husbands fine art paintings. I will call it “Tuesday Special” and will bring every Tuesday one painting out of his collections of pictures of Key West.

The pictures are works painted in Acrylic and/or Oil medium and some of them are already owned in famous collections all over the globe. The originals are available to buy for the art collector and art lovers, starting at $ 695 up to $ 4’500 based on sizes. There are also prints available to buy. For prizes see our website: www.vanhulstart.com . For special requests please write a email or call: 305-395-0326.

Jasmine on Palm trees

Have you ever seen something like this? The palm tree is covered with Jasmine flowers!

Can you imagine how sweet this smells?
Hmmmm..... so fragrant in the spring breeze.

Red for Monday - Only so...

After so many black and white photos on my blog in the last days,
we need now some RED colors here, right? Because:

RED is energy - RED is life,
the color of your blood is RED
and
RED is also the color for LOVE.

Let's celebrate Monday in RED today! :-)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

To My Mother

Because I feel that in the heavens above
The angels, whispering one to another,
Can find among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of "Mother,"
Therefore by that dear name I have long called you,
You who are more than mother unto me,
And filled my heart of hearts, where death installed you,
In setting my Virginia's spirit free.

My mother -- my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are the mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
But that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul that its soul-life.


Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

The Magnolia

The Magnolia
by Mary McNeil Fenollosa

O flowers of the garden, of skilled and human care,
Sweet heliotrope, and violet, and orchid frail and fair,
Pour out your love to happier hearts; the woodland flowers for me,
The pallid, creamy blossoms of the dark magnolia tree!

I close my eyes; my soul lifts up to float with their perfume,
And dull the body lying in this narrow city room.
Again I am a happy child. I leap and joy to see
The great curved petals wavering slip from out the gleaming tree.

As holy grail, or pearl inwrought, or carven ivory cup,
They stand on bronze and emerald bough, and brim their sweetness up;
And underneath a happy child! --- O days that used to be!
In distant land, the flowers still stand upon the dark green tree.

Don't Fence Me In

Don't fence me in...

Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above,
Don't fence me in.
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love,
Don't fence me in.
Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze,
And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees,
Send me off forever but I ask you please,
Don't fence me in.

Just turn me loose, let me straddle my old saddle
Underneath the western skies.
On my Cayuse, let me wander over yonder
Till I see the mountains rise.

I want to ride to the ridge where the west commences
And gaze at the moon till I lose my senses
And I can't look at hovels and I can't stand fences
Don't fence me in.

The Waterfront Park

Sunday afternoon clouds and the impressive Ravanel Bridge seen from the Waterfront Park

David and Goliath

Make peace and NOT war!

Scent of Jasmine

Jasmine or Jessamine (Jasminum) (from Persian yasmin, i.e. "gift from God"^[1][2], via Arabic^[3]) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family (Oleaceae),with about 200 species, native to tropical and warm temperate regions of the Old World. The majority of species grow as climbers on other plants or on structures. The leaves can be either evergreen or deciduous, and are opposite in most species; leaf shape is simple, trifoliate or pinnate with up to nine leaflets. Jasmine tea is also very efficient against coughs, sore throats or other problems to do with the bronchites.

Tuesday Special #2

Tuesday Specials

I had an idea about supporting my husbands fine art paintings. I call it “Tuesday Special” and will bring every Tuesday one painting out of his collections of pictures of Key West.

The pictures are works painted in Acrylic and/or Oil medium and some of them are already owned in famous collections all over the globe.

The originals are available to buy for the art collector and art lovers, starting at $ 695 up to $ 4’500 based on sizes. There are also prints available to buy.

For prizes see our website:
www.vanhulstart.com

For special requests please write a email or call: 305-395-0326.

Sunday Afternoon Fun - Pineapple Fountain

One of the most eye-catching fountains in the whole city, Charleston's famous Pineapple Fountain stands in Waterfront Park, in the downtown district. The Pineapple Fountain has become one of the city's most photographed landmarks and symbolizes hospitality.

Kids and Moms are enjoying the warm spring weather at the water fountain

Kids have always fun - with water

My Wordless Sunday # 14 - in Charleston, SC

Small World

Some are fishing...

some are crawling...

some are sitting in the sun gossiping...

some are being ferocious...

and some are sitting just thinking about his philosophy of life

Sea of smile - River of tears

A old Bench

a sea of smile and a river of tears
a flood of memories
imagination will take me back

on an Old Park Bench
Old Park Bench
Old Park Bench
Old Park Bench
a summer's night, the stars aglow
did more than light the sky
with fortune, fantasy, and fate
we dream on an old park bench
i take your hand in my hand
you hold my soul in yours
one touch becomes eternal
when falling in love

i see her still and she is beautiful
i see her beautiful face
and her beautiful eyes
and her beautiful ways
and her beautiful soul
and this love lifts me higher
i search her eyes and see the skies
the heavens of her life
just one more glimpse into her soul
is all i ask

a sea of smiles and a river of tears
a flood of memories
and now she's gone

Source of the song

Light is everything

A simple picture in a nice light . Without the sunlight creating those shadows, this photo would be plain and dead looking. It would be very boring and a picture without any "message". Light is everything in photography.

The word photography is derived from the Greek language: "phos" = light and "graphos" = writing. In translation that means: "writing with light".

The First and The Last

First rose - a sign of summer is already around the corner?

The last buds of Azaleas - Spring time is leaving us soon

Tuesday Special - # 1

The Coconut Palm

Tuesday Special

I had an idea about supporting my husband’s fine art paintings. I am going to call it “The Tuesday Special” and every Tuesday I will present one painting from his collection of Key West pictures.

The pictures are from original paintings done in Acrylic and/or Oil…and some of them are already in famous collections all over the globe. The originals that are available for purchase range in price from $ 695 to $ 4,500 based on sizes. There are also prints available.

For more details see our website: www.vanhulstart.com .

For special requests please send an email to susanne49@yahoo.com

or call: 305-395-0326.