Late April through late May 2019

The first four shots are from a Shelley Lake walk on April 28, 2019.



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. 

March 9 through April 20, 2019

It has been a beautiful spring although the flowers have had a short life initially due to cold and more recently, after the warm up, due to strong storms. 



I left work early yesterday and when I got home Raleigh where I live was under a tornado watch and Durham where I work had a tornado warning. 



Week before last when I was at work I heard a very loud explosion.



Looking out the window there was a thick plume of dark smoke.



It was a gas explosion and sadly caused a number of injuries and a fatality.



It is scary and sad how something like that can occur out of the blue.



I think it was caused by construction equipment hitting a natural gas line but my understanding is they're still trying to figure out how it happened. 



Today was a beautiful day after all the storms yesterday.



I finally managed to spot one of the bald eagles at Shelly Lake. 



I haven't seen the babies yet but I heard they'll probably be venturing out of the nest soon.



It's amazing to me how fast trees have leafed out this year.



They tiny leaves have burst into full leaves faster than I've remembered seeing it happen in past years.

 

The cardinals are already harder to photograph because they have more leaf cover.



These photographs aren't chronological.



I'm jumping around between the weeks I took pictures.



My large azaleas above were bowed down by storms after I took the shot above so I went ahead and lopped them down a bit while I could reach them.



My back yard has already turned back into a jungle.



I meant to try to do some trimming before there was so much new growth.



Bill and I went to the WRAL Azalea Garden and the tulips were the big stars.



There were some azaleas blooming but the tulips were magnificent.



It was overcast when we were there but still lovely.



I was glad to have some blue sky today though tomorrow is going to be cloudy.



I don't think it's supposed to rain.



I hope not because I'm going to Oxford for Easter dinner.



It's only about an hour's drive but I would prefer it not to be a rainy one.



I'll be interested to see what's in bloom along the way although it was stormy there yesterday too so most of the blooms may be on the ground.



I like ground covers of blooms too so either way is pretty to me. I hope everyone who celebrates Easter has a good one.