Beach Birthday

Yesterday, my birthday, began with cupcakes for breakfast.

That set a decidedly decadent tone for the day, in which special cards were presented to me (this one I will never part with),

My favorite flowers filled our house in my favorite spots,

and at mid-morning we decided that it was time for the beach.

We spent an hour or so beach combing, collecting bits and pieces from the sea, here is what we found,

 can you believe the variety of color? Those blue crab claws are stunning!!

Taking a moment to just think and BE at the beach was probably my favorite part of the day,

Then in the evening Frank and I headed out to dinner, in a wild rain storm,

We had dinner at an amazing restaurant called Husk in a old renovated mansion in downtown Charleston, like something from another era,

where we sat on the front porch talking after dinner, enjoying the feeling of being outside on a warm night in a beautiful city after a rain storm.

Riding

Check out my new wheels! I bought myself a mint-teal beach bike this week, one speed and smooth as can be. Here we are out in front of our new house (see those three windows together on the right, that's my new studio!). I love riding with Carys's bike seat on the back of my bike, the two of us have little conversations about the things that we are passing as we ride.

Our new neighborhood is very bikeable, with slow cars and side walks, this is Jasper's first experience of riding on streets so we are extra careful.

 

Our favorite family bike ride so far has been down to the old Pit Street Bridge, a wide pedestrian cause-way out into the bay where you can wander on little trails down to the ocean and a kayak launching area,

Do you see the group of people behind me in this picture...

They are kayakers just hanging out on a beach on a little uninhabited island, they totally made me want to rent a kayak...we just might have to this weekend, it looks like so much fun.

The Pit Street Bridge goes way out, so that finally you have water on either side of you, with little benches and places to fish,

Then back again down the Palm lined cause-way,

One of my favorite houses in our neighborhood is right at the start of the bridge, it looks like a rambling tree house for grown-ups,

Tucked right in under an amazing old live Oak on the edge of the water. I'll have to do a post just on the old trees down here, there are amazing!

New Painting: Glade

Glade

I finished this painting two weeks before we left New York, so that's just over a month ago, in the flurry of activity that preceded our departure.  It is painted on a canvas that I covered first with cheesecloth for texture. This is a full blown "springtime" painting, with its riot of color bursting from a quiet ground. Just as we are about to celebrate the summer solstice and the first day of official summertime here tomorrow.

I'm seeing bits of discovery within this painting, passages that I am enjoying and looking forward to exploring more when I begin painting here....although I'm still slow to set up the studio. I am thinking that perhaps this will be a summer of gathering ideas for me instead of painting. I think of those times, the times of focus within, as sowing seeds for the crop from which I will harvest my inspiration and ideas when I begin working again. Sometimes that's just the work that needs to be done.

My favorite room

Welcome to our screened in porch, a room that is half way between indoors and outdoors. It was my favorite room in our new house from the first time we were ever here! In fact I had a picture of this room up as my computer "wallpaper" while we were still in Brooklyn getting ready to move...helping me to hold onto what we were moving to.
Now that we are really settling into the new house, this room has become the place where the kids like to hang out most often. It has also become the room where we bring nature in. Jasper's frog lives out here on the bookshelf in his aquarium, and really Froggy has looked so happy since we put him out here, its so different than living in an aquarium in a Brooklyn bedroom!
Also, since arriving here Jasper has discovered the many small lizards who crawl around our new yard and spends much time trying to trap them and make them his pets. We keep them in this tank, and then release them a few days later, after he has studied them thoroughly...

The window sills in this room have become a place where our circle rock collection is growing,

and for bits of things from the sea.

This afternoon it was transformed into the staging area for creating extravagant Father's Day cards to surprise Frank with tomorrow morning,

The kid's crafting table and art supplies found a place out here as I am still setting up my studio, and even though I had ideas about having their art space in my new studio, their table just might remain out on the screened in porch,

it really is a space that lends itself to creating as it floats in golden light on long hot afternoons.

Unpacking

So, you've probably noticed the I've been posting a lot about the great outdoors here but not so much about our new house, well, that's because it still looks a whole lot like this picture.

The unpacking is going slowly, and can be hard to face when I'd rather spend time out side and ignore all that there is to do!

This is my new studio in our home, it is more than twice the size of my old space, so that is really exciting, and it is right off of our kitchen so I like that it is in the heart of our home.  I am adding a kid's art space within my studio here, but that is taking more time to organize, the going is slow. I did find that beautiful blue glass lamp on my desk at a furniture store here last week. It was love at first sight, and its a start, inspiring and motivating me to think of what it will be like when I can start creating in this room!

Sullivan's Island

Just a short five minute drive from our new house is our local and new favorite beach, on Sullivan's Island, a quiet beach community with a laid back tropical vibe. Bungalows line the quiet streets,

You simply pull your car off and park in the sand where ever you find a spot,

Then you walk on the boardwalk out to the ocean across the dunes,

Its amazing how much beach gear we end up bringing to the beach, I'm learning how to streamline our beach routine, by the end of the summer I should be a pro!

The beach is wide and beautiful, with warm water,

The huge reason that Sullivan's Island is our favorite beach so far is the huge sandbar between the beach and the open ocean that creates an inlet that is calm and pretty shallow, perfect with the kids. The inlet is also full of sea life, yesterday we found sand dollars, hermit crabs, conchs, lots of shells and a star fish who hugged each of our hands as we held him!

The inlet is also where we swam with dolphins last week, they swam past us in the shallow water, only ten feet away from us and then they swam around out to the ocean side of the inlet where we jumped in the water with them again. I wish that I had photos, it was amazing! People here say that the dolphins are frequent visitors so hopefully as the summer goes on I'll have more dolphin sightings to share.

Each time at this beach has been so special so far, we can't wait to share it with friends as they come to visit!

and each time we leave we can't wait to go back again tomorrow!

Shem Creek

Just a two minute drive, or a short bike drive, away from our new house is an inlet from the sea called Shem Creek. It is where all of the fishing boats dock after a day of hard work. You can go there to watch the boats, buy fish right off of the boat or to eat dinner at one of the many restaurants on the piers.

The other evening we went there at sunset, and we were treated to watching dolphins frolick in the warm waters, both Jasper and Carys were thrilled.

Then we ate a yummy dinner of fish tacos, at a table right next to the water. Where our waitress told us that the dolphins come every evening, and the manatees are also a common sighting!

Now the kids have been asking to go back every night for dinner, and the natural "animal show".

At our local beach on Saturday we had another surprising encounter, we swam with dolphins just 10 feet away from us in a shallow inlet, more on that later!