Dear Reader:

Summerville has turned into a beautiful fairy land of flowers and colors of every kind imaginable. These days when I turn into my neighborhood…heading to 100 Rainbow Road…I give a silent prayer of thanks for being alive and for living in this charming and alluring town in South Carolina. Spring turns Summerville into a flower town of unparalleled beauty.

As I talked to Bernadette, wife of Martin Wright, the Irish sculptor and artist…she described their home town with the same fervor as I feel when describing Summerville. Beauty is always in the eye and heart of the beholder.

I had a few moments before the people began coming in to the art show and sale… to take some pictures of the artists…and talk to Martin about his love of the beauty that surrounds him in Ireland and his love of the bogs. He showed me a poem a famous Irish poet (Seasmus Heaney) wrote about growing up near the bogs and his love for them.

” Butter sunk under, more than a hundred years Was recovered salty and white The ground itself is kind, black butter.

Martin explained to me that every display of peat artistically is like a snowflake…there are no two designs alike. Here is a picture of the one I bought.

He also added an explanation about how the Irish bogs were formed and the connection to peat. (Today the mantra is “Peat for Heat” – Peat is a fuel source for making fires to heat Irish homes and for cooking.)

Peat is a soil that is made up of the partially decomposed remains of dead plants. Over thousands of year, these plants have accumulated on top of each other in waterlogged places. Raised bogs were formed at the end of the last ice age, which is about 10,000 years ago. 

At this time central Ireland was covered by shallow lakes left behind by the melting ice. Over the centuries, poor drainage and the build up of dead plants created layer upon layer of peat. Dead moss is the most important plant in the formation of peat. 

And here are the artists of the hour…(L to R) Susan Baughman, Donna Boerema, Anne Peterson, and Martin De Porres Wright. They laughingly refer to themselves as “Three Beauties and a Bloke.”

Music was provided by Anne and friends…actually a mixture of two different bands Anne plays with…so she said they were all “just friends jammin’ and having fun.

*…And now here comes the conclusion to a mystery painting that has been in the making for awhile…A few weeks back Anne sent me this beginning sketch and asked if I knew who took this picture of me at the beach.

I could hardly even remember this photo…Brooke took it while the Ya’s were at Edisto about a year ago…I thought I had seen a dolphin and went to check…Brooke grabbed my iPhone and took the picture. Anne must have marked it or saved it or found it again on an old blog post…but wow did she turn it into something else so deep and meaningful.

If you look carefully you see the ocean is turbulent closest to me and shore…but the farther out you go the more peaceful and beautifully blue and calm the water is…I am not looking down at the immediate turbulence in my life but instead gazing out to the unknown …the future where peace and calm prevail.

Anne named it “Carolina Girl” and plans to take money from the sale of it and make a donation to the Race for the Cure…she had me in tears. So yesterday I was the mystery “Carolina Girl” showing my best side…my back side! 🙂 *I was joking when Anne took the photo yesterday…asking “Who me?” “You think that is me?”

Life is so wonderful…sometimes I am afraid to blink less it be over that quickly. Thank you Anne from the bottom of my heart.

Anne is dropping the Wrights off tomorrow in Charleston. They are staying at a bed and breakfast downtown Charleston to see the sights before flying back home to Ireland. As much as I know they will enjoy the next couple of days…I, also, know they will be excited to go home again…or like the advertisement on the art show read:

IRELAND AND HOME AGAIN

So until tomorrow…As we all return home…let us remember to always return home to ourselves

TO COME HOME TO YOURSELF –  John O’Donohue

“May all that is unforgiven in you,
Be released.

May your fears yield
Their deepest tranquilities.

May all that is unlived in you,
Blossom into a future,
Graced with love.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

A Visual Ode to Summerville

***I think the old riddle here should be…”How many cousins does it take to blow out one’s birthday candles?”  Lachlan was under the weather last week but made a last minute rally for his friends, cousins, and classmates ….who all came to his “kid-friendly” birthday party. Everyone had a blast.