January 4-8, 2018 Edisto Beach State Park, South Carolina

Wow, it ice stormed and snowed here. Not what we expected. Oh well. The wind blowing through the frozen leaves sounds really cool. The sun came out today, but still cold. Some of the ice melted, the palm trees seem to be recovering their shapes, if they didn't freeze. The roads are still bad, frozen, maybe for a few more days. We may be here for awhile.

The sun rose over ice encased scenery with snow. But there was sun, if not warm. We drove the  car, that is why there is no snow on it.

We went to town to mail a package, but the post office is still closed. Roads are icy and snow packed, undrivable for most of the southerners. So we went to the beach.  Snow, ice encrusted plants. The supermoon and the storm made for high tides and rough seas, which translate to lots of good shells on the beach. I only collected a few. Need something for one of the current masterpieces. 

Birds are hopping around on frozen water this evening. The ice melted on the grasses in the sun, but not on the water. Holly in ice, sparkly frozen grasses, Stay off the dunes, they left the faucets dripping in the park so they would not freeze, but lots of ice, icy branches in the sun and pieces of ice that fell off the palm fronds in the sunset. 

Sunset from the campground. Still cold today. 3 days is enough of snow. Here I am dressed for the beach. Everything I have to keep warm and my sun hat. 

There is still snow on the beach, high of 36 with wind. The shell collecting was great again.  We met a guy on the beach who collects shells. He had a golf club with a slotted spoon on the bottom for picking up shells so he would not need to bend over. He told us where the best places were. We also saw dolphins. The roads and everything else are still frozen in the shade. 

Sunset was very nice, there were even some clouds to add more color. 

4th day after the snow storm. Still cold, not a lot of melting. But the sun is out, that at least improves the moral. We went on a 4 mile hike today. 

We hiked to the the Spanish Mount which is an ancient mound of oyster shells and other artifacts. They estimate the bottom of it was 4000 years ago. It used to be 20 feet high and cover 1/2 an acre. Erosion has taken it's toll.

The high was 36 today and tonight the low will be 32. Still not much melting. John cleaning ice off the top of the slides. The roads are getting better, but getting out of our campsite may be a problem with the ice in the campground. I finished this little basket. It has a tiny abalone shell in the center. The edge of the basket has palm inflorescences- that is the stem the dates hang from with a few seed beads in it. It is about 6 x 2 inches. 

Cold weather made me productive on baskets. Finished the first one yesterday.The center is a piece of rainbow dichroic glass with opaline on top. The opaline looks clear before firing, so this was a mistake, but it came out nice. It is set in resin. The beads are magnetic. I liked the colors so I used them anyway. The next one is what I am working on now. Not sure what the center is, will find out.