Tag: nature

Finding Nature

On Saturday, I did what I had planned to do for a very long time: I took Metra to Chicago Botanic Garden. I love the Botanic Garden, and I often went there when I lived in Palatine, but taking public transport there appeared to be not as easy as I initially thought.
There is a bus from Howard, but it takes a relatively long time and does not run on Sundays. And in any case, I feel extremely dizzy when I ride on a bus for a long time. As for Metra, I knew that I would need to walk fon the station to the Botanic Garden, and I could not decide whether I should take a bike with me or walk, and ended up not going at all.
Finally, I decided to choose a day when I would go, and that day was July 1.
I took a train from Ogilvie after my escorting shift; it was drizzling most of the day, but didn’t pore, so I kept walking.
The most exciting part, however, was that I found the Forest Preserve! While it takes more than twenty minutes to get to the garden entrance, the Forest Preserve is right there, you get off the train, and here you are!

The pleasure of walking the trail in the woods was even more than seeing the familiar sites of the Botanic Garden (although the Garden was great!)

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Lilacs

Lilacs in bloom have always been a sign of summer for me, especially summer in Estonia. There were lilacs along all the streets of Narva-Joessu, and the month of June was all about them.

Yes, there are lilacs in ROgers park, and all my bike rides in May smelled lilacs, but it turned out that I completely forgot what lilacs in full bloom smell like! They are not “shrubs” – they are trees! Forest of lilacs! And the smell os overwhelming!

The flowers were so close to my face that I could not resist the childhood memories and started to look for “piatery” -“the lucky fives.” And guess what – I saw one right away!

And then I did what you’re supposed to do with the lucky five – I made a wish and chewed a tiny flower. And I hope that this wish will come true!

More lilacs – you can’t even see the leaves behind the bloom!

Nature In The City Center

Another lost and forgotten post. On Memorial Day, when all the wedding-related festivities were over, Boris and I went to the Art Institute – I wanted to show him both Dali and Van Gogh exhibits, and after that, we went to the Luiri Garden. It is not even close to the prairie, which I miss dearly but still stunningly beautiful.

Glendalough National Park

On Saturday, my friends took me to two places outside Dublin. The first place we visited was Glendalough National Park. First of all, it’s an exceptionally beautiful park, the nature is amazing, there are hills, lakes, waterfalls, and old trees. Most important, however, is that it is the oldest monastic site, founded in the 6th century!

The trees covered with moss
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Fall Colors

Flood Damage

The next day after I left for Europe, Chicago was hit by a heavy storm, and four inches of water dropped over the Northern part of the city, including Rogers Park. Both garden units in our building, the storage rooms and the gym, were flooded.
Somehow, I was not included in the original email chain and learned it all postfactum.
The damage is massive, and I have no idea when everything will be repaired:

In Milwaukee

I didn’t miss the train and spent a day with my girls in Milwaukee. We went to the forest where Nadia had her Forest Camp and spent more than two hours walking around while Nadia showed us all the places where they’ve been. I was very happy to be in the forest – I do not have anything like this close to me anymore, and also it was a joy to listen to Nadia talking about her summer experience and to observe how she interacts with Kira.

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Deer Grove!

I took a day off today to do several things in Palatine. The only thing I was not able to schedule was a meeting with my old neighbor – out schedules didn’t match. All the rest went great. As previously, I took UP-N Metra to Clyborn, and switched to NP-NW to go to Palatine. One of my Palatine friends picked me up, and we went for a walk at Deer Grove. Everything looks like the-end-of-summer, but I was really happy to walk the same path I used to walk and to see the prairie. Then we sat and chatted in her house, and she took me to my last implant check (finally done with that!). From there, I walked to my hair stylist appointment, and from there, my other friend picked me up and we had a long late lunch and talked about a million things.

It was so good to be together with the people I love and miss, and it was great to reunite with the prairie, if even for a short time!

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Friday Off

I had to work for the past two “Wellness Fridays” for half-day, and today, I took a Friday off to compensate for these two halves. It was the only day off I took during Boris’ visit, and we had plans.

The first and the most important thing we did – we went kayaking! There are many kayaking opportunities in Chicago, and I knew that Boris wanted to try it. However, I was more than scared to try, and the reason I finally gave in was the offer from the Shedd Aquarium: they run “Kayaking for conservation” tours, where they show the conservation and restoration efforts on the Chicago RIver. I chose a tour “for people with no experience” and signed us up.

Boris really enjoyed it. As for me, I am happy that I overcame my fears, although it was not easy. Perhaps if I would practice more, I would start to enjoy it. Today it was mostly “I made it!”

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Chicago Adventures With Lena

Yesterday, my friend Lena from Ann Arbor came to visit me for the weekend, and today was a blast! Not even mentioning how much I enjoy Lena’s company, what a fun person she is, but we did tons of cool things together.

We started the day with the Millennium Art Fair on Michigan Avenue, where I bought two rings with flowers inside, and Lena bought a pair of earrings with butterfly wings (they explained to us that they collect the wings from dead butterflies).

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