My Wordless Sunday #30 in Charleston, SC

Postcards from Charleston

The world famous Rainbow Row in down town

Impressive thunder clouds

Colorful Oleander flowers on Battery Street

Beautiful architecture on Kings Street

Colorful Rainbow Row

I have so many pictures left from all the beautiful places and corners in Charleston and I will show you them in small series like this.
I hope you'll enjoy and have a great weekend!




My NEW CALENDARS 2009 are available now!
For Charleston fans, my CHARLESTON - CALENDAR 2009
For Key West fans, my KEY WEST - CALENDAR 2009
For Florida fans, my FLORIDA - CALENDAR 2009
For Flower fans, my FLOWER - CALENDAR 2009
You will love it!

Beach Snaps...

Way out to the beach at Folly's

"High" sand dune

Beach grass in evening light

The pier at Folly's

Wildflowers in the sand

It was the first time I let my good camera at home when we left yesterday the house. It was not planned to go anywhere and sudden we decided to do a ride out to Folly Beach. We both like that beach the best in Charleston.
But luckily, we always have the small 5.1 MP Sony Camera in our car and this snaps here were made with that one....well, that's all.
Happy Friday everyone!

My 2009 CALENDARS are available now!



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Sea Of Green Grass - The Tide is High

This is the view of a marsh region by high tide - what a different landscape! The color of the grass was overwhelmingly green and beautiful.

This is my little island :-)

High Tide

In these high seas or in low seas
I'm gonna be your friend
You know that I'm gonna be your friend
Any so in high tide or in low tide
I'll be by your side
You know that I'll be by your side

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Signs Of Fall Already in August?

Fall colors #1

Fall colors #2

Fall colors #3


This is a nice poem I've found about coming soon, beautiful
season of fall:

Human's life story is like
The travel of a seed in the nature
Comes the fall, dies the nature
The wind gathered the scattered seeds
The seed became a plant at the same root
And the plant grew its boughs were formed
To different twigs headed the seeds
Twigs separated into twigs
And become each seed a leaf
Then came the fall withered the leaves
And they fell one by one
The wind cast all a fore knitted leaves away


read it here

Tuesday Specials #15

Wish you were here....?

It is time for my "Tuesday Specials" again!

Some months ago, I had an idea about supporting my husband’s fine art paintings. I am going to call it “Tuesday Specials” and every, or almost every Tuesday I will present one painting from his collection of Key West pictures.

The pictures are from original paintings done in Acrylic and/or Oil…and some of them are already in famous collections all over the globe. The originals that are available for purchase range in price from $ 695 to $ 4,500 based on sizes. There are also prints available.

For more details see our website: www.vanhulstart.com .
For special requests please send an email to susanne49@yahoo.com

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Visiting The Pearson's Falls in NC

The small path is guiding us up to the falls, we are surrounded with all those beautiful colors of green

It worth's the sweat you had on the way up to this point, to see this pretty scene of nature. The falls had not that much water as usual because of the high drought they have just now, allover in NC.

A pretty "mini" fall, seen crossing the small bridge
on the way up there

My abstract version of the creek

Pretty light...

To walk the way down was much easier. It was a very nice experience of the day to see this Pearson's Falls, a true treasure of mother nature.

Read here more about the Pearson's Falls:

Pearson's Falls Glen is the remarkable botanical wonderland that lies hidden in these great Blue Ridge Mountains. It was named for the young engineer Charles William Pearson who discovered the falls area while scouting for passage through the mountains for what was to be the Southern Railroad. A military man, farmer, and an engineer, Captain Pearson bought the glen as part of a large tract of land that he wanted for his family. For years he and his heirs allowed generations of young people to picnic on the great stone table-rock that you will see at the foot of the falls. Botanists and bird-fanciers from all over the country have come to discover and catalog the wonders of this glen area.

My NEW KEY WEST 2009 CALENDARS are available now! This year I have made NEW also some CHARLESTON CALENDARS 2009 and a pretty CALENDAR 2009 with FLOWERS from the Lowcountry!

Check it out please and support a starving artist.
THANKS :-)

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My Wordless Sunday #29 in Charleston, SC

The NEW KEY WEST 2009 CALENDARS are already available, don't miss it!

The CHARLESTON and FLORIDA 2009 CALENDARS are in preparartion and coming soon - I'll let you know!






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More than 100 years old General Store in Saluda, NC

I promised you yesterday to show you something very special in Saluda, NC. Here it is: one of the last and still working "General Merchandise Stores".
It is open every day and you can buy there what ever you need or
what ever you like!

Do you need new jeans maybe, new shoes, garden tools, post cards, sun protection cream, certain nails for fixing your fence, a new kitchen pan, any kind of household items, every day food or some cosmetics - you can get it here, in one place!

You can also meet the son of the original founder, Mr. R.H. Pace - a very friendly man who likes to have small talks with his customers. Go by and say Hello to him, he will have a smile for you and will loves to tell you some stories from the "good old days", the days when the store were founded by his father in 1899.

The "wall of fame" with all the old photographs, the official certificates and congratulation papers of the stores 100 year anniversary in 1999. And next year there will be even 110 years to celebrate!

Congratulations again, Mr. Pace, it was very nice to meet you!
(click in the picture to read everything better)

There were pretty old shoes, hidden away in a show case.
They worth today probably a lot of money. :-)

This beautiful, old oven is no more working, a little sign says "retired". It has seen better times, I guess and it has served trough many, many cold winters up there in the hills in Saluda, NC.

Frozen in time? And by the way: what means exactly "standard time"? :-) I like this old clock!



I hope you've enjoyed my visit in Saluda NC, like I did. I love to see small villages like this. They let me forget the big world out there - it really feels like I was frozen in time!

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I've visited Saluda, NC

I promised you two days ago to show you more photos from our journey to North Carolina. Driving from Asheville NC, take this exit 59....

...and after some minutes nice mountain driving you'll see this picturesque little town: Saluda. It is like cut out of a picture book, so neat and clean, with good restaurants and a lot of nice shops in the main street - you cannot miss it, it's so small. :-)

This is the view to the main street from the other side of the railroad crossing, only some houses, that's all.

Shady trees in the main street, with inviting shops everywhere

This is the window of the City Hall. It's like the time stopped and never came back. Do you see that great old type writer in the window?

As you know already, I like to photograph details, and flowers - like this scene here.....

...or this one! I love the wooden bench too.

Flowers are everywhere in this pretty little town!

Tomorrow I'll show you a series of photographs I made about something very special I have seen in Saluda. And I met a very nice person there too. Stay tuned for tomorrows post!

Below you can read what the Internet has to say about Saluda.

Since the turn of the century, Saluda, North Carolina has been a favorite vacation destination. Need an escape from the heat or a respite from the hectic pace of life? Long for peaceful tranquility, scenic beauty and fresh mountain air? Come discover one of Western North Carolina's hidden jewels. Nestled at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Saluda is a great place to enjoy seasonal beauty throughout the year. Convenient to many wilderness, architectural, civic and otherwise "charming" attractions, Saluda invites you to visit for a day, a week, or longer.




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The First Bands of Tropical Storm Fay?

That was Folly Beach yesterday afternoon

This must be the first bands of tropical storm "Fay"

I like scenes like this and the sound of the big waves coming in to the shore

And there were also two guys out there, they don't cared about the weather nor the coming storm - that was exactly what they needed for their exciting kite surfing sport!

He came later to the beach with his kite and just started going out to the water. But he had to come back pretty soon, then suddenly the horizon was just black!

This kite surfing sport is big fun, you can see it here - and it was big fun also to watch those guys too!

And then it was time to run to the car, big rain drops started falling....

Old Fort, NC

Frontier Fort
Early outpost against Indians. Used by Gen.Rutherford in expedition against Cherokee, Sept. 1776. Stood nearby and gave name to this town.

These are the words written on the historic sign, visible in the photo beside the monument made of stone in Old Fort. A dreamy little town up in the hills of North Carolina. I did the picture out from the car, but I decided later to step out from the car for capturing some more photos.

Our teacher in the "School of Art and Design" told us often: "To see and to capture pictures in front of you is great, but sometimes it worth's also to turn around and to see what is behind your back". I always do that, it went into my system in all these years I'm doing photography. :-)

So then, this is now the backside from the picture above, still in Old Fort, NC.

I love these (so typical for America) house facades in Old Fort,NC.

Old Fort is a town in McDowell County, North Carolina,
United States. The population was 963 at the 2000 census. The town is well known for its weekly Mountain Music jamboree, which draws a large audience and many musicians from the surrounding areas to Old Fort's downtown on Fridays at 7:30. Also the town's people are currently re-constructing the original Davidson's Fort which gives Old Fort it's name. Old Fort also holds the largest festival in the county once a year named Octoberfest. However one would not find beer but handmade crafts and great food the first weekend in October every year.

Our trip went further up the hills......

and down the hills of North Carolina....

....over to the Black Mountain area. We came from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Black Mountains, so exciting!

But the landscape remain the same: hills, hills, hills.....! I love it!

Stay tuned, our trip will show you more exciting little mountain villages and more NC country side. :-)

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