On Sunday we visited the site of the Old Sheldon Church Ruins. I’ve been wanting to go there for the past five summers of our family’s visits to the Lowcountry, but for one reason or another we’ve never made it. We finally did. I found it to be even more majestic and dreamy than I had imagined it would be. It was so quiet and so beautiful in some sort of deeply surreal way — it almost took my breath away. I can’t find my own words for it.
“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.” ~James Allen
We made these for MorMor the other night, and we’ve got another batch ready to go in the freezer for a post-beach evening refresher sometime soon. These are addictive!
Hands down, this is Braydon’s favorite beach house cocktail. The key is to use a really good ginger beer. Our absolute favorite is Fever Tree. Fever Tree brand mixers are, by far, our favorite for any and every cocktail (use their tonic water for a Gin & Tonic and it will change your life forever!). Here’s the recipe:
A longtime blog reader, Kate, left a recipe for “Peaches and Cream” muffins in the comments of my Strawberries and Cream Muffins post. It looked like a great recipe (thank you Kate!), and I’ll definitely try it someday. But, 1) doing a cream cheese center seemed like too much of a fuss for a beach house recipe, and 2) adding moisture to the muffins with sour cream and/or yogurt seems to be the key to Kyle’s muffin-loving-heart, and the recipe called only for oil. However, the Peaches&Cream idea was totally inspiring to me and I immediately thought, “Why didn’t I think of that?!?!” Why would I be using strawberries when I could be using our deliriously good South Carolina peaches in a beach house muffin?!?!!
Thus was born not Kyle’s favorite muffin, but Owen’s favorite muffin! Kyle still stands by the Strawberries and Cream, but Owen says these Peaches and Cream muffins are the very best he’s ever had in his whole entire 11-year-old life. I have to agree with Owen– I prefer the peach to the strawberry.
I used the exact same recipe for Strawberries and cream but subbed peeled and diced fresh peaches for the strawberries. I also sprinkled these with a little sugar before baking, which gives muffins a nice top crust.
The original recipe is here: STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM MUFFINS
NOTE: I often sub plain, low-fat, Greek yogurt for sour cream in this muffin recipe.
Tonight, while her brothers were fishing, Meera was collecting hermit crabs. Every one of these shells has a hermit crab living in it. She’s never once asked to keep one, which I really appreciate about my girl.
MorMor came to visit us in the Lowcountry. She was here for only four nights, but we tried to cram as much as we could into her stay in order to give her a nice South Carolina vacation.
Highlights included beach days on Hunting Island; hunting for sharks’ teeth; lots of pool time (marco polo); sunset walks with Dash on Harbor Island beach; Sticky Fingers in Charleston; picnic lunches on the beach; beach house suppers (including, one night, a Lowcountry feast); fresh peaches and island tomatoes; shrimp, grouper, and mahi right from the dock; pancake breakfast fundraiser for the Harbor Island Turtle Program; big huge alligator sighting; no snake sightings (!); golf cart rides; time together in one of the most low-key, slow-paced places in the world.
On Friday morning MorMor, Meera, and me got up at 6am for the sunrise. We had hoped to see baby turtles hatching (they’re due every day now — the nests are hatching! — but they are rare to see because they are so good at making it into the ocean before sunrise). We didn’t see any baby turtles, but we were gifted with a most beautiful sunrise.
And then, that same night, we got to see a beautiful sunset too. How often do any of us get one day in which we get to see the sunrise and the sunset from the beach? It was special.
I cannot figure out for the life of me how my children ended up in this hands-crossed-on-knee pose. MorMor must have arranged this???
Thank you, MorMor, for making the trip!
MorMor arrived today for a visit to the J-Ms-in-the-South. So excited to spend a few days with her here!
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