Residential real estate in Raleigh, N.C.
The new mixed-use building being constructed near Moore Square and City Market at the corner of Martin Street and Blount Street in Downtown Raleigh is a project called Skyhouse.  The plans call for 23 floors of residential apartments with retail on the ground floor and a rooftop pool ready for occupancy in December 2014.
And I love this very cool Google Maps tool that shows this corner beginning in 2007.
The James B. Hunt Library on N.C. State’s Centennial Campus is winning awards right and left.  And after experiencing a guided tour of this amazing building, I see why it’s garnering so much wide-scale attention since opening in 2013.  Featuring a very cool, 2-million-volume capacity bookbot, quiet study areas, spaces for collaboration, fully-equipped music rooms, 3-D printers, a video game lab, and even a sustainable rain garden on a roof area, this beautiful library seems to have everything a 21st-century college student could possibly need or want. There are free mobile tour apps for Apple or Android.  Or better yet, experience it yourself and join a walk-in tour on Wednesdays at 9:30, Fridays at 3:30, and the second Saturday of each month at 10:30.
And then there are the chairs. Â Chairs? Â What’s special about the chairs? There are more than 80Â different styles of chairs at the Hunt Library. We tested out and photographed a sampling of them.
I love this video detailing the story of the Hunt Library:
This is the perfect time of year for enjoying outdoor living spaces and front porches can be just the spot for  socializing with friends and neighbors or just relaxing quietly and enjoying the sights and sounds of nature.
What can you do to make your front porch extra-inviting this year?
Arrange a mixture of seating choices, including colorful pillows, on your porch along with a table to set things on so that you and your guests have a place to set down your cold beverage, book, or cell phone. Live plants are also a nice touch and so many varieties can live happily and carefree on a porch almost year-round here in  N.C. An old-fashioned porch swing is always a fabulous, fun touch.
Dining tables, colorful rugs, and even curtains are popular additions to porches that can expand their use and turn a porch into another room of your house, one that is heated and cooled naturally.
My family and I enjoyed a beautiful day for honoring and remembering our true American heroes at a lovely ceremony held in Historic Oakwood Cemetery’s Field of Honor before a standing-room-only crowd. Â The ceremony included music by the NCSU Pipes and Drums, the presentation of colors, laying of the wreath, Taps, and a moving keynote address by General Dan K. McNeill, Retired.
I was able to capture a great video of the presentation of colors by the N.C. Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Raleigh Chapter Color Guard.
Such a treat to stroll through the gardens at the N.C. Governor’s Mansion on a gorgeous spring day with everything in bloom.  The lawn is green and lush.  There are sculptures, flower and vegetable gardens, beehives, a waterfall and koi pond, and even gas log fire pits.
Really!
There are signs of spring everywhere. Â The birds are chirping like crazy, there are so many wonderful fragrant scents in the air, and flowers, bushes, and trees are budding and blooming. Â Now, if we could just get the local weathermen to cooperate and keep those wintry words out of their forecasts.
Come on. Â It’s March already. Â In the South. Â We’re ready for everything to be covered in yellow pollen, not sleet.
