April 2017 comes to an end.

Most of the shots in this post are ones I took today, the last day of April but I'll begin with a few from the past couple of weeks.



I love yellow fields that I inevitably see when driving outside the city in April. 



It's also nice to see the birds foraging on the ground like the cardinal above.



The roses above are one of the few varieties I still have in my overgrown neglected yard.



The bath water was hanging onto the American Robin.



The rest of the shots are from a walk around the JC Raulston Arboretum at NCSU today.



They've made a lot of changes since I walked there last. 



The lath house is always one of my favorite places to explore.



They did a major change to the lath houses some years ago but that's one of the few part of the garden that doesn't seem different from when I was there last.



I always like to see children enjoying gardens.



There was one little boy that was fascinated with a dead animal and wanted to make sure we saw it.



I guess it's as good of a way as any for children to get an understanding of the cycle of life.



The paths meander in different ways from last year which confused me but major changes to paths and garden sections usually don't happen too often.



I like the way the arboretum has a lot of different conditions within the garden.



There's full sun, full shade, partial shade and so on.



That's one of my favorite parts of another garden not too far from me (the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill).



Duke gardens in Durham, NC is another nice one.



I was glad Bill suggested the arboretum in Raleigh, NC today because I drive to Durham and back every day for work so it was nice to go to the one in the town I live in.



There weren't as many people there as sometimes walk around the garden on weekends.



The think the overcast weather may have cut down on the people which suited me.



I prefer not having to dodge people when I'm taking pictures.



There was a much larger part of the garden devoted to rose than there used to be.



Believe it or not I actually whittled down the number of shots I initially picked for this post.



That said this is a rather long photographic meander.



Part of what makes it hard to be selective is there are so many different areas with different plants and trees.



I am running out of commentary so I hope I'm coming close to an end.



I upload to flicker before I start a post so while I'm pasting in the location of the shot I don't know how near I'm coming to the last shot I picked.



I'm pretty sure I'm on the last stretch.



Happy May Day tomorrow!