Heather & Chopper's Wonderful World of ...

Middleton Place

Heather — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:20:48 +0000

We took Athene (visiting for a week) out to Middleton Place today. It may be July in Charleston, but it wasn’t that hot, surprisingly. Yes, it was 90-something, but there was a nice breeze off the water and it wasn’t too humid. At any rate, it was nice in the shade. Middleton is one of my favorite places to photograph, and although there isn’t much blooming at this time of year, the gardens are rich, green, and gorgeous.

I love the geometric layout of the formal gardens.

The wood nymph is the oldest marble statue on the grounds and the iconic work identified with Middleton. I’ve photographed her every time I’ve visited and she never looks the same twice.

I hadn’t ever seen this little statue, tucked away in some bushes away from the museum.

I lucked out with this one. I held the camera up over the sundial and just aimed.

There were dragonflies everywhere – green, red, and blue – and so impossibly fast that I didn’t really get any great photos – except this one, where the dragonfly was thoughtfully posting on top of an iron heron in the middle of a reflecting pool.

This frog had found the perfect patch of sunlight in the well house.

Lazy squirrel is lazy.

This white ibis decided that walking away from us on the path was easier than flying.

And finally, this great egret had no fear of us, even if the sidewalk led right by his preferred spot.

Waterfalls

Heather — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 22:51:26 +0000

We spent yesterday hiking around upstate South Carolina for waterfalls and visited two, Lower Whitewater Falls and Twin Falls. Lower Whitewater was by far the hardest to get to — a 6 mile round trip with a hell of a lot of changes in elevation (at least for wimpy me). It was worth it though. Twin Falls is about a quarter of a mile away from the parking lot, and honestly, it was prettier.

This is Twin Falls. This is one of my favorite photos of the week for this year. Yowsa.

Wild blackberries were everywhere on the hike to Lower Whitewater Falls.

We crossed the Whitewater River below the falls.

This mushroom isn’t going to let a little moss get in its way.

The payoff after 3 miles: Lower Whitewater Falls. Duke Power built a nice observation platform which is about even with the falls on the other side of the gorge.

The walk to Twin Falls can hardly be called a hike. Nice, easy trail all along the river.

So gorgeous. There’s an observation deck, and with some scrambling, you can get literally right up to the falls.

See?

More photos from the trip here.