Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

The trees lining Capitol Street are ringed with seed pods at the moment, around their base and way up in their branches (click small photo at right up large). There used to be a Latino percussionist in Charleston (was his name Nery Arevalo?) who would collect a half-dozen of these pods, tie them together into a unit and use them as a shaker as part of his percussion kit. I know I could probably Google for the tree’s name, but I have not yet had my second cup of coffee for the day and it is oh-so-nice to hear from the collective Google-mind of “DowntownWV” readers (see commentator Vic’s learned, helping hand on the FountainScape post below).

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

This has long been my favorite sculpture in downtown Charleston for its natural curves and soothing affect (in the psychological sense). But the fountain above, found on the plaza beside the Roman Catholic Co-Cathedral on the corner of Leon Sullivan Way and Virginia Street, is coming on strong. Its rectilinear homage to Euclid and nod to the Naiads, is so inviting that on a wicked-hot August afternoon one must say a silent novena to resist stripping off one’s clothes for a baptismal plunge into its inviting coolness. Wishing to avoid a venial sin, one resists the urge.

P.S. Former altar boys and freelance nuns, can you translate the Latin on the base?

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

If there is one plant guaranteed to life the spirits, it is the sight of a passel of sunflowers in bloom. (A snatch of sunflowers? A flock of sunflowers?) How apt to find this most curious and pleasing of flowers fronting one of Charleston’s most curious and pleasing of knick-knackeries, the Cornucopia shop at the top of Bridge Road.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

Dr. Saville, husband unit of Taylor Book’s Ann Saville, is a familiar dogwalker on the downtown streets of Charleston. A while back, the dog of choice was a low-to-the-ground fuzzy white fellow who must have passed on to that kennel in the sky, for this fellow is now at the end of the doc’s leash. Both of the dogs are street-friendly and suckers for a rub.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

It has been awhile since last I encountered this Charleston street habitué with my camera in hand. In past visits, s/he has gone by ‘Elizabeth.’ Knowing the fungible nature of street identity, I asked her what name she preferred to be known by for this encounter. “Leia,” she replied, “like in Star Wars.” We chatted some little bit more about her song recording (she sometimes produces a cassette recorder with songs she says she’s at work upon). Then, she asks did I have any dollars, maybe a twenty? I said, sure, I had some of those, grabbing whatever came to hand from a poke into my wallet. Up came a wad of ones, a fiver buried among them. Leia seemed satisfied. “I’ve missed you,” she said.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

I can’t help my urges: My name is Walker and I am a ‘cloudaholic‘ (at least when armed with a Canon PowerShot). OK, a challenge: got enough information in this photo to tell me on which street I am standing? Name the cross street and I will buy you an espresso at Sophia’s. (See post two posts down…)

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

In our ongoing series of people who have fallen (asleep) and they can’t get up, herewith another display of conked out Charlestonians, this one fronting the downtown library on a lazy Monday afternoon. I suppose there are laws against this sort of thing, though the real price to pay will be the banded lines across the fellow’s face for the remainder of the evening.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

Over at my compatriot gazz blog site, “There’s a Blog In My Soup,” Brooke A. Brown has a “Spot of Bother” to pick with the quality of coffee served at Charleston restaurants. He, like I, prefers the kind of strong coffee you could put into the oil pan of your Chevelle if you were a quart low. He finds the Joe served at most city restaurant to be woefully inadequate and I concur. I’d add that the coffee served at most area coffeeshops is also inadequate. Best in town? Hands down it’s found at Sofia’s Gourmet Coffee, at 700 Virginia St. E. A smiling Stacy Rashid (above) will hand-pull a fab, inky-dark, rich espresso or cappuccino for you (unlike Starbucks, whose barristas have been replaced by the button of a $30,000 machine). Excuse me while my heart fibrillates in caffeine rapture.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

OK, here’s a challenge. This photo depicts five different buildings (and different styles of buildings) in Charleston at a single glance. What are the five structures? Bonus point: What is the name of the street I am standing on in order to take such a shot?

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

You take your landmarks where you can find them in Charleston, even if they are Lilliputian versions of the real thing, like the Cafe Paris’ nod to the Eiffel Tower on its wall facing Quarrier Street. Did you know: many Parisians hated the Le Tour Eiffel when it first opened in March 1889. Guy de Maupassant is said to have eaten lunch regularly at the Tower’s restaurant — when asked why since he apparently shared the view that it was an eyesore, he replied that it was the one place in Paris where you couldn’t see the Tower.