Love the juxtaposition of natural & industrial. Golden leaves & rusty grids.

Beautiful Fall colors on a beautiful Fall day.

With the day turning out to be so beautiful, I decided to continue my outdoor birthday adventures at Rock Cut State Park in Rockford, Illinois. The fall colors were ablaze, the weather was perfect, and I had a wonderful time hiking around the park enjoying Nature’s beauty.

At the center of Rock Cut is Pierce Lake… and when there’s a Lake, why not hike around it?!
Twice!!!

Love the patterns. Love the symmetry. Love the natural details all around.

Oh, hello… found a little visitor laying on the path sunning himself.

And a large wasp nest hanging out in the maple tree.

This large moss-covered tree had great textures & colors…
and for some reason, it was also over-populated with lightning bugs?!!!

Always good to see pollination in action… up close & personal.
Nature is pretty darn incredible.

It’s amazing how one simple tree in just the right place can make all the difference.
It might just be the new favorite???… and trust me, I narrowed it down as far as I could!!!

A new predator has invaded the Chicago Lakefront.
An annual event where the lakefront gets infested with huge green dragonflies. Thousands of them!!! Everywhere you go along the Lake there are dragonflies. They seemed to “arrive” on the Lakefront just a couple days ago. If you look closely, you can see them in some of the sunrise photos!

So it was no surprise to find them all over the Evanston Lakeshore Arts Festival today. They’re pretty bold little buggers. Swooping. Swarming. Dive-bombing. But I’m more than willing to put up with them as they as also eating all of the mosquitoes and gnats. So much better to have some huge, cool-looking bugs than the little blood-sucking annoyance bugs!

And yet as soon as they appear they will also disappear.
Give them a couple days… and then they’re be gone for another year!

And one was even so bold as to land on my elbow. He hung on for quite awhile
eaving plenty of time for a little dragonfly selfie!

While visiting Peoria for the weekend, our plans were changed slightly due to the heavy rains that came through this morning. We decided to do some sightseeing in the Peoria area. Which took us to the Giant Burr Oak tree.

And with the build-up and posted “pedigree” that this tree has…
I was excited & relieved that the tree did not disappoint. The giant burr oak tree is very large with beautifully dark glossy leaves. The oversized branches are growing every which way. Some of the larger ones are drooping so low that they are actually resting on the ground… or even better, propped up by constructed tripods.

Here you can see the constructed tripods propping up a branch…

And here you can see my Cousin Kim and my very first art fair friends Gerry & Rosene.
The master gardeners and longtime friends!!!

This morning started out dark & cloudy.
I love when you can actually see the rain falling from the clouds out over the lake.

Then soon enough, the sun came up and the orange clouds become AMAZING!!!

Sorry, there’s a lot of photos here… trust me, I narrowed it down as far as I could.
But it’s tough when each one is SPECTACULAR!!! Enjoy.

Beautiful. All the way to the very last splash of color.
Thank you for indulging my little biking sunrise addiction. Thanks for playing!

Beautiful day today in Chicago.
And a wonderful bike ride to work out some of my Triathlon kinks from yesterday.
Love when you find random acts of creativity along the way.

Some beautiful crape myrtle in bloom in Dover… flowers we don’t have much at home!
Love the colors, textures and contrasts.