Thursday, June 14, 2018

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2003. This was Mattie's first trip to the Outer Banks, NC. Mattie was a year old and back then little ones were allowed to climb up the Corolla Lighthouse in a back pack. This is no longer allowed. But look at Mattie's expression! You can just see his fascination with the spiral staircase and the adventure before him. 


Quote of the day: The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

We visited Magnolia Plantation and Gardens today. It is one of the oldest plantations in the South, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The plantation dates to 1676, when Thomas and Ann Drayton built a house and small formal garden on the site. The plantation remains under the control of the Drayton family after 15 generations. Magnolia was originally a rice plantation, with extensive earthworks of dams and dikes built in fields along the river for irrigating land for rice cultivation. 

It just excludes Southern charm, doesn't it? This however, is the fourth house to exist on this property. As several were either destroyed in fires or during the Civil War. 

The Reverend John Grimke-Drayton inherited the property in the 1840's and developed them. He transformed the property and planted English style gardens to attract his wife to the area. His wife, Julia was from Philadelphia and at the time Charleston was thought to be the land of no where. Not to mention extremely hot and buggy in the summer. The Reverend is buried by this white bridge. 

I have no idea why there are peacocks at the plantation, but they are everywhere and VERY vocal.

The gardens at the Plantation are extensive but I must admit they are very natural or as they call them Romantic. No longer are they of English style. So they aren't manicured, or as the Plantation staff say... the gardens are NOT being controlled, instead, the gardens are incorporated into the nature vegetation. Needless to say they are buggy and overgrown. 

Do you see the Spanish moss draping from the trees. This to me is quintessential South Carolina. 

Close up of the Spanish Moss. It is neither Spanish or moss. But an air plant. It got the nick name Spanish Moss, as the settlers felt it looked like the beards on Spanish men. 

Over 500 acres of this beauty. Originally the family owned 2,000 acres, but they had to sell off 1,500 acres to pay off debts after the Civil War. 

Even the bridges are lined with flowers. 

At the plantation, we took a house tour (in which we couldn't take photos inside), a tram tour around the property and an Audubon swamp tour. The tram tour was a great option as it was in the high 80's with over 80% humidity. 

This was one of the 12 slave houses that existed on the property. About 10 people lived in this one small house. The slaves were the ones responsible for digging ditches to create irrigation for the rice fields. Not to mention planting and harvesting the rice. Which was how this family originally made its money. After the Civil War things changed and the Draytons couldn't afford to pay for the help they actually needed to run the plantation.mJohn Drayton cleverly decided to open his property to tourists for money. People have been paying for the last 150 years to see his gardens. 

See the green looking stuff. It is actually water covered in plant material. But this is an example of one of the trenches slaves created at the Plantation. 

On the plantation there is also an Audubon Swamp Garden, dedicated to John Audubon, who apparently spent time on the Plantation. This is the cute metal statues greeting you into the garden, preparing you for the fact that you will see alligators and birds. 

A rookery inside the swamp garden, filled with snowy white egrets. 

Of course an alligator!

The board walk around the swamp. 

I have no idea what kind of vegetation this red stuff is, but it fools you into thinking you are seeing cranberries. The green stuff sitting on the water is not algae. But instead duckweed. Which is are flowering aquatic plants that ducks LOVE to eat. 

At the end of our tour of the swamp garden, I saw this little lizard. Another sighting Mattie would have loved.