Durham (Bull City), North Carolina

I’m writing this from the east coast of our amazing country, where my wife, Iko, and I are visiting our younger son and his wife in North Carolina.

For those of you who travel, it’s no secret, but it always reassures me to travel to widely separated parts of our country and our world and observe yet again that people are pretty much the same wherever they live.

Here in Durham, there are friendly faces, distracted faces and faces racked by some private pain. There are young people, and those not so young, walking along oblivious to their surroundings while absorbed in private communication on their handheld device. As we approached a store yesterday, a gentleman smiled and held the door for my wife and me. He didn’t ask our political party, religion or economic status, he was simply one human, being courteous to others.

Sometimes in our world of instant news, alarmist headlines and finger pointing journalism where people are put into buckets labeled “Democrat, Republican; Jew, Gentile; rich, poor; Northerner, Southerner; good, bad,” I need to be reminded that people are people no matter external conditions.

Nice little brick homes a block down the street.

This part of Durham is a quiet neighborhood bordered on one side by a large county park and on the other by a long street of small businesses which reminds me of Aurora Avenue in Seattle.

On the west side of the street they get the morning sun.

  

Brick is a common construction material here in the low earthquake area.

Time out from the arduous but rewarding task of splitting wood for a winter fire.

Of course it's the same day and month as it is in Seattle but the flowers here are on a different schedule. I suppose it must have something to do with the southern latitude. It doesn't seems like it is so far south but here in Durham, if we were in California, we would be about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

I went for a short walk after a morning rain shower and found these flowers posing after a morning drink for their picture to be taken.

Roses abound in yards around here.

I didn't recognize this  flower planted along a fence line. Maybe one of you can help me out?

Around the corner this Prickly Pear is growing in someone's front yard. The fruit will be
ripe and ready to eat in a month or two.  

There are many deciduous trees and the occasional pine in these residential neighborhoods. When there are power lines in the same area the trees are pruned and allowed to grow around and above.

 Here's a mysterious foreigner for you travelers to identify. You would normally not see this flower in this part of the world but sometimes if you look hard you can find strangers in our midst.

I don't know how this interloper snuck (or "sneaked" for you traditional English speakers) into this area.

We’ll be leaving North Carolina soon to head back to our home in Seattle. I will remember the storefront gentleman for his courtesy and thank the rest of the NC people we’ve met for their reminder that down deep we are all the same.