Winter's Grip

Look at what I found in a puddle right by my work this morning! It's a half melted / half frozen puddle.
What's so special about this puddle?
Notice how it melted, the left side is obediently melting like a good piece of ice should. The right side however, is rebelling all the way...leaving shards so sharp you don't want to go near it!


Why do I like the right side better? Is that bad?
NOPE, just a lot more interesting! Here is a close up....


How can something be so fragile and look so dangerous at the same time? What lovely ice structures that formed in the night. What do you think was the cause of such a difference in melting patterns?
How nature keeps my interest at all times! Fascinating!

This winter is behaving like the right side, very rebellious. During the night tonight, we are to receive another winter storm with several inches of snow. How winter has it's grip on us! Easter is in a few day and it feels surreal. How can the Easter Bunny find his way through all that snow? When I think of Easter, I think of spring! Winter will once again put us in our place and once again I am humbled.

My Morton Arboretum Field Trip

Let's go on a field trip! Today we are going to Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL. Morton Arboretum is a nature Disneyland for grown ups and kids, more for grown ups though. It is one of my all time favorite places. If you're in the area you must dedicate a whole day to enjoy all 1,700 acres of nature goodness. You will also have to shell out $9 each adult at the gates, unless you're a member. Believe me, it's worth it.

Brief History of Morton Arboretum:
Joy Morton founded the arboretum in 1922, it was his family's land.
You know the name Morton, from Morton Salt
Remember the little girl with the umbrella and salt pouring out??? That's the company.
Joy's father is J. Sterling Morton the founder of Arbor Day (1872)

Points of Interest:
West side
Four Seasons Garden, France Garden, Wild Garden, Sterling Pond, Lake Marmo, Schulenberg Prairie (100 acres!) and many trails.
East Side
Children's Garden, Maze Garden, Hedge Collection, Juniper Family Collection, and Northern Illinois Collection, and many trails.

Back to our regularly scheduled program:



This is the inside of the visitor's center. There are information displays, the Ginkgo Restaurant, Cafe, and Arboretum store.

Here is the Children's Garden. It is awesome even for adults. There is a large shallow pond you can walk in, many tree houses, gadgets and gizmos to play with, and little tunnels to crawl through.


Here is the maze. Those shrubs are about 6 feet tall, tall enough for me to get lost! In each section of maze, there are story fragments to read to form a nice nature story. I'm not going to give it away.


There are manicured paths......



And my favorite, natural paths. Look, it's a tree that still has leaves! I only found about 4 trees on the east side that were at their peak, most deciduous trees there have lost their leaves. This was on Main Trail Loop 1. It is about one mile long. The path is unbelievably soft, bouncy actually under my hiking boots. On this trail I saw one very large hawk, a large female hairy woodpecker, heard a cardinal, and saw many russet colored squirrels.

More pictures of Morton Arboretum this week.

Srooms at Spears

I love when srooms attack a decaying log. I don't even know why.
They are beautiful, you know, with their darker gray colored rings. Can you see them?
Maybe they're a little mysterious...conditions must be right, why did they choose this section to attach to and not another, and why are they on this log and not the one next to it?

Maybe I just appreciate the job they need to do. Nothing goes to waist in nature. After the tree dies, it becomes food for a host of animals and birds, even shelter for larger animals as shown in the post a few days ago. When the tree collapse, these mushroom break down the tree's matter to speed up the decaying process so this tree can become nutrients to the ground.

This log also had some woodpecker holes in it. Wow, two attacks on one log and I'm sure a billion others under the microscope!

Be Green Like Liverwort

Today is Blog Day for the Environment. The subject is supposed to be "green". I made a commitment to do this and sign up, because, he, he, he, every time I post it's in some way about the environment, so I couldn't screw it up!
Look my subject is literally green!


This is liverwort. I found it growing on a rock in the canyon at Camp Sagawau.

If you are like a scientist, here is your definition:
1 : any of a class (Hepaticae) of bryophytic plants characterized by a thalloid gametophyte or sometimes an upright leafy gametophyte that resembles a moss. Merriam-Webster

If you are a normal person like myself, here is your definition:

1: Beautiful moss looking plant that need much moisture to grow. Can grow on the ground, or on rocks, or on decaying trees. It is non-vascular, meaning it has no veins to carry water and food. It's enemy is the sun or heat, which will kill it quickly. We just love it because it's beautiful.


Here is an up close, little blurry pic of it's beautiful green "leaves". Can you see the lighter green spots? I believe these are pores? Maybe, maybe not. Somebody need to do an abstract painting of this liverwort close up! That would look great!

Moral of today's post: If we are not careful we will lose such awesome creations with our careless lifestyles. If we take the time now and learn how to be more "green", we can preserve plants like this for the next generation to blog about, or paint, or sing about. (Is there a liverwort song out there???)

My Canyon Field Trip

Today I went to visit the ONLY canyon in Cook County, which is located in Lemont, IL at Camp Sagawau.
Camp Sagawau is not a camp, but a nature education center where they have guided hikes, classes, and skiing in the winter. Here, we begin our trip as we are greeted by Ralph, the welcoming mascot. Ralph was hand carved by a talented artist, who loves Camp Sagawau and gave him as a gift.


After being "approved" by Ralph, you may walk up to the beautiful Camp Sagawau house which was built in the 1850's by an Irish immigrant who worked on the Cal Sag River. He established a dairy farm here but couldn't grow crops because the ground was unable to be tilled. We will see why later.



What a lovely looking house. Here is where the nature classes are held. It remains the same color that it had from historical photos. Interestingly enough, the house had additions build in the 1940's which are not holding up as well as the original section of the house built in 1850! Enough of the house, let's go canyon hiking!



Bad picture, but good illustration of how narrow the stairs are. You really have to suck-it-in when you go down these! The stairs are a few feet East of the house. I though we were going to hike for some time before we reached the canyon, but no, the canyon is right by the house!



Here it is! We are now in the canyon. Beautiful limestone constructed sediment. This particular limestone is called dolomite limestone, a calcium magnesium carbonate rich mineral.


Do you see all of the holes in the limestone? Do you know what was growing in them? Coral. This use to be a coral reef. I am not kidding. Here's how: before the continents split and the plates shifted, this area use to be real close to the equator, where it's tropical like. That explains the fossils found here of species that only survive in tropical climates. This use to be part of a coral reef, there are many around, but they are buried underground. This canyon was carved by glacial ice which pushed through and retreated 4 times. That will conclude our history lesson for today, you can wake up now. :)


Here is the left side of the canyon. Notice the floor, covered in water. It was REAL slippery, especially because the rocks are covered in moss and lichen. When it rains, this stream comes alive and becomes active. When it floods, it actually moves large boulders down stream! This stream leads to the Illinois River, which leads to the Mississippi, which leads to the Gulf! How cool.

My Weather Field Trip

OH BOY! Today, the National Weather Service Office in Romeoville, IL had an open house! I LOVE, love, love weather. I love rain storms, snow storms, wind storms, cloudy days, drizzly days, and an occasional nice day. Most of all, I love the radar. I don't know why. There's something about that lit up screen of oncoming storms that makes me skip a beat. Call me a nerd, go ahead I don't mind! So, when I heard that the National Weather Center of Chicago was having an open house, I was all over it!



This center services 10 million people, that's right I said million, and 23 counties of the Chicago Land area! It is located in Romeoville which is about 45 minutes southwest of downtown Chicago. Today, they had us in groups of about 20 and gave us an hour tour of the inside and outside.


Holy Shmoly! There it is. This meteorologist is reading radar from 4 screens at one time. Can you see Lake Michigan on 2 of the screens? This is the very point at which he determines whether or not to issue a warning that interrupts our TV program with that loud, "beeep, beeeep, beeeep..." He does so with the touch of an enter key on the computer, such power! I love the fact that they can dress casual here, with such stress, they need to be in comfort.


Beautiful RADAR. Radar on all three screens! Radar!
Strangely enough, I wasn't allowed to bring my purse in here for security purposes but I can take whatever pictures I want. Huh? I was sooo glad cameras were allowed. And where do they get all of this wonderful radar information?


Here it is, the mother radar. It looks like a big soccer ball in the sky. If you look close, you can see it is pieced in sections. I wouldn't want to be the guy that has to climb those stairs everyday! It is constantly pulling information down and the delay time to what actually is happening is only 5 minutes.


In front, they had some information signs on notable weather we have had in the past. This one describes the Chicago Heatwave of 1995. In July, the temperature reached 106 degrees at Midway Airport. They don't have to remind me, I was 8 months pregnant and in misery! I know I just gained sympathy from all the Mamas out there! We had scorching temperatures for many weeks. Sadly, many people lost their lives.



Here we will conclude with a show stopper. This really cool demo model is showing us how they control too much rain water from flooding the town. The right side is controlled by the computer and a trained professional, the left side it controlled by children in three stages: first rain water from the clouds, second water collecting by the dam, lastly, the levy before the town gets it. Needless to say, whenever the children took over the controls, the town was wiped out and a national disaster was declared! It was too cute.

When I was in high school I had two interests, science and art. As an adult I have two interests, art and science. For some reason, I always thought something like this was out of my reach. I was forever intimidated by science and math thinking I would never be smart enough to go further, so don't waist my energy. Boy what a mistake! We need to throw out all our negative thinking before it hold you down!

Hope you enjoyed the field trip!

More Arrowhead Lake

This is on the opposite end of the lake along the paved trail. Lovely birch trees with their bright bark making nice contrast in the background! These trees edge the forest and in front grows a quiet meadow where I witnessed a hawk swoop over and disappear into darkness. So many painting ideas, so little time. What a peaceful autumn evening.

Here is another view looking towards the lake opposite of the meadow. The setting sun really brings out the purple colors.

Oh lookie here! This young deer was way too brave to be eating this close to me. I stood still and he just kept getting closer. Mom was about 50 feet away constantly staring at me! Do you see this little trail he is about to cross? That trail leads you through some trees to a residential block. Those lucky ducky people can just wake up in the morning and hop on this trail whenever they want!

Arrowhead Lake Tinley Trails

This is beautiful Arrowhead Lake, tucked away in the middle of the fast paced Palos area and part of the Tinley Creek Trail system. I love the fact that I can get a Walgreen, McDonald's, and Speedway Gas on every one block then turn to the next block and be in another world, in deep forest or lush meadows, even this lakeside retreat. Many people fish in this lake and it is surrounded by paved trails, perfect for bikers, joggers, and nature lovers.

On this particular day I heard many frogs trilling in the distance and a very persistent cardinal chirping fast and loud! What's the matter crazy cardinal?

This picture is really beautiful and would make for a great abstract painting. At the very edge of the lake grows water plants while multi-colored autumn leaves float by. I love the deep purple, orange, yellow and burgundy hues. So much fun!

Hawk Action!

Holy smokes did I have hawk action this morning! Can you see him sitting in this tree? (This is the walnut tree that has been prematurely loosing it's leaves in August.)
It all started when I noticed I had absolutely no birds around. None. Now that's strange because my neighbor and myself have several feeders out in the joining yards and we have birds constantly. So when everything was silent and I didn't even hear any, I though it was strange, but oh well, I'll live.

Just then, at 6:55am, I saw the biggest hawk I've ever seen, swoop down and try to get a squirrel. WOOOOH. When he didn't have success he flew around my neighbor's house and was chased by hawk #2. WEEEEEE! Two ginormous raptors playing catch in our yard! They flew up, soared down, twisted, turned, and rested in a tree. I must have looked like a big dummy with my mouth hanging open standing at the window in my PJ's.

Remember when I told you my neighbor feeds the squirrels? Well he left several nuts on his red picnic table where the feast was on, however, this became the hawk's bulls eye target! Stupid squirrels. Now I don't like when they mess with my flowerbeds, but the whole time I'm saying, "Your gunna get it squirrels, your gunna get it. Be smart like the birds and hide!" as if to warn them. I really didn't want bloodshed, even though I know it's a part of life. Well those guys are really quick and every attempt on the hawks part failed and he looked exhausted. Now I felt bad for the hawk.

A minute later, stupid squirrel was walking the telephone tight rope, when Hawk #1 went for him. Now enters Hawk #2 for the same squirrel. I thought, Oh this is it, this is how he's going down. BUT NO! Smart squirrel now flips upside down on the wire and monkeys his way to safety, reaching the telephone pole. The hawks disappear and the squirrel flicks his tail angrily as if to say, "How dare you try to eat me!"

35 minutes later all birds return: sparrows, male and female woodpecker, starlings, morning doves, grackles too. The birds are happy, the squirrels are happy and the hawks go hungry, for now anyway.

Greetings from Percy in Wilmington

These pictures were taken by my friend, Spaz in Wilmington. She has a friend hummingbird who visits her often that she affectionately named, Percy. We love Percy. I assume he's a male, for no other reason but the fact that she named him Percy :) Enjoy him before he's gone. I zoomed in on the first two pictures so you can get a better view.

Oh my! Percy is mooning us. To give him privacy, I did not zoom in!
Great photos Spaz, Thanks!

Falcon Fun

Today I went to Little Red Schoolhouse in Willow Springs, IL. They had a free presentation called Falcon Fun. Oh, I had fun alright! Here is the Falcon of the night, Ms. Kestrel. She is 8 years old and has a broken wing. This kestrel is 8 inches long and weighs about 4-5oz. The schoolhouse takes care of her and other injured birds because otherwise she wouldn't have a chance in the wild.
This beautiful lady eats young "fuzzy" mice provided by the schoolhouse nature center every day and leaves a wonderful pellet as a present. Pellets are regurgitated hairballs with intact prey bones. So cool. Much more interesting than the hairballs I find around the house left by my kitty.
The Kestrel is the smallest of the falcons and a permanent resident here in Illinois. Sometimes it is referred to as the "sparrow kestrel" because of it's small size. Naturalist Steve also talked about some other popular raptors in our area....
Ahhhhhhhh! What on earth? This is a real owl skull with fake eye balls. Notice the bone around the eyes. It's called something that I forgot. The main point is that this bone prevents the owl from moving his eyes, therefore he moves his whole head. Contrary to popular belief he cannot move his head completely around (360 degrees) but really only 270 degrees, so says Naturalist Steve. He can hear up to 7x what humans can and flies silently thanks to....
His wings! You can't tell from this photo but it's really huge! If I had to guess, about 2 feet. The very top has a fringed edge, not shown in picture, this awesome built in, standard feature in all owl models, keeps them silent when in flight. Easier to sneak up on you my prey!
Here is an owl talon compared to a red tail hawk's. You don't want to be in their grasps! Notice how "hairy" the owl's leg is to the left. For two reasons, probably more than that but I only remember two; one is another silent mechanism to prevent a noisy flight, they're not the most gracious fliers and need all the help they can get, and two for warmth. I had the best time and really learned a lot thanks to the the Little Red Schoolhouse and Naturalist Steve:)
Hope you enjoyed too!

Common Whitetail Dragonfly

This picture I took Friday at Centennial Park in Tinley Park, IL. He was resting on the ground near a retention pond. Centennial Park has a bridge that goes over a little stream which leads you to a nice paved trail around the pond. Many varieties of trees, grasses, and wildflowers grow on this large property. I have viewed much wildlife here, birds, hawks, butterflies, dragonflies, finks, bunnies, groundhog, etc. Tinley did a good job reserving this area as a natural refuge in the midst of suburban houses, condos, and way too many strip malls.

Lets learn about the Common Whitetail Dragonfly. This one photographed is a mature male. He has a bright white abdomen which is used to display around other males in order to defend his territory. The female is brown. They have nearly a 360 range of vision, they live by ponds, marshes or waterways, and eat insects around this area. Whitetails rest on objects near water or on the ground, which is were I found this guy.

I drew this sketch of the wings because when I first spotted a whitetail, I thought his wings were scalloped on the edges like the bottom "incorrect" sketch. Fact is, the tips are transparent and unless you find yourself a few inches away from him, you cannot see it. Too cool.

Watch out whitetails, because the birds, fish and frogs want you for dinner!

Canadian Geese

Here in Chicago we have Canadian Geese pretty much year round. They usually summer in Canada and winter in the southern US states, but I see them all the time. Once, (about a year ago) I woke in the middle of the night to (it seemed like thousands), of migrating geese flying over my house. Their calls sent shivers because I knew there must have been hundreds at least. I ran to the window and the sky was blackened with geese. Much excitement! Anyway these geese were spotted at Little Red Schoolhouse and the middle one was NOT happy with me. They will "hiss" when disturbed. He kept a vigilant lookout, making sure I didn't get too close. The other two were feeding on aquatic grasses in St. John's Slough. They submerge their heads when feeding under water.

Notice the pink wild hibiscus to the left of the geese. There were many of these light pink and dark pink ones dotting the shore line.

First Post My Favorite Place

For my very first posting, I'm going to talk about my very most favorite place, the Little Red Schoolhouse in Willow Springs, IL. This picture is a pastel painting I did while sitting outside, en plein air. I have been going here ever since I was a small fry. This little gem of a place is an old schoolhouse converted into a nature center. The house has live and previously living stuffed wildlife. Some of which are: turtles (live), frogs (live), snakes (live), crow (live), and fawn (stuffed), etc. You can also find much information about whats going on in the wilderness at that particular time in the season. The Little Red Schoolhouse also host many classes for young and old alike. Next, we'll move outside. The grounds hold 3 main trails, the longest being about 1.25 miles long. I love, love, love to go on days when slightly raining when NOBODY is there. Just me and the animals. I've encountered deer, finks, several species of birds, fish, snakes and so on. Right in back of the house are three cages, two house owls and one houses a red tail hawk. Next to the cages is a large fence-in garden with arbors and a bench and really neat things growing which I cannot nearly do as well in my own garden. The best part about the Little Red Schoolhouse is that it is FREE. What do we like better than free? They are open 7 days a week 8-4:30pm but the schoolhouse is closed in Fridays. Maybe you would like to pay a free visit?