Another beautiful blue-sky afternoon… perfect for another bike ride along the lakefront. A bit on the chilly side… long sleeves & gloves again. But I wasn’t quite ready for trees to be changing colors already! As much as I love Fall… I’m not quite ready for it. But let’s be real… this tree is in fact BEAUTIFUL in the beginning of its Fall coloring!!! Okay… so maybe I’ll be “ready” soon…

Yellow flowers on the beach after the morning rain.

What a beautiful day… blue skies & the feeling of “freedom” all day on my bike! At least until you get to this sign… that makes me laugh EVERY time!!! Yes, the bike trail LITERALLY stops right there!!! Dead end. No more cement. Done. But if you know how to navigate around it, you can easily make it all the way to Waukegan in time for lunch & ice cream! Of course, after several stops along the way… especially for all of the Fall wildflowers along the north shore & Openlands Lakeshore Preserve just south of Fort Sheridan! Enjoy… I know I sure did.

It definitely feels like Fall is right around the corner. The zinnias are still beautiful, but you can tell they’re nearing the end of their season! Beautiful colors with great petal structure… but a few of them aren’t holding up so well. Enjoy the end of summer while you can…

It’s that time of the year… the pollinators are busy getting everything they can!
Pretty flowers now… spreading pollen & making yummy honey later!

Without a cloud in the sky, the sunrise was kind of eventful this morning… so I turned the camera around and found this wonderful field of yellow flowers basking in the morning sun down by Montrose Harbor.

Tonight was also a Super Blue Moon! Beautiful to watch it rise over the lake casting amazing reflections in the still crashing waves. So bright. So beautiful. But what is a “Super Blue Moon” anyway???

From TIME magazine…
“The ”Super Blue Moon” label requires a little unpacking. For starters there is nothing remotely blue about the way the moon will look tonight. Instead, the label–whose provenance is unsettled—refers to the second full moon in any single month. The last one to fill the skies was August 1, so tonight’s full moon comes in just under the wire to qualify for the blue distinction. Blue moons are not common. Only 3% of full moons are blue moons, according to NASA, so tonight’s moon would be noteworthy no matter what.”

You know it’s gonna be another hot day when it doesn’t cool down at all overnight! This morning was still just as hot & humid as it was last night… quite the sweaty ride this morning!!! But if you look closely, the huge dragonflies are loving it along the lakefront… hopefully taking out & eating some of those nasty black sand flies!!!

Stalky yellow beach flowers basking in the morning sun.

Tiny pebbles… shining wet… crashing waves.