Fishing pier

Shelly Lake fishing pier through the trees.

 

Conduit

A quiet place to sit, or a claustrophobic's nightmare.  A sculpture at the Raleigh Iron Works.

 

The real Iron works

At the far end of a little used parking lot at the Raleigh Iron Works development is this machine.  The remnants of the real iron works that sat at this location since 1950.  (see here)

 

Adult playground

Just in front of the brew pub at the Raleigh Iron Works is an adult playground.  The swings are very creaky.

The slide comes from the second floor of the building.  The rules are specific.  You must be over 18 and have adult supervision.  Can you supervise yourself?

 

First sighting

The first Monarch butterfly of the season was flitting around on the butterfly weed.  Very appropriate.

 

Iron Works

Raleigh Iron Works is a new mixed use shopping/residential location with a long history (see here) 

It looks like it will be a fun place to visit when its vacant spaces are filled.

 

Right now it is a little bit lonely.

Experiment

Durant park has an experiment going on.  They are creating a wildflower meadow from a grassy area.  They need to kill the existing lawn.  In the first plot they covered the grass with cardboard, waited 8 weeks and then planted the wildflower seeds.

It looks lush with tall plants growing.

In the second plot they covered the grass with black plastic for 8 weeks and planted.  It looks slightly more lush than the first.

In the last plot they just planted the wildflower seeds.

 

There are many more weeds and several bare spots.

The real test will be later this summer when the wildflowers start to bloom.  We'll be checking back!