Here’s a look at how things turned out with Governor Bev Perdue’s participation in the Plant a Row for the Hungry program. These beauties were harvested shortly before the holidays.
Update on the Governor’s Cabbage Patch
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Raleigh is decked out in holiday finery and ready for company.
The weekend of December 12-13 was a big one in the Downtown Raleigh area featuring beautiful holiday decorations and live music by local performers. There was the annual Historic Oakwood Candlelight Tour, the holiday open house at the Governor’s Mansion, and the holiday open house at the N.C. Capitol Building.
The elaborate decorations at the Governor’s Mansion take six months of planning, and it takes 15 people four days to put them up! One of the Christmas trees is a tree decorated with items special to North Carolina and its people. It’s covered in dogwood flowers, pine cones, cardinals, seashells, acorns, and sanddollars. Another special tree is decorated with more than 650 ornaments made by the sons and daughters of N.C. military service personnel.
Walking around and taking in the sights this time of year is always a satisfying family activity. And a chill in the air just seems to add the finishing touch.
That’s Life in Raleigh.
N.C. Governor Plants a Row for the Hungry
In addition to the regular kitchen garden on the grounds of the governor’s mansion here in Raleigh, Governor Bev Perdue has planted extra collard greens and cabbage as part of the Plant a Row for the Hungry national campaign.
Have you heard about this program? Plant a Row started in 1995 and encourages gardeners to plant an extra row of vegetables in their gardens and then donate the produce to local food agencies and soup kitchens. American gardeners have donated more than 14 million pounds of food as part of this grassroots effort. And it was all started by one guy. What a story!
That’s Life in Raleigh.
None for me, thanks.
This is a truck we saw traveling west on I-40 Labor Day Weekend.
Raleigh’s Very Own Wolfpack
They’re baaaack!
The students at N.C. State have poured back into Raleigh for the start of the fall semester.
Did we miss them this summer?
Um, not so much. While they were gone, things were a little calmer, a little cleaner, and a little quieter. We could actually drive down Hillsborough Street—even with all of the intense construction of the soon-to-be new-and-improved Hillsborough Street. All the streets near campus were wide and clear, free of all the parked cars. And driving near the campus without having any close encounters with pedestrians is a special treat. We could even eat at the restaurants and frequent the businesses on Hillsborough Street. I mean find a place to park and everything! No long lines of scholars at the Harris Teeter weighed down by cheap twelve-packs, either. So yeah, we enjoy their summer vacation, too.
Raleigh has plenty going on even without a university of twenty-thousand-plus students. We’re the state capitol. We have the Research Triangle Park. Our economy doesn’t rise and fall on the backpacks of college students.
But the heart of our city just may. With our NCSU students back in town, Raleigh is a richer, more vibrant city, humming with creativity. Serious creativity. Barrel Monster, anyone? We’re younger, hipper, and smarter. The brain power, enthusiasm, and sheer energy concentrated in that part of our city makes Raleigh a better and more exciting place to be.
Memories of long, carefree college days come flooding back at the sight of all these throngs of young Wolfpackers. Who can see all these young adults and not wax nostalgic about the Ed’s Grocery of yesteryear and the Circus Room at Darryl’s? Add to that the fact that Sidney Lowe is back on campus, and I feel young again and ready to hit that Brickyard for another celebration! Yep, I was there when Sidney brought it home last time.
So welcome back, N.C. State. We’re glad you’re here. Go Wolfpack!
But about that large group of male NCSU students living in the house directly across the street from my home and my two teenaged daughters—well, I’ll save that for another day.
That’s Life in Raleigh.
Picture This: Haywood Hall
Haywood Hall is located in Downtown Raleigh at  211 New Bern Place.
It was built in the very early 19th century and is the oldest house in the original Raleigh city limits that is still on its original foundation. Â To learn more, go to haywoodhall.org.