So many experiences and no time to share....

We are loving Darien and South Georgia. The absolute best feature is everything cultural...from the food, the expectations, the rules for behaviour, the sharing and the comfort and friendship extended to us by those who don't know us at all. Nothing is a secret in this county...nothing!

Here is a short story told by one neighbor and confirmed by the wife involved. A neighbor and her husband owned two grocery stores in the area. The husband has died and there is now only one operating grocery store. The husband, before he died, had a number of mistresses which everyone in the area knew about. Besides "servicing" him, this last mistress also kept his books at the grocery stores.

While the wife worked, the mistress "took care" of her husband and this continued through his decline and death. The mistress was kept very well by this man and,  he gave her many hundreds of thousands of dollars, a new home, and various cars. When he died, the mistress appeared at the funeral home, at the grave side ceremony and also came over to the wife's house for the meal after the funeral. An elderly lady, not related to either, suggested mistress lady might want to leave before  someone killed her. Met the wife last night and she is in financial distress and told me this story which I had heard but she added some flavor I hadn't heard.

I didn't know her or the husband or their names so didn't connect the dots from the story told to me earlier by another neighbor. When she indicated that before her husband's death, he gave of their property willingly to others. I thought that, "lovely" and she disagreed. This wasn't philanthropic giving but, as she explained, giving to specific people in return for "services." Her son, with a traumatic brain injury lives next door to her with his wife. He cannot work and she won't. So, the mother in law helps keep them in the home her husband built for them and gave them outright. The mom in law, using her social security benefits, is struggling. The daughter in law's parents live four houses down and though they help their sons, they won't help the daughter and her husband who has been unwilling to get disability though he will not ever "be right in the head." Why? Because it "looks bad" even though he worked for 38 of his 52 years and gave into the system. So, the old lady, who is taking care of her son is going to lose her house and her son's house soon. Tragic. I suggested maybe they could live in one home because both are quite large. Mom in law said, "never." Her son has a brain injury but at least HE has a brain! His wife...not so much.By the way...the wife knew her husband was having affairs and had hired his mistress and gave away much of their money. She said..."Men are animals and she thought he would get over it."

The daughter in law burned leaves yesterday. She waited until the wind was blowing our way and directly into the yard of our neighbor. This continued full force for 10+ hours and into this morning. They don't like each other...so she waited til the wind blew in the direction that would cause the most rift in the 'hood." She told me she had waited on purpose.

Flowers are so beautiful here but it is getting very hot and they are wilting. The good news is that the sand gnats are dying off and I was told that the team, the Sand Gnats of Savannah are just as "annoying" as the bug which is why the team was named this. Not sure about that but fun.

Darien...more

These flowers are outside of our front door...love looking at them. The spring flowers and bushes here are so colorful and so abundant. I am betting even I could grow these without killing everything.

 

 

I have NO clue why the text above is underlined...cannot seem to get it to go away. Our neighbors, Willie and Phyllis have been wonderful. Today, Phyllis and I went into Darien to the library. They were having a $1 per bag book sale and I bought two bags of books...23 in total. Yup....$2.00 and they will keep us reading for the next few weeks.

Tim hasn't crabbed before and he was a bit off put when he found that Richard was cutting open a package of chicken necks to use to bait the traps. Really...can YOU find a package of chicken necks at your grocery store? Cost: $2.15 for 1.75 pounds of chicken necks.

Tim learned to shell a crab and we will have crab cakes for dinner tomorrow. We learned that IF we crabbed off the neighbor's dock across the street, that instead of capturing stone crabs, we would find blue crabs galore. The stone crabs have to have only one claw cut off and then, they are thrown back to regenerate. Blue crabs...get the whole guy. YUM

Tim was able to see our dolphins who came to play this evening. I am a horrid photographer and couldn't catch them as they surfaced...but here are their fins. We look for these guys about 100 times a day and are so excited when they come near.  

Darien....Ft. McAllister and more

 I keep thinking that I must have my photo taken because I have so many of other visitors and of the scenery and ten years from next Friday...who will believe that I was really here??

Below, find our "typical" sunset. It is tough, but we have to look at these gorgeous sunsets and often, like tonight, the dophins are out celebrating the end of the day. Hoping my photos from tonight show these guys. Another day's posting...you WILL see them.

 
This is one of the huge live oak trees at Fort McAllister. The guide said these are hundreds of years old.

 

This photo gives you a bit of perspective. The tree's knees have folded back down and are skirting the ground. Many have grown up into new tree trunks. Very unusual and very interesting.

Fort McAllister, Georgia

 Fort McAllister is just south of Savannah and an interesting fort with an interesting history. This massive earthwork was erected by the Confederate Army to protect Savannah and the rice and cotton plantations that bordered the Ogeechee Ricer. This fort withstood at least seven naval attacks made by the north, including withstanding the largest guns used by the Union Naval forces.

 The whole fort was created underground...in land berms. Impossible to see the fighters and the placement of the cannons was also strategically designed. The center huge berm was the hospital and was called the "Central Bombproof" area and is where the soldiers would be sheltered during a bombardment. Munitions and supplies were also kept below ground.

 The sallys and the munitions were also kept below ground.

 And while it looks like there is a moat around the whole fort, it is filled with huge poles to impale attacking forces.

I thought I would take a photo of us together so folks would know that we really were on vacation together. We are so often travelling apart. This was a chilly but sunfilled day. We had planned to go to Sapelo Island but we figured we would wait for a warmer day to do that trip.

Richard thought it interesting that some of the rifles were sighted to hit as far as 900 yards away...2700 feet, which he could not imagine. This photo below shows where the naval ships would have entered the Ogeechee and where the Confederate soldiers would have stood at the ready.

The South...gotta love it

Cultural differences amuse me…we are in the good ole US of A and yet…things are so different in so many ways. For example…yesterday, I met a lady out walking her dog. Nancy and I hit it off and I was mentioning that our neighbor, Bud had just gotten out of the Marines and had been here visiting us. She asked where he had been stationed and I told her Albany…she said, “Albany, NY?”  I said, “No, Albany, Ga.” She laughed and said, “No…that is Al-bee-knee. You aren’t pronouncing it correctly!

And when we talked about where to go to eat, she suggested that we try MudCats which we had heard about before. As we talked, she asked, “if y’all imbibe spirits?” After I answered in the affirmative, she said to talk with Carrie, the bartender, and tell her that Nancy sent us. Then, we should order our drink, saying we wanted a MudCat Special. That would be whatever we wanted to drink but served in a large 16 oz Styrofoam cup. Cost is the same as if we had ordered the usual, say gin and tonic in a small glass….but larger! “Locals know how to order here,” she said. So, tonight, we are going to go out and meet Carrie and “Sample the blackened grouper…which is REAL grouper. Not the fake fish you get up north.”

I must admit, when Nancy asked if we imbibe spirits, I did have a momentary vision of our breathing in ethereal spirit figures which would make us much more powerful and energetic. The language is fun here.

Signs here are fascinating. I love the Biblical verse that is on the front of an electric sign in front of a nasty used car business…the back of the board says, “Repent.” The front changes daily and there is no sign indicating cars are for sale, nor is there an indication of cost of the vehicles. Guess you just know…if you are a local. And then, after dinner at MudCat Charlies tonight, we went to check out the condos nearby. The speed limit? 11 miles per hour on the road sign. Don’t think I ever saw a sign for 11 mph anywhere.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that Bud, our Florida neighbor and marine came to visit. While here, he and Richard went kayaking and caught some trout.When Bud arrived, this is how he looked! Way handsome. He had just come from an interview with The Southern Company, a company in which we own stock! Hoping he gets a job offer from them.

The Saturday after St. Patrick's Day, Shellman Bluff had a St. Paddy's Day celebration with floats and all kinds of stuff for sale. Think...week after the actual date for the celebration??? And I loved this judge's booth...bribe us?

We decided to not stay for the event for a couple of reasons, including the fact that we didn't have a golf cart. Golf carts are apparently required and what is critical is that it is loaded on the back of one's pick up and off loaded. No less than six people in each golf cart either. And the other reason we didn't stay was that the sky opened up into a torrential downpour. We had seen enough in any event. 10 a.m. and the green beer was everywhere...any day is a good day for a celebration, right?

The Low Country....S. Georgia

 This area of S. Georgia is spectacularly poor and wonderfully historical and beautiful. Never really considered the history of this state vis a vis the Civil War, slavery and its economic impact on the rest of the country. The flowers are in full bloom and there are outrageously scattered bushes abloom everywhere. Color is radiantly exhibited all around. Love it.

We stopped at another sugar mill ruin and here are a few of the tabby walls, made of sea shells, clay and made into the walls of this building from the 1800's..

The building looks like it was a two story ediface but I couldn't see any evidence left of how one got to the top. Stairs declined first?

 As we drove to this building near Harris Neck, we passed many signs that make me chuckle. I mentioned on Facebook, passing the "Dead people's stuff on sale here" sign in one community. Another street sign? Hell's Gate Lane. Wouldn't you like to live on that street? And Hell's Gate Lane was not near the "Slow Church" sign. Is that a church for those contemplating the Bible slowly? Is for the elderly who cannot move very quickly? Or, if you become a member of that church, will it take awhile to learn all they have to teach? A church that type A personalities should not join? Made me laugh.

I have lived in the Bible belt before but I am reminded anew of the number of small churches here. I asked a neighbor lady if the majority of the churches in McIntosh County are functional. She indicated that even the smallest of the churches serving the poorest of people are up and running...feeding, clothing, helping with kids and preaching. These aren't churches, these are families.

I have found it interesting that there appears to be a fairly large number of Jehovah's Witness churches around, which I didn't expect. She said this is newer to the Low Country but it won't take off here because, "they don't know our ways." I didn't get more specific but she made a harrumph sound that said it all!

 

***This thistle got my attention. It isn't the smallest I have seen, but about two feet tall and flowering. I would not want to run into one of these or step on them. HUGE!

 

Phyllis, a lady three houses down introduced me to her hairstylist. Annette works out of her home in a beauty shop smaller than our cottage living room but with two chair hair dryers, two seats for "company" and a hair washing/setting/waxing chair. Very efficient. Best yet...the conversation. Phyllis has a standing every Thursday at 11 a.m. appointment. Her hair is washed, put into rollers, dried, teased, sprayed and combed out. That plus a chin wax and tip...$17.00! The standing noon appointment arrived and, no surprise, she was an old neighbor of Phyllis' and the three women caught up on life since last Thursday and asked me about my life and how I get my chin and lip waxed. I don't do either...brows, yes. I came back and looked in the mirror and guess when I go back on Tuesday for my hair appointment that I may get the whole face done just to see how different I will look.

 

While with Phyllis at the beauty parlor, I got a recipe for crab pie from the 12:30 appointment lady, also an old friend of the two ladies getting beautified. Bought the crab today and now...I have to find a pie pan. None here.

Darien, S. Georgia

 It is a tough vacation, but someone has to suffer and it is I! This is a typical sunset off of our higher deck...we have three deck levels here. The lowest is for fishing and boating, the middle for sitting and bird watching and the highest? For whatever one feels like doing. Grilling. Sitting. Bird or dolphin watching. Sunset viewing. Whatever...it is perfect!

 Darien is a shrimping community and here are a line of shrimp boats at the downtown marina. Smells horrid...but the shrimp, fresh daily are spectacularly lovely. Bought some yesterday from a man sitting at a gas station that the neighbor highly recommends. Lynn and I approached the pick up truck and noticed the man was napping. We walked on to check out the shrimp boats and then, went back and woke him up. We bought two pounds of shrimp...heads already off.

What's not to like about this view?

Boats of all types and sizes here. Our plan today is to figure out how to access fresh oysters and how to capture some ourselves. Richard got a fishing license, good for a year but it doesn't cover shrimp. Appears to cover bivalves though. We shall check with the neighbor. Willie and Phyllis, his wife, are the caretakers of the house we are renting.