Monthly Archives: May 2019

The Vale of Little Tujunga

The morning after my return from the sultry Low Country of Carolina, I drove up to Dillon Divide, the highest place locally for One Minute of Tranquility. Click below and View a piece of the Valley at its most beautiful. (It was too windy for much sound but be sure to listen for the Meadow Serenade at the end.)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JlgRz0TaOKPumJxG-1KtZqnL1JMuUNFQ/view?usp=sharing

O Welcher Frische Luft! After weeks of lovely but languid Eastern Carolina, inches above sea level, it was exhilarating to catch a Pacific breeze on a ridge of the West, at 2,740 feet…

Remember this bridge from “It’s A Mad….Mad World?”

Don’t It Make His Green Eyes Blue?

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Faith, hope, prayer: all were tried, and discarded. The tantrums, the mad katzenjammer of his youth, only embarrasses him now. You can’t get Outside that way, Ito knows.

In seeking a true path to Outside’s green heaven, Ito disdains man’s religion. He sees our primitive do-ut-des rituals as beneath his dignity. “I won’t bargain with the Universe. But I’m not above gratitude. If II find a box going out, I’m not above climbing into Priority Mail, and showing the world, Ito’s here, Ito’s ready! Ito is all set to go!”

Spiritual striving, at this level, is exhausting.

Ito is the first to admit Outside, that impossible Nirvana of sun-splashed flowers, deep lurking shadows, and of chattering birds and squirrels, has too often eluded him. Lately he’s veered into fringe ideas, like telepathy.

“Pick up the basket.”
“Pick UP — the BASKET.”
“Pick up the #$^@! basket!!”

“Failure is an illusion,” sighs Ito, undefeated. “Outside is real.” But don’t it make his green eyes blue?

Lyin’ Low A Spell

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Here’s a little Re-View of the Martins’ fabulous vacay in the Low Country of South Carolina.

I hope to take the astonishing Carolina Coast into clearer View in future blog posts. But for now I’ll share the family snapshots. I’m so grateful to Mom and Dad, and to Chris and Leslie. Thanks for hosting so graciously! And thanks especially to Leslie for our perfect mini-get away on the soft, powdery sand of the Grand Strand.

Low Country Shrimp Boil and Corn Bread

Thalian Hall, the only surviving theatre designed by John Montague Trimble. (1855)

Crape myrtles at Brookgreen Gardens

Sculpted live oaks

“Moonlight and Magnolias, no Myth in Myrtle! Marine Mammals Make Merry in May Moonlight!”

Ravenel Butler Calhoun Pinckney? Rhett Ravenel Gaillard DuBose? Tradd Heyward Huger? Butler Rutledge DuBose? Augusta Heyward Horry Huger Gaillard? Where’s DuBose Heyward??