I'm Dreaming of a Green Spri-ing

Yes, it's only February 21, but I don't care. It's snowing today, and we'll end up with around four inches of the white stuff. I've already cleaned several heavy inchess off my car this morning, tomorrow morning will necessitate the same. 

And I'm thinking of Spring. 

That's the thing about Chicago Winters. We were treated to a few gorgeous days that reached the sixties. Trees all over the place have little knobbly buds beginning, because they were faked out by the warm weather. Lawns throughout the city shone emerald from the mixture of precipitation and sun they'd received. 

People want to burst out into our own form of Spring-selves, too. Our faces smooth, our eyes lose their squint, our backs straighten as we stand taller, reaching for the sun and its warmth...

"Faked out again," the snowflakes silently taunt us as they continue to coat us back into our Winter-selves. 

I won't bow down to the snow and cold. I've set the picture below as my desktop wallpaper, reminding me that inside, it's warm, it's green, and full of life!

(If anyone feels so inclined to use this photo as their desktop wallpaper, please be my guest - it's quite calm-invoking.) 

Venice, Day 4

Three words: Siesta. Key. Beach. Rated the #3 most beautiful beach in the United States for 2008.

Just south of Sarasota, it's home to sugar sand, which is incredibly white, soft, and doesn't get hot in the sun, so it's lovely to walk on.

We spent two lovely hours there, enjoying the breezy day, watching the pelicans and gulls nosedive into the surf for fish.

People watching was also good - we saw people building sand castles, flying kites, swimming, fishing (and throwing lots of fish back, causing a small feeding frenzy among the gulls), parasailing, and just generally enjoying themselves.

On the way home, we stopped off (of course) at Nokomis Groves for more citrus ice cream. I had another orange / vanilla; my friend tried the orange / pineapple. (Both received top marks!)

I decided it would be fun to take a walk in the actual groves, to see the fruit trees up close. It was cool until my foot started stinging from dozens of teeny tiny ants biting me furiously!

Meanwhile, I did get in a shot of the melon-sized grapefruits. (ED. Found out the next day that this particular species is called Chinese grapefruit, they're really meaty, and delicious!)


Once it was approaching dusk, we headed out again, this time to the Venice Audobon Center Bird Sanctuary to watch the birds come home to roost for the night. I'm coveting a nicer camera about now, one with better zoom, better color filtering, and ability to take photos at dusk.


This one blurry shot was actually quite interesting - a couple of egrets seemed to have a disagreement over a certain branch...

There were tons of egrets, blue heron, anhingas and some others I couldn't name. We got some lovely close shots of one great blue heron who really liked a nearby tree. He didn't seem to mind as we snapped photo after photo.

Home again, we're trying to bunk down at a decent time, to get ready for another full day tomorrow!

Venice, Day 2

Today was filled with Myakka River State Park and a visit to the South Jetty here in Venice.

Now I'd been to Myakka several times with Mom and Dad on previous visits, but had only ever taken the boat ride on the chuck-full-o-gators Myakka Lake and the tram ride.

Today, we started by going on the nature walk through partially swampy ground - walkways kept us out of the muckier parts - to the Canopy Walkway.

First you climb the 'short' tower to the swinging bridge, 25 feet off the ground. Then you climb the 74 foot tower, and get an eyeful of beautiful country.

My friend had to talk me up, since I'm so scared of heights. I hung back on the next to the highest level for at least 10 minutes before I had the nerve to go all the way up to the top.

We saw an amazing array of birds: hawks, vultures, cranes, egrets, herons - nesting, flying, screeching, whirling. It was pretty awesome.

Back on the ground, we went back to the lake. Too late to take the boat ride, we found out that today wasn't a good gator-viewing day, so we weren't too disappointed.

Right alongside the boat, we got a bit of a treat. One of the rarer birds in the park, the Limpkin was wading around looking for food, so we got a nice close look.

From there, we went over to the little dam, where we were about as close to a gator as you can get and keep all your body parts intact.

After brats and floats, we decided to go over to the Birdwalk, which extends a ways out into the swampy land, almost to the lake, and saw lots more birds and lots more beautiful lake.

By the time we were heading back to Venice, it was getting later, so we decided to go straight to the South Jetty to see if we could spot any dolphins as the tide was coming in.

In all the many times I've been out dolphin watching on the Jetty, I've never seen as many at once, and as playful a bunch of dolphins as today.

They weren't just breaching and swimming around; they were blowing, jumping a little bit and coming down with a big splash; they were slapping the surface of the water with their tails. It was really fun!

Trying to take pictures got a little hard, because there so many off in several directions.

While we were there, we saw two bridal couples taking wedding shots, and what was probably an engaged couple getting their photos taken, too.

We were there for almost two and a half hours, just watching people, dolphins, waves, and the sunset.

All in all, a great day spent in the beauty of West Central Florida!

We have arrived! (Venice, Day 1)

Hooray! After months of thinking we were coming to Florida in October, agonizing over what dates to select, only to have a false alarm thinking that my boss didn't want me to take this particular week off, we have arrived in the land of sunshine!

We landed in Tampa yesterday around noon, and took advantage of our proximity to Clearwater to visit the attractions there before heading south to Venice. While we weren't able to visit the US's number one rated beach at Caladesi State Park because of the ferry hours, we did check out Honeymoon Island State Park (so named for honeymoon bungalows built there in the 30s).

What a pleasant surprise! We walked along the Osprey Nature Path. We did see one osprey flying away from us, and a couple of giant nests up high in the trees. Our walk was hurried along by the carniverous noseeums, unfortunately.

Escaping the bugs, we took a walk along the beach and cooled off in the waves a bit. Then we drove down and visited the ferry landing, where we saw lots of water birds and jumping fish. This really is a beautiful area, and we may be back to visit the beach when we leave.

At my folks' house now, I wonder if I'll ever be able or want to retire down here. The pace of life is slower, that's for sure. But there are lots of things to do - it's not like the streets roll up at night.

Of course, there are the hurricanes to consider...

Maybe you can go home again

When the Town & Country Commission decided to hold their fall meeting this year in Sugar Grove, PA, just 15 minutes from my hometown of Warren, I jumped at the chance to tag along. I get back home so infrequently anymore, and a free trip there was too good to pass up.

The anticipation was building as we drove down from the airport - it's been a year since I was last in Warren. I was going to stay at my sister's house, and it would be nice to see her, but because the meetings would be held in Sugar Grove, I'd also be able to see several cousins there who still live on the land they grew up on.

I had forgotten about the fall colors, and wouldn't have dreamed what strong feelings they would evoke in me. Reflecting on it, I realized it's probably been almost 30 years since I was last in Warren at the height of the autumn brilliance. Turn after turn of the road revealed heartbreakingly beautiful reds, oranges, yellows, greens and browns of deciduous splendor.
I was desperate to stop and capture it on film, but we needed to keep moving, to get to our destination, and I didn't want to scare the passengers in my car with my drive-and-click method of photography (which yields admittedly questionable results). :)

The next unexpected joy was waiting for me at the church. The pastor, Brian, had told me that my carpenter-contractor cousin Bob was working on a construction project in back of the church. This church I have always thought of as a sleepy country church is almost doubling the size of their building! We arrived in time for me to talk with him for a while and catch up a bit, then we were off to his big brother's buffalo farm.

I'd been there last year at the reunion - I knew the buffalo would be cool. But when my cousin John started telling us all about the animals, from breeding to feeding to disease prevention to behavior patterns, and more, I was tremendously impressed with how knowledgeable he is. Things like this: they buy bugs, actually import specialized insects that prey on the kind of flies that plague the buffalo, and can cause eye disease. And how buffalo are so intelligent, that, unlike cattle, they don't hurt themselves by overeating.

I was glad that we'd arrived just in time for me to see cousin Barb and cousin-in-law Sherry, as well!

The whole weekend, although a bit crazy busy, was wonderful! We were able to tour two other local businesses, including a lumber mill (with the biggest, scariest saw I ever wish to see!), and a diesel engine plant where they make two products - a big engine and a bigger engine! (Now who would have thought assembly line work could be so fascinating!??).

Best of all, of course, was the people. Our commission invited four area pastors and their spouses out to a nice dinner on Friday, and all four pastors are friends of mine. It was very special to spend a bit of quality time with them, and hear how their ministries are going.

The reason the commission holds one meeting a year at a town & country church is two-fold: to learn about the individual churches, and to encourage the pastors and congregations. We always pick locations where there will be a cluster of several T&C churches. And while I think we did encourage the pastors by our interest in them and our visit, there's no question in my mind that I was on the receiving end of some big time encouragement by being there.

All of my trip photos are here (as well as explanations as to what they are), but below are several of my favorites from the weekend. Enjoy!

Dry again

Quite a change from Sunday! I drove past Anderson Hall today, and was surprised to see that the parking level was completely dry. Amazing how fast the water comes, then leaves...

Rain, rain, go away

In thirty years of living in Chicago, I have now lived through two "great floods". The first one was in 1991, and it was actually the result of a boat crashing into the side of the Chicago River, allowing water to flow into basements all through downtown, and flooding out the subways.

This one is caused by Mother Nature herself, dumping record rainfalls on our fair city over the past couple of days. A friend and I went out and took some pictures...

... of the river threatening to crest its banks and flood the auditorium at North Park University,

... of Anderson Hall, which along with the Campus Center at NPU, is evacuated and closed,

... of the sandbags keeping the waters on Carmen Ave from flooding onto Kimball Ave,

... and of Foster Ave at Pulaski, where the entire street and much of Gompers Park lie covered by water and news crews.

We always think of Chicago as a flat plain. You realize, when checking for standing water, that the City definitely does have its higher and lower ground. (I'm very thankful I live at one of the high points.)

It's very scary to see water entering your home, and there's not a thing you can do about it. I've lived through that, and hope to God I never have to again. I just pray for all the people affected by this flood, that they can dry out and clean up quickly. And for my alma mater, I pray that its buildings will not be damaged to the breaking point.

who cooks for you?

I'm not going to start talking about my very own personal chef... not yet, anyway (sorry, dear, that has to wait for some future time!)

No, what I really want to talk about is the Barred Owl I met the other night. I had gone outside to try and take a nighttime photo of USML's beautiful chapel, but it was a wasted effort with my substandard camera.

The stroll outside wasn't a waste, however, when I heard someone asking, "Who cooks for yooouuu? Who cooks for yoooouuuuu?"

I wasn't ever able to see much more than his (or her) outline against the night sky. I was later told that this is the distinctive call of the Barred Owl. I remembered my sister saying that when they do night walks through the woods, the owls sometimes answer their calls.

So I responded to the owl (enigmatically, I might add), "Who cooks for youuuuu?", hoping I wasn't being too rude by not answering and that I didn't sound too much like a rooster.

He and I traded questions several times. He also flew around a bit, from the roof of the dormitory, to one tree, then another. The last time he flew, he went almost directly over me, and I was able to see his rather impressive wing span as he flew across the campus and out of my sight.

He never did give me the name of his chef.