A colorful contrast of colors & textures. With shiny green leaves on crusty wooden vines… and colorful crabapple flowers in stark contrast to the beautiful blue skies!

Blue skies. Warm breezes. Another great day of pedaling along the lakefront.

Celebrating a little TEXTURE TUESDAY with these crazy-cool leaves sprouting out on sumac branches in the neighborhood.

Celebrating a little bit of EARTH DAY today with admiration & appreciation of the beautiful Spring flowers along the bike trail this morning. Crab apple blossoms to start your Saturday… and your Earth Day! So go outside… and see something beautiful in nature!

Late night pear tree blooms in the evening glow of a streetlight… as I drive home from the studio after teaching class tonight. Quiet evening serenity & natural beauty.

A couple days of HOT “summer” weather here in Chicago… and we suddenly have a lot of flowers blooming everywhere! Like these beautiful azaleas… that might not be so happy come Monday when we’re forecast to get MORE SNOW!!! Welcome to Spring in Chicago!!!

Okay, so I’m supposed to be home today “starting” to work on my taxes. But when it’s this nice outside.. how can I really be expected to stay inside??? Right? So I “might” have stepped outside for a hot minute for an afternoon bike ride along the lakefront. And it was glorious… and my favorite little blue scilla flowers are in full bloom along the way!

Looks like Adam made it out to Illinois Beach State Park again… and the fortune cookie scavenger hunt is still on!!! Yep, I placed twenty-three ceramic fortune cookies out there over New Years Weekend… 23 for 2023… and apparently people are still finding them! Thanks for keeping us posted Adam… and congrats on adding another fortune cookie to your collection!

So many people love the gingko… so I’ve got some gingko leaves in one of my stamped & soda-fired bowls! Ceramic gingko leaves you can enjoy forever. Still hanging out the the “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” show… waiting for that special someone to give the gingko bowl some loving!

A little fortune cookie Scavenger Hunt at Illinois Beach State Park!
Handmade ceramic fortune cookies… textured, patterned, stained…
oh, and they rattle too!!!

So here we go… a few visual “clues” to help people find the hidden fortune cookies! Remember, there are twenty-three ceramic fortune cookies hidden throughout Illinois Beach State Park… both North & South Units. Kind of my way to share some “good fortune” for the New Year!

I hid them yesterday… so go get ’em!!!

Of course I’m not going to make it easy for you…
so these little “clues” may or may not help?! Plus, the photos are in no particular order! All part of the game… and FUN for me!!!

And a good thing I brought a couple extra fortune cookies with me…

I found this great piece of driftwood and thought that this would be a perfect place to stash a fortune cookie. When I set the fortune cookie into the hole on the top, it seemed a little wobbly. So I pushed it a bit further back… and it fell right in! ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM!!! I could hear it tumbling down inside… like through a “tube” down the center of the log! Never to be found until this piece of drift wood rots away! Whoops!