A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
I thought this sabbatical year would be all about kayaking. It turns out that it’s more about music, with multiple events each week. This week was no different, with an Irish music session on Wednesday and some surprises through the week. Here’s a rundown… Continue reading “Ukuleles, Tin Whistles, and other Musical Things”
I had a very different post planned. I’ve actually got a draft entitled “I Hate Irish Music.” I was going to vent some of my frustrations with the music sessions I’ve attended up here, specifically the Irish sessions. However, I decided to give the genre one more shot, so I decided to try a different session at Village Pizza in Anacortes. My mood did a 180. This felt like the closest thing to the pubs I enjoyed so much while in Ireland. Continue reading “Irish Music at Village Pizza”
There used to be a BBQ place near my office in Duncan, South Carolina that we would frequent for lunch. There were lots of exposed timbers and it had a logging/lumberjack theme. Old photographs hung on the walls of men with saws felling giant trees. On close inspection, I could see that all of these were labeled “Skagit Valley Lumber.” It caught me off guard…but it really shouldn’t have. There has long been a connection between Appalachia and the river valleys of Washington, much of it based on the timber industry. Continue reading “PNW Southern Connections – Part 2, Tar Heel Land”
Laura’s Mini was up for routine maintenance. One of the problems we discovered when we moved up here was that the nearest Mini Cooper dealership was all the way down in Seattle. Regardless, we made a morning appointment for Tuesday of this week. Since we were already down in the Seattle area, we began looking for other things to do in town. We settled on the Museum of Pop Culture. Continue reading “A Visit to the Museum of Pop Culture”
Duff, Linda, and their daughter Kayla were over at the house one evening this past week and mentioned that the Great Chicken Parade would be taking place in Edison on Sunday. We knew that we just had to go. Continue reading “The Great Edison Chicken Parade”
The “small world syndrome” always catches me off-guard. At the Bellingham Folk Festival I met musicians that live in Asheville and frequently play in Greenville. Even just meeting someone who has visited South Carolina, much less my home town, makes me feel a connection. As I’ve found out, though, the Southern connections with the Pacific Northwest are even deeper than I had thought. Continue reading “PNW Southern Connections – Part 1, The Lost Cause”
The past several days we have had the coldest weather for this winter. Snow has made its way down to the lower elevations, but for us it’s just been rain and wind. Even so, we were able to get out and about a bit. Here are some of the photos that just didn’t make it into other blog posts. Continue reading “Random Skagit – Volume 4”
We’ve been living on Samish Island for six months now, halfway through our sojourn here. As I’ve been writing about our experiences I’ve been tossing out lots of place names. For my friends back home I thought it might be helpful to review the geography of the area. Continue reading “A Skagit Geography Primer”
I was on an old-fashioned ramble, much like the ones I used to do back in South Carolina. I was visiting the site of Northern State Hospital, a former mental asylum that is purportedly haunted. So far I had visited the hospital’s on-site cemetery, but now I was ready to explore the park that surrounds the hospital. Continue reading “A Visit to Northern State – Part 2, The Recreation Area”
Laura and I were working on her mother’s estate and had an appointment in town with an insurance agent. We arrived a bit early, so Laura suggested that we try to find the old Northern State Hospital just outside of Sedro-Woolley. It had been featured Ghost Hunters, one of Laura’s favorite shows, so she wanted to see it. When we arrived we found only open space and ruins. We had to get back for our appointment, but I had seen enough to know that it warranted another visit. So the next morning I paid a visit to the old mental asylum. Continue reading “A Visit to Northern State – Part 1, History and Cemetery”
