Happy November

Hard to believe we are here already.  Happens every year though, doesn’t it?  October was lovely.  Many nice days to spend outdoors.  Here is how we spent some of ours.

Some evenings were spent outdoors too.  Wish I could say those are the beautiful stars on this clear, crisp night, but alas, it is a dusty camera lens.

Same night, same corn field, with an amazingly huge corn maze.  P and I made it out just as the night came.  I would not have wanted to have been in the middle of this as the darkness settled.  Some where behind us are the boy cousins and their uncle, lost in the maze for at least another twenty minutes.  Remember, no flashlights allowed.

So much to enjoy from nature.

And a Saturday afternoon discovering a new source for crafty endeavors.  Now I can make more wooly acorns.

Beautiful color in early October.

And the same tree this past Sunday.

Brookfield Zoo Visit

Last Monday, Columbus Day, we went to the zoo, along with everyone else.  And though I knew there would be a lot of other families with the same thought, being a holiday and a gorgeous fall day, it wasn’t epically crowded.  The animals were particularly active too since it was quite comfortable for October.

 

Spent a lot of time saying hello to the camels.  We really like camels.

 

 

But the giraffes were our favorite on this day.  They are so beautiful and graceful.

 

 

Not afraid to come over and say hello before bending to take a nibble.

 

 

 

Oh, hello again.

 

 

The autumn grasses were just beautiful in the sunlight.

 

 

Of course we visited the  new bear habitat.   The polar bear jumped in the water for a cool-down and swam right up to the glass where P was standing, but of course that photo didn’t turn out.  It was amazing though.  After a visit to the veterinarian’s office in the Hamlin Children’s Zoo,

 

 

it was time for a ride on the merry-go-round.  I think that is P’s favorite thing at the zoo.  And we are very specific about the animal we ride.  This time, a penguin and then a kangaroo.

 

 

 

It was a great day out.

Sycamore Steam Show, Part 2

This is perhaps one of my favorite parts of the Steam Show, the chance to see from start to finish, how things were done 100 or so years ago.   The owners of these giant and really quite beautiful farm implements come from all over the area for the chance to share a bit of their farming history and to see, in this case,  their steam engine  in action.

We followed this “iron horse” as it pulled up to fill with coal and then silently rolled over to be inspected before having a chance to thresh a wagon-full of wheat.  The entire family was involved.  Mom was a spotter making sure no one walked in front of this quietly rolling hulk of iron.  Dad shoveled coal.  And daughters rode along.

See that black horizontal stripe?  That is an enormously long , thick canvas (?) belt that is attached to the smaller wheel on the side of the steam engine.  You can see it in the photo above.  When that wheel turns, the strap which is attached to the thresher (or corn shucking machine or wood saw) on the other end,  gives it power.  There is still a lot of man-power involved with all this technology.  Someone had to cut the hay and bundle it and stack if on the wagon and then fork it onto the thresher.

Ancient and rusty gears and pulleys on the thresher.

Black coal smoke from the “iron horse” in action and freshly threshed chaff.  The wheat is separated from the stalk in the thresher and collected in the red wagon.

The pile grows,

And grows.

The wagon is empty.  It took perhaps fifteen minutes.

I was just fascinated.  Hope you enjoyed the process too.

Today’s Workout

Since my broken elbow, which happened in an unfortunate New Year’s Eve twirling incident (iceskating,remember?), I have shoveled more snow than I can recall, gone roller skating with 300 of my favorite elementary students and their parents (wiped out there too) and begun training for a triathalon.

Just kidding.  But I had you, didn’t I?

Today there is no school(:o),  so we are going rock climbing.  I’ll check in tomorrow, injury free.

A Day to Refresh

Anyone recognize that stately lion?

I wish he’d look this way.

There are two of them standing as welcome to the Art Institute of Chicago.  I love them, especially when they are wearing Christmas wreaths about their necks.  And as many museum goers know, the AIC offers free admission during the month of February.  So I took a day (a school day no less, made arrangements for P to be picked up after school), took the train downtown, and enjoyed the museum for a couple hours.  Saw all my usual favorites, the Impressionists Monet and Caillebotte, the fifteenth century Dutch painters,  Georgia O’Keefe’s massive Sky Above Clouds, Nathalia Gontcharova’s Spanish Dancer.  Wrote down the artist and title of some new favorites to research (oh yeah, haven’t done that yet.  Where is that list anyway?)   Visited the Thorne Rooms and the new Modern wing.

And since it was such a gorgeous day, filled with that endless blue sky and the hope of spring, though there is still plenty of snow on the ground, I took a little stroll to Millenium Park.  There were some sculptures visiting from China.

And a public skating rink where people on their lunch break from those skyscrapers could go for a noon-time skate.   There was one guy, no doubt inspired by Olympic speed skating on TV the night before, who had just taken off his suit jacket, donned his speed skates and took off.  He was serious about his skating.  “Everyone move aside for that guy!”  Thought I had a picture as he dashed by but he was moving so fast.

I was ever so tempted. . .

…but somehow my recent skating experiences told me I probably should pass this time.  Didn’t want to have to maneuver my way though the Loop back to the train with any kind of injury.

Time to head back to Union Station but first I stopped at Urban Outfitters and Dick Blick Art Supply on State Street.  The old Carson Pirie Scott building has been renovated since the store moved out a couple years ago.  It is truly beautiful but so difficult not to see Carson’s merchandise in it’s wondows.   Field’s is long gone too (Macy’s now) and that whole retail lanscape is just different.  It doesn’t speak Chicago to those who remember such places.

But I so love Chicago.

A Day Trip To Chicago !

Last week when my husband was on vacation, we decided to take the train in to Chicago to see “The Bean” and Buckingham Fountain. Our daughter had seen the fountain on TV and wanted to go and see it. Our 5 year old had never been on the train before and was quite excited !!!

Everyone who goes to Chicago now must take a picture of the Bean:

A view of Buckingham Fountain :

A view from a top the ferris wheel at Navy Pier: