Day 216

Somehow, even though I've taken the commuter train in from Dune Park before, I never quite connected that to the fact that it's a park on the shores of Lake Michigan. Late Saturday afternoon, Cindy and I headed to the park. Unfortunately, I'm used to the sun setting between 5:30 and 6--in her time zone, it goes down an hour earlier. So instead of having an hour or two to play around and take winter beach pictures, we got there right at sunset.



I suppose I wasn't all that disappointed. It was quite beautiful. And look how the setting sun lights up the scene.




Shooting into the sun was really spectacular as well. Even the smokestacks down the shoreline took on a dramatic persona.



I hope you can see the dogs in this shot. Luna the weimeraner is on the left. She was the one who saw me from afar and raaaced down to say hi, completely ignoring the shouts of her people to stop and come back. Charlie the cocker spaniel is the blur on the right. He'd been swimming and was wet and coated in sand. Much more polite was Charlie. He greeted me happily when they all drew alongside. He wagged his tail and licked my hand and leaned up against me with great friendliness as his humans told me what a cranky dog he was. "Not a fan of people, our Charlie," they said, as he panted cheerily up at me.

I love dogs.

Day 215

Jody put me in charge of dressing the table.



I love doing things like this! I made flame for the candle-holders, created place cards, laid out chargers, and gave purpose to an overgrown plant.




I'm also a fan of symmetry, as you can probably tell.



I love this shot because it shows what we really did all day long--pictures, pictures, pictures. And she let me use her camera! Alas, I forgot to get copies of the shots I got from her lens. I'll post some of the better ones when I do.

Day 214

On Thursday, a whole lot of cooking went on.



Our pumpkin pie (a joint effort) had the most delicious, flaky, buttery crust -- a complete win for Jody (who arranges it here).



She took care of the crust and I dealt with the filling. A little less ginger than called for and more cinnamon than the recipe said--and it was a great success indeed. Truly mouthwatering, our pie. And I have not a single picture of it on my camera. That's how quickly we ate it.

Day 213

Happy Thanksgiving! (At least, the day this represents was Thanksgiving.) The above is how I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year, courtesy of EarthCam. It was very much slower watching it in real time instead of with the cuts and performances of the official NBC production, but fun, nonetheless.

Last night (Wednesday), I was whisked away to Indiana by Cindy and deposited at this train station to take the South Shore commuter in to Chicago to visit Jody.




The station was very cute, but my favorite part was the "Train coming" sign. It works!

I imagined women dressed in their travel finery, stylish hats perched on their heads, Grace Kelly bags over their gloved hands, waiting to head into the city for a little shopping when the sign would light up.



Ah, the South Shore Line in its heyday.

Day 212

Every Wednesday morning, I sit in this conference room and I stare out the windows. I'm so thankful for glass walls and tree views. (Sometimes other people lower the black shades and I get neither sun nor view. But on this morning, no one else was around and I didn't even have to turn the light on!)



I'm often distracted by squirrels or trucks going by behind me or customers entering the bookstore across the lobby. But most often, I'm distracted by the sight of this tree.



Believe me when I tell you that the picture above captured the angle, but not the experience. Somehow from where I sit, the morning light hits the leaves just right to make them glow in gorgeous jewel tones of perfect green against the blue sky. In the fall, the leaves transform into an incredible mix of gold and blush that look every bit as inevitable and perfect against the rich blue background.

This is closer to how I see it.



It's both invigorating and restful to be able to turn my head and see this view.



Yellow! Rose! Green! It's sheer decadence.

Day 211

It was foggy this morning. Not so fun to drive in, but oh! what it does to the trees!

Urban trees seem to belong to themselves in a way that they can't quite when they're hemmed in by buildings. On foggy mornings, the trappings of civilization recede.



I wish I'd gotten a picture of the tree I drove past that was glowing with all the orange-gold leaves on its fingertips like lanterns on the prow of a boat coming into harbor. It was glorious--and I was driving.

Day 210

I went to the Farmer's Market on Saturday. There, I rediscovered how warm and rich the scent of pine is. Great swathes of it were twined in wreaths and garlands and laid loose over several tables, ready to be made into whatever you like. I remembered how charming I find branches of winter berries, so red it seems impossible. There were pears and apples and brussel sprouts by the bushel and basket.

And not only did I not buy a single thing, I completely forgot to take my camera.

I debated about getting it and going back through, but decided against it. And then I saw a father and daughter walking toward the stalls. I thought, "I'd love to take their portrait!" but I'm afraid I'm just not brave enough to burst out of my car and ask someone if I can take their picture. Which is when they stopped for dad to chat with an older woman he clearly knew. And the little girl waited impatiently to get moving again. So I went creepy stalker and took her picture through the windshield. Yeah, I'm awesome.

She had beautiful dusky skin and thick blonde hair and that fantastic sense of style that only children and a few very secure adults seem to have--the "if it makes me happy, I'll wear it" kind of confidence. Leopard print and stripes? Why, of course!