Treemagination at Morton Arboretum, 2024
December 21, 2024
This is my favorite part of Illumination at Morton Arboretum.
This is my favorite part of Illumination at Morton Arboretum.
Two hours of Illumination at Morton Arboretum in ten minutes, minus Treemagination. That’s my favorite and will be a separate video.
(The long gap without music at Ornament Hill is due to a copyright issue with the music.)
Starting in 2011 with Ryerson Woods Dam, many of the low dams along the upper Des Plaines River have been removed — they hinder a healthy ecosystem, endanger kayakers, and don’t serve a purpose. There’s more on these dam removals here.
A bigger project has been happening on the Klamath in the Pacific Northwest, where much larger dams have been removed. It appears that chinook salmon are returning. Enjoy the peaceful tinkling sounds of the flowing river.
Other than hearing the name a few times, I didn’t know anything about Rock Cut State Park. Now I know why it’s called Rock Cut:
The Illinois version of Harlem was moved in 1859 when the Kenosha-Rockford Rail Line was built. The dammed waters of Pierce Lake now cover much of the railroad bed within the park, although portions of the railroad grade are visible along Willow Creek below the spillway. But blasting operations in a rock outcrop that railroad crews conducted during the 1859 construction left lasting impressions here – they cut through rock to provide a suitable roadbed and gave Rock Cut its name.
It matches Rockford, another literal name: location of a ford through Rock River.
I’m not sure I saw where the rock was cut, but here’s what I did see:
The latter came in a stream to Pierce Lake, although I didn’t see what the emergency was. J heard someone had reported an overturned kayak. Whatever happened, I saw a lot of vehicles and many first responders looking around. If there was a rescue, though, I missed it.
I spent most of my time at Rock Cut on the deck behind the concessions. I ordered a horseshoe, which I’d never heard of before. It’s an Illinois thing, I found out.
The horseshoe is an open-faced sandwich originating in Springfield, Illinois, United States. It consists of thick-sliced toasted bread (often Texas toast), a hamburger patty or other choice of meat, French fries, and cheese sauce. While hamburger has become the most common meat on a horseshoe, the original meat was ham.
From Visit Springfield:
The Signature Horseshoe Sandwich was created in 1928 at the Old Leland Hotel by Joe Schweska. The idea came about with the help of Elizabeth, Chef Schweska’s wife, after he came home saying he was in need of a new lunch item for the Leland Hotel. The name “horseshoe” was derived from the shape of the cut of ham used in the original sandwich. The French fries represent the nails of the shoe, and the sizzle platter represents the hot anvil. It wasn’t until the 1939 Christmas Edition of the State Journal Register that Chef Schweska finally revealed the secret recipe.
It was a gorgeous day to sit by a lake and see conifers and wild turkeys. After a farewell drive around, it was time to leave, alas.
On the way to a casual day at some of the Palos Preserves, J and I inadvertently stumbled into a vintage car event. I missed rolling my window all the way down, but you get the idea, at least from the passenger side.
It’s beginning to look like fall in the Forest Preserves of Cook County.
Brood XIII is on the merge of emerging. Although I don’t expect to see them in my Chicago neighborhood, I’m ready with cicada postcards and a new “Love is in the Air” cicada t-shirt from Christopher Arndt. Then a co-worker alerted me to this video from the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County explaining the life cycle of the 17-year cicada. Enjoy.
More January sea smoke on Lake Michigan. See this article by Catherine Schmitt for the science behind sea smoke.