Tentative love

Usually on Monday I participate in Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge.  But Sally will be not only cyber-free but visiting relatives this week, so there’s no challenge.  Instead, I thought I’d share a photo I took earlier this year along Naperville’s Riverwalk, a lovely length of pavement that winds through the downtown.  I took my camera and sat on a bench, waiting to see who or what came by.  This meeting brought a smile to my face.  The little boy wanted to pet the dog but as you can see, he was a bit cautious.

Do you prefer color or black and white?

Let there be light!

This weekend, we ended Daylight Savings time.  Of course, the total number of light hours didn’t change, but they were certainly redistributed!  Now we have sunset at 4:46 pm, much earlier than I’d like.  Winter would be much more fun if there were more light hours in the day.  There’s something about cold AND dark that makes me feel much colder than the same temperature with light.

I’m usually taking my walk in the early morning hours, greeting “the dawn’s early light.”  Today I was enjoying the unseasonably warm weather in mid-afternoon.   The light is very different then.  But it still has the ability to lift my spirits even as it creates an entirely different look in nature.

A Facebook photo group I’m in is featuring light this week.  So I’m going to pull a few of my photos featuring light to share, hoping that they light your week while bringing pleasure to your soul.

Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Nature…a trio of mornings

Every morning in the park is an adventure and none more so that seeing what the sky will look like when I come around the first bend to the open prairie part of the park. Since “Nature” is our theme today, I’d like to share three very different morning views. Feel free to tell me which you prefer.

Because I need simplicity today

Hands full

It’s Friday night and I’m still somewhat under the weather, needing to go to bed.  I thought I’d share this photo from the recent Fall Festival at our church.  This little girl had her hands full and she was having fun.

Wordless Wednesday….grass

Photo101 Rehab: Dawn

Wake! For the Sun, who scatter’d into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav’n,
and strikes
The Sultan’s Turret with a Shaft of Light.
~Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear.
~Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.
~Robert Frost, New Hampshire

Photo Rehab…I see dead people.

Probably the best kept secret in the history of movies was the ending to “The Sixth Sense.”  Once you knew that the boy saw dead people, everything you thought you knew turned on its head and the movie was completely different.

I see dead plants…or at least I see the beauty in them.  Here are a few of the end-of-season beauties I’ve come across on recent walks in the park.  Considering that in the northern hemisphere, today is the first of autumn, I think it’s appropriate time to post them.  Perhaps they’ll get you thinking differently about dead people…er, plants.  But one of the exciting things these plants, as you can see, most of them contain the seeds of next year’s life.  The cycle of life.

Let’s go see Legos!

Duplos and Legos are some of the best toys ever made…for children and adults.  When our girls were little, we had a friend, a lovely Turkish woman, who came over once a week.  She and I would have tea and chocolate when the girls took their naps, but when they were up, she often joined them in creating Duplo/Lego masterpieces.  (And were we sad when they finally gave up napping!!)

Morton Arboretum, a jewel in the Chicago suburbs, currently features “Nature Connects®: Art with LEGO® bricks by Sean Kenney.”

464,770 LEGO® bricks + 4,170 hours of creativity =
13 larger-than-life displays inspired by nature!
A Chicago-area exclusive: July 17 through November 1.

Recently, we wandered the section of the gardens where the various creations were presented.  Here’s a sample of what we saw.

Photo101 Rehab…A river runs through it

Midway through my walk through the park, I always stop by the river to see whether I can spot any birds.  This day there were no birds, but a series of tiny “plops” when I cautiously approached indicated there might be other life nearby. I scanned the bank and the water, finally spotting this cutie.  He and I both remained motionless for many minutes.

There were any number of things floating slowly on the river, all headed inexorably for the spillway, but beautiful as they floated.