Fall berries on the vine. Simple curves, colored berries on a metal trellis against a weathered wooden fence.

Beautiful blue skies made for the perfect “excuse” to get outside to play hooky this afternoon.

It’s been so cold lately, that this little bit of a warm spell is a welcome surprise! And it looks like it might stay around all week?! WHOO-HOO!!! Take advantage of it… go outside to play!!!

Celebrating another TEXTURE TUESDAY with some natural stone erosion along the lakefront. I love the layers, the shading & the textures that happened from all of the crashing waves over the years!

Enjoying some of the wild “sunflowers” blooming along the lakefront. Not quite sure, but I’m guessing they’re somewhere between sunflowers & black-eyed susans?! Either way… BEAUTIFUL!!! And apparently the bees like them too!!!

With Summer coming all-too-quickly to an end, and a BEAUTIFUL day last Wednesday, I decided to take the day off and play hooky!!! I drove up to Rock Cut State Park in Rockford.

We used to go camping there all the time as kids, so it was a bit of a flashback! Such a beautiful day hiking around the lake a couple times… logging in some good miles of beautiful scenery… and a very relaxing & much needed day off!

CAUTION ALERT – – –
And after a LOT of beautiful scenery… of course we had to have a bit of reality! Which of course is totally fine by me… I have a strange attraction to roadkill. The whole “circle of life” thing I guess.

Another beautiful day with the Fall colors just starting to pop out. A little too early for the “full Fall” color show… but still beautiful. So I decided to take the day to “play hooky” and hike around Rock Cut State Park in Rockford, Illinois. We used to camp here a lot when we were kids, so there were quite a few childhood flashbacks along the way! A great day to kick-back, relax and hike around the lake… THREE TIMES!!!

Another beautiful day to get out

Smoke in the sky… feathers in the sand.

After nearly a week of rain, gray clouds & wind… it was finally AMAZING outside today!!! Making it the perfect day to play hooky along the lakefront! I got to ride my bike all afternoon, stopped to play several times, kicked my shoes off and RELAXED in the summer sun!!!

Life in the City… and somehow Nature perseveres! Normally just an iron gate to my back courtyard… now with a little “volunteer” petunia nestled in the corner. Struggling to survive… yet flourishing & making me smile every time I see it!

It was a beautiful day with bright blue skies before a few clouds moved in. I got to play along the lake on my bike… enjoying the cool breezes & splashing waves! You gotta love a “day at the beach” to celebrate the “last day” of Summer! But I’ll be hanging onto Summer as long as I possibly can…

Also enjoying the simplicity of line & texture of the beach grass clumps on the beach.

And then there were a few feathers… one that might have fallen out…
and another clump that looks like it might have been pulled out?!!!