Illinois

It’s amazing how time can slip through our fingers. In my mind it felt as if we’ve visited Garfield Park Conservatory many times over the years, but then looking back through the history of my photos, I see the last time was in February 2010! How can that be? Part of that may be due to the terrible damage the conservatory suffered in June 2011 when large hail broke many of the glass panels in their roof.

In any case, in the past we typically visited in the colder months when there wasn’t much to photograph outdoors. This time, however, I decided a warm-weather trip would be worthwhile so we could check out the conservatory’s outdoor gardens which are even more beautiful and interesting than I remember! From the flowers, to the sitting areas, to the vegetable garden, the best place in the conservatory is outdoors.

View the entire set of 54 photos here.

Previous Visits
» Feb 2010
» May 2005
» Jan 2005

One of the creepier sites I’ve been to, Bachelor’s Grove is located in/near Midlothian, IL. During our one and only visit to the site, in October 2001, we ran into a lot of “ghost hunters” even in broad daylight. Apparently the site gets a lot of traffic close to Halloween for the obvious reasons. I would never visit at night, no way, as I’d get scared too easily.

» Bachelors Grove photoset

Acorn Express Tour

We visited Morton Arboretum this past weekend since we’re members. I even caught a pic of a hawk in flight, albeit a crappy one as it took off when I was trying to get it sitting on a post.

Hawk in flight

The true reason for our trip, in addition to just wanting to see the trees before all the leaves fell off, and the scarecrows they always put up around the lake, is that I wanted to check out their Glass Pumpkin Patch which was really cool. We didn’t purchase any pumpkins but really enjoyed looking at them.

Glass Pumpkin

Glass Pumpkin

Glass Pumpkin

» Morton Arboretum