Hunting Island State Park and Lighthouse

Hunting Island is South Carolina's most popular state park.  The island has 5 miles of beach, maritime forest, a saltwater lagoon and thousands of acres of marsh and tidal creeks.  The lighthouse was built in 1859. 

A Scrooge Family Christmas: A Christmas Pageant

 

I have been directing a play for the Children's Express Theatre with a cast of 34 children, youth and adults.  It is a parody based on Charles Dickens' characters from "The Christmas Carol."   Instead of one Scrooge, we have a modern day Scrooge family.  There is the Spirit of Christmas Present; the Spirits of Christmas Future and the Spirit of Christmas Past who explains the real meaning of Christmas.  There will only be one performance but it will be video recorded for You Tube.

Coastal Wetlands of Lake Huron

 

 

I am always posting pictures of Florida marshes and wetlands but the great lakes also have beautiful wetlands.

"Ends of the Earth" Port Austin Harbor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These pictures are posted in sequence of my walk.  I love the aqua waters of Lake Huron against a endless horizon.  Located at the tip of the thumb of Michigan, Port Austin is know for fishing i.e. lake trout, walleye, yellow perch, smallmouth bass, brown trout, salmon and steelhead.  It was a quiet and rainy day with very few people at the pier.  One of the best walks for scenery if you enjoy walking to the "ends of the earth."

There is a band "Lord Huron" that named themselves after Lake Huron.  One of their songs is entitled "Ends of the Earth"

"Oh, there's a river that winds on forever
I'm gonna see where it leads
Oh, there's a mountain that no man has mounted
I'm gonna stand on the peak"

Shaconage "Blue, Like Smoke"

I set my camera to take black and white pictures of the cloudy mountain peaks.  The clouds were so thick you could not see the mountain range or even the steep cliffs.  It was a visual "smoke without fire" effect.  The Cherokees called the Smoky Mountains Shaconage meaning "Blue, Like smoke." 

Wagener County Park - Beware!

Wagener County Park was not very crowded and the view from the shoreline was beautiful but there is a problem with this park, it is a health hazard for anyone camping there and using the beach.  There were children dressed in swimsuits at the campsite and I don't know how it could be enjoyable when you have to watch every step you take.  The beach is not a clean beach; there were animal feces all over the sand. It is not a bathing beach; it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the beach sand contains more fecal bacteria than seawater.  I don't like it when people walk their dogs at the beaches in St. Augustine.  Even if the owners clean up after the dogs, it still contaminates the sand.  I hate to ruin someone's visit to the beach this weekend but be warned.  Multiple scientific tests have detected high levels of fecal bacterial in sand.  Beach authorities routinely monitor beach water for high levels of bacterial but they don't monitor the sand so sun bathers beware! 

Sand and Water

The beach after high tide... geometric shapes of sand and water.

Sea Flowers Lake Huron

 

These are some of the flowers growing wild at Wagener Park and private beach sites on Lake Huron, Michigan.

Morning Solitude

 

A different morning, a new sunrise--a new beginning...

Daylight and Moonlight

Daylight and Moonlight

In broad daylight, and at noon,
Yesterday I saw the moon
Sailing high, but faint and white,
As a school-boy's paper kite.

In broad daylight, yesterday,
I read a Poet's mystic lay;
And it seemed to me at most
As a phantom, or a ghost.

But at length the feverish day
Like a passion died away,
And the night, serene and still,
Fell on village, vale, and hill.

Then the moon, in all her pride,
Like a spirit glorified,
Filled and overflowed the night
With revelations of her light.

And the Poet's song again
Passed like music through my brain;
Night interpreted to me
All its grace and mystery.



By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Into the Blue Horizon

In the early morning hour, the darkness gives way to shades of dark blues to greyish pale blues.  This quote expresses how often I feel and why it is so difficult to sleep.

 

"I do not want to sleep
for fear I might miss the twinkle of the brightest star

for fear I may never know
how the moon glimmers, in the darkest hour.”
― Sanober Khan, A touch, a tear, a tempest      

Sky on Fire



I don't believe Hollywood can come up with a more frightening skyline then mother nature.

Stairway to the Sky

 

The layers of waves look like steps leading to a city of sky scrapers.  At least that is what my imagination saw this particular morning. 

Even
After
All this time
The Sun never says to the Earth,
"You owe me."
A quote by Hāfez (Persian: خواجه شمسالدین محمد حافظ شیرازی), was a Persian mystic and poet. He was born sometime between the years 1310 and 1337.

Eyes of the Storm 'Ericia'

August 31st Sun Rise cloud formation had monster black clouds shaped like a mask with terrifying eyes.