Entries from July 2008 ↓

I was invited to have breakfast this week at the Duke Mansion. Usually this is a pleasure reserved for the Bed and Breakfast guests, but I was fortunate enough to be an exception. There are some things worth getting up early for and breakfast at the Duke Mansion is one of them. Owned by James Buchanan Duke, father of Doris, this property is an oasis of peace and beauty only minutes from downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the birthplace of the Duke Endowment which has been a tremendous charitable asset to the region. The house, the rooms (some with sleeping porches!) and the gardens all speak of an elegant time that is a joy to revisit. Continue reading →

What a grand Fourth! Back to Charleston. There can’t be a better place to watch fireworks than from the boardwalk to the ocean at my friend’s beach cottage. We revelers were all lined up facing one direction, then another watching the amateurs before the real show began. Then the singing started. From our group. Heartfelt, but a little off-key. The choir had had a little beer. The Star-Spangled Banner. America the Beautiful. And then America the Beautiful again. Oh, well, who’s counting? We had a visitor from Poland among us who was 84 years old. I wondered what he thought of our celebration. We really were proud to be Americans. Maybe we’ll sing that next year.

These are not your grandmother’s gliders. Well, they are, but they are so lovingly restored that it is sometimes hard to believe they are 50 to 70 years old. Our whole purpose at Mulberry Street is to preserve these American gems. There is no rust on any of our restorations. We do not just coat over flaws. We sandblast, repair, fill and then use durable, weather-resistant state of the art coatings to insure that our vintage outdoor furniture is yours to enjoy for many seasons to come. These gliders and chairs do not look as if they came out of a box from China. They come with character. With history. With charm. And you don’t have to assemble them! We know some people like the distressed look. But the distressed look distresses us here at Mulberry Street. Continue reading →