SkyWatch Friday: Clouds

We've had a lot of grey skies and rain.

We have also had blue skies with big puffy clouds for part of some of the days.

I'm glad we have had a wet spring but it's nice to see a little blue too.

Hopefully we'll continue to have enough rain in the summer when we will need it to offset the heat.

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ABC Wednesday: T is for Tire

Tired tires with low tread make good tire swings.

To me it looks like the dogs are considering trying out the tire swing behind the fence below.

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Our World Tuesday: Continued from Last Week

I'm continuing from my last Our World post with more shots I took in downtown Raleigh, NC last weekend. This Monday, May 28, 2012 is memorial day in the U.S.

The shot above is titled "After the Firefight" and is a memorial to North Carolinians who served in Vietnam. The next shot is of Memorial Auditorium.

Memorial Auditorium was built in 1932 to replace the Civic Center which burned down. Coincidentally the Capitol Building which is at the other end of Fayetteville Street from Memorial auditorium was completed in 1840 to replace the other Capitol building at the same site which burned down in 1831.

The shots above and below are of the Capitol Building. It does seem odd that two large important buildings, each anchoring a different end of a main downtown street, would each be built to replace buildings that burned down.

There were several different festivals going on when I went downtown. One was around the Life Science & History Buildings and Nature Research Center and then Artsplosure was near Moore Square and part of that festival was at the Memorial Auditorium end of Fayetteville St.

I enjoyed getting a look at the new Nature Research Center.

In the post before this one, I used a black and white shot of the "Patterned by Nature" ribbon of LCD glass cycling through patterns found in nature.

I thought I'd also post some color shots of this unusual feature in the Nature Research Center. You can click here for more information.

It wasn't easy to photograph inside the center.

I think these shots at least give an idea of what it looks like.

The next shot is of the NC Legislative Building which was completed in 1963. Prior to that time the NC General Assembly met in the Capitol building.

I snapped some shots of buildings when we walked from the museums and Capitol towards where artsplosure was going on.

I like the variety of architecture.

The shot below is of the Federal Building (shorter prettier one on the right) and the Wake County Courthouse (taller uglier one on the left).

At artsplosure I was surprised to see Vinyl Record Art.

There were so many different booths.

I enjoy looking around at festivals like this.

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The Weekend in Black and White: Patterned by Nature

The mesh looking thingamajigie is actually part of a 90 foot long, 10 foot wide, LCD glass ribbon snaking through the Nature Research Center's 5 story Atrium in Raleigh, NC. It has 3,600 sandwiches of LCD glass which cycles through clips of 20 patterns found in Nature. For more information you can click here.

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SkyWatch Friday: Perfect Day

We've had a lot of grey and rainy skies but Sunday was a perfect day for sky watching.

I might have missed the shot below if Bill hadn't said: look at that mackerel sky. Of course I looked up and caught the shot.

I like photographing the sky through and above buildings for a change.

I used to go downtown (Raleigh, NC) more, but of late I don't seem to even though it's only a 10 to 15 minute drive from my house.

I guess since I don't work there anymore and I'm not carpooling my daughter there like I used to, or going to Church downtown as I once did, I have less reasons to than I did in the past.

At this point whenever I go downtown there is something new building wise to photograph.

I like the way there is a mix of old and new together.

Variety is something I tend to enjoy.

There was certainly a lot of variety in the sky as well as built up from the ground.

I had trouble deciding which shots to post so, as I sometimes do, I'm letting this turn into a very long post.

I can't think of when I have had a better sky to shoot.

I always like the cotton ball effect when it shows up in the sky.

I've posted a number of shots of the new "Daily Planet" already but the shot below seemed like a good SkyWatch one.

I guess I'll end here.

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ABC Wednesday: S is for Sunday Sandy Starry Sky Steeple

Sunday when I was downtown I encountered many S words.

I had trouble photographing the starry creations because there were so many people there for Artsplosure.

Next I spotted the sandy structures.

Still people got in my way.

Moving away from the people we slowly made our way back to the car.

It was easy to snap shots of the steeples against the sky.

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