Just another beautiful picture from Lake Katherine! Doesn't this picture look like it should be located somewhere in Colorado? If you follow this man made stream, you end up at a man made waterfall. Right at this spot it really started to rain. I'm all for walking in the rain when it's WARM...but I was freezing like a popsicle so I ran like it was going to melt me and I went for my car! Needless to say, I didn't make it to the waterfall.
Check out the color tug of war going on in this picture. Green and red are complimentary colors located opposite of each other on the color wheel. The light tan grasses in the middle of the picture is the referee, the green pines at the top of the picture is going to battle it out with the reds from the twigs on the bottom of the picture! Who will be victorious?
Make art not war....Look at what was sitting by the lake! Some very talented artist carved an expressive face into this log. It has beautiful eyes. When I walked passed, it smelled like a freshly sharpened pencil. Oooo, I love that smell.
So much fun at Lake Katerine of Palos Heights!
Don't you fret....that's not a monster about to jump up and get you, only a harmless log. A log with a mean face and stern eyes and pretend mouth at Lake Katherine! Can you see it?I love, love, love this picture. Whooo Hooo!
There are several highlights here:
First, Being an artist, I immediately noticed the gentle gradation from light blue (top) to light green (middle) then finally dark green (bottom). Color kicks butt.
Second, notice the cracks in the sinking ice. Looks like sharp pieces of glass. NEAT-O.
Third, reflecting trees in the background.....always a plus, thank you trees.
And lastly but not leastly, the creature in the foreground....mysterious, spooky, weird, awesome, all those at once!
Hey...It really doesn't take much to amuse me.
This next picture also amused me....
I love beautiful pictures on a gray day! No sun, no problem!
That green color near the edge of the water just fascinates me! Why is it so green?
I also notice a large crack in the ice in this picture. It appears that the ice sank, then began to crack (or vise versa) due to the warm weather which has quickly disappeared because right now it is only 10ºF!
Oh well, no matter what type of weather is thrown at us we always can find mystery and beauty in nature!
Nature rocks!
This picture is from the beginning of a trail at Swallow Cliff South in Palos Heights, IL. At this very spot there was an overwhelming scent of pine and it stopped me in my tracks. When my senses regained normalcy, I took a deep, deep whiff, real slow like, to enjoy every second. I love the smell of pine.
Right now, before I started this post, I lit a candle from Yankee Candle Company called Balsam & Cedar, it is one of my favorite candle scents. It reminds me of the strong aroma I experienced at Swallow Cliff even though these trees have nothing to do with balsam or cedar, these trees are white pines.
Do you see the ground in this picture, how brown it is? It's not dead grass but a sea of dried up pine needles!
A whole great big sea! Here is a close up of the beautiful pine needles. White pine needles are in bundles of 5 and are 4-8 inches long in length. I wonder how big the pile would be if I swept them all together?
What other pine smells rock? Why Pine Sol of course! I have a big economy size bottle myself.
Why do we love the smell of pine so much? Is it because we associate it with being clean? Or maybe we dream of being in the forest, alone and at peace? Perhaps it is like the spikenard and gives a calming effect. I don't analyze, I just enjoy!
