Raleigh Homes Realty

Residential real estate in Raleigh, N.C.

Inside the N.C. Governor’s Mansion at Christmas

While the North Carolina Governor’s Mansion is a beautiful place every day of the year, it is spectacular when it’s dressed up for the holidays and full of visitors with live music performed by school groups from across the region. There’s always a Christmas tree decorated with artwork made by children of active-duty servicemen and servicewomen and another tree adorned with decorations important to our state such as cotton, cardinals, seashells, pine cones, dogwood flowers, and tobacco leaves. The mansion docents add so much extra detail, and the doormen give the experience an extra-special touch.

N.C. Governor’s Mansion
December 2012

 

 

 

Downtown Raleigh is Decorated for Christmas

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.

 

 


The N.C. Governor’s Mansion Gardens in Autumn

On this glorious October day while walking through Downtown Raleigh between the Glenwood South Global Fare street fair and the Cooke Street Carnival, I stopped to admire the grounds of the North Carolina Governor’s Mansion.  With our run of mild weather, the annuals and other summer plantings are quite large and still blooming and showing off their colors and the leaves on the trees haven’t yet started to turn.

 

But signs of the seasonal transitions are easy to spot.  Many of the vines and trees have hanging seed pods.  And while there are still bell peppers and other summer produce growing in the kitchen garden, the cool weather collards are off to a great start, too.  The groundskeepers have begun planting pansies, that sweet flower that seems to be made for N.C. winters.  And there are so many flats of fall plants and flowers lined up on the sidewalk inside the gates of the Mansion waiting to be put into the ground.

 

  

 It sure would be nice if the governor’s gardening crew would come a few blocks east and give me a hand in my gardens!

That’s Life in Raleigh.

 

2012 North Carolina Main Street Fire Parade

While the skies may have been gray, the faces in the crowd watching the North Carolina Main Street Fire Parade Saturday in Downtown Raleigh were happy and excited.  Bagpipes, flashing lights, and sirens on all types of fire trucks, new and old, made their way down Fayetteville Street in a very short parade as part of the 2012 South Atlantic Fire Rescue Expo.

That’s Life in Raleigh.

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Raleigh’s Downtown Hawks

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.

A close-up view of a red-tailed hawk
A close-up view of a red-tailed hawk