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.
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.
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
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.
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
Let’s keeping looking for oddities in downtown Chicago. Crown Fountain is a fascinating spot where two 50-foot fountains feature photos of ordinary Chicagoans spitting water at each other. That sounds a bit odd but although not as iconic as The Bean, it’s just another thing that makes the downtown area unique and enjoyable. I encourage you to click on the highlighted link above and read about the fountain.
Here’s bonus, once-in-a-lifetime oddity: today’s date is 2.22.22 or, depending upon where you live, 22.2.22. 🙂
If you’re in downtown Chicago, you might catch a view of what appears to be a flying train. The L (or El) stands for “elevated” because much of the system operates on elevated tracks, making it possible to have a view of a train appearing to fly by. Here it also seems to be attached to the side of the building. How odd.
SquareOdds 2.21.22
I’m off today to California to take part in the baby shower for our older daughter. This will be our first grandchild. 🙂 I’ve been taking care of my mom and dad, with much appreciated help from my wonderful husband, and it’s been tough. My mom moved into a care home, less than two days later was in the hospital with an infection, and is now back in the care home in hospice care. I’m definitely ready for a break!! I can’t wait to get into the van and get on the road. You can be sure I’ll enjoy my six days, even if two are mostly on the road.
The good news is that Becky’s back with her Squares challenge for 2022, the subject being “odd”, and although I won’t be blogging while I’m gone (at least I don’t plan to), I’ll start you off with an odd entry from the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix where I’ve been sharing the Chihuly installation over the last weeks. These give me that Dr. Seuss vibe that I so enjoy or maybe something from the Muppets.
See you next week.
The Square Odds
Here’s the answer to that pesky question of what happens if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it:
“If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, doesn’t it just lie there and rot?”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor
However in this case, the fallen tree provides a home for some moss and a lovely foreground for these blue flowers. I know we’re venturing into the “is it blue or is it purple” territory but at least parts of these flowers appear to be blue to me. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it even though they looked more blue when I was going through the archives.
This, that and the other thing 