First butterfly

I think this is a female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (females have the blue spots according to Wikipedia).  She sat calmly while I took her picture.  She is the first one I've seen this spring.

Pollen season!

The air is yellow with pollen these days.  Driving between rows of pines, it looks like a foggy day.   The sidewalks are dusty yellow.  The birches are also getting in the game.  Brushing under the branches makes you gritty and yellow. It makes you long for a rainy day when the pollen is washed out of the air.

Mordecai House

The Mordecai House is the oldest house in Raleigh still on it's original foundation.  Other houses have been moved to make room for growth, but since 1785 this house has stood in the same place. It was the home of a very wealthy plantation owner.  A large part of what is now Raleigh was part of the plantation land.   It is now a City of Raleigh historic park.  The right side of the house in this picture (the back end) was the original and was added onto as the Morticai family grew in size and wealth.

I wanted this side view of the house because of the blooming redbud and dogwood trees. 

It was painted yellow because color denoted wealth.  It cost more to paint your house a color instead of white.

Jim meets the Alien

We visited the NC Museum of Art again, and this time went inside.  Jim looks like he was bowing to a superior Alien master, but he was just trying to read and find out what it was.

Yet another red house

Bird houses at the Walnut Creek Wetlands park.  They look like they might have been student projects.  

First Robot Competition

The high school gym was packed with cheering teens, sponsors and parents as 33 teams competed in the FIRST Robotics competition. 

The students had to build the entire robot from scratch, no kits allowed.  

Then they had to program it to perform specific tasks.  Each ball it picked up and delivered, each gear it delivered was worth a few points.  Then it had to raise itself up to the platform for the most points of all.

To see the enthusiasm, committment and pride these kids showed was incredible.  Finally the "smart kids" get their day in the sun!

Another red house

I know this one isn't Jimi Hendrix's place.  It's a bird feeder in the neighbor's yard.  Maybe the birds are singing the blues...?

Perriwinkle

If you wondered what color Perriwinkle Blue is, here it is.  These  joined the other more showy spring flowers this spring.

Back to the Arboretum

Looks like a quaint little house, but it's the rest rooms at the JC Raulson Arboretum!

Hair cut?

I don't know why, but people have trimmed their crepe myrtle trees back to the bone.  I'll have to watch to see if it helps them flower or grow better.  They look like they've had a buzz cut.

Forsythia

The forsythia bushes are glowing yellow all over the neighborhood.

Happy first day of spring!

Garden Sculpture #1

Sometimes you walk past interesting things without noticing them.  This little guy just sits in a flower bed.  Maybe he's waiting for a metal fly to go by.

Spring freeze

We had lovely springlike weather, flowers blooming...and then the freeze.  The three nights in a row below freezing (I know, I know, big deal for my Minnesota friends) and the flowers wilted.

Scene of the fire

A few days ago Raleigh had the biggest fire since the 1920's.  The 5 alarm fire burned an unfinished apartment building.  I found this picture in my files, I had been trying to take a picture through a window of a very cool wall sculpture and instead got the reflection of an unfinished apartment building...the one that burned so bright. The building was totally destroyed and buildings all around were damaged by the heat.  I'm wondering of this window I photographed was blown out by the heat.

Happy Birthday Mildred

Lonesome

Sometimes you see a line of turtles on the logs in the lake at Durant Nature Park.  This time it was a cool cloudy day and only one was hanging out on a log.

Do-Si-Do

These were the foot prints on the deck as the snow was falling the other day.  It looks like the birds came out and did a little dancing.

One more spring snow picture

And now...it snows!

A perfect little snow.  Not enough to kill the flowers, started at 8am and was done by 9am.   

Would you call this a mural?

Even the gas tanks are decorated at Durant Nature Park.  This one has pictures of all the birds you might see in the bird garden.  It's hard to see the birds, but it's easy to hear their songs.

Tulip Magnolias

These flowers budded bloomed and were gone within a week.  They left pedals like huge snowflakes below the tree.

Sky Reflection

The sky was bright, and the creek was glassy.  The clouds seemed brighter in the water than in the sky.

Refraction

Science lesson...(I can't help it!)

When light goes through a medium it refracts (bends) depending on the speed of light in that medium.  As the sunlight goes through the water drop it bends.  The flare shows the place where the light is focused and then escapes from the water drop...How's that for a science lesson?  

A little bit of Paris in Raleigh

Lafayette Village is a little bit of Paris.  It even has a small Eiffel tower on the corner of the shopping center.  There are spice shops, cheese shops, a creperie and many other little shops and restaurants.  In the summer they have live music in the center square.   

Buttercups

We found these little guys blooming on the Crabtree Creek Greenway detour between an elementary school and houses.

Along the banks of Crabtree Creek

 The houses along Crabtree Creek look more like summer camps.  Boat docks, stairs, picnic areas all belonging to million dollar homes.  These stairs had an interesting reflection in the water.

Leaning Trees

Crabtree Creek Greenway

We took a walk on the Crabtree Creek Greenway from North Hills Park to Lassiter Mill Road.  We chatted with 3 people from an engineering company with a drone.  They were assessing the damage on the creek from Hurricane Matthew.  You can see the way the trees at the bank are leaning into the creek because the bank is being eroded away.  You can also see some white things in the bushes along the bank.  That's trash that was swept downstream by the water.  You can tell from the height of the trash how far the water rose.  It was well over the banks in many places.  The greenway was washed away in several places and we had to take detours on city streets. 

Rocking Chair Porch

Looks pretty cozy, huh?  We found these on a big porch behind the building at the Walnut Creek Wetlands park.  The park is a great place for education, it has lots of classrooms and a short nature trail.   Disappointing for a dog walk, since there's only one trail and it's very short.

Raleigh has parks for everyone.  This one is very close to downtown, and yet it's a nature center.  Great for the neighborhood and nearby schools.  (Although the closest neighbor is the prison...)

Collapse

Collapse by Ledelle Moe

North Carolina Museum of Art

This statue is in the sculpture park at the museum.  It's name is collapse, and not only is the shape depicting collapse, but the statue itself is disintegrating.  I don't know if that was intentional, but it befits the title.

After a rain

Found this little flower on a large bush. Looking them up, I found out they are Chinese Fringe Flower, Loropetalum.  They are native to China, Japan and the Himalayas.  It was introduced in the US in the 1980's.  They're all over this area, most of the time they just look like an evergreen bush.  Then, in the spring they turn pink with flowers. 

March Theme Day: Black and White in Color

Sometimes sunrises are spectacular, and sometimes they're more subtle.  

This is my entry into March's theme day of Black and White in Color.  The photo is unretouched.  It was a grey Christmas morning, the colors were just as you see.