We Love Durham NC

Little River Park in North Durham

We went to a picnic at Little River Park in North Durham, about 10 miles out of town up Guess Road… you actually go into Orange County on the road to get there–the park was created by both Durham and Orange Counties. Looking at the Little River park map, I see that we didn’t enjoy half of what is available. The field and playground are great, and the shelter looks new. There are bathrooms and water fountains, and historical buildings (a corn crib, for example). There is a Bluegrass Festival at Little River at the end of September.
See more Durham parks here.Â

Critical Mass in Durham

A reported success for the Critical Mass in Durham, with video.

No more truffulas…

…available at the corner of 54 and 751! Coming down Garrett Road today facing the Burger King, it’s a whole new landscape.

Sky Data for Durham

You can find a lot of information about the sky as seen from Durham NC here. Look out for a spaceship overhead next week around 9pm.

D Sea Dragon

Guess where we found the Northgate Mall sea dragon last week? Hint: that’s a “castle” in the background.

Yowza!

That lightning strike was in our backyard.

It’s the heat and the humidity

On our evening walk, we witnessed trees erupting in spontaneous rainshowers that never reached the ground. Yeah, it’s a steambath out there.

Bull Durham

Picked up a copy of Bull Durham tonight from Visart (no, not the first time). Too bad, for obvious reasons, that I can’t show it to the boy. He’d recognize the landmarks. Funny how some of the advertisers on the ball park wall are still around (Satisfaction, Brame) and some aren’t (This End Up furniture, “Cablevision”). Notable that this was really filmed in Durham. Even more notable was the scary bull mascot. Was that accurate? Thank goodness for Wool E.

Durhamite

Partial Durhamite song lyrics at the bottom of this Best of the Triangle article about Durham. It’d be cool to hear it on their MySpace playlist. (We’re racking our brains here trying to think of another city that calls its residents something ending in -ite. Maybe Seattle?)

First Tick This Year

The girl had a playdate at a wooded park this morning and came home with a rather large tick buried in her armpit. I learned that acetone (i.e., nail polish remover) applied to the tick encourages it to back out more effectively than rubbing alcohol. I pulled on the body gently with tweezers, and it backed out, and then we zip-locked it in case of infection or complications at the bite location (not expected). Feeling itchy now?

More Earth Day

Wrapped up Earth Day weekend with a drive over to Hillsborough to show the girl baby chickens. Wondered why there are no Durham farms on the Piedmont Farm Tour…maybe Durham is too far East to be Piedmont. The farm we visited did, after all, have a largish hill in it, and I don’t see that geography in Durham. Noticed there is an Eastern Triangle Farm Tour in September, and hope the 5 CFSA farms in Durham will be on this tour.

Also finished compost bin, after problems getting the stakes into the rocky Carolina ground.

Coming Into Durham…

Coming into Durham from the north on I-85… Sunset shining on skyscrapers in the distance, freshly paved road, new sparkly signs, two big swoopy bridges overhead. City on the Move!

Geocaching in Durham NC

This geocaching finder has to be the coolest thing I’ve seen today (yes, it’s early yet). Just type in your address and you can see where all the little caches are.

The Highway

We didn’t do anything in Durham today except leave and come back, but this gave me a chance to see how wide and finished I-85 is to the north of Durham. At last! I like the swoopy bridge part.

Durham Actors

We are watching Pirates of the Penzance, hence a trip to IMDB. There are 42 actors born in Durham, according to the IMDB, including one nicknamed Pigmeat. Hee!