Magnolia Plantation near Charleston!

Hope you don't mind more pic's of my trip last week. It has taken me all week to recover and to think that my landlady is still gone and enjoying herself in Florida. She so wanted me to go on to Tampa with her to the debate there but I had to get back to the North Forty.

One reason I had to return is tomorrow night I am going to Austin to take my grandbabies to the Harlem Globe Trotters Show. This was part of their Christmas from me. They are both excited and I am too.

Today I wanted to show you the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens near Charleston. While Barbara was doing a lunch with Newt I begged out so I could see this famous plantation.

This plantation is located on the Asley River and has been owned by the Drayton family since 1670's.

The home was so different looking from most southern plantations that I have seen.

This one had a huge basement that surrounds the home and you had to walk up a lot of stairs just to reach the veranda and entry into the home. Of course there were the huge porches surrounding the home.

It is famous for it's beautiful gardens and where the most ancient azaleas and camellia collections in America were developed. Also I found out that the garden is where azaleas were first planted out of doors in a landscape setting.

I only got to visit a very small part of the gardens because the tour bus left early to take us back to Charleston.

 Look at these pansies planted in a cross flowerbed with a gorgeous statue.

On the plantation four of the slave houses have been saved for tours.

I found these quarters sad and each house except the one shown here was divided with a fireplace in the middle to serve two living quarters for two families. Very small with only One small room for a family.

Look at the size of this Oak tree. I thought the ones out here on the North Forty are huge but I believe these in South Carolina have them beat.

The slaves on this plantation grew rice instead of cotton. Charleston is famous for it's Golden Rice.

I was quite surprised at the swamps all through out the land. The plantation was once 1500 acres but after the civil war the family had to sell 1000 acres in order to keep their land.

These are palemetto trees that are famous all in the Charleston area.

This is one of the many lakes that we rode across on the tram. If you look closely you can see a big ramp out in the lake built for the aligators to sun theirselves. We were told to be careful while touring the grounds because of the aligators. Take it from me with the luck I had been having on this trip I stayed close to the main house. lol I was bound and determined to try and get back to Texas with all my limbs.

Since this was winter time the azalea's and magnolia's were not in bloom but we did see some beautiful camelia's. Every time I tried to take a picture of a camelia bush the tram would move and my pic would be fuzzy.

I stood there that afternoon trying to picture this plantation back in the day when it was in it's full glory. I just can't imagine living like these people lived. If not for their slaves they never could of managed. Which of course this broke my heart thinking of their hardships.

While touring the grounds the tour guide showed us a man driving around the property and said he had lived there all his life and his family had lived in one of the slave houses. He now owns a piece of the land and still lives on it. I thought I heard he was 92.

Hope you have a nice weekend planned. I am looking forward to mine since I am seeing my family. I have not seen them since Christmas Day so you know how happy I am to be able to spend some time with them. I can't stay long because I am suppose to have renters moving in my home on the lst and I am still cleaning and painting over there. Also we had a tornado come through here last night and boy do I have a mess to clean up but it could be a lot worse. Just limbs thank goodness. So I have that waiting on me when I come home.

Thanks for coming by and visiting with me.

Love to all,

Maggie