Tag Archive: Charleston

Apr
09

Play Time by Beth Webb Hart

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Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: He has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.

~G.K. Chesterton

Kids at Charlestowne Landing last week.

I think there is a kid in all of us. Someone who still gets a kick out of play-time. Peel back the layers of years, and you’ll usually find that kid who likes to romp in the woods, relishes a good game of hide and seek in an old rambling house, and – when the opportunity presents itself- smiles eagerly at a blank sheet of paper and a fresh box of crayons.

My kids keep me playing. With their company, I still enjoy my favorite childhood games like pretend play, Legos, Tinker Toys and dolls. I also like to climb a good magnolia tree – is there a better climbing tree in all the world? – and I adore riding bikes…fast!

As for adult fun, I like nice long walks with my husband. It’s a

Sunset harbor cruise.

particularly fun night if we can go somewhere by foot or by boat. We live in the city so it’s easy to walk to a restaurant, and now that the foodie scene has exploded in Charleston, we have a zillion amazing places to choose from. We also like to put our boat in at a little landing in town and ride over to pick our friends up on a dock in Mt. Pleasant or James Island.

: Sunset harbor cruise.

This usually involves a picnic on the boat, a sunset, and conversations that range from silly to esoteric. Last year our group of closest friends rented a yacht for the evening, and we all took a sunset harbor

Dinner out.

cruise. It was our own little spring fling, and we had a blast as we donned our nautical best and each brought our favorite appetizer and bottle of wine.

This group, mostly formed from a Bible study that started years ago have sort of become the folks we “do life” with. We’ve helped one another through many an up and down, and we love to break bread together and have a happy time. Thankfully, there are several organizer types in the crew, and so every few months one throws out an idea to get the gang together for something different and fun – a fall bonfire under the stars, a black tie winter affair, a summer backyard barbeque.

There is something meaningful about breaking bread together. And if can be outside, near the water, then it’s downright magical. Other than playing with my kids and taking a trip with my husband to a new place (I do LOVE to travel), that’s my idea of a fantastically good time!

Adults and kids. Best of both worlds.

For more info. on Beth Webb Hart’s novels which include many a meal and boat ride go to www.bethwebbhart.com

Tags: Charleston, Dining out, Grown-up Play

4 comments

Mar
05

Music and Picnic Under the Stars (plus Lemon Square Recipe) by Beth Webb Hart

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by admin

The azaleas and wisteria are beginning to bud in Charleston and residents are looking forward to cleaning off their boats, dusting off the picnic baskets and lawn chairs and hitting the great outdoors.

Flowers abound at all of the plantations along the Ashley River from Magnolia to Drayton Hall to Middleton Place so check them out if you’re passing through town.

As we tilt toward spring, one can’t help but look forward to the Spoleto Festival (17 day art festival in Charleston) Finale which takes place on Middleton Plantation and involves a-come-as you-are-and-bring-your-own-stuff picnic under the stars as the festival orchestra plays on the butterfly lakes of the old plantation over looking the river. The evening is complete with a spectacular fireworks display overhead. Here is the link to this year’s finale event: http://spoletousa.org/events/finale-red-stick-ramblers/

I have some happy memories of picnicking at Middleton with friends. They usually involve big blankets, flip flops kicked off, fried chicken, deviled eggs, pimento cheese, some nice wine and lemon squares for dessert.

I’m the dessert person, usually, since I have an odd affinity for baking (even though I can’t cook regular food worth a darn.)

Here is the recipe. Happy Spring and happy picnicking!

Lemon Squares

Ingredients

For the crust:

1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

For the filling:

6 extra-large eggs at room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup flour
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Combine the flour and salt and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed. Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and gather into a ball. Flatten the dough with floured hands and press it into a 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking sheet, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides. Chill.

Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack. Leave the oven on.

For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.

Cut into squares or triangles and dust with confectioners’ sugar.

For more info. on Beth Webb Hart’s novels (loaded with southern food imagery) click here

Tags: Charleston, dessert, lemon squares, picnic, Spoleto Festival, spring

7 comments

Feb
19

Moon Over Edisto and Forgiveness by Beth Webb Hart

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by admin

What would be the most difficult thing to forgive? That was the question I was turning over in my mind like a lemon drop on the tongue when the idea for my new novel, Moon Over Edisto, materialized.

Moon Over Edisto is about a young woman, Julia Bennett, whose best friend from college has an affair with her father, and the ripples of this particular betrayal expand like this: Julia’s father divorces her mother, marries his young love, they have a family of their own before he dies very suddenly of a heart attack one morning while painting a landscape on their Edisto Island dock. Then, the real action begins…

Because the back cover editor says it so much better than I do, here is the novel’s description, and I’ll follow up below with a few thoughts on forgiveness:

Edisto Island was where it all came apart. Can the Bennett girls ever be whole again?

Once, they were the happiest family under the sun, crabbing and fishing and painting on beautiful Edisto Island in South Carolina’s lowcountry.

Then everything went wrong, and twenty years later the Bennett family is still in pieces. Mary Ellen still struggles to understand why her picture-perfect marriage came apart. Daughter Meg keeps a death grip on her own family, controlling her relationships at a distance. And eldest daughter, Julia, left it all behind years ago, forging a whole new life as an artist and academic in Manhattan. She’s engaged to an art dealer and has no intentions of returning to Edisto. Ever.

Then an emergency forces Julia back to Edisto to care for her three young half-siblings. She grudgingly agrees to stay a week. But there’s something about Edisto that changes people. Can Julia and her fractured family somehow manage to come together again under that low-hanging Edisto moon?

So why did I choose to write about the need to forgive a parent and an old friend for a particularly painful betrayal? Well, I can tell you it certainly isn’t because I have the whole forgiveness thing down to a science, checked off my list of to-dos and folded neatly in a drawer next to the linen napkins. Rather, it’s because it’s something I struggle with daily. It’s completely counterintuitive. It’s something I agonize over quite frequently because I know I am absolutely commanded to do it (and if I don’t, my spiritual growth is stunted)… and yet – oh my – it’s hard, hard, hard! (Especially after you’ve nursed a wound for years, reenacting a painful scene over and over for decades in your mind.)

However, that’s what makes story such a safe and therapeutic place to redress old wounds, to confront injustice and ultimately, to ask God for the supernatural help to let it go. And then, to reach out in love.

Like Julia I’m a broken, flawed, weak human being living in a fallen world where I’m surrounded by others who share my affliction. I’ve been wounded and unfairly treated, and I’ve done those things right back at the people I loved most, even the most innocent. Such is my condition, the human condition. Such is my need for someone to rescue me from myself and the world in which I have no choice but to live in.

Julia finds a way through this, and she finds an utterly unexpected hope and joy in the most unlikely of places. Love, in the end, covers a multitude of sins. I know from personal experience, that this much is true. Thanks be to God!