Raleigh's Bowman Landscaping Team

If you look around Raleigh, you’ll see many lawns.  Owning a John Deere is not uncommon.  And hiring a landscaper is doubly NOT uncommon.  But, finding a good one with good value is not the easiest (unless you plan to do it all yourself!)

A friend of mine had his lawn done by Bowman Landscaping (the best Raleigh landscaper he knows) and looked how it turned out.

…I know amazing, right!?  The grass is actually Bermuda Grass…  The kind that grows real tall in the summer and goes dormant in the winter.  Very common for newer homes in the Raleigh area.

Raleigh soil is great for growing plants.  The soil is deep clay.  This is a good thing and can be a pain too.  But not if you hire a good lawn service and landscaping company like Bowman Landscaping.

This particular Raleigh lawn was someone who didn’t want to spend much time (if any) in the yard.  If that puts a smile on your face, then Bowman may be the company for you.

The well trimmed azaleas and choice of trees were not only practical but well suited for someone who doesn’t want to spend their entire weekend on the garden and looking back and having spent all their life in the lawn and garden when they could be out and about enjoying other things.

Bowman Landscaping even built a retaining wall…  with simple nice lines and curb appeal.  The kind that gets your neighbor wonderin’ who did your landscaping?  This by the way, was one satisfied customer.  Before these “after” photos were taken, everything was overgrown and a real eyesore.

That was a real problem and that’s why finding a professional landscaper was the best way to go…Life’s too short!

Need a Raleigh landscaper who knows what he’s doing?  Just tell Ryan Bowman that you heard about him from Raleigh VIP Club and he’ll give you $50 off any landscaping job over $300 – that’s a 17% savings!

I discovered Trader Joe’s in Northern Virginia back in 2000 and thought it was just some small gourmet store. There weren’t many people shopping there then and slowly over time I noticed more and more shoppers in the thin aisles with the small carts. People aren’t dumb. They know a good thing when they see it. The concept is great. Healthy foods with great prices. That’s what cutting out the middle man does. That’s how Walmart became a success.

Some things I remember about my first experiences with Trader Joe’s is that it’s where I bought my nuts and trail mixes. And where I bought my first Clif Bars. You know the healthy bars you eat to crave your hunger or when you’re working out. It’s better than junk food on the road.

Well back to now…on opening day, look at the lines that Raleigh Trader Joes’s brought in.

Some of the prepared foods here. Not that I’m opposed to cooking. But with prepared foods that look as delish as this, why cook?

And it’s hard to skip Two Buck Chuck. I’ve only tried the Chardonnay. It ain’t bad. I mean it tastes like a $7 bottle of wine to me. But in case the T.J. people are listening, I think you’re smart to keep it at its price if you wanna sell volume.

You gotta love their sweets too. I always the low fat chocolate cats in a plastic tub.

And if you’re planning to throw a party, it’s a great place to buy thawed hors d’oeuvres.

The one thing I’m cautious about are the prices increasing. That’s what happened in the Virginia stores. So I stopped going as much as buzz got out about the stores (… in case anyone from T.J.’s is listening).

Welcome Raleigh T.J.’s. and thanks for the free reusable T.J. bag.

I taste tested some coffees and tried a few dips. And I tried a red velvet or red devil cupcake and a muffin sample.

I also found a Michael Stars vendor who sold Michael Stars shirts for $25. Woo-hoo!

And along the way a unique vintage silver vendor caught my eye. I think I spent the most time at this booth. It was neat to see all the different sayings and designs. The silver/pewter pieces were made in New Mexico.

Another fav’rite of mine is the Kazur jewelry booth. The women of Africa make this jewelry.  And speaking of jewelry, I also stopped in a booth where you can make your own locket and then add photos.  I love lockets.  I think the vintage concept is back in.

I also met this woman who sold some really unique jackets. I just had to try a few on.  Her business is “It’s All About Mie-Mie”.

It’s easy to spend a few hours at this place. But don’t expect to find gifts for men. It’s really a woman’s gift event. You might set out well intentioned to find some gifts but most of us end up buying for ourselves. That’s what happened to the shopper in me.

Trying fried Mac-n-cheese

When I think of the NC State Fair, what comes to mind is lotsa rides and games, crowds of people and fried fun foods everywhere. Nothing is more a tradition to NC, then the good ‘ol fair. Takes me back to the small baseball carnivals and events in my hometown. I remember Debbie Gibson came out to my town. Remember her? She was the craze.

NC State Fair is all about the food. I like those big turkey legs. They’re big enough to feed a small village. It’s one of the few healthier food items on the menu. Oh, and the corn on the cob is really good. But on the not so healthy side…where else can you get barbecue sundaes, chocolate covered bacon, deep fried ho-ho’s, oreos, pecan pie, and Reese’s peanut butter cups? This time I got a ‘lil adventurous with the deep fried mac-n-cheese…which is the newest item on the menu. It’s okay to live a little!

While they said there was a low turnout of 37,000 on day one, it sure looked like this year did good as in previous years.

The highlight for me besides the food…was going in the Crafts and Hobby barn. There you could see the Lego contest. Great work!

Then a little further along you see all kinds of trinkets, and scrapbook items with awarded ribbons. Not to razz on the fine artistry of the contestants, but I think I could’ve entered and won first prize. Like many of the others. Every entry seem to have won a ribbon.

…Then you’ll find Jerry Span at the end of the building giving a demonstration. He’s Vince Shlomi’s job replacement for Sham-Wow from “As Seen on TV”. He’s a professional. Gotta love hearing the …”but wait, there’s more…” So I came back with 3 of these Sham-Wows. I think I’ll use one in my shower.

I wanted to ride the ferris wheel but the line seemed e a mile long. And I didn’t have the patience to wait for the pig race. Inside the Dorton Arena, there are live performances. Like Kellie Pickler who is a regular. And then there was Julianne Hough on the events list. Not sure what she would be doing for $5 a ticket. I know she was a dancer on “Dancing with the Stars” but what kind of performance would she give? There’s also Anoop Desai. The star from “Slumdog Millionaire”. Another one I’m curious as to what he would do. But I guess I wasn’t curious enough to check it out. Anyone?

Meet Laura at the Restaurant

I’m sure you’ve heard of the NC State Farmer’s Market but did you know about their restaurant? It’s a casual country style restaurant beside the farmers market. A good place to get a quick morning bite and coffee. I recommend the city ham if you like ham, but don’t want the salty country ham.

Meet Waitress Laura (that’s politically incorrect…I think they’re still called Servers).

You know you’re a Yankee in the south, when you’re cooking fried green tomatoes with a Martha Stewart recipe. That’s what I made with these tomatoes.

Where to get fresh herbs? Go to Bramblewood owned by Jeff at the Farmer’s Market. He’ll give you an herb book with some recipe suggestions. They’ve got all kinds of herbs. They shut down after October but will be back in April.

Meet Jeff

And wanna a good Carrot Cake? Then check out Terryl’s homemade miniature carrot cakes. They come beautifully packaged and oh— soooo good! $10 for a mini cake.

Meet Terryl

And of course there’s all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and plants. And farm meats. Like Mae Farms. They supply pork to Whole Foods. The meats are all antibiotic-free and environmentally friendly. That’s the way to eat. And they’ll even deliver.

Take a trip out to the State Farmer’s Market if you get a chance.

And don’t forget to check out the Broadway South Series. They have a Pink Floyd Experience. It’s a 200,000 watt light spectacle with quadraphonic sound… I don’t know exactly what that means but it sounds impressive! I’m actually not a Pink Floyd fan but years ago, I had a surreal Pink Floyd experience of having to listen to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” tape for 17 hours straight in a car! That was a torturous road trip.  Can you imagine? (Pink Floyd die hard fans probably could).  Well…I felt like my brain had gone numb.  But I’ve gotten over it and wouldn’t mind seeing the show now.

Outside the Fresh Market

Love this time of year! Get ready for a great fall.

I was pretty hungry after running some household errands. It’s a casual place but a lot people were dressed nicely…well better than casual. But no suits or anything like that. After we got sat we took a look at the drinks. I discovered a drink called Granny Smith Woodchuck Draft Cider that I wanted to try and really liked. It’s very refreshing and not too sweet. Even for me. Kinda like an apple Jolly Rancher but without all the sugar and sugary taste. Actually I prefer it that way. They apparently sell other Woodchuck Draft Cider flavors at specialty stores I’d imagine. Flavors like Pear and Raspberry. I’ll have to look around.

I checked out the appetizers too. They have a full page of 50 or more appetizers on the menu. That’s a lot of appetizers!

But we didn’t order any. I just wanted something for dinner. I really like their Calzone. The one I ordered had a lot of chicken in it. I think that’s actually the first Calzone that I’ve ordered with chicken. I usually order ham and cheese, spinach and mushroom…or something like that. But everything looks pretty good on the menu. Someone I know actually recommended the pizzas to me awhile ago. I’m sure they’re great so I’ll probably do carryout sometime. There are some really good pizza places around Raleigh and I like to try them all. I like New York style pizzas and brick oven pizzas.

This is Bridger

What did you do over the Raleigh tax free weekend?  I stopped in Revolver Consignment Store in the Glenwood South area of downtown Raleigh. Revolver is a neat women’s consignment clothing store. When I was growing up, they didn’t have designer-like clothing consignment places. Revolver carries new to slightly worn designer clothing. People make appointments to have pieces of clothing considered. I think I was told that people who bring in new clothing with tags that they accept get 50% of what they paid.  But many pieces of clothing aren’t approved, which is understandable. I imagine they only want stuff others want, in good condition, and the style of clothing they want…like designer clothing mostly.

I sifted through some of the racks and found quite a few pieces that I liked. I like cute and stylish stuff. So it made me happy to see a lot of that. I’m like most people shopping… I get frustrated when I don’t find something that I’m looking for.  This time I wasn’t looking for anything in particular.

And, Revolver has a lot of dressy tops, and casual tops.  Also, sweaters, dresses, skirts, and every type of clothing that most women have in their closets. They also have a shoe section. But I’m not one for shopping or buying the previously worn shoes, but that’s just me. Even though they did have some cute shoes.

Trina Turk Top

They have a few racks of jeans.  Mostly designer jeans. I saw 7 for Mankind, Joes, and other brand name designer jeans. I also saw a pair of Wrangler jeans. They had some very detailed pocketing which is really popular now and designer-esque.

I like the word ‘tasting’ because it reminds me of one of the fun things I did when I worked in catering sales management in the hotel industry. Back then, we really didn’t taste foods ourselves in front of the clients but it was still fun to watch clients try the foods. Well… it was like this event except the only food served is chocolate (fine by me!)… and I was the taster. The person pouring the wines was a wine distributor. His name is Alec and he was friendly and knowledgeable. Exactly the experience I was going for. I could tell he has tried many wines. And I had a roommate once upon a time, who had a similar job and she always brought home wines to taste. She didn’t really like the red ones, so I tried those.

But back to Peche de Chocolat. By the way, their word “peche” has an accent above each “e” which means ’sin’ in French.  So, the full business name’s literal translation is something like ‘Sin of Chocolate’. That’s a different French word than if there’s only one accent above the first “e”. I know that’s confusing and even I pronounced it wrong knowing some French, because I thought it was the word with one accent. You can pretend like you didn’t read this stuff about the pronunciation ’cause I know it’s confusing

Anyway, when I first got in there, the first employee I met was Pierre who gave me his business card…it said he was a Confectioners Manager. I thought that was very interesting. I made a joke that I’m sure that people are much happier that, that’s your title than if you were a Collections Manager (get it? …it rhymes).  He laughed.

And he pointed me to Alec who conducted the tasting and knew the wines he was giving me to try.  Alec first described and then poured the wines. And then he handed over the chocolate . The chocolates came in little chocolate paper candy holders. But here…you can hear and watch what Alec had to say about one of the wine and chocolate pairings I had…it’s the “jammy” tasting Malbec with dark chocolate and fig.

Alec seemed happy that I liked the pairing. Here are the pairings I had:

Domaine de Bernier Chardonnay (France) paired with white chocolate

Willamette Valley Riesling (Oregon) paired with soft milk chocolate and hazelnut

Trinity Oaks Pinot Noir (California) paired with dark chocolate, hazelnuts, croquant rice crisp

Bodega Nortin Malbec (Argentina) paired with dark chocolate, almonds, and dates

They were all excellent and to my liking. Really. Both the wines and chocolates. I really liked all the chocolates even the dark one.  I ended up buying a bottle of the Riesling, Pinot Noir and Malbec.

I’ve got a wine collection for consumption back home so these would go nicely. I like to sometimes have a glass of wine with my meal, but not always. One of my favorites is Hans Lang Pinot Noir which is not one that Peche de Chocolat serves, but just one that I have back home. We have a few bottles from the 2006 vintage. It’s light, has a light red transparent color, and has a clean finish. It has been described as tasting like it has hints of strawberries and raspberries. I like both fruits. …but enough about me.

I really liked the Riesling served at the Tasting. And since the Riesling came from Oregon, I told Alec about my experience of visiting Portland, Oregon and the California Wine Country over a decade ago. It took me back briefly. That was a very memorable vacation and I’d like to go back to visit.

The chocolates melted in my mouth. They come from France, Lebanon, Italy, and Belgium. I like imported gourmet foods and especially sweets.

I also talked to the owner Laura Antonelli who seems to enjoy her business. I don’t blame her one bit!

Watch/listen to her talk about Peche de Chocolat:

And, Peche de Chocolat is located off Glenwood in Glenwood South area before Hillsborough Street. They have a small parking lot that shares spaces with the art galleries that are in the same white building warehouse structure. The lot was full when I went so I had to park nearby. But parking is not usually a problem in Glenwood South as you can find paid or street parking. Everything is kinda a nice short walking distance down there.