Chicago Botanical Gardens

 

Yesterday I had a leisurely morning, then I went to the all-women pagode practice. It was so much fun, and I had everyone laughing, which is good because when it comes to drumming, I'm definitely the weak link. Most of the women are a lot younger than I am, but one was close to my age, and we kind of hit it off. Then I drove right from there to Tiffy's house in Racine, and we went to Sooshi Bay in Kenosha, the restaurant with the conveyer belt bringing sushi around to your table. We just love that place! For dessert I had a lychee yogurt crepe cake that was so so good. Then we went back to Tiffy's place and hung out on her balcony talking until quite late.

This morning I got up and drove to the nearby church for Mass, and when I got there, I heard a train - God telling me I'm on the right track again? Then Tiffy and I had pretzel bagels and coffee before heading to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. We stopped for lunch at Sooshi Bay again, and the same guy was working there, so he said, "Welcome back!" Here are a couple of photos from Sooshi Bay.

Tiffy gets free admission and parking through her job, and she can get one guest in free, so I didn't have to pay either. At first there was rain and lightning, so we checked out the indoor greenhouses. Here are some photos from our favorite, the Desert Greenhouse.

When the weather cleared up, we went out into the gardens and walked for miles exploring them. This is a decorative awning reflected in a pool.

This is a bonsai plum tree.

These are three shots of an island nobody (but workers) could go to, in the Japanese garden. I couldn't decide which shot I liked best, so enjoy all three. This symbolizes Heaven, because no mortal can set foot there, we can only gaze at it from a distance.

This is an art installation that symbolizes the ephemeral quality of life because it looks like bubbles.

Here we are reflected in the art.

Here is another part of the art installation having an off day.

This little butterfly contrasted so nicely with the flower it was sitting on.

The flowers in the Sensory Garden were so colorful.

There were many colorful lotuses and water lilies in the water gardens.

This great blue heron landed on an arbor vitae and posed so nicely for us.

On the way back to Tiffy's place, we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner where they have deep-fried flat noodles. Oh man, was that delicious! Then I drove home.

I did do DuoLingo this weekend.

And this morning while I was out of town, a train came through our neighborhood. Here are some screenshots from the video that one guy always makes of our neighborhood train.

I have so much more train graffiti to post! Stay tuned!

Famous Hat

August Choro Session

 

Today I worked from home, and I couldn't even walk in the usual shady patch at lunch because some construction workers were having a picnic there, so I had to go find a smaller patch of shade. In the evening I went to choro, and it was so much fun tonight because we had three mandolins (or four, when the leader saw we were struggling and put down his guitar to pick up his mandolin and play melody), plus a couple of drummers, another guitar, the club owner on cello, and her employee on bass, and a guy playing piano and flute (not at the same time). It sounded great with so many of us! At eight they said, "One more song," but I had to go because I was leading Night Prayer... and then I got home with plenty of time to spare, so maybe I could have stayed for one more song.

On the social media page for Wisconsin and Southern, I saw someone had posted a video with some colorful graffiti, but he had filmed it at a weird angle so it didn't seem worth making screenshots. Then I saw the guy who makes videos of our neighborhood train had posted one... and it was the same train! His videos always provide very clear screenshots, so here you go:

And here are some more screenshots from Travalon's compilation video:

The infamous Kelsey Visconti makes another appearance:

This is a different train:

And here are some photos he took with his phone today in Mazomanie.

Here's the one I saw on campus right after giving blood!

There are a lot more from his compilation video, but this post is already long enough, so tune in tomorrow for more.

Famous Hat