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feature story
"It's What I Can Do"
Friday, Sept. 5, 12 08 p.m.

Two local artists give back to their community and its people by using art to fuel life.
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feature Story
The Imaginary World of Highlands
Friday, Sept. 5, 12 06 p.m.

Best-selling novelist Cassandra King lets us a peek into her next book, Bridal Falls.
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delectable delights
True Southern Spirit
Friday, Sept. 5, 12 05 p.m.

On the table or on the rocks, Firefly Vodka is HOT, HOT, HOT!
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from the editor
Sound Off
Friday, Sept. 5, 12 03 p.m.

We have enjoyed exploring, tasting, and celebrating with you and sincerely thank our loyal readers.
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A Lowcountry Life
A Different Kind of Animal
Friday, Sept. 5, 12 02 p.m.

Local vet Dr. Michael Forcier trades records and microphones for dogs and cats to live out a dream.
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Just dogs
Bonkers for Bassets
Friday, Sept. 5, 12 01 p.m.

These floppy-eared hounds are stealing hearts all over the Lowcountry.
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Essay
Discovering the Sounds of the Lowcountry
Friday, Sept. 5, 12 00 p.m.

Musician and professor Trevor Weston searches for "exotic" sounds and gets a lesson in Gershwin and Gullah culture.
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Feature Story
Sustainable Seafood: On The Bubble
Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.

Efforts to make sustainable food more visible and available are increasing.
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get outta town
Kendall Lukas Visits Wilmington, N.C.
Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.

Kendall Lukas has stars in her eyes and history under her feet as she explores the neighboring port city of Wilmington, N.C.
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A Lowcountry Life
From Ballet Shoes To Bikinis
Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.

Poland native Maria Dobrzanska Reeves uses her dance discipline to achieve success in Charleston.
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essay
Splashing Through Childhood
Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.

Author Ron Daise looks for joy and finds it in remembering his children in their youth.
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homestyle
Cooking in the Great Outdoors
Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.

Customized patio kitchens are made for entertaining.
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delectable delights
Doin' The Charleston Bump
Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.

Local chefs re-group with sustainable wreckfish.
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feature story: Online Extra
Swimming Rock Fish Farm
Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.

More on Megan Westmeyer and Jennifer Smith’s visit to Swimming Rock Fish Farm
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from the editor
Water World
Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.

I love being in water. I love that clear, cool swishing feeling around my ears. In fact, on a warm, sunny day, I like to go outside and get as hot as possible and then dive into a cool pool. For me, it’s refreshment at its finest.
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distinctively charleston
Beach Music
Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.

The sounds, swells and shagging at Folly beach pier keep fans coming back for more.
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Feature story: Shrimp Story
A Shrimp Story
Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.

You can see the shrimp boats from your restaurant table, so that shrimp pasta on the menu has to be fresh and local. Right?
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just dogs
Water Babies
Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.

Water lovers dog paddle to the beach, parks and pools.
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feature story
Farm Fresh Fish
Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.

Swimming Rock Fish Farm raises native species and supports the environment.
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Our Favorite Things

Saturday, May 31, 02 56 p.m.

We celebrate what we treasure in the Lowcountry and beyond that gives us an interior smile.
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from the editor
Maxximum Style
Thursday, May 1, 03 49 p.m.

My 14-year-old niece visited Charleston with her parents in March. She’s from Moscow, Russia, and I had not seen her in more than 10 years. There’s a big difference between 4 and 14!
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feature story
Holy City Style
Thursday, May 1, 03 49 p.m.

When Nancye Starnes decided to move out of Memphis, she drew up a list of “must haves” for her new hometown: it had to be a walkable city, located on the water, and sizeable enough to support a vibrant performing arts community.
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just dogs
Citadel Charmers
Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.

Move aside – bulldog coming through. In January, the American Kennel Club announced that the Bulldog, one of the most recognizable and iconic purebred dogs, has muscled its way into the 10th spot on the organization’s annual list of the most popular breeds in America.
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delectable delights
Beyond Cookie Cutter
Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.

Prime ingredients, Nostalgic tastes and creative bakers transform Lowcountry cookies into high-style confections.
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A Lowcountry Life
Working for Peanuts
Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.

Anthony Wright, the man known throughout the Lowcountry and across the nation as Tony the Peanut Man, never intended to make his living selling boiled goobers.
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get outta town
Kendall Lukas Visits Charlotte, NC
Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.

I had never been to Charlotte … not really. Well, I’ve gotten my kicks at Carowinds because that was part of being a kid in the Carolinas, and I’ve been to concerts at the open-air Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre because it’s a large complex for big-time acts. I’ve visited my sister at UNC Charlotte and have flown through the city’s major transit airport many times. But as for the metropolis of Charlotte, I’d only ever viewed its high-rises from afar. This time I took an up-close look at the interior and found a lot of reasons to relish in North Carolina’s top travel destination.
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distinctively charleston
Turning Heads
Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.

Bessie is almost 50 and looks as good today as she did in her youth – maybe even better. After all, back then she was hanging from a pole. Now she runs circles around the rest of us, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
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homestyle
Café Comfort
Thursday, May 1, 03 46 p.m.

Banquettes are big. Heidi Walker, Allied ASID, of Walker Design Group, is currently working on three different kitchens that have banquettes. For this kitchen in a young couple’s home on Sullivan’s Island, Walker created a café atmosphere by building on the existing element of the laminated floor. “This promotes a casual impromptu gathering space,” she says.
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ESSAY
Lowcountry Style
Thursday, May 1, 12 00 a.m.

If you want to experience real Lowcountry style, you need to come to the Hebron Saint Francis Senior Center. Its members are long time Johns Island residents, a hardscrabble group of African-American women who meet every Wednesday for devotion and quilt making.
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homestyle
Jewel Box
Saturday, March 1, 12 00 a.m.

Although one of the smallest rooms in a house, a powder room is nonetheless important since most of your guests will pay it a visit. Jennifer Rhodes, ASID, principal designer of J. Rhodes Design, took the popular concept of making this room a “jewel box” and ran with it, creating a luxurious surprise in this 3-foot by 7-foot Daniel Island room.
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Recipe box
On the table or on the rocks, Firefly Vodka is HOT, HOT, HOT!

Videos
Check out the smart car, a match from last year's Family Circle Cup, and a classroom project from an exceptional educator.
Photo Galleries
More is better when it comes to photos. Check out these bonus images from our photo shoots.
Watermarks
What’s happening in the Lowcountry and seasonal spotlight tidbits about local traditions, trends and events.
products
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FAVORITES
What are your favorite things? Click here to share.

Comment: Click here to share one of your favorite cookie recipes
 
 
Essay

My Favorite Thing

Written By Bret Lott

Saturday, January 5, 2008


Bret Lott

Photo by Rick Rhodes

Bret Lott

All right, I know it’s corny. I know it’s predictable, a cliché. But I don’t care if I do sound like the usual sap; so truly is this my favorite thing.

I love our sunsets.

Mind you, I grew up with dramatic sunsets. I was born in southern California and was raised both there and in Arizona. I’ve seen my fair share of extraordinary descents of the sun over the Pacific and the desert Southwest. And when we first moved here to Charleston back in 1986, there was in me a kind of nostalgia for those theatrical, almost garish performances of late-day color against the mountains I’d known in Arizona, and in the magic trick of the sun swallowed whole by that endless expanse of the Pacific.

But then I wised up.

I can trace my epiphany to a spring sunset in 1990 at Alhambra Hall in Mount Pleasant. I’d taken my younger son Jacob to ride his bike on the broad lawn that leads down from the hall to the marsh; he was 5, had just gotten the training wheels off, and I took a seat on one of the benches that faces the harbor, watching my son triumphantly execute his first figure eights just as the sun disappeared in the West.

That was when I looked up to the sky above Charleston across the harbor and experienced the moment when everything changed.

Stretched across the sky above us, and reflected in the harbor before us, was color –

every natural color I knew, from the palest violet to the deepest scarlet. And color lay also in the marsh, the saw grass and salt marsh hay suddenly awash in umbers and ochres and greens as urgent and sharp as spring itself.

But the strange thing – the captivating thing – was that woven through all this color was a kind of intimacy, a kind of quiet and gentle hand. Here was a harbor, here were church spires, here was the sky.

No rugged geography, no infinite expanse of sea. No theatrics. Only the mystery of colors at once vibrant and hushed at the disappearance of the sun.

I’ve seen it a thousand times since, this nuanced play of light once the sun has departed: driving the Mark Clark high above the Cooper River, in a jon boat on the Edisto, standing at the end of the public dock at Bull’s Island.

But each sunset remains a surprise, and a mystery, and a gift.



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Lowcountry Living is a bi-monthly magazine of The Post and Courier, 134 Columbus St., Charleston, S.C. 29403-4800. Copyright 2007 by The Post and Courier.
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