That's My World Tuesday: My wild and crazy garden

My garden is getting wilder and crazier by the minute and by and large I like it that way.



The wildlife that lives in my garden is thriving which is a big part of why I like a somewhat wild garden.



Part of the current status of my garden is on purpose but it's also lack of energy on my part. It would certainly be better maintained if I had more energy.



But if my garden was better maintained I'd miss out on some of the pleasant surprises I get.



For example I used to have the hibiscus below in one part of my garden and through the years it has popped up all over the place.



The mulberry trees were volunteers and there are so many different birds and other animals like squirrels that love the berries.



At one point I had a few butterfly weed plants but at this point they pop up throughout my garden and the bees and butterflies love them.



I have so many different butterflies and moths as well as bees that they perform a symphony with the birds' voices chiming in.



I still have a lot of summer flowers that aren't blooming yet, such as, purple cone flower and black eyed susan. They have started forming buds but won't be in bloom till later in June.



It's not as easy to photograph the birds with so much dense cover but I listen for them and can sometimes quietly find where to aim my camera.



In the center of the shot below is the trunk and lower branches of my crepe myrtle. I always look forward to it blooming in the summer because it adds such a big splash of color to my garden. I'll start looking for the crepe myrtle's blooms in late June and July.



The yellow yarrow is beginning to add a splash of color and soon the red yarrow will be joining in too.



It's amazing how fast the perennial grasses go from a few early blades to large and bushy and even some plumes starting. I have several different ornamental grasses that die back completely in the winter but make a big comeback by mid spring.



I guess I'll end this tour of my wild side garden before an ogre jumps out and scares me.



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Monochrome Weekend: Cape Fear Coast NC

I took this shot in May of 2009 and am pretty sure I've never used it on my blog.



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SkyWatch Friday: I see the moon and the moon sees me

I went to my kitchen door on Tuesday evening to shut the curtains for the night and was delighted to spy the nearly full moon through the clouds.



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Wordless Wednesday: Buzzin Bumble Bees

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That's My World Tuesday: Cary and Apex, NC

As I've mentioned before, I live in the triangle area of NC and that area includes Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and the Research triangle Park. I haven't mentioned the maze of towns in the area which are also interconnected in many ways. People often live in one place, work another, and go to performances and other events in the wider region beyond where they live or work.

The first two shots are of the new pedestrian bridge in Cary, NC which is very close to Raleigh . I've posted shots of the Raleigh and Durham pedestrian bridges which are similar but Cary commissioned art for their bridge. Not sure yet what I think of it. Cary used to be a very small town but in addition to expanding as a bedroom community to the triangle, Cary is also the home of SAS and other employers.

I don't have a reason to go to Cary much and it has lost so much of what used to be unique to it when it was still a small town that I rarely go there.

The map above shows the triangle region and you can see that Cary is southwest of Raleigh, south of Durham and southeast of Chapel Hill. The rest of the photographs in this post were taken in Apex, NC. As you can see on the map Apex is southwest of Cary.

Although Apex has grown like the rest of the area, it has retained a small town identity and I think has a certain charm.

I was a car passenger when I took these pictures and since the car was moving, the quality isn't great.

I think these shots get across something of the feel of the houses in the downtown area of Apex, in spite of being a bit blurry.

To visit other parts of the world, you can go to the home of that's my world Tuesday. UPDATE - I just went to another blogger from my region and noticed that his post had a shot from Carrboro which you can get to with this link. If you look at the map I posted Carrboro is Northwest of Cary and Raleigh, southwest of Durham and just below Chapel Hill.

Monochrome Weekend: Is it just me or does it look like a dinosaur

I'm surprised that this is the second week in a row that there is a relation in my monochrome and wordless posts. This time the relation is that it's the same piece of wood but the wordless post found here was what I saw as I approached the wood and the shot below was what I saw from a side view of the same piece of wood.



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SkyWatch Friday: In between storms

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Wordless Wednesday: From a distance I thought it was a large predatory bird

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That's My World Tuesday: A Great Blue Heron at Shelley Lake (Raleigh, NC)

I could have had better lighting and a more powerful zoom but I enjoyed photographing the Great Blue Heron walking on its long legs.

I was impressed by how it ambled up and over the logs and driftwood.

Then when he or she was walking on level ground the legs were lifted up high as if there were still logs to cross .

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Monochrome Weekend: Ceiling on table

I took two shots of this same subject matter from slightly different angles. I couldn't decide which I liked better so I used a full color version of one on my Wordless post. Then the shot from the other angle is in monochrome below.

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Skywatch Friday: Looking up and looking down

Both of these shots were taken at the same place at the North Carolina Museum of Art.

In the first shot I was including the sky in between the top of the gallery wings and also reflected in the mirrored panels in the exterior building. In the second shot I was including the reflected sky in the reflecting pool which is built in outside between the wings.

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Wordless Wednesday: Reflected Allusion

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That's My World Tuesday: NC Museum of Art Rodin Garden

I have done a number of posts about the NC Museum of Art's major expansion and new building which adds to the space for the permanent collection and special exhibits.

I think my last NCMA post was in February a few months before the new building opened.

After a pleasant mother's day brunch this Sunday, Bill and I went to see the completed new part of the museum and museum garden.

For this post I thought I'd show the photographs of the new Rodin garden.

The garden adjoins the inside Rodin collection so you can wander in and out to look at the whole collection.

All of the landscaping around the new part of the museum was planted this spring.

It will be interesting to me to see how the plants grow and the gardens evolve.

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