Old Country Lane Road

This is the beautiful Old Country Lane at Country Lane Woods. This use to be a happenin' street back in the day! Now it serves as a really neat gravel trail, you can walk it or ride your horse for miles. Today it was about 45 and drizzly. Drizzle won't stop my fun, no sir.


Isn't this beautiful? This is a small pond right off the trail. It's hard to see but there are many exploding cattails. Good for the Chickadees, which I did hear in this area - no joke. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to zoom in on one of the cattails. When walking towards this pond I did hear activity by the edge. Perhaps it's warm enough for the frogs to still be out, I'm not sure.


Everyone needs a walkin' stick! We find a stick.... we use the stick.... we leave the stick! My grandpa always made sure the grandkids had a walkin' stick, everyone of us. I'm keeping the tradition going.

I hope you enjoyed this brief visit to Country Lane Woods.

Trail Time! Tinley Creek Woods

This is the beginning of our PAVED trail in Tinley Creek Woods, Tinley Park, IL. This trail definitely has something for everyone. You can see the black topped trail to the left and to the right a prairie, a lovely sea of goldenrod growing right now. Isn't it beautiful? There were deer feeding in the distance, too far for me to get on camera.

Here is our first stop on the left side of the trail, away from the prairie, there are more trees on this side. I love the shadows and sunlight playing off each other. The tips of goldenrod illuminate from afternoon sun. This will be a painting one day.

OH BOY, Tall Coreopsis, these wildflowers can grow up to 8' tall but these were only about 4' tall. This picture was taken in shadow light and seem more blue than in real life.

Man made vs. God made. This is at the edge of the prairie right before the scenery starts to change. You can hear the buzzz sound from the high wires when standing in this spot. Probably not the most healthy place to be, I don't know why the wires buzzz, I'm not sticking around to find out! It is a pretty sight, the architectural structure riding in the distance. In this spot I heard many blue jays and spotted 3 crows. Go Crows! Go Blue jays! I say that because Wst Nile virus killed many of these in our area. Crows and blue jays are related which explains why both were affected.

This trail now goes under a major busy street. It's fun to walk under the cars into the forest........WOW! Just steps away, quiet peaceful forest! Look at how the light peaks through the branches. Just the best fun one can have! This is about as far as I got, about 1 mile. If I had more time I would have gone on, we'll save that for another day!

Hope you enjoyed!

Trail Time! Moraine 2 of 2

Ok! Let's continue our trail through the Moraine Valley Nature Study Area in Palos Hills, IL. If you remembered yesterday, I described Grassy Trail #1. Today, I'll describe Grassy Trail #2 (see yesterday's watercolor map). You're going to love trail#2 as much as I did! It has the same grassy covering in the beginning with some different highlights. Let's start with this beautiful Queen Anne's Lace.

Yes it's true, Queen Anne's Lace is a weed, you can find them in fields, road sides, along trails, by garbage dumps, pretty much anywhere. This is a true story: When I was just starting to garden, I actually asked for Queen Anne's Lace at a very expensive nursery (Sids) to which the employee laughed, "Why, that's a weed!" That really happened. I am not ashamed. I didn't know it but I still love them. We can't just love the beautiful ones (there's a life lesson in here somewhere), it has beauty in its own way, with that teeny, tiny little purple flower in the middle. Next on our trail are the more "beautiful ones" the wildflowers.

Here is a delicate Fascicled False Foxglove. I know it because my field guide told me so. The book I'm referring to is Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers, Doug Ladd and Frank Oberle (A Falcon Guide). I like this book because the flowers are grouped by color. It allows you to quickly identify your flower in seconds! Most rewarding. Notice the fuzzy edges of the petals, reminds me of a comfy sweater in the fall. I'm sure there is a reason for the edges, maybe we'll learn that someday. Just steps away from the foxglove we see our next wildflower. This is Obedient Plant, I really like this one. It gets the name "obedient" because if you wrap it around the the stem, it remains like that. Had I actually brought my wildflower guide book with me, I would have learned that and been able to try it out, but it was another object at home collecting dust! A few feet along our trail, suddenly the trail goes from grassy to..... sandy! Doesn't it look like the bottom of a lake? Or maybe the shore? Is there water near by? From the observatory deck I could see water, but because we've had sooo much rain, I just thought it was flooding. I didn't know...... there was a secret water entrance!!!!! Yes! Boy, I just hit the jackpot. Do you remember when you were a kid and you discovered something new all by yourself? I was feeling that way! I might have done the "happy dance", I'm sure the wildlife thought I was nuts.

This is our reward. The treasure at the end of the journey or at least Grassy Trail #2. The water so calm, the sky so blue, the air abundant with fragrant. Here is where I can find peace and where I talk to God our Creator, who placed the Queen Anne's Lace (because He loves the "not" so pretty ones) and the foxglove, and the obedient plant just for us to enjoy.

Thank you for taking this trail with me!

It's Trail Time! Moraine Valley Nature Study Area 1 of 2

Today's "Trail Time" adventure part 1 of 2, takes us to the Nature Study Area of Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, IL. This section of trail represents only 1/4th of the study area section. There are two trails I walked, Grassy Trail #1 and Grassy Trail #2. Trail highlights: 100 year old oak tree, observatory and deck, sundial, Queen Anne's Lace (yes, I know it's a weed but I like it still), cattail, tall goldenrod, wildflowers, and pond.

Click on the watercolor map for larger image. Map is not to scale.

Let's begin. I tried to enter the trail off of the campus parking lot, far east on the map, but because of all the rain we've received this section was flooded and I had nothing waterproof with me!

Much too flooded, must go around to the west side or swim.
That's much better! Here you can see that the trail is completely covered in grass. There is the observatory in the distance.

Here is a 100 year old oak tree, this landmark starts our trail. Look at how large it is! The grasses off trail were so large that you cannot get close to it. Better for the tree that way.Here is the observatory deck and sundial. The telescope was built and donated by Tom McCague, retired associate professor and department chair of Biology, and he hosts open viewing nights once a month for the public! Much fun, For more info and calendar click here. The sundial was built and donated by retired professor Roger Carlsen. It's pretty hard to see but it is in the lower right hand corner of the photo, camoed by the deck.

I was here for 2 hours by myself! Peace and tranquillity not a soul around. I'll pick this over a mall anytime. Let's continue on our trail.

Continuing North on Grassy Trail #1 I could feel the moist heat radiating from the grass. With every step I took crickets jumped for their lives. I couldn't believe how many there were. Many wasps were conducting their daily activities pollinating wildflowers, I was careful to avoid them. While two American Goldfinches seemed perturbed that an invader (me) was around. They kept flying overhead, back and forth, frantically chattering. But I didn't mind because at the end of Grassy Trail #1 was this beautiful scene of cattail (top), goldenrod (middle) and boneset (bottom). Many worker bees and wasps shopping for pollen in this section. It is about 50' away from 107th st. So this concludes trail #1, I turned back and began my walk on trail #2, which will be continued tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed.