We’re well into Summer now… and you can tell by all of the beautiful flowers blooming everywhere! Like these wonderful zinnias with such great colors, textures & details. Pretty cool for another Texture Tuesday!

Today was a beautiful day for an other bike ride along the lakefront. Perfect for exploring some of the more hidden areas… and I found LA RONDA PARAKATA. A very cool structure up on a hill overlooking the lake just south of 31st Street Harbor. Designed to honor the monarch butterflies, and built as a “gathering space” along the Burnham Wildlife Corridor. Always fun when you get off the beaten path to explore & enjoy some newly-discovered treasures.

Ginkgo greetings from Sandwich! Looks like the rain moved through overnight leaving us with magical morning moments like these! Looks like clear skies for Day Two of the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR. We’re all opening our tents & replenishing our shelves here in Sandwich. C’mon by… we’re open again today from 10:00am-4:00pm!

So the big tree that shades my booth at the HINSDALE FINE ARTS FESTIVAL is gone!!! Apparently it blew & fell down earlier this week…better than happening today, right?! Luckily, it’s a beautiful cloudy day… so we’re all good in Booth #69 today!

I love it every late Spring when these crazy cool flowering trees work their magic along the lakefront bike trail. Red horse chestnut trees with incredible spikes of clustered flowers on large textured leaves.

Another late night of teaching at Lillstreet… with some beautiful crabapple blossoms in the darkness, highlighted by the corner street lamp as I left to head home. With overnight winds & upcoming rain predicted, I fear this might be the end of the crabapple blooms?!

Magical morning moments along the lake. Sunrise streaming through dandelion seeds. Take time to appreciate the smaller moments of your day.

The Spring flowers are still hanging on here in Chicago with the cooler weather…. just a little concerned that this new heatwave is gonna zap them all?! But still, these beautiful crab apple blossoms are striking while basking in the sun!

Another road trip… another diversion… always great to get out of town for along weekend with friends… and a LOT OF POTTERY!!! But you still can’t beat Nature’s beauty…

Beautiful pottery everywhere around the tour… but Spring is just making its way to Minnesota! So there were a lot of wonderful natural surprises to found on the tour as well.