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Full Summer
We are heading into that time of year when the countryside is reaching its most lush and opulent state, when the grasses of the prairie shimmer and shake, and the wildflowers thrill us with their...
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A Most American Flower
Queen Anne’s Lace was one of the first flowers I noticed as a child. In a spare lot near our house in Peoria, it grew profusely. To see a picture of this flower automatically conjures up associations...
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Mortality
Our uncle is dying. Just a month or so ago, he was perfectly fine—a bit doddering, perhaps—; today he’s in hospice, riddled with cancer, breathing his last. He is far away, in Seattle, about to be...
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Corn Without Corn
After two wonderful years of harvests, our farmers have had a tough time of it this year. The sun shone on them . . . too much. The rains came . . . too little. Now the outcome that experts were...
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Mushroom or Turtle
Yesterday we managed an excursion to the Indiana Dunes, where we explored the Calumet Trail and Cowles Bog. It was our first visit, so it was mainly a reconnoitering, but we nonetheless saw some...
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Euphoria
What is it about autumn that we just have to photograph it? I’m ashamed to say how many pictures I’ve taken lately of autumn leaves, and trees turning, as though I have never seen them before. At...
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Memories of a Special Day
The weather today was simply splendid, and the parks were full of people enjoying the fall color and the sight of all the migrating birds. I was reminded of a day, several years ago, when we happened...
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Don’t Look Now
Spotted along a Michigan highway. Happy Halloween! Filed under: Daytripping Tagged: autumn, decorations, garages, Halloween, holidays, jack-o-lanterns, Red Arrow Highway, roadside sights
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Predictions confounded
Contrary to expert predictions, the foliage was spectacular in the Midwest this autumn. Particularly notable were the leaves of the oaks (which have yet to fall in many cases), hanging in thick...
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Winter delicacy
Mr C and I are heading out to Michigan tomorrow. There’s a reason Chicagoans cross the Skyway: to get to New Buffalo, Union Pier, or Lakeside—Michigan towns on the other side. That’s where we go to...
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The colors of winter
The dearth of snow has made me nostalgic, so much so that I’ve taken to lingering over old photographs of the properly wintry scenes we’ve often enjoyed. Winter has many colors, but, if white isn’t...
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Ganglia
Do you think that they feel? Filed under: Daytripping Tagged: age, beeches, Berrien County, forests, height, Michigan, perspective, strength, trees, Warren Woods
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Once invisible
Winter makes the invisible apparent. The secret places where, in the summer, bird songs were manufactured are disclosed. I’m not sure which I like best: hearing the invisible birds in summer, or, in...
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The clay plain
In the middle of the Harbert Preserve is a plain where few trees grow. In the summer the soil is chalky, cracked. In the winter, it is a fine slippery clay on whose paths water collects. The...
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The forms of sleep
A walk in the winter woods brings on meditation. The sights are less enlivening, and small things loom larger in the experience. In the woods, the forms of the trees—often wind-mangled and...
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The land the Lake made
Less than two hours from Chicago lies the alien world of the Warren Dunes. There one feels the immensity of our Lake and the unusual environments it creates and sustains. Prevailing winds and waves...
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Farm silhouette
A drive to Wisconsin yesterday gave me a chance to enjoy the tranquility of the country. The twilight was beautiful as it fell over this farm and its sleeping fields. Filed under: Daytripping Tagged:...
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Rural traffic jam
The rural traffic jam had its compensations. There was time, while sitting on the road below Milwaukee, to admire the color gamut and the grainy texture of the dirty snow. The telegraphed serenity of...
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Going
A happy second marriage has been one of Fate’s more surprising gifts to me. After a first marriage that dead-ended in misery, the chance of a re-beginning presented itself in the form of Mr. C. Each...
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The drama of the dunes
The massive sand drifts on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan form a terrain that is rare and spooky. Its novelty entertains us in the summer, when the sun is warm and hiking in brings the childlike...
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