Dog Days of Summer

Bliss

We have a new addition to our backyard menagerie, a fawn born to Smokey. We have named her Bliss, because of her penchant for jumping up and down and trotting across our backyard. If you look closely, you can she has the same black marking across her face just like her mom Smokey.

A few fun facts about deer:

- Baby deer, called fawns, have no scent for the first few weeks of their life. This protects them from predators.
- The deer population in the U.S. has nearly doubled since 1980. This over population is attributed to a lack of natural predators. Deer's main predators, cougars, are mainly extirpated in the Southeast.
- They poop 16-18 times daily.

Here is a closer look at Bliss the fawn:

Danaus plexippus

Photographed in Jamestown, NC, on July 28, 2007.

Butterflies Are Free

Photographed in my front yard on July 24, 2007.

Raleigh Rose Garden

Raleigh Rose Garden
301 Pogue Street (near NC State University; off Hillsborough Street; behind Raleigh Little Theater)
Raleigh, NC 27607-7267
919-821-4579

This is a beautiful garden park with over 60 rose beds that include a collection of hybrid teas, florabundas, grandifloras, English, and tree roses.

From the entrance on Pogue Street, you are treated to an Aeriel view of the garden as you walk down a wooden stairwell to reach the park.



There is a lovely stone archway covered in climbing roses at the north end of the park. This garden has the most wonderful array of smells and is a quiet, peaceful place stroll and admire your favorite rose variety.




There are beautiful shady vistas throughout the park:

Raleigh Wide Open

This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of the re-opening of Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh, NC.

Fayetteville Street is Raleigh's main street and was closed in 1976 to automobile traffic and re-opened as a pedestrian mall. Big mistake. People tired of having to park their cars and walk several blocks to get to the pedestrian mall where shops and restaurants struggled to survive.

Downtown Raleigh was dying a slow death until Fayetteville Street reopened in 2006. The city decided to celebrate this auspicious occasion by, well, shutting the down street again for the day. Yes, I know how ironic this is - shutting down the street to celebrate opening the street.

A respectable crowd turned out to celebrate, note the capitol building in the background:



Fayetteville Street is also home to the Briggs Hardware Building, the only 19th century commercial building remaining in Raleigh. An interesting note, our church originally met in this building on Sundays 90 years ago before the sanctuary was finished. The building is now home to the Raleigh Museum.





The street festival was full of music and haute cuisine:



You may wonder what is in a "monkey nut" drink - my street research yields that it is some sort of fruit concoction served in a coconut shell. I don't care if it is non-alcoholic, you should never drink anything bigger than your head.



Congratulations Fayetteville Street - live long and prosper!

Your Tax Dollars At Work

This mailbox was photographed on Fayetteville Street, Raleigh, NC, May, 2007.

R2D2 as a mailbox?