Taking a Break at the South Carolina Botanical Gardens

This has been such a loooong winter!  A couple of weeks ago we had a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon so we drove to South Carolina Botanical Gardens just to take a walk.  The gardens were beautiful and full of people enjoying the day.  We used to go quite often for picnics when our boys were little.  The gardens are only 17 miles from our home, but we seem to be too busy these days to take the time for picnics.

The gardens are located in the campus of Clemson University.  When the boys were 5 and 3, I was taking classes at CU and three days a week the boys and I would have a picnic lunch at the red caboose at the gardens.  That was over twenty-five years ago! I can still hear their laughter in my mind.

Even the swings have a story.  One summer when my nineteen year old son was enrolled in classes at Clemson, he broke bones in his foot hiking. He had a cast on his foot and leg so I drove him to class, took my book to the swings and read until he was out before driving him home, everyday!  I wish I could go back to that time, too:-)

But this is early March of 2014 and my mantra is "Treasure Today!"

A part of the garden DH and I visited today was the camilia garden, all in bloom!

Actually, the camilia garden is a series of paths around the pond.

Beautiful camilias are blooming!

 

It was a beautiful day with camilias everywhere, but we also noticed all the turtles sunning on the man-made lily pads in the pond.

What a beautiful day for turtles!  I wonder what the turtles were thinking?

Treasure Today!

Thank you for taking a break with us today!  

Love,

Lottie

Old Houses in Honea Path, SC

Back in 1981, thirty-three years ago, dear husband was working in Honea Path, SC. Honea Path was a mill town of about 3500 people back then, maybe less now.  We lived in a neighboring town and he worked odd hours (a lot of hours) so I got it in my head that I wanted to move to Honea Path,  I found the perfect house!

 

I was a silly young bride who didn't realize how hard it would be to work on such a big house.  The house was for sale for only $25,000 back then and needed paint and a new roof.  I took dear husband to see the house and he noticed all the work that he would have to do on the few hours he was home and train tracks across the back yard!  Then a train came roaring by!  That was the end of that!

Today we came through Honea Path again and we had to drive by the house.  It looked great and the tracks had been taken up in the backyard.  Quite a few houses had had renovations.  Here are just a few pictures we took today on our way home..  

This would have been our neighbor's house on the right.

And past a few houses down on the left we could walk to this beautiful little Carnegie library.

This is a really cute Chippendale style house that was always just beautiful inside.  It is so good to see that someone has made the right choices renovating this house.  It is now a real estate office.  I love the green color it was painted and the rocks added to the porch.

This house has always been known as The Pink Castle and was once a B&B. It is located across the street from the old elementary school which is now a beautiful community center.  Next door is this elegantly simple house.

Take a walk down the street and you come upon this wonderful house with the big porches!

And talk about relaxing on the porch!

Next door has a porch .... and a rock wall!

And this one is being renovated.  It was DH's favorite because of all the potential!

 

And the beautiful intact porch railing!

There are many more homes in Honea Path that have been renovated and are beautiful.  None in these pictures are for sale.  I notice renovation everywhere in Honea Path. 

It is time to drive on home before it gets dark.  Time to put the camera away. 

Hope you enjoyed our stop!

Lottie

New Flower Bed!

This winter has been long and hard for everyone!  We had a lovely day last week and I was looking at the Lenten Rose by the back door.  I was thinking how nice a flower bed along the garage would look!  Within a couple of hours dear husband had bought landscaping timbers and soil and built a new flower bed!  (in which he planted radishes :-)

The little white fence came in 2 foot sections from Walmart for $1.97 each.

 

It looks like Spring is on it's way!  Finally! 

It was 70 degrees today in South Carolina and it will be 32 degrees in the morning when we wake up!   Hope you are enjoying this weird weather!

Lottie