I have to confess that Raleigh’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is always my favorite parade of the year.  I love the wacky combination of entrants in the parade.  It’s exciting when you really can’t predict what category may be coming around the corner next.  Of course there are Irish dancers, Scouts, beauty queens of all ages, bagpipes, candy being tossed, and green everywhere you look…including on the legs of horses!  See:

So along with your standard, expected entries in the annual parade celebrating the Irish through Downtown Raleigh, you’ll also find many unexpected, not so standard entries. The primary qualification for parade entry may possibly be just adding some green somewhere or simply sporting a shamrock.  That seems to be how there were groups in the parade showcasing what seemed to be every known breed of dog, the N.C. State rodeo club, The Little German Band with a touch of green added to their outfits, The Dancing Queens in green spandex, a few monster! costumes, and even a group encouraging people to “wear” their babies.  But one of the most bizarre sights at today’s parade had to be the real policemen behaving like the  Keystone Cops! What??

This year’s parade was awesome. Entertaining, unpredictable, wacky, and fun!

In spite of what the thermometer reads, hundreds of people running through the streets of Downtown Raleigh wearing  kilts, costumes,  and decked out in every shade of green means spring must be right around the corner.  The St. Paddy’s Run Green 8K is one of my favorite races each year.  I love the clever costumes, I love how happy everyone appears to be as they run down the street, I love the sound made by the pounding of so many feet, and I love the extra-special treat of being able to watch and cheer on the runners from my own front porch.

The costumes this year seemed a bit more bland than in years past, maybe because the day was chilly and windy.  Besides an almost-but-not-quite-world-record number of kilts, there were plenty of tutus, wigs, and face paint.  My favorites included an outfit with a pair of kneesocks that had “BEER” in large letters going down the calf, a very big man not wearing a shirt but carrying a giant sword, and a guy running in work boots.  Ouch!

Here’s a short sampling:

This a beautiful season in Raleigh with festive holiday decorations everywhere.  The homes in Downtown Raleigh are especially decked out year after year with a wide array of adornment from old-fashioned to trendy, natural to artificial, simple to sophisticated.

I set out with my camera to capture some porch scenes on this gorgeous December weekend with temperatures in the seventies and Downtown Raleigh overflowing with folks full of holiday cheer enjoying holiday open houses at the state capitol, the governor’s mansion, Historic Oakwood, and the Historic Mordecai House.

Not only is Downtown Raleigh a great place for families to live, it’s also a great place for red-tailed hawks to make their home.  We learned about these feathered neighbors at the Downtown Lunch Break Hawk Walk sponsored by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

There’s a pair of hawks nesting near the steeple of the First Baptist Church on Salisbury Street, directly across from the Capitol.  According to a bird expert from the museum, these hawks nested in the same spot in 2011 and raised twice the usual number of young.  While the number of hatchlings in the nest this year is yet to be determined, the pair have adapted well to urban living and raised four in 2011.  The food is plentiful and there’s no real competition for it.  The grounds of the Capitol grounds seem to be a squirrel haven, plus the red-tail hawks also like to feed on pigeons, starlings, and rats.

So bring your binoculars and to get a good look at this particular pair of hawks and their nest.  (And they’re not the only ones living in downtown.) Join in on one of the museum’s hawk walks this spring.

And definitely check out the amazing Raleigh Raptors Blog for updates, pictures, and information at http://opienc.wordpress.com/

I’m really hoping these hawks make a big dent in the squirrel population in Downtown Raleigh, thereby protecting my tomato crop from those crafty little pests.

That’s Life in Raleigh.

Our N.C. State basketball team has made it into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.  It’s been a while since we’ve been here, and we’re very excited to be back.  So excited that it seemed appropriate to  dress Sir Walter Raleigh up in a Wolfpack jersey.

That’s Life in Raleigh….a/k/a Wolfpack Country.