Wordless Wednesday: NC's State Bird (cardinal) eating NC's State flower (dogwood)

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That's My World: Dogwood - State flower of North Carolina

In 1941 the North Carolina Legislature approved the dogwood as North Carolina's State Flower. I love dogwood trees at all stages and have frequently posted shots of their bare limbs against the sky on my blogs, as well as pictures of them in full flower. Below is a shot I took today of one of my dogwoods which shows the stage it is currently at. Not quite in full flower but will be soon.



The rest of the shots are of the dogwood flowers from the spring of 2008 so you can see what they look like when they are in bloom. First a white dogwood flower.



Below is a pink dogwood flower in full bloom. I had to laugh because I can tell by the little bit of my sleeve showing while I steadied the branch that I was wearing my pajamas. I do sometimes go outside to take photographs in the morning before I'm dressed.



The last shot is my dogwood tree in full bloom during the spring of 2008 and my azaleas were also in bloom. I am facing down my driveway towards the other side of the street from my house. Usually when I photograph my dogwood branches, I face the other way so I can get individual branches against the sky without the oak tree branches getting in the way. In another week or two my world should start to look like this again.



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Monochrome Monday: Party Animals

The monochrome shot is fairly true to nature as it was a monochrome day. That didn't stop the birds from partying. For more participants, please visit the home of Monochrome Monday.

Sky Watch Friday and Purple Day for Epilepsy Awareness

I am posting my skywatch shot early because I wanted to drape both of my blogs in purple for Epilepsy Awareness on March 26 which is Purple Day. You can click on the button above or preceding link to learn more about purple day. I learned about this from Michele's beautiful blog, The Rocky Mountain Retreat. Michele is a wonderful photographer and she has epilepsy.
It was easier to come up with purple shots for my other blog because I didn't need sky shots. Since I wanted to combine Skywatch Friday and Purple Day on this blog, I finally settled on a purple morning glory reaching for the sky last summer. Please consider wearing purple on March 26 (today) to support Epilepsy awareness. You can click on the preceding links to learn more about epilepsy, and on the skywatch links to find other skies around the world.

Wordless Wednesday: Can you find the little bird in my photo?

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That's My World Tuesday: North Carolina State Bird - Cardinal

The cardinal was selected as the State Bird of North Carolina in 1943. Below is a male cardinal I photographed in one of my trees.

Cardinals are one of the most common birds to be found in North Carolina yards and are year round residents here. Below is a female cardinal I photographed in one of my trees.

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Monochrome Monday: Raleigh's First Water Tower (World Water Day)

In honor of World Water Day, I am posting a shot of Raleigh's first Water Tower which was constructed in 1887. The significance of this water tower is with its construction municipal water service was started in Raleigh, NC. Prior to that time water in the city was drawn from cisterns and private wells. It was later abandoned with larger towers being constructed throughout the city and is now used by the NC Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for its office following renovation.
To find out more about World Water Day you can visit this world water day site and, or this other world water day site.

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SkyWatch Friday: Redbud tree blossoming against the blue sky

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Wordless Wednesday: A little splash of spring

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My World: North Carolina Fairgrounds

I thought I'd feature the North Carolina Sate Fairgrounds in this post. It's a very extensive complex which is used for many cultural events, flea markets, horse shows, and for other purposes as well as being the site for the state fair.

The shots above and below are of the J.S. Dorton Arena which is one of the more distinctive buildings at the fair grounds. You can learn more about the arena at this link. I went to the circus as a child at that arena and took my daughter when she was a child. I also went to horse shows there before the large horse complex was added to the fairgrounds. The arena shots were take a few weeks ago.

Below is a map of the 2008 NC State Fair which shows the whole complex and where various parts of the fair took place but it also shows some of the permanent buildings. You can go to this link to learn more about the individual facilities that are housed on the grounds.

There is a permanent flea market on the grounds with indoor and outdoor booths which operates year round except when the fair is taking place. Below is a recent shot of some of the indoor market facilities. I was surprised to see the Canadian Geese in the grass. There is a pond on the other side of the grounds but I guess they were finding more food here.

The last shot was taken when I was stopped at the railroad tracks back in September of 2008 and shows one of the entrances to the grounds. As a child those buildings reminded me of a fairy tale for some reason.

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Monochrome Monday: Guardian Birds

I took this shot in September of 2008 and was astounded by the cooperation of the birds. To find other monochrome shots please visit Monochrome Maniacs.

SkyWatch Friday: This week and an old one

The first shot was taken this week and is my official skywatch shot. I thought it looked like sheer fabric was tossed across the sky.

The second shot was taken in January and the sky wasn't that interesting but I thought the little bird was a cutie.

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Wordless Wednesday: March Madness

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That's My World Tuesday: UNC hospital

It's been interesting watching the new cancer hospital at UNC being built. The first shot was one I took when I went for a melanoma follow up in September of 2007 when they were in the early stages of building. The right hand side of the shot is of early construction on the new cancer hospital.

I was there last week for my four year full body scan which was done in the nuclear science hospital and I just got the word that my scan didn't show any areas of concern, woohooo. As you can see from the shot below which I took last Thursday, the cancer hospital is pretty close to completion. Probably when I go for my September follow up appointment I will have it in the new hospital.

The shot below was taken in the hospital garden on September of 2008 when I went for a regular follow up and arrived early. I've noticed that the new cancer hospital has a garden beside where I will go for oncology appointments. If it's finished when I go to my next appointment, I'll have to photograph that garden.

The last shot shows the current part of the hospital complex which weren't in my other shots. The tan building is the original hospital and it's adjoined by the newer children's hospital, women's hospital and nuclear science hospital. The Cancer hospital joins the nuclear science forming the leg of the L shape. The brick building in the front is where the oncology appointments are now but the needs of the cancer center have outgrown that building. One thing that doesn't show up is there is a breezeway in front of all of the hospitals connecting them and containing plants and places to sit down. It's pleasant having so much green inside the hospital.


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Monochrome Monday: A house across the street from the NC Fairgrounds

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SkyWatch Friday: Monday afternoon light on snowy branches

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Wordless Wednesday: Carolina Chickadee in the snow

It may look like the little carolina chickadee is having a rough time in the snow. What you can't see is that I set a treat out for the chickadees and the little bird is enjoying the food courtesy of me.

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That's My World Tuesday: Mercurial North Carolina Weather

They have a saying where I live that goes something like this: if you don't like the weather, wait a day.



We have had cold then warm then cold weather for about a month. The snow shots were taken today, the flowers without snow shots were taken on Thursday and Friday.



If it wasn't so hard on the early flowers, I wouldn't mind the changing weather. As you can see above the daffodils were starting to bloom and a few days ago looked like the shot above. The shot below shows what the same part of my garden looks like today. I have been doing some clean up in my garden but looking at these shots, I realize how messy it still is in spite of my small efforts. Oh well, another day. I don't see myself doing garden work today in the snow.



Then below another section of my garden where the narcissus are blooming as well as the lenten rose (helioborus) at the top left of the picture.



And one last shot to show the same section of my garden this morning. I'm glad I did get some daffodil shots before the weather changed. My daughter was born today (March 2) in 1985. When I went to the hospital it was snowing and the next day after she was born, we had a sunny day and the daffodils bloomed to honor her birth. This year it went in reverse, the daffodils bloomed to herald her upcoming birthday and then it snowed where I live for her birthday. At least she is having a sunny, if cold, day where she now lives in the mid-western U.S. Ironic since I live in the southeastern U.S. where we get less snow than where she is living.



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