Monday, January 17, 2011

Botany Bay Plantation, SC

There are no words to adequately describe this place. I will simply say - get thee down to Edisto Island, SC (just south of Charleston) and plan on spending a long and amazing day if not two - on foot.


The 4,687 acre Botany Bay Plantation Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is located adjacent to the waters of the Atlantic Ocean in the northeast corner of Edisto Island in lower Charleston County, South Carolina. The area lies near the North Edisto River just south of the intensely developed resort islands of Kiawah and Seabrook and just north of the rapidly developing Edisto Beach area. The SC Department of Natural Resources acquired this property and opened it to the public in 2008.

The area's location near the North Edisto River places it within the boundary of the ACE Basin Focus Area, one of the largest remaining relatively undeveloped wetland ecosystems along the Atlantic Coast. Botany Bay Plantation WMA with Botany Bay Island (under conservation easement with The Nature Conservancy) and Deveaux Bank form a core area of protected habitat in the eastern corner of the Focus Area.

The biological features of Botany Bay Plantation WMA are characteristic of Sea Islands along the lower Southeast coast. The undeveloped coastal habitats of the management area are important to numerous wildlife species. The beach is utilized for nesting by the federally-threatenedloggerhead sea turtle and the state-threatened least tern. The maritime forest and coastal scrub/shrub areas provide nesting and foraging habitat for neotropical songbirds including painted buntings and summer tanagers. The uplands support a wide diversity of wildlife. The tidal marshes and managed wetlands contain a variety of fish and shellfish resources and provide foraging habitat for numerous wildlife species.

The cultural resources on Botany Bay Plantation WMA are extremely significant. Cultural resource sites dating from as early as the Late Archaic Period through the 19th century are present. Several sites including the Fig Island Shell Rings, outbuildings from Bleak Hall Plantation and elements of the Alexander Bache U.S. Coast Survey Line are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.










Thursday, January 6, 2011

Charleston, SC Book Signing at Blue Bicycle Books, 420 King Street

Please join me at Blue Bicycle Books on January 15th from 1-4 pm!

Blue Bicycle Books Charleston's only independent book seller!

Or, if you cannot make it, it's on Amazon.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Better Homes & Gardens selects Karen Gray Design for 2011 Quilt Sampler

********CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY AND KIT**********

All of you are aware of how wonderful and talented my wife is. Anyway, it seems that the people at Better Homes and Gardens also think so!
FOR RELEASE AFTER JANUARY 1, 2011

Local Quilt Shop Featured in
Better Homes and Gardens® Quilt Sampler® Magazine

DES MOINES, IA – Karen Gray Design, a quilt shop in Winston-Salem, NC, has been chosen as one of the 11 featured shops across the United States for the Spring 2011 issue of Quilt Sampler® magazine, published by Better Homes and Gardens.

Quilt Sampler, published twice a year, has been profiling North America’s top quilt shops for the past 14 years. Quilt shops submit a detailed application on their history, business promotions, charitable work, teaching schedules and design philosophies. A panel of quilt experts led by Jennifer Keltner, group editor of American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine, narrows down the applications to 10 featured shops for each issue. The team also selects an "encore" shop that was featured in a past issue to revisit. The names of the selected shops are kept secret and unveiled at either the spring or fall International Quilt Market.

Competition to be included in Quilt Sampler is keen. Nearly 3,000 quilt shops are
eligible to apply for this year’s honor. Karen Gray Design and the other 10 shops chosen were photographed and interviewed by a team from Quilt Sampler, and a multi-page profile of the shop will appear in the issue, which will be available on newsstands on May 10, 2011. Employees of each quilt shop also design an original quilt for the magazine, and the full-sized pattern for the quilt appears in the issue of Quilt Sampler.

Quilt Sampler has proven to be a huge success, and early, out-of-print issues are collector’s items. Chosen shops are inundated with visitors and requests for the shop’s quilt patterns and fabrics. Quilters are known to try and visit all the shops in each issue, getting the signature of each shop owner in their copy of the issue.

Karen's website

Karen's blog


Saturday, January 1, 2011

She's Home. 1972 BMW 3.0 CS

Remember my post from December 2008? Well, she is finally done. And yes, I am so shallow that an old car makes me happy.




Welcome home Gertie