Moderate temperatures and plenty of rain through the end of April left everything looking lush around the triangle area of NC where I live.
It's been too hot to walk this weekend but I fear record breaking high temperatures for the latter part of May have started adding some browns.
It is weird to go from lows in the 40s (Fahrenheit) and highs in the 60s (Fahrenheit) to highs in the 90s (Fahrenheit) and lows in the 70s (Fahrenheit) within the space of a week.
It's supposed to be cooler by next weekend so perhaps June will start off pleasant.
Last weekend we went on a road trip to the NC mountains on the Blue Ridge Parkway and then to visit friends in Black Mountain.
It was still moderate last weekend so the wildflowers along the way were lovely.
It was nice to be the passenger so I could safely take shots along the way.
The Blue Ridge Parkway lived up to its name.
My mother was from Boone and I grew up in the NC Piedmont so trips to the mountains to visit my grandmother were a happy part of my childhood.
My father was from eastern NC fairly close to the coast so I also feel an affinity to the NC coast.
My father's parents died when he was a teenager so I never met them.
Hard to believe it has been almost 30 years since my mother died and close to over 20 years since my Dad died.
The older I get the younger it seems my parents were when they died.
Of course compared to my father's parents and my mothers father who died when she was 2 months old my parents had a long full life.
Today I also think of those who have died in wars and most of them were unbearably young. I'm not being very cheerful but it seems appropriate to mention that since it's Memorial Day in the U.S.
The shot above and the rest of the shots are of Black Mountain, NC.
The neighborhood where my friends live has a wide mixture of houses in terms of style and size.
When houses are sold a lot of the small ones are bulldozed and a much larger house put in its place.
I like the house in the two shots above. It looks fairly new but it fits into it's location and is a relatively moderate size.
We walked down to Lake Tomahawk which is in the neighborhood where my friends live.
The mountains on the right in the 2 shots above are called the Seven Sisters.
The baby geese were almost hidden by the grass.
Although the neighborhood is hilly the path around the lake is quite flat.
Given my hips and knees the flat part was more my speed.
Wishing a peaceful happy memorial day to everyone.