Wordless Wednesday…all by myself

Walking Squares 11.30.22

Random nature walking squares

Just some photos I took while out walking. Anything with drops always gets my attention, even though drops aren’t as rare in Illinois as in Arizona.

I like the shape of these berries and the contrast between the dried leaf on the left and the berries.

Milkweed. What’s not to like? They contrast prickly and soft as well as attracting monarch butterflies. But they do reproduce rather quickly so if you have some, you’ll have to keep pulling up the new ones.

Walking Squares 11.29.22

Walking in Illinois with Jo and Becky

Our friends in Illinois are having a house built in Northern Illinois so one day the two of them and I went there. It’s a beautiful spot. We left at 5 am so when the sun came up, we we were there to enjoy a lovely autumn sunrise.

It was cold, creating some lovely mist over a nearby lake.

It had warmed up by the time we got to this man-made waterfall. We didn’t stay too long as there were several groups of people having a good time and making lots of noise.

One of us spent the day manhandling a machine that chopped up everything in its path while two of us did a bit of sight-seeing. But we were all ready for lunch and a beer, the latter enjoyed at this former church now brewery. Unfortunately, they didn’t have their dark beer ready but I made do with an in-between brew. 🙂 All in all, it was a grand day. As you can imagine, none of us were up very late that night!

Jo’s Monday Walk 11.28.22

Walking Squares 11.28.22

Stop!

One Word Sunday: stop

Walking Squares 11.27.22

Friday’s fuzzy foliage and fungus

I’m happy Becky’s back doing squares! I’ve missed that challenge. I have two photos as squares for todays’s walk but the other refused to go into a square without losing its fuzziness. Who was I to quibble?

Squares first.

Walking squares 11.25.22

What I saw while walking…quintessential autumn

Walking Squares…11.23.22

Wordless Wednesday

A Monday walk squared

Jo’s walking and Becky’s back with her wonderful square challenge. Life is good. I’m back from my vacation with lots of photos and stories to share, so let’s start walking.

This trip was all about seeing friends but there was a lot of scenery too, autumn colors that I’d been craving. On the 2 1/2 day drive, I’d passed through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri before crossing the state line into Illinois. Especially in Missouri I drove through hundreds of miles of thousands of trees in their festive bronzes, oranges, reds, and a few luminous yellows. The day after I arrived, my friend and I drove to downtown Aurora, Illinois for coffee and friend time, starting at Endiro Coffee. Although I’m mostly a tea person and my coffee drinks are mochas or cappuccinos, Endiro serves what they call African Coffee (or tea): Easy on the espresso or black tea, lots of steamed milk and light and sweet masala spice. Once when our younger daughter and I were there, she had the African coffee which I tried and loved. That’s what I had this time.

Downtown Aurora has a rather nice river walk surrounded by lots of old, repurposed buildings. I love that they haven’t been torn down but are used just as they were.

I got my autumn color fix too.

It was a propitious start to my two-and-a-half week visit!

Jo’s Monday Walk 11.21.22

Walking Squares 11.21.22

Philadelphia odds

A single bird making a landing in the reflecting pool at The Barnes Museum in Philadelphia (an odd number.)

An odd reflection of that same pool.

SquareOdds 2.25.22

Thursday doors…odd and more in Illinois

Let’s start out with an odd door for Becky’s SquareOdds, although I don’t think Dan, our host for Thursday Doors will find it odd. This is the back door of one of the BNSF trains taking passengers into and out of Chicago, in this case to and from Aurora, Illinois while stopping in Naperville where we lived. The trains before 8:30 am came from Aurora, stopped in Naperville, and then went directly to Union Station, taking about half an hour. Catch one later and you’d see every stop between Aurora and the city and believe me, there were lots of them, making your trip somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half. It was well worth it to board early, then have coffee or take photos while waiting for the stores or attractions in the city to open!

Moving on to non-square doors, I want to remind you that it’s not always about the doors themselves.

Although this Naperville house was directly across the street from a ridiculously enormous mansion, it was much more attractive and livable in my eyes and I loved everything about it, from the round window, to the enormous porch, to the attractive door. This house felt like a home; the other looked like an expanded ego in building form.

More Chicago odds

I like sculpture but find this one a bit odd, looking to me as if some sci-fi digging machine dropped a claw into downtown Chi Town. There’s a mini version of this in Naperville where we lived. Hopefully this one didn’t snatch up the man in the photo after I left!

I do love reflections, especially odd ones like this with lovely distortions of the original stately building. Chicago reflections ala Gaudi perhaps?

for Becky’s wonderful Square Challenge which this month is SquareOdds