You’ll have to take my word for it — that’s what it says (photo taken from moving taxi).
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Category Archives: Life
Wolf Lake, Maple Tree Inn, Brew Caboose
After a visit to Wolf Lake, where J and I saw the usual mute swans and Canada geese, we headed to Homewood for a mid-afternoon lunch at Maple Tree Inn, formerly Cottage on Dixie (which I still miss, although it closed in 2019). On the way through Homewood, I spotted the remains of a big tree being hauled off, then noticed many torn-up trees and limbs. There’d been a record-breaking 27 tornadoes in the area the Monday before, July 15, and an EF-1 had hit Homewood. Too close.
After several years of talk, we finally made it to the caboose at Flossmoor Station. As a child, I always watched for the caboose at the end of a train, and was disappointed when I found out they were to be phased out. I liked the idea of an ice cream caboose — one excellent use for these relics from our railroad past.
The caboose used to be dedicated to ice cream, if I remember correctly, but now it’s officially the “Brew Caboose Taproom and Ice Cream Parlor” (albeit missing the parlor). That may explain the later and possibly longer hours. I also found out there’s a wee dog park behind the caboose.
With the caboose, a sundae, and people and dog watching, it was a good way to spend a weekend afternoon.
10 photos
Total solar eclipse over Hamburg, New York, gets USPS postmark
The ZIP CodeTM of my childhood.
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Bees at work! at work
We have bees at work! at work.
Coexisting with bees in cities is easy and natural. After all, honey bees are just one of a number of pollinators like butterflies, bumble bees, and wild bees with whom we already share our urban spaces.
Petunia (January 16, 2008 – April 29, 2023)
Jaws (vs. Hodge)
Apologies to Universal Pictures, but when I saw how this photo turned out, I had to do it.
Hodge (2001 – 2013)
These are from a previous post in which photos of already questionable quality were resized. Some of the originals are lost, but I hope I can find at least a few. Hodge was a character who thought he was a lion to my antelope.
107 photos
Lessons and Carols, 2022
This is the first time since 2019 that Lessons and Carols, a Christmas Eve tradition at Rockefeller Chapel, has been held in person. I remember in 2020 and 2021, it was streamed. This year it was both in person and streamed. I attended, but within a few days had developed my first bout with COVID-19. I held out almost three years.
Rockefeller is always an experience. The snow was a great touch.
I love that the children don’t have to make or buy costumes to be farmyard animals. These days they can wear pajamas. My favorite was the Holstein cow (possibly an anachronism).
4 photos
Postcard books
In my younger days (1980s through 1990s, which, sadly, don’t seem that long ago), I’d collect certain things, like Renaissance music CDs and bookmarks. I also collected postcard books from 57th Street Books and other bookstores. After all these years, I’m finally returning to sending postcards, some yellowing, to friends and family.
The Sierra Club books were among the first I bought. Just looking at them reminds me how the photos took me away from what was then a tedious life. Sadly, I don’t see postcard books on the Sierra Club’s website, and now that I think about it I’m not sure when I last saw a postcard book in a store. I suppose I’m one of the few left who sends postcards.
Sigh.
22 photos
