Y'all Come See Us!

The NY Times just listed Durham as one of 41 Places to Go in 2011. I don't work for Durham, and I have no vested interest in promoting Durham, but I do love living in Durham so it's exciting for our city to be mentioned as a travel destination!

This city has so much to offer that it's disappointing sometimes to be passed over time and again when people tout the gems in North Carolina. The city has worked to revitalize itself, like an old charming house that has updated everything from the lighting fixtures to the bathroom faucet and it's paying off. People are starting to notice the wonderful characteristics that gives this city its charm.

Don't Forget to Vote!

Early Voting - Durham, NC
Originally uploaded by Paul Jenn Bernie

This week is the last to vote early here in Durham, NC and next Tuesday is already the big day! Can you believe it?

My husband and I went and voted early last week. It was actually one of the most exciting voting experience I ever had. Most of the time voting is pretty somber and just plain common, like going to the ATM or grocery store. You go in punch a few buttons, you're done, you go on to something else.

This year, it's different. There is excitement in the air; people are going to the polls in record breaking numbers. When we went to vote, there were people in the parking lot directing traffic. The usual poll campaigners are on the sidewalk handing out fliers. The drive up voting station was set up. Yes, there was a drive up voting for people who can't get out of their cars easily like the handicapped and elderly.

When you go in, there are plenty of volunteers to assist you. When I finally got my ballot and my husband and I were in our booths filling them out, there was suddenly cheering. A few seconds later, I hear an intelligible shout and another cheer goes up. I asked my husband, "what are they cheering for?" he said the guy is shouting "First time voter!" everytime one walks through the door. This has never happened before in the more than twenty years that I have been going to the polls.

I was reading on the news that this election year will also break the number of first time voters going out to vote. There are a couple of young guys (not too young, probably in their 30's) in our neighborhood who told my husband that this is the first year they are registered to vote. I think it's awesome that people are more apt to vote this year than previous years.

I can't wait until next week! DON'T FORGET TO GO VOTE! I don't care who you vote for, just go.

CenterFest 2008

The girls and I attended Durham's Centerfest last weekend. My husband being an artist and having a studio downtown for a number of years; we spent a lot of time downtown and Centerfest was one of the year's highlights. This is when artists from all over the state would come for a two day festival in downtown Durham to show off their wares and for people to be able to come and spend the day looking at artwork.

Of course, there are also other entertainment offered by performing artists; food from the international community and booths from local civic organizations offering everything from crafts to green products. Two main streets downtown used to be closed off for this event and tens of thousands of people would show up to participate.

However, it seems to have waned in previous years. We hadn't attended the last two or three years because it had been rained out or we were doing something else. This year when we went, I was disappointed to find that the venue has been relegated to one parking lot behind the YMCA. You can count the number of art booths. Whereas the last Centerfest we attended had a whole parking lot reserved for food venues, you can count on one hand the number of booths selling food at the back end of the parking lot. The artists exhibiting were few and they all seemed bored. There weren't that many people looking at or for art either. It was a bit disappointing to see, really.

A Walk in the Woods

Summer is almost over. Can you believe it? The girls returned from their summer vacation in California last Monday with mixed feelings. I think they're happy to be home but at the same time sad that it means the summer is almost over and they will be going back to school soon. They have tons of photos from their vacation that I still have to upload to the server so we can blog about them. So those will come later.

In the meantime, I share with you some photos of one of our favorite activities during the summer, walking through the woods. We are lucky enough to have so many wooded trails nearby and it's almost like going away on vacation when actually you are just a few blocks from home. This particular trail, we discovered in the back of the girls' school, believe it or not. We saw an opening along the back fence of the school and we decided to follow it.

The Clone was able to ride her bike for a little while...


But eventually the trail got too narrow and rough for her to ride her bike so we left it and went on foot and came upon this little bridge.

The Dry Spell Continues

Durham is still in a severe drought status. It's been cold, it snowed a bit last week but still no substantial rain. The lakes and other water reservoirs are still several feet below normal. Lately the only showers we've been getting are the kind in the bathroom. Today, they (the city) were giving away truckloads of water saving (low flow) shower heads. Too bad they weren't giving out Grohe faucets or I would have gone out in the cold to line up for one. Although, if I had one of those fancy faucets, I would have to build a whole new, fancy house around it. :)

Feeding the Ducks

Sometimes when we have nothing better to do and just feel like stretching our legs, we go out and take a walk. Some of Durham's many attractions are the various hiking trails that provide us variety in scenery and keeps us from getting bored. Sometimes we just walk around our neighborhood but sometimes when the mood strikes us, we go to the Duke Gardens which is just a couple of miles from our house. We started going to this garden when the children were smaller because it is pretty secure, away from busy streets, and we can let them run loose. They can run ahead of us, climb trees, find hideouts, all within our sight with no worries of them getting too far ahead or lost. Many a times we've brought a picnic blanket and just lolled around on the lawns or napped under trees.

One of the girls' favorite activity during these walks is to feed the ducks. The girls never fail to clean out the kitchen of stale bread for the ducks before we leave the house. I remember one snowy day a couple of years ago when we had been housebound without power for a few days due to an ice storm. We were all suffering cabin fever and needed to get out for some air. At the first opportunity to get out of the house, this garden is where they wanted to head to, to check on the ducks. We trekked through icy trails and broken tree limbs to this pond just so they can feed their ducks. You see, they don't worry about the ducks too much when the weather is nice as they practically get overfed from all the other children bringing them bread crumbs. It's when the weather gets cold and uncertain that the girls want to make sure they have enough to eat.

Click here to see more photos of our walk through the garden.

Helping the hands that help

The weather has been so schizophrenic lately that the plants are just so darn confused now they don't know whether to pop up or stay in. The weather had gotten so warm the last couple of weeks that we even had started digging up the garden again and sowed some seeds. Trees started budding, and the dastardly pollen had started coating everything that doesn't move.

Then this week, the weather turned on us and decided to go back to winter like weather and freezing temperature over night. Confusing for plantlife, but downright confounding for human life.


Like many urban cities, Durham has its share of homeless people and people who live in poverty. One of the great resources for people in need in Durham is the Durham Rescue Mission. They provide help to the needy in various ways. They have a shelter for women and children, they provide meals not only on holidays but also on regular days. They collect and distribute coats for those who need it in the winter, presents on christmas for children who would otherwise have nothing and school supplies at the beginning of the school year so that every child going back to school will have a new backpack and supplies like everyone else. Having my own children, these isues are always close to my heart.

When the weather turned cold recently, all the beds inside the mission became full. They are not one to turn people away, so they allowed several people to keep warm outside by cranking up an outdoor wood furnace. Well, as you will read on their website, the sparks caused a storage facility nearby holding their collected canned goods to go up in flames.

Now, we will help them rebuild their stock. It won't be hard because Durham is still a small town at heart and they tend to take care of their own.

Very few (if any) readers of this blog are from Durham, but where ever you live and there is an organization like this, I hope that you will show them your support. Give back a little and you will receive it back a hundred fold.

A Monday Nothing Post

It's Monday, the longest day of the week and of course I do not have time to blog. Hate it when real life interferes with blogging.

So the short and sweet of the last week is that my Jade has turned 14 and we spent the weekend celebrating her birthday. There is still cake in the refrigerator calling my name everytime I open the door. She and her friends wanted pizza, sparing me from cooking them dinner, so instead I cooked up some mussels for myself.

I don't have much time like I said, but I did have time to post some photos of Durham In Our Backyard, also taken during our 5K walk the weekend before last.

A walk downtown

Every year for the last five, we had participated in this annual community event for non-profit organizations in the area. It is a fundraising event which culminates with a 5K walk/run through downtown Durham. The girls and I had a busy weekend starting with this event. They at least get an extra day to recover, they are off from school tomorrow, but I have to go to work. So I'll make this short and just share these photos with you.








The walk started and ended at one of Durham's landmarks, the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, home of the Durham Bulls (minor league baseball team) and wound it's way around the streets of downtown Durham.




Visit us In Our Backyard for more photos of the sights in Durham.