Spring flower show at Garfield Park Conservancy with Karyn. As usual, it's overwhelming visually and being enjoyed by many. We picked a good weekend to come, a lot going on in terms of flowering and budding.
Redbuds popping the last few days. Merlin picked up white-breasted nuthatch, ruby-crowned kinglet, swamp sparrow, blue jay, yellow-rumped warbler, cowbird, red-bellied woodpecker, cardinal, Canada geese, red-winged blackbird, house sparrow, northern flicker, robin. I added starling and mourning dove
Organist Dennis Scott is one reason I get to the Music Box early. But even The Legend had trouble coming up with something to lead into "The Stranger." He finally asked for suggestions from the audience. It's a pretty heavy movie to put it lightly.
Three strides past, it hit me: "Yo, a-hole, those are morels." They were, my first of the year. But they were in a suburban right-of-way, one I didn't know if they covered with the poisons of herbicides, insecticides and pesticides. I didn't pick them, moved on, still pleased to have spotted them.
Another sign of spring, the big bees, I think they are usually the queens, are out and about. I spotted this one and it sat for me as I waited to go out to lunch with a friend. It was in my wife's pansies that she just planted a couple days ago.
Few things make me feel both sanctimonious and self-righteous as the first time breaking out the push reel mower for the year. Another year begins again.
Chorus frogs and peepers made quite a fuss this morning at the Homewood Izaak Walton Preserve. My first mosquito bite came this morning. My first tick on me was last week. Some trails remain flooded and I suspect will be for a quite a while. I think we can say that this was the week spring arrived.
Three deer, ones that occasionally run through our yard, gave Lady and myself the hard stare on our morning ramble at Homewood Izaak Walton Preserve. Lots of spring signs and birds. Second morning, I had a rusty blackbird. Not surprising considering they like wet habitats. FOY killdeer, too.
sticker seems fitting for those bastareds
Right way to start the baseball season. Extra inning and a come-from-behind win by the Sox.
Pondering Environmental Education Association of Illinois gathering at Pere Marquette. One highlight was SIU's Steve Gariepy on "Surfing the Cosmic Gnar," from Buckminster Fuller's teachings. Here's Gariepy playing ukulele by photos of bald eagles & a sturgeon mount. Rooted in the '60s but apt now.
Wild goose hearts and .mushrooms in red-wine reduction sauce over wide egg noodles with parsley. Broccoli spears on the side for color and to counter balance the main dish's richness. When I goose hunt, I save up the hearts from any other hunters not using them, then cook them in winter weather.
I'm over in Union Pier in Michigan and we've had sandhill cranes going over all day.
Had my first Malört this afternoon. Here we are posing with Sam Flynn, she of "Sammy's Special" (shot of Malört and a chaser of a pony of Miller High Life) fame at the Tom Cat Tavern in Three Oaks, Michigan. Surprisingly Malört was not as horrible as I expected it to be.
Staring into the abyss of post-time change and seeing a partial moon through the trees while listening to 'XRT's "Chicago Day" with Muddy Waters doing "Mannish Boy," I wonder what life would have been if I could've fulfilled my dream of being Johnny Winters hollering behind Waters on the song.
Getting ready to grill after 70-degree day, I noticed my spinach plants started to pop today.
Another one of my happy places, at a weather training with dozens of other weather nuts. I always pick up a few new nuggets of information and also I'm reassured that there are people even crazier about the weather than I am.
I was early for a Fire game, so I stopped at the Art Institute to see the Norman Rockwell. I'm not sure what to make of it being directly across from American Gothic. I think the curator was having a little fun.
So nice this morning I took time from writing the book and I hit a shed-antler spot. The first bleached thing that caught my eye was only old bones, not deer bones. But it was a good morning. Beside jumping three deer, no antlers, I spotted an American red squirrel (pine squirrel) scurrying about.
Apparently we need to get out more. First time I've seen a robot taking food out at a restaurant. My wife and I were at a delayed Valentine's Day dinner last night at Homewood Brewing Co. I about fell over when a robot came out with somebody else's dinner.
In my happy place, a small bait shop. In this case, it's Rigg's Outpost in Melbourne, Florida. Should be trying for snook, instead I think I'll play with some panfish later this afternoon. Another time, I'll chase snook when I come to visit our oldest son and granddaughter.
You could say I got a little exuberant with the temperatures in the mid-40s. I planted three pots of spinach, a couple days earlier than I usually do in memory of Grandma Bowman. But it was so nice this afternoon it just seemed right. Hey, it's been a long damn winter.
Visiting brother Bo in San Antonio. Yesterday did the hill country, Pedernales Falls SP. Very different natural world. Saw varieties of prickly pear, yucca (Spanish dagger above), Texas live oak, mesquite, and Texas persimmon. Birds: Bewick's wren, Carolina chickade, Woodhouse scrub-jay, ravens.
Excellent ending to a serious all-day conference on restoration & conservation, Wild Things 2026, first time Downstate in O'Fallon. Biologist Tony Gerard ended the day with a half comedic/half serious examination on the worldwide phenomenon of Bigfoot. Something to mull on my 4 1/2-hour drive home.
Joel Greenberg, Tom Schrader & I tried to spot a golden eagle today. Even without,we had a great time. Here's 2 of the 300 bald eagles we saw in NW Illinois; 250, came at Lock & Dam 13 on the Mississippi. Along the way, we saw a rough-legged hawk & a coyote walking the frozen Mississippi.
Sun-Times Metro editor and I eat lunch around the city every couple months. Today was Peach's, corner of 47th and MLK. I had catfish fillets, like freaking butter so soft and perfectly cooked, greens and cheesy grits. Saji went shrimp and cheesy grits. We shared duck bacon. That's right duck bacon.
Love the new marketing that TightRope finished just in time for the Chicagoland Fishing Expo in Schaumburg. Try to find the Play Pen in the collage. It feels different to be here not to write, but just to wander around, buy a few things and talk to a ton of people.
We need more whimsy like this in our museums (and lives). We're at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
In Baltimore on the first leg of our long Edgar Allan Poe weekend. On a tour at the graveyard of Poe's final resting spot, after several moves. He gives special meaning to it's complicated.
Finally made it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the first time. Good Lord, we should have allotted a lot more time. You literally could spend the whole day here. I'm determined to find the Warren Zevon exhibit before we go.