Sampling Charleston Cuisine

Shem's Creek runs between Mt. Pleasant (where we're camping) and the City of Charleston.  This waterfront watering spot came highly recommended - and we can understand why.....

Great views, great oysters & great shrimp.  We'll be working our way through the menu!


Fred looks like he's planning his attack.

heading to Charleston

just a quick stop at our favorite one-night-stand:  South of the Border.  It's so tacky you can't help but laugh - and the campground is actually very nice!  what a surprise.

This was the perfect preparation for a visit to the elegant and genteel City of Charleston.

Can't believe that we've skipped over this stop on every trip to South Carolina (we get caught in the fabulous beach and go NOWHERE!).  This time we planned time to explore Charleston at leisure - and have loved our visit so far.   It is really a beautiful city with so much to see

 Loved this old, moldy cemetery   -

 and "rainbow row" of fancy painted in-town homes.

and the ever-present Palmetto palm does lend
a feeling of the tropics.  The weather has been
perfect....

As we walked we noticed that the houses started getting LARGER as we walked toward The Battery.

One house was more amazing then the next!

 There were "construction" permits everywhere -
pity the poor homeowner who has to perpetually maintain these mammoth homes!  It has to be endless!



Local realty offices had lots of homes to offer in the $1M to $9M range.

Probably not a likely match for us!  Especially since Fred has sworn off all renovations!

We left the Battery and wandered through the
 French Quarter  - smaller homes, but still amazing!


The city is famous for its wrought iron work - much of it is very old, and hand forged - and it's everywhere.

 Tiny courtyards - beautifully landscaped -  yards that run from one house right up to the wall of the next.


This is  a   "single" - with a door on the street, that
 opens onto a small foyer area and the classic southern side porch.  It's a style repeated over and over - in all sizes -  modest to massive.  The door looks like a normal "house" door, except there's no "house" behind it - just porch.

The Dash Trolley was a great way to hop around town - best of all it's free!


And in our travels we stumbled across "Hank's"  -  and couldn't resist taking this photo to share with our Portland / camping friends who love Charleston and seafood.... Hank & Cheryl!

And, there's lots more to explore!  I'll be back soon

contact information

While we wander around with no fixed address, we've hired a mail service to collect incoming mail, and send batches on to us - wherever we may be.

So for the next several months our official mailing address is

Anita & Fred Palsgrove

411 Walnut Street - # 7455

Green Cove Springs, Fl 32043

Anita: 207-677-3337

Fred: 207-592-5060

pemaquid373@gmail.com

We hope you'll stay in touch!

FINALLY - heading south

The dust is still settling  - and we're looking forward to some time to process the wild 60 days of September & October:

We listed the house for sale (after talking about it for several years).  Our trip to Northampton to celebrate the wedding of two wonderful young people was the perfect time to start showing the house.  Little did we suspect that the house would sell so quickly - that same weekend!

So on September 1st our house looked like this:



  

  but on October 20th it looked like this:

we sold what we could - donated what was left, and stashed a small amount of irreplaceable things (like rocks and rusty metal for some future assemblage art project, and, of course,  Fred's pottery) in the teeny tiny storage unit. Being "unfettered" means to leave nothing behind.  We got close.

So in a 60-day period we went from this:

to this :

.......... from a 1 cat household, to an 8 cat household (thanks to our rescue Siamese, Mishka, who came into our lives with a BIG secret)

Her babies arrived on September 3rd - on a camping trip.  These babies are destined to be good travelers.  We found homes for 5 babies in October (while we were finding homes for our furniture & personal belongings)  But one kitty stayed with us.  This is Sophie - truly born under a wandering star

 So after a brief visit in MA with friends, a brief visit in PA w/ Fred's family - and a brief visit in MD w/ my family, we are FINALLY headed to warmer climates to reflect on our new life choice as nomads -  

We look forward to planning our travels for the spring, toward sharing time in Florida with visiting friends & family, and we plan to be back in Maine for July, August and September -  but that's a long way off.  For now, we have no property responsibilities, no mortgage or obligations.  It's a strange feeling....  and our heads are still spinning.  But, we are finally Tumbleweeds.

Fiber College in Maine - and more family members arrive

The first week in September is a gathering of Fiber Artists in Searsport - about and hour and a half from our home.  The gathering takes place in our favorite campground, Searsport Shores, on Penobscot Bay.  This year they hosted the famous Gee's Bend quilters - and my friend,  Cheryl Lawson, posted a wonderful blog about these amazing women and their legacy

( you can see her Gee's Bend photos
and the backstory of Fiber College at

  http://22applegatelane.blogspot.com/

The sewing machines were humming - and the Ladies were harmonizing with soulful hymns - and the colors were eye-popping.  I hovered around the edges watching (since I'm not a serious quilter).  At lunchtime I returned to our campsite to discover Mishka was having her kittens!

6 beautiful kittens !

at 3-days old I could hold three in my palm.

a new family member

We lost our beautiful Sasha in early July, and by the end of the month (with the help of the internet) Fred had located a young rescued Siamese in need of a family.

Mishka & Ivan enjoying a truce on the porch

She was moved to the Portland area, from Northern Maine, and we fell in love at first sight.  This is Mishka -  and she settled right in.


We began to notice that she was picking up weight quickly - too quickly?  And within 2 weeks she looks like this

and then we got suspicious!  but she had a spay certificate from the Shelter!

so.... there is more news coming.