rduwtf.com

One of my resolutions for the new year is to call up and take the garden tour of the Governor’s Mansion next spring. I do believe North Carolina’s first family could make a stand in that compound after the Apocalypse, it has turned into such a productive and self-sufficient looking site. The garden isn’t just the masterful sprays of annuals and diverse showy plants at the fences - they have big trays of asparagus plants

and lots of fresh veggies in season, and the trusty prison staff who maintain the grounds have built up quite a landscaping and gardening operation. I remember well the controversy when they built the brick wall around it - which was originally going to be solid brick. The uproar, promoted by good old NandO, dictated the dominating modification of the wrought iron fences, which didn’t really do their mollifying job very well - it is indeed a fortress with magazine quality plantings on the edges, and a general sense of protected and mostly private outdoor space which I personally do not begrudge them one iota. But living nearby and experiencing the wonderful architecture daily, I am struck by the amazing range of references one can think of while enjoying the walk around the perimeter. Privilege, influence, security, public outreach - oh! if you haven’t been to Halloween there, you’ve got to - it’s loads more fun than the history tour. And now the site has been blessed with that lodestone of Raleigh cultural consciousness - an inscrutable piece of public sculpture. I must say I like my thorny picture of it, but for the sculpture itself, in the context of that garden and that architecture, I could only say, when noticed it this week for the first time, … WTF?