So, I'm not in Jersey anymore
Yesterday, TurtleDevo & I went to the Sesquicentennial Park,
just outside of Columbia, SC


Naturally, we arrived by scooter
We parked next to an occupied playing field


This was located in a pine forest and contained nice picnic facilities


The pines here are different,
they have long (~8") pine needles that hang down off of the trees under them,
sort of like Spanish Moss

Here's a grove of cute little baby pine trees


They had a lake in the center of the park, which was chock full of living things,
but no alligators (at least not that I spotted)


This is me, contemplating whether anyone in their right mind
would want to swim or wade in the lake

We hiked around the lake
It was pleasantly cool (85-88) and we encountered surprisingly few mosquitoes

These are rental paddle boats, lined up along the lake's shore


This is the boat house, where one could have rented boats,
if it had been open


It was built by FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps


Last shot from the park--the American Flag flying with a faded SC flag under it

_________________
~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

Yay! A new chapter in Turtle's adventures begins!

_________________
Jess
PIAGGIO BV500 for sale!!!!

Thanks, Catskill!

_________________
~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

Charleston is only 115 miles away. . . it's wonderful on a Vespa and Savannah too. . .

Yes, indeed!
I'm really looking forward to going there

This was a "warm-up trip"

TurtleDevo hasn't been riding much
and has been exhausting himself fixing up the new house

In fact,
we almost missed this trip, since we had trouble starting his GTS

_________________
~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

We had a lovely Labor Day Weekend

The big project for the weekend was to start the raised beds for our backyard garden
These are the 1st two of six:




I also managed to drag Turtle Devo off on a ride to Lake Wateree, near Columbia

On the way we discovered a marvelous garden center
Our scooters parked there:


There:


Some of the nice plant displays there:



After this we went off to Lake Wateree at maximum warp, not stopping for pictures

The biggest highlight of our trip had to be
the enormous, wild-looking mother pig
trotting along the country road leading to the lake

And trotting alongside her
were 6-8 piglets (good-sized, but tiny compared to her)


The riding near the lake was great--very scenic, decent roads, and mostly twisties--
the area shaded in green:


A picture of the lake at sunset (not mine):


We only had time to see a bit of the lake; we hope to return

_________________
~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

SC is a whole different way of living than NJ. Do you like sweet tea and barbecue? Very nice pictures! Welcome to the South!

Southern food is great, but makes it tough to lose weigh

Thanks Camper!!

_________________
~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

Not really scooter-related, but just HAD to celebrate!

The first bed of our garden is planted, using tried & true
(water-permeable) landscape cloth & cut-hanger technology

_________________
~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

I agree with this statement.



Very nice turtle! For my landscape gardens, I use the fabric on the top of the soil then, I lay my soaker hose then I cover it all with about 4 " of mulch. For my veggie gardens, I do what you did and put the fabric on the bottom. It's such wonderful stuff! I don't think any kind of Gardner should be with out it! Looks great. I have two raised beds in different parts of my yard, one for veggies and one for just herbs. The soil up here is great for Pine Trees but that's about it. Lots of compost and horse maneur went into my raised beds over the years. I'd imagine you had to do some serious ammending to the soil down there too, no?

_________________
Jess
PIAGGIO BV500 for sale!!!!

Yup, the soil here is almost straight sand
Apparently this used to be a beach

We're mixing it 50/50 with bagged stuff
and will be amending it with compost (once we actually have compost)
This will be a pretty slow process, since we'll be adding more beds soon

And that large trunk in the picture is the bottom of a very tall, long-leaf pine tree
Pines do VERY well here


PS--Normally we do use mulch, but we're heading into our first winter here
and aren't sure whether mold could be a problem

The locals use "pine straw" (long pine needles) as a mulch,
but we're not keen on doing that
So we're doing cedar bark mulch around the flower beds and waiting to see how that works

Anyone here from the southern climes who might know?

_________________
~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

Love your pictures!

_________________

The Irmo Okra Strut was today!

Missed the parade, but made it to the festival
TurtleDevo was busy planting peonies, so I went alone

The scooter parked amid the law enforcement vehicles:


The Okra Dude himself
(sponsered by the Rotary Club, which is big here):


The band that was playing
(and advocating fair taxes by getting rid of the IRS):


Various commercial establishments had a big presence,
including Gold's Gym:


Rides:

That last one was an inflatable slide for the kids

A good time was had by all
(despite the clouds)

_________________
~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

Went to the Swan Lake Iris Garden in Sumter on Sunday
TurtleDevo finally agreed to leave off puttering around the yard for this one

Incidentally, our garden is growing and now looks like this:


So,
on to the trip:


The "pond" was more like a managed swamp with lots of cool lake birds


It was also turtle heaven






I looked it up
& that last one is a Spiny Softshell Turtle,
according to: http://scaquarium.org/Exhibits/animalDB.aspx?id=34

They look like this when you can see all of them:

_________________
~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

Today, I went to the Italian Festival at Finlay Park in downtown Columbia
TurtleDevo was down with the flu, so I went alone

I parked near the entrance with the other scooters
There's an Aprilia Atlantic behind mine


There was a Boccie tournament going on
and behind that is Pinocchio playing on the stage


There were also a lot of folks examining some really beautiful Italian vehicles



And Finlay Park itself is beautiful


So... a very successful outing

_________________
~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~