Catch Of The Day ...

 “The water is a dark flower and a fisherman is a bee in the heart of her.”

                 ~ Annie Proulx

                 ~ born 1935

          ~ American novelist, short story writer & journalist

  ~ from “The Shipping News,” for which Proulx won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

                     ~ published 1993

I captured this shot of The Bluffton Oyster Company, located on the banks of the May River in the Lowcountry of Bluffton, South Carolina, on a beautiful late October morning. I presented the image in sepia to add an air of nostalgia, as the company has been part of the coastal landscape since the late 19^th century.

According to the company’s website https://blufftonoyster.com/: A Family Run Operation Since 1899 The Bluffton Oyster Company actually sits on reclaimed land, built up by more than a hundred years of discarded shells from previous shucking operations. The oyster business thrived in early Bluffton and throughout the 1920’s, with five different oyster operations in the area. Now the Bluffton Oyster Company remains the last hand-shucking house in the state of South Carolina.

Owned by Larry and Tina Toomer, The Bluffton Oyster Company specializes in in fresh local seafood and is known for its fresh local oysters, clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops, fish filets, soft shell crabs and live blue crabs.

I’ve personally sampled their seafood, and it’s delicious!

Bluffton is situated on the north bluff of the May River, giving the Beaufort County town its name. The river winds through the Old Town area of Bluffton, which locals call “the last true coastal village of the South.”

Little Blue's Lowcountry Morning ...

“It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.”

             ~ Aesop

            ~ 620 B.C. ~ 564 B.C.

A Little Blue Heron searches for breakfast in the lagoon on a beautiful early morning in May in the Lowcountry of Bluffton, South Carolina.

 

Wood Stork's Southern Stroll ...

 “Wild beasts and birds are by right not the property merely of the people today, but the property of the unborn generations, whose belongings we have no right to squander.” 

                ~Theodore Roosevelt

                    ~1858-1919

                  ~ Naturalist & Conservationist

                       ~26^th President of the 

                         United States of America

                              ~ 1901-1909

A Wood Stork strolls through the beautiful Lowcountry of Beaufort County, South Carolina on a late October afternoon.

The Wood Stork is a large wading bird in the stork family. Large, white Wood Storks wade through southeastern swamps and wetlands. Although this stork doesn’t bring babies, it is a good flier, soaring on thermals with neck and legs outstretched. This bald-headed wading bird stands just over three feet tall, towering above almost all other wetland birds. It slowly walks through wetlands with its long, hefty bill down in the water feeling for fish and crustaceans. This ungainly looking stork roosts and nests in colonies in trees above standing water.

 

October On The May River ...

“Let us cross over the river, and rest in the shade of the trees.”

   ~ Stonewall Jackson

   ~ 1824-1863

The last words of Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, who served as a Confederate general (1861-1863) during the Civil War, and became arguably the best-known Confederate commander after General Robert E. Lee. Jackson played a prominent role in nearly all military engagements in the Eastern Theater of the war until his death, and had an important part in winning many significant battles.

 

As Old Glory billows in the autumn breeze, my view from the shoreline of the May River at Bluffton Oyster Factory Park, Old Town Bluffton, South Carolina, paints a postcard of the beauty of a southern fall in the Lowcountry on a late October afternoon

 

Bluffton is situated on the north bluff of the May River, giving the Beaufort County town its name. The river winds through the Old Town area of Bluffton, which locals call “the last true coastal village of the South.”