My real name is Debi Brandon although I blog under the pseudonym “SophiaZoe” and have for four and a half years. However, just because I blog under a pseudonym doesn’t mean that I hide behind internet anonymity. That’s my real name and I reside on the outskirts of Charleston, SC.
I am a wife, mother, grandmother, an active netizen, the accounting manager for a resort rental company in the area, and a Take Shape for Life health coach.
I have been a netizen for nearly as long as there has been an internet, active on several forums since the spring of 2005, and blogging since April 2006. Put another way, I’m a netizen and I’ve wholeheartedly embraced social media.
My original blog is far more serious and tightly focused, dedicated to Pandemic Influenza, H5N1 [Bird Flu] and H1N1-2009 [Swine Flu] with occasional sprinklings of other infectious diseases tossed in every now and again. Although PanFlu is my major focus in my spare time I began to feel “hemmed in” by the narrow focus, hence this blog, my larger “little corner of the world”, or would that be the larger world seen from my “little corner”….. I guess we’ll see as we go along.
At the bottom of the Main Page you will find a toolbar that offers up a few odds and ends of functionality as well as my Twitter feed and My Facebook account.
Those who are not intimately familiar with Charleston, SC may not know what “Pluff mud” is so please allow me to explain:
From CharlestonWiki.org
Pluff mud is a lowcountry term to describe the dark soft soil in the marshes. Pluff mud typically has a distinct odor that is the result of some combination of bacteria, water content and climate.
Pluff mud’s role in Charleston agriculture history
This prime, quality soil, abundant for hundreds of square miles around Charleston, was one of the reasons that in the 1700′s and 1800′s rice production became by far the city’s most important industry. The quality of the crop was unsurpassed, and several well-known varieties came from the area, such as one known as Carolina Gold.
The soft soil couldn’t support the types of farming machinery available at the time. But in Charleston, where slave labor was used to work the fields, this was not a major problem. Rice had been being cultivated in Africa for hundreds of years so most of the slaves arriving in Charleston already had the knowledge they needed to be efficient workers.
After the Civil War rice produced in Charleston could no longer compete on the open market due to the expensive cost of labor to work the fields. Louisiana, however, had soil very similar to Charlestons’ but not quite as soft. Machinery could be used there and Louisiana still produces a large cash crop of rice each year.
Middleton Place Plantation in Charleston still has a preserved section of rice field which is kept up somewhat but not on a scale large enough to be profitable. It is mainly used for education and tourism purposes.
You can't see the mud but 'tis pluff mud the grass is growing in. (greenkayak73's flickr)
I like to think of my mind, fed by a generous and steady supply of books and copious amounts of web surfing, to be a mind as fertile and organically robust as the pluff mud of the Lowcountry.
