After the morning rain…
or I guess today it looks like it might be more “in-between“ the morning rains!!!

My “room with a view” today! A beautiful day at ART IN THE GARDEN… enjoying the garden, enjoying the view & enjoying the day. Plus, the weather looks good for tomorrow… so come on by! We’re back in the GARDEN from 10:00am-5:00pm tomorrow!

A beautiful afternoon setting up in the garden… yes, the same garden as this weekend’s ART IN THE GARDEN. I got my tent & shelves set-up… I will bring all of my pots later. But while I was there, it stuck me how beautiful the garden location is… Mother Nature’s artwork even before the weekend’s art arrives!!! Such a great setting for an art fair… thank you Tom & Amy for hosting in your yard full of your own curated art collection!

With featured garden art by Kristin Conneely @kdconneely & Retta Hentschel @windowsido.

Love the mossy-covered boulders along the lakefront… algae? seaweed? whatever it’s called ???
With gentle waves lapping at the shoreline… over these very slippery rocks.

A perfect day with an ideal “window of opportunity”… so I skipped out of the studio for the afternoon. A little playing hooky in my kayak again up at the Skokie Lagoons. The sun was out, the skies were blue… and I had the whole place practically to myself. I saw a lot of waterfowl, turtles and only four other kayakers all afternoon!! So many great blue herons that I lost track! The perfect “escape” from the studio. Carpe diem, grab it while you can… and all that jazz!!!

Howdy Neighbor! Looks someone has finally decided to roost on my back porch…
on top of my neighbor’s door. Giving me the cautious side-eye
as I arrived home with my bike!

Art is all around us. Keep your eyes open.
Stay present. Enjoy nature. Get outside.
Choose happiness. Appreciate the beauty.

Whether it’s a morning sunrise… or a wonderful little painted rock I found today while riding. Sometimes the smallest of details can bring the biggest smiles!!! This one did… and now it’s part of my collection to remind me daily.

ART IS EVERYWHERE.

It was a crazy mix of clouds & smoke this morning!!! With the smoke from the Canadian wildfires making it’s way to Chicago, we had poor air quality & even poorer visibility. Not much of a sunrise as it was struggling behind the clouds & smoke. There was such a smoky “fog” engulfing the lakefront…. practically obliterating the view of the downtown skyline. CRAZY!!!

Spent a wonderful afternoon floating around on the water. Kayaking around the Skokie Lagoons enjoying the blue skies, white waterlilies & assorted waterfowl. Always fun to see a Great Blue Heron… and quite possibly my first Black-Crowned Night-Heron?… yes, I had to look it up. A beautiful day of paddling… a nice change from pedaling!

Just a morning milkweed moment…