Sustainable Saturday-Charleston South Carolina Farmers Market

This is one of the most beautiful location for a farmers market that I have ever seen.

South Carolina State Arsenal Building, Charleston, SC

Part of the pleasure of travel for me is finding and eating local food, especially food that is fresh and minimally processed.  Today was the opening day of the Charleston farmer's market, held in historic Marion Square in Charleston. (At a later date, I will blog about the history I found inside this square. In fact, the building above has an interesting history as the former location of the famed military college, The Citadel.)

Even as far south as Charleston is, not everything they are offering is in season yet.

The vendors marked produce that was local, though, and one vendor (price list above) was quite upfront about exactly where each of his items originated from.  (ONPF means his own. Lady Moon is in Florida. Mayflower was elsewhere in South Carolina).  We bought garlic (below) from him.

This vendor advertised local only, with a big offering of radishes, and early greens.

We were so thrilled to buy fresh garlic (not last year's storage crop) from this market.

Strawberries are also at the beginning of their season.  We bought the strawberries and reluctantly left the dewberries behind.

There was a lot of photography going on, and none of the vendors seemed to mind. 

Mushrooms were a welcome surprise, although we didn't buy any.

The Charleston market did not disappoint - with one exception, something that also bothers me about our local downtown Binghamton, New York farmer's market - not all of the food is local.  But there was a local food information booth, and I talked to two energetic young women attempting to get the word out.  In a city where world famed restaurants are on almost every streetcorner downtown, I hope the word does continue to get out.

We did buy a couple of local food items you find in few other places, which will be subjects of a later post.

Our local farmer's market in upstate New York won't be outdoors for another three weeks.  I basked in that 80 degree heat - by Tuesday, back home, we may get some snow.

Have you shopped at a farmer's market recently?

Would You Take this View for Granted?

My spouse and I had an argument walking to a waterfront park in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.  There were condos near the park, and some of them had views of the Ravenel Bridge which connects Mt. Pleasant with Charleston, South Carolina.

Palmettos, Waterfront Park, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina just after sunset

"I could never tire of this view", my spouse said.

"Yes, we would", I said.  "If we lived here a while, we would stop looking at the sunset." And", I continued thoughtfully, "the palmettos.  I love seeing them. They are nothing like what grows where we live in upstate New York".

"No, I wouldn't", my spouse replied.  Together, we gazed at what the locals call "The Triangles".  I had come to the Charleston area to walk the five miles of the Ravenel Bridge, as I blogged about earlier this week.  "Every day, before work, I would look out at the bridge."

Charleston skyline under Ravenel Bridge

"Every night, after returning from work, I would look out again at the bridge.", he continued.

"No you wouldn't!", I said with the assurance of someone married to someone else for nearly 40 years. "We both would plop on the sofa after eating dinner, and that would be that."   We know each other well - too well, perhaps.

It is sad how we learn to take things we see every day for granted. People were walking in the park, and for all I know that bridge wasn't even registering on their consciousness.  It was part of their everyday scenery, just as Johnson City, New York is part of ours.

But travel 850 miles to see something, and you will take picture after picture of it.

Are you like that, too?

Wonders' Way

Today, I walked on Wonders' Way.

A brief explanation: In 2012, I attempted to walk across the Arthur Ravenel Bridge (5 miles total round trip) which spans the Cooper River and connects Charleston, South Carolina with Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.  I've exercised walked for years, and enjoy walking in cities I visit, especially when I walk across bridges.


Although I thought I was in good walking shape back in 2012, I was flirting with obesity from middle aged weight gain, and also battling an arthritic knee.  The first part of the walk is uphill, and I did not make the entire bridge.  I had to turn back and completed about 3.2 miles out of the five mile total.

I remembered watching all the people who were walking the bridge - elderly people, young mothers pushing babies in strollers, couples, and saying to myself "I really need to do something about this."  You could call it my "a ha" moment. 

I vowed I would return to Charleston, weight lost, and make the walk.  The first goal (weight loss) completed late last year, I made plans for the trip.

A few weeks ago I wondered if I would be able to make the walk after a needed wisdom tooth extraction led to sinus complications.  I wasn't in peak condition.  But I decided to try anyway and do the best I could.

Today was the day my spouse and I chose to make the walk.  I decided I would dedicate the walk to several people I know who are facing challenges far greater than my sinus and weight problem. I'd like to give a shout out to (in no particular order) Margaret, Howard, Patti, Nick, and Jonathan.  All of these individuals are fighting cancer.

Approaching the bridge from the Mt. Pleasant side once you complete the initial climb up the first part of the bridge that injured my knee last time, this is what you see.  The walking/running/biking section of the bridge is called Wonders' Way.  (named after a bicyclist, Garrett Wonder, who was struck by a vehicle and was killed while training for the Olympics in 2004).

Those spans fascinate me.

The size of the supports fascinate my spouse.

We made it to the Charleston side.  As you can tell, Charleston is not a city of skyscrapers - in fact, the bridge is one of the highest points in the city.

This is the Charleston side "bridge end" of Wonders' Way.  I have no idea what this structure is -I wonder (no pun intended) if it is part of the bridge support from the previous Cooper River Bridge that the Ravenel Bridge replaced.

This shows a portion of the long approach (less steep than the Mt. Pleasant side) to the bridge spans from the Charleston side.

One last shot of Wonders' Way, and the bridge. 

I completed the five mile walk!   And that steep incline?  Bridge exercisers say you get used to it.  I don't know, though. I did manage to hurt (not badly, at least not yet) my other knee.  But despite that - I feel like I accomplished something big today.  I'm grateful for the chance.

Thank you, my blog readers, for coming to my blog and for sharing this moment with me.

Spring Things - Summerville YMCA Flowertown Festival and the Spring Showdown

Finally, a really spring like Spring Thing!


While the northeast United States tries to make up it's mind - is it spring? is it winter? is it spring? South Carolina has made up its mind.

Meanwhile this upstate New Yorker, sick of the indecision, decided she would take a road trip to find spring, and drag it back, using force if necessary, to upstate New York.

By Sunday afternoon, your intrepid blogger and her long suffering mate had reached Summerville, South Carolina.

Summerville, South Carolina is about a 30 minute drive from Charleston.  It is a city just a tad smaller population-wise than Binghamton, New York, where I work.

In the heart of Summerville is Azalea Park. We had been there once before, several yearsago before the azaleas were in bloom.  I've wanted to go back. When I heard that, on the first weekend of April, the YMCA held a festival fundraiser in the park that attracted thousands of visitors, I decided that would be the place where Spring and I would have our showdown.

We arrived at the park.  So far, so good .

In the crowds of people, I thought, Spring would never notice me.

But then, I lost my focus. I saw homemade chips and dips - I had to buy some.  And then there was the booth with the homemade flavored pork skins.  My son loves pork skins, and I have to pay him back for watching my home while we were gone.  (In case you were wondering, the vendors really were dressed up like hillbillies.)  When we bought three bags of skins, they rang a large cowbell and gave out cheers.

My cover was blown.

So I decided to just enjoy the scenery.

Azaleas and wisteria (and a little of my thumb)

And enjoy the scenery some more. It will be weeks until we see azaleas in upstate New York.

We will see camellias never.  They can not survive our climate.

There were even a couple of Civil War exhibits, including a replica of the CSS Hunley, the Confederate sub sunk in Charleston Harbor a little over 150 years ago.  I've blogged about the Hunley before.  I've just never seen it from the back. (There was a small crowd around the exhibit so I couldn't get close enough for a better photo.)

So, Spring, you win.  For now, you will stay in South Carolina, and bathe everyone here in wonderful heat.  But I am still going to find a way to bring you back to upstate New York.  Right now, I'm in an undisclosed location, and you won't know where until I jump out to have a very overdue talk with you.

Spring - be prepared!

Preparing for the Gardening Season in a Community Garden

Today, in upstate New York, it reached a balmy 55 degrees F (almost 12 degrees C). By Friday it should be in the 60's.

Spring has arrived.  The gardener's thoughts in the Northern United States turn to the spring garden.  In the South, the growing season is already in progress.

As we rent two community garden spaces in Otsiningo Park, in Binghamton, New York, we have to wait for the county to plow the gardens before we can plant. This usually doesn't happen until early May, which makes it dificult to grow some of the early crops such as peas and spinach.  But, there is still enough we can plant.

Why community garden? For us, it is because we have limited space at our house.  For others, though, it may be a necessity- for example, for people living in apartments, renting houses, or in other housing situations.

You meet the most interesting fellow gardeners, and you might even meet a dinosaur.

We have rented plots in this community garden for years, but changes may be coming - a post for a future time.


This year, we ordered some seeds from a new (to us) seed catalog- Bakers Creek Heirloom Seeds.  
A co worker had told me about them last year, after we had already purchased our seeds.  This year, we are giving them a try with six seed packets.  A seventh packet, for wild garlic, was already out of stock.

Bakers Creek says their catalog is the largest in this country, at some 350 pages.  I believe it.  The photography is stunning and the selection is impressive. 

These are our trial seeds.  We especially look forward to trying the Chinese Red Noodle bean.

These are some of the most beautiful seed packets we have ever seen (especially if you ignore my blurry photography).

I have only one complaint about Baker Creek.  Ordering online, which I would have preferred to do, was difficult.  We ended up placing the order after several glitches and the website warned us they were having problems.  Sure enough, our order never went through online. After all, we had to write out a second, by hand, order, and mail it in.  That order, though, did come promptly.

Do you garden?  If so, are you preparing for your gardening season?

Searching for Spring

I've had it.  If spring won't come to me at my upstate New York home, I decided I would come to spring.

I vowed I would do whatever it took. (Well, I would cheer on my spouse, who would do the driving).  I would travel until I found spring, and then I would make spring come back with me.

I could bribe spring with food.  I could beg it.  I could take pictures of her and blackmail her into coming to Binghamton, New York.  I would think of something.

The open road beckoned.

The journey began.  It was 34 degrees out as we left at dawn. The sun rose south of Great Bend, Pennsylvania.   My friend back home said ice pellets fell as she walked that morning.

I found spring in southern Maryland.  They baked a cake because they knew I was coming. (Um, not really, but it was a delicious cake.)

In Frederickburg, Virginia, trees were blooming.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, redbuds were the tree of the hour.

In Summerville, South Carolina I found azaleas.

And in Charleston, South Carolina, roses.

Today in Binghamton, it was 41 degrees with light rain.  In Charleston it was 80 degrees and we were under a tornado watch.

I've found spring.  Spring, I know where you are hiding.

Now, I have my work cut out.

The Fifth Anniversary

(Civil War Sunday will return next week.)

On a street corner on the edge of downtown Binghamton, New York, there is a small park on a street corner.

The passerby sees glass birds on a pole.

There are 13 stones, each with a plaque.  Each represents an innocent who was shot dead on the morning of April 3, 2009 on the grounds of the American Civic Association in Binghamton, New York.  All of the dead, 13 at all (14 if you count the shooter, who was a former client of the ACA) were in an adult classroom.  The fifth anniversary of this loss was just a few days ago.

This is the building where the shooting took place.  It looks so peaceful now. (Photo taken summer of 2013.)

Roberta King was the teacher. She was subbing for the regular teacher, who had taken the day off to celebrate her 40th wedding anniversary.  Some of my readers have enjoyed my December Hanukkah House posts showing dolls and dollhouses - many of these belonged to Mrs. King.  She was the mother of 10. Even at 72, she was refusing to retire.

Marc and Marie Bernard, husband and wife, left behind two children, a 12 year old and a six year old.

Maria Zobniw was born in a displaced persons camp in Europe after World War II, and immigrated to the United States when she was four.

Lan Ho's husband was also in the classroom with her and tried to shield his wife's body with his. He survived. She didn't.

Everyone - ordinary people from different walks of life, and different parts of the world.

This is the honor roll of the dead (taken from Wikipedia)

• Parveen Ali, age 26, an immigrant from northern Pakistan
• Almir Olimpio Alves, age 43, a Brazilian Ph.D. in Mathematics and visiting scholar at Binghamton University, attending English classes at the Civic Association
• Marc Henry Bernard, age 44, an immigrant from Haiti
• Maria Sonia Bernard, age 46, an immigrant from Haiti
• Li Guo, age 47, a visiting scholar from China
• Lan Ho, age 39, an immigrant from Vietnam
• Layla Khalil, age 53, an Iraqi mother of three children
• Roberta King, age 72, an English language teacher
• Jiang Ling, age 22, an immigrant from China
• Hong Xiu "Amy" Mao Marsland, age 35, a nail technician who immigrated from China in 2006 
• Dolores Yigal, age 53, a recent immigrant from the Philippines
• Hai Hong Zhong, age 54, an immigrant from China
• Maria Zobniw, age 60, a part-time caseworker at the Civic Association, whose parents were from the Ukraine.

If you look at the names, and some of the faces, you will realize that people from all over the world, and from different races (as our culture defines race - yes, that is defined by culture) died that day.  As equals.


Next week, I hope I can turn to happier topics

Sustainable Saturday - The Dream I Wish Hadn't Come True

Regular readers of my blog have read, from time to time, about my neighborhood in upstate New York, damaged by a massive flood in September of 2011.

This building, actually a combination of several buildings comprising about 600,000 square feet, was built in 1942.  It has a fascinating history.  At one time it was one of the largest, if not the largest, wood framed building in the United States.  It still is the largest wood framed structure east of the Mississippi River.  It's several blocks from where I live.

It has been owned all these years by the United States Air Force and was most recently occupied by BAE Systems, giving good paying jobs to around 1,200 people in our community.

Since September 8-9, 2011 it has been vacant due to severe flood damage.  It eventually is supposed to be demolished.

I've dreamed for a long time for this day, the day the parking lot of this building was again full, the day the sidewalks in front of it were clean instead of covered in three years worth of gravel from snowplowing, and the grounds were not filthy with garbage.

But not like this.  No, not like this.

Yesterday was a local policeman's funeral.  The previous Monday, officer David Smith of the Johnson City, New York police force was killed in the line of duty responding to a call of a distressed employee making bomb threats at a local imaging business.  His funeral service was not that far from the BAE building, and its parking lot was used as parking for the hundreds of officers and others who attended.

Before the funeral, the county cleaned the property up.

I would rather have David Smith alive and the BAE property the way it was. But sometimes life works in strange ways.

I hope, next week, I can get back to happier blogging.

Autism And My Brother In Law

World Autism Awareness Day was Wednesday. 

The purpose of World Autism Awareness Day is to increase awareness about a developmental disability called autism.   The Merriam Webster dictionary defines autism as:

"A developmental disorder that appears by age three and that is variable in expression but is recognized and diagnosed by impairment of the ability to form normal social relationships, by impairment of the ability to communicate with others, and by stereotyped behavior patterns especially as exhibited by a preoccupation with repetitive activities of restricted focus rather than with flexible and imaginative one".

 For us, these are more than just words.  And, too often, people do not hear about autism until someone in their life is diagnosed.  For reasons we do not totally understand (there are many theories, and the purpose of this post is not to debate this) the incidence of autism is rapidly increasing in the United States.

Autism is known as a spectrum disorder - two people with autism can appear very different.  But, one thing needs to be kept in mind - people with autism are, first, and foremost, people, not a diagnosis.

Regular readers of my blog know that I have a brother in law with autism.  My brother in law is in his 50's and lives with his elderly mother (her choice).  We live about 150 miles away. As anyone who has ever done long distance caretaking knows....it can be an adventure.
 
The time is approaching (and we hope it is later, but it may well be sooner) when my mother in law will no longer be able to care for her son.  These past few months, my husband, the oldest of his siblings, has been going through the legal process of applying for guardianship of his brother.  It has not been an easy process and I have blogged about it on several occasions.  (As of today, his petition is still before the court.)

If there was one thing I would ask for the parents of a child with autism - it would be to plan for the child's future.  This wasn't done with my brother in law, for a number of reasons, and my husband and his other "atypical" siblings have reaped that particular harvest.

My brother in law can be hard to get to know.  He speaks in a monotone, avoids eye contact, and will mainly talk about things that interest him - the New York Mets, the weather, and sometimes, even politics. He didn't talk until he was five years old. He can't sustain conversations for long.  He tends to be very anxious.   But he has abilities that are amazing - for example, being able to remember the weather of almost every day of his life.  And, he has a built in calendar. Ask him, for example, what day Easter will be in 2030 and he will tell you almost instantly.

One thing is for certain when you have a loved one with a developmental disability.  Life is never dull. There is a constant learning process, a constant advocacy process.  And you learn a lot of things:  patience, the need to be assertive without being aggressive, the need to network and make contacts. And, to keep on top of things.  (We don't always do so well on the latter.)

Is there someone with autism in your life?

(This post, incidentally, is my 1600th published post.  And, later this month, I celebrate my fifth blogging anniversary.  Should I do something special? Hmmm....)

Just Another Day

Today, I was going to write a post on the fifth anniversary of a tragic day for our community in upstate New York.  Something happened at the American Civic Association (ACA) in Binghamton, New York, mere blocks from where I work.

On April 3, 2009, a Vietnamese man walked into the ACA, an organization that helps immigrants settle into American life.  Several minutes later, 14 people (including the man, a former client of the ACA) were dead, shot to death.

I was going to blog about some of the people who died that day, and show you a monument that is being dedicated to honor their memory.  But instead, we in the United States mourn the victims of still another mass shooting, this time at Fort Hood, the largest active duty base in the United States.

Yesterday, a troubled Iraqi War vet stationed at Fort Hood killed 4 (including himself) and injured 16, as of this writing.  He had known mental health issues.

Fort Hood, in some ways, is a city, with about 65,000 active duty soldiers, support staff, and the families of the service members.  It is located about 60 miles from Austin, the state capitol of Texas.

Sadly, this isn't the first time there's been a mass shooting there in recent times. It's the second.

The first shooting was November 5, 2009, just a little over seven months after our shooting in Binghamton, New York.  The November shooting left 13 people dead, and is classed as an act of terrorism.  The shooter survived, is partially paralyzed, and faces the death penalty for his actions.

Someone called yesterday's shooting "just another day in South Texas".

Once again, we in the United States wonder why, and people from overseas shake their heads.  As for us in the Binghamton area, we quietly mourn the victims of our shooting.  And now, those who died yesterday at Fort Hood.

More sadness in our country today.  We already know the questions to ask.  When will we know the answers?

World Autism Awareness Day

Just a brief note, as those of my readers who know I have a brother in law with autism may be wondering why I am not blogging about today, World Autism Awareness Day.  I will be blogging about my experiences with autism (most likely) on Friday. Until then, I leave you with this from a site called Greater Good:

"Despite the fact that autism affects people from all walks of life, on a global scale there is still a prevalence of stereotypes and misinformation being spread. Since April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day, it's an ideal time to help increase awareness and celebrate those on the spectrum.

Individuals with autism can be highly artistic, have keen memorization abilities and a high aptitude for miniscule details.

Our modern, global community should be one that embraces and celebrates the wonderful qualities of those with autism. Sign our pledge today. In the comments section, please share what you would like others to know about autism" 

Please return on Friday to read more about my brother in law.

Spring Things - Season of Confusion

It's winter! It's spring! And sometimes it's both on the same day.

Monday morning, the day before April Fools Day, I commuted to my job in downtown Binghamton, in upstate New York. Where I live, we got perhaps 3/4 inch of rain/ice and snow.  I lived on one side of a very sharp line between hardly any snow and a big snow dump. Some of my co workers, who lived on the wrong side of the line, reported near blizzard conditions.  Some people got nearly a foot of snow on a nasty spring day.

Broome County Courthouse, Binghamton, NY

Downtown Binghamton, on the other hand, looked like a winter wonderland.

Snow coated the trees.

Snow covered our downtown roundabout.

Fast forward a day - yesterday, April Fools Day, to be exact.  It got up to 60 degrees F (15.5 Celsius) and crocuses were blooming in Binghamton.

April Fool!

But then I found more crocuses.

And while nothing is blooming at my house (many of my bulbs are on the north side of the house) early daffodils are poking above the ground.

We're confused!  This is the season of confusion.  Is it winter or is it spring?  It must be both.

Could spring be finally here?  At this time of year, it is amazing what difference one day makes.  From snow to flowers, and it's supposed to be warm again today, near 60.  Considering we were having lows of 13 two weeks ago, I think the season change is finally happening.

Please tell me it's spring at last.

Expect the Unexpected

He was friendly, social, a hard worker, a valued employee, the father of one,  and "the best neighbor a person could have."  Some in this area knew him as the friendly technician who did their MRI's.  He had worked at Southern Tier Imaging since 2005.

Yesterday morning, he came to work and prevented other employees from entering the imaging office, grabbed a co worker, shook him and claimed there was a bomb inside the building.

Someone called 911.

The first policeman who responded, David Smith, was also a family man.  Smith never had a chance to exit his car.  An hour later, the 43 year old policeman, an 18 1/2 year veteran of the Johnson City, New York police force, was dead.  The officer was killed by the 43 year old MRI technician using Smith's own service gun.  Several hours later, the MRI technician was also dead, shot by a backup officer. Smith had fired at him, too, but missed.

On my way to work yesterday morning (I live just outside Johnson City) I was passed by several police cars speeding down Main Street at a high rate of speed.  They were followed by four ambulances. I travel near where the shooting took place, and if I had passed by a couple of minutes later I might not have made it to work for hours, as the area was placed under lockdown.

And all I was worried about when I left the house was the slushy/ice conditions from the night before.

Our community of 15,000 in upstate New York is in shock.  The last time a Johnson City police officer was killed in the line of duty was in 1925.  His car was hit by a train.

We in the Triple Cities all too well remember the American Civic Association shooting of April 3, 2009, which I will blog about on April 3.  14 dead, one of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in United States history.  Echoes of the ACA, where a Johnson City man entered an adult immigrant classroom in Binghamton and slaughtered the teacher and a number of her students before ending his own life, must have filled the mind of Officer David Smith as he responded to a worksite incident in what turned out to be the last call he would ever respond to.

Today is the first day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I had planned a light hearted post on a surprise snowstorm we got Sunday night.  Instead, I greet new readers and old with a grim post.  Today, I have no blogging secrets to share with you.  No photos of nature.  No complaints about the winter that doesn't want to end.  No ponderings about my elderly mother in law, my brother in law who has autism, the United States Civil War, my community garden or the nature of chocolate.

We don't know why technician James Clark did what he did yesterday morning just after 7:03 am.  He had no history of unusual behavior.

I wish this was a sick April Fools post. It isn't.  We must always expect the unexpected.

All we know is that two local men went to work yesterday morning, and never came home to their families.