It’s been so long… too long… that I have been able to get-away for a fun weekend with friends. What with the pandemic, and work, and deadlines. But it was time… so I hopped in the car last Thursday for a beautiful, blue sky road trip up to Minnesota for the weekend!!!

While our temps are still chilly waking up in the low 40’s…. it is wonderful to see that Spring is finally here!!! And that all of those April Showers did indeed make some beautiful May Flowers!!!

Looks like Spring is finally here… the May Flowers are a little early, although we’ve had more than enough April Showers!!!

Kickin’ off the new week with a little bright spot… working its way through the urban landscape to brighten the day! Happy Monday!!!

With all of the April showers we’ve been having lately… it’s about time we got some flowers too… beautiful Star Magnolia flowers! Hopefully even more May flowers coming soon!

One step closer… with some “pops” of color getting ready to open in the next few days… Spring is finally here and this forsythia bush is ready to prove it!!!

Well, we’ve waited a very long time for Spring colors to start coming back… I’m tired of Winter’s grays & browns! But in this case, I had to drive all the way down to St. Louis to see some Spring flowers just starting to bloom! And I’ll take ’em… and try my best to bring some color back to Chicago too!!

Another beautiful morning with a dusting of overnight snow
& plenty of sunshine on some mossy tree bark!

Well, lookey here… yet another one of my ceramic fortune cookies has been found at Illinois Beach State Park. So much fun finding out that they are still being found by random people while out there enjoying the park. Even more impressive that Adam “found me” here on Facebook and shared his story & photos with me!

This from Adam…
“Hi Gary, thank you for the good fortune! My kids and I found a cookie this past Saturday and my mother did the research and found you. Hoping you can view the post about it on my page and the pictures associated with the outing to Illinois Beach State Park. I recently discovered it during the lockdown as well (Sept. 2021), and I’m now there almost every time the weather is favorable. Kids love it too! A lot of joy has come from your kindness. From the thrill of finding the cookie nestled in the root structure of the tree to the people’s reaction from posting about it and finally the excitement in locating the maker! We hope there may be more to find still and will be back again soon. Thank you!!!”

Me likin’ the lichen… and the mosses… and the groovy bark textures! Makes it kinda perfect for another natural Texture Tuesday!

#texturetuesday