Dear Fellow Travelers,
Recently, Charleston, SC, was voted the best city in the world to visit, because of its broad appeal to foodies, nature lovers, architecture fans, et al. Make haste and see for yourself.
But we went seeking the garden and home tour which runs every Spring from mid-March to mid-April. It is a fundraiser for the Historic Charleston Society.
What a great balm for us-- to wash the gray and icy streets of Washington,DC from our normal reality and partake in actual Spring weather. It was a great taste of things to come. Magnolia Gardens has enough going for it that you can spend a whole day there.
We took the tram ride and boat ride with naturalists who told us all about the local residents, ahem, gators, cormorants, ospreys, turtles called yellow gliders, great blue herons, egrets, hawks, vultures, anhingas, coots, mud hens, etc.
Away from the swampy area, there were peacocks, a bobcat, goats, an albino raccoon, horses, etc. -- not to mention a bazillion chiggers living in the Spanish Moss, which is neither Spanish nor moss. It is an air plant epicyte.
Magnolia has a beautiful glass conservatory with tropical plants from Barbados, where the Mr. Drayton and his family lived before acquiring Philadelphia's Ann Fox's dowry of 2000 or so acres of South Carolina's Ashley River wetlands.
The plantation had rice fields, dams, and specially designed water gates to let the tidewater in when it was least brackish.
I highly recommend Charleston for all its charms and its people. It reminds me strongly of home-- New Orleans.
Your Imaginary Friend,
Patsie
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| Mr. Peacock Shows Off for the Ladies |
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| Swamp Cypresses |
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| The Drayton Home |
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| Eight Foot Long Feller |
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| The Former Rice Fields |
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| Huge Trees and Tons of Spanish Moss |
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| Spanish Moss Choking Azaleas |
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| The View of the Ashley River from Four Stories Up |
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| Patsie Dresses Appropriately for South Carolina |
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