Foraging

I arrived in Helsinki on Saturday and planned to meet with my friend Natasha on Sunday. Just a day before my arrival she asked me whether I would be interested in a mushroom-picking. to which I replied with an enthusiastic “yes” – it was my first opportunity in thirty years!

The kind of mushrooms we were going to forage presented a little challenge, because they were trumpet chanterelles, which I never picked in my life, and you need a eye for each mushroom specie to be an efficient forager, but eventually I figured it out.

I saw a surprising number of butter mushrooms around (they should have been gone by that time of the year), but since those were the maushrooms I used to go for as a child, I could spot them right away. Unfortunately, all except for one I picked were too old and I ended up throwing them away after they got home, but we cooked what was left :).

There were also some russulas, some too old, but some still healthy and perfectly eatable, and some other mushrooms I was unsure about, possibly white and black milk-caps, but since I was not sure, we prefereed not to experiment. And there were lingonberries – all over the place! I already bought a box in a grocery store, but the ones staight from the stems – they were bigger and sweeter than the ones from the store, and I couldn’t stop munching on them!

Over two hours in the forest. Almost severn pounds of trumpet chanterelles. Breath-taking views. Slightly wet feet. Priceless :).

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Mindfulness In Nature

I just realized I haven’t posted in several days. These days were packed with events, and I wrote at least ten blog posts in my mind :), so now I will try to bring them to life.

On Saturday, I participated in the outdoor meditation session “Mindfulness in Nature.” I’ve done it several times before, and I enjoy this activity. When I was going down the stairs on the way to our meeting place, I saw the most beautiful spider web with a perfect spider in the center:

It was an absolutely perfect autumn day, but it was also surprisingly “not yet an autumn day,” not only because it was warm, but also because all the trees were still green, and it didn’t smell like fall at all. On the way there, I thought that the best things in my life happened in fall, and that I always anticipated good things happening during this season. At the beginning of the session, when we were asked about our word for nature, I said: the gift.

We typically go on the same nature walk at each session, and I was surprised by how much our small nature area didn’t look like fall this time. All late summer flowers were still blooming, and there were tons of bees everywhere! It didn’t look like the world was ready to hybernate!

As always, I am sad that I am leaving an a couple of days and will miss the rest of it!

Milky Way

I saw it on Monday!!! I’ve seen it only a handful of times in my life, and Monday was one of them! I got out on the balcony around 5 AM to water the flowers (otherwise I forget to do it before the day’s heat), and I noticed the stars were very bright, the sky was clear, and I could see way more constellations than usual. And then I thought: how come I see this strange white cloud? Then I realized the “cloud” formed a circle, and it wasn’t a cloud!

The pictures make the sky look dark blue and make the Milky Way look like a cloud, which was not the case. It was almost black, and the Milky Way looked magical.

A Very Eventful Day And Bats Monitoring

Yesterday was one of the record days in terms of the number of times the weather changed, and how much it took to an extreme. I had a nice early morning bike ride before work, then, it was a tornado warning during the day. Fortunately, it didn’t touch Rogers Park, but in the office, we were instructed to shelter in place, and it continued for 45 minutes. The rain was pouring, and it was very windy, and it was hard to believe it will get better any time soon.

Then, suddenly, things started to clear up, and by 4 PM, there were no traces of it. I was hoping I could go to the beach right after I get home, but for some reason, the beach alert ws not removed. The red flag was up, and a lifeguard was marching around the pier. I was extremely disappointed, but decided to repeat the attempt at 7 PM. The problem was that I also wanted to attend the Bat Monitoring event, which was scheduled for 7:30, so I had very little time. Still, I decided that something is better than mothing, and I didn’t regret it! Just half on hour was plenty to be thankful to the lake and the happy fact that I live so close to it!

The Bat Monitoring was another super-interesting thing. The presentation took place at the Loyola fieldhouse. Liza Lehrer, Assistant Director of the Urban Wildlife Institute at Lincoln Park Zoo, gave an overview of the Urban Wildlife Institute’s bat research program and its key findings. I learned a lot! For start, I didn’t know we have bats right here, in Chicago! I didn’t know that they migrate, like birds, and that some of them hybernate in winter! And I didn’t know they are closer to humans than rodents.

The most exiting part was a live demo! It turned out, that there is a special equipment one can use to detect and record the bats that are flying around us! Also, there is a program which can autoamtically decode the sounds and identify the species, and also record the place were recording was made. The Lincoln Park Zoo people had two of these sets, and we had an opportunity to see them in action! It was surreal – I never ever thought that there are bats, and so many, right there, by the beach, where I walk almost every day.

If it wouldn’t be so late, I would stay longer!

Fort Sheridan And One More Thunderstorm

Since the time I first learned about Fort Sheriday Forest preserve, I try to visit it a couple times a year, and at least once in summer. I didn’t have a chance to go there this summer yet, and I wanted to make sure I sivit it before summer ends. Even in July, I knew I will have very few options, and this Sunday was “one before last one.’ Usually, I listed to my gut feeling very careflly, gaging whether I should or should not do something, but this time, I was not sure. I felt like I am trying to squizz in too many things, and the weather was not ideal, but then I thought that if I would give in and not go, I will regret it, so I decided to go even though I knew it will be a very short visit,

The prairie exceeded my expectations :). Because of so many rains we had this summer, it was in bloom like I never saw it! I walked on the trail with a smile on my face, and was quitely saying hello to all my wild friends.

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Traveling

A very short trip to Helsinki. Left lots of loose ends in Chicago, in the office, and otherwise, and trying to take care of at least some of them remotely.

My flight was on Friday evening, and I decided to take the L to the airport, thinking that at least the travel time would be predictable and I could do some work on the train. Didn’t exactly work as planned, since I had a medium-sized luggage which was rolling around all the time, and I had to hold it, and a Blue Line train moved as if it was a race car, but I made it to ORD, and even had a relaxing hour in the LOT lounge (that’s where Finnair is sending their eligible members these days).

It was nice to see the welcoming screen 🙂

I have been in Finland for three days, and I did a lot of biking, met with friends, attended an organ concert, and worked from my favorite coworking space. Some clothes shopping. A lot of time with Boris. Sleeping for 7 hours a night (I will be back to six tonight, most likely, but the first two days are like that).

When we biked to Natasha’s place on Saturday evening, we passed multiple green areas with lots of wild flowers everywhere. All the flowers were the ones I saw in the countryside when I was a child, everywhere I ever spent my summers. If there is anything from my childhood I am nostalgic about, it is nature in the places where it was almost untouched by civilization: meadows, strawberry patches, wild blueberries, and lingonberries; high pines, ferns, and horsetails. And this soft light-green grass, which is surprisingly different from the prairie grass, and I never thought about it until the first time I came back from the prairies to the European North. And that might be the main reason I would always want to come back to Finland 🙂

New CAC Exhibit: Flyway City

Wednesday was the opening day of this exhibit, and I had a member preview ticket. I figured the exhibit wouldn’t be that large, and I could probably go there around my lunchtime. That worked well!

The exhibit was very informative. I was shocked to learn how many birds die every year during migration because the collide with the building glass! The exhibit provides valuable suggestions on what each homeowner can do to make it safer to igratory birds – I will definitely try not to leave the lights on when it’s not necessary!

And a literal “cherry on top” – Fannie May now serves gelato with all their signature creations!

Mindfulness In Nature: Spring

On Saturday, I attended a meditation session organized by the Nature volunteers group. I attended a similar session last year, and I liked the experience and the instructor. As last time, we gathered by the Leone Beach clubhouse, observed the lake, and recalled our previous interactions with nature. We shared our stories, and then we walked in the Nature Area, paying attention to the signs of awakening nature, and then gathered together again to share our thoughts and observations.

With the weather being like it was for the previous month, I was surprised to see that many flowers were blooming! In early spring, I always notice new bright green coming out of the dry brown patches of the previous season grass. Life goes on :).

Signs Of Spring

I saw people at all the beaches last Sunday while my mom and I were in an Uber on our way to the CSO concert. Not only were each beach we passed filled with people, but I swear that each piece of concrete which was close enough to the lake had at least one person sitting on it :).

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to go to the beach on Sunday, but on Monday, when I was walking from my mom’s house to my house, I stopped at Loyola Leone beach and touched the water for the first time this season 🙂

Everything is on bloom along the Lakefront Trial

Peach blossoms delivered with my CSA box

Also, today was Earth Day. Last year, the weather on this day was very gloomy and wet, and also, it was too close to the conference, so I ended up not doing any community cleanup. This year, I saw a workday at the Leone Beach Nature Area. Sensing that it might be one of the very few opportunities for me to do something nature-related, I signed up.

We put new mulch over the pedestrian paths. I didn’t have time to take a picture while we were working, but I took one when I walked to my mom’s house later today.

The Lake In Winter

There have been a couple of sunny days since I came back, and although I am mostly working all day long, I had a couple of opportunities to walk on the winter beach and say hello to the Lake!