Thanksgiving Weekend - The Mulitpart Saga - Part I - Long Grove

Thanksgiving Break has come and almost gone.  It was a nice time that included my mother and father coming up from the St. Louis region to stay with us.  A fun time was had by all, and we were able to go and do a couple of things I have not done before.

Going to Long Grove is one of those things I had not done before, but turned out to be a very nice thing.  My wife and I went with my mom and dad on Friday to historical Long Grove.  This is a little crossroads of the town that has a nice little shopping area set in historical houses.  It is more of  a boutique type of thing that has several little specialty stores.  On a day I know the malls were full and lots of shopping was being done in a hurried manner, this was much more my speed.  We meandered for a couple of hours through the different shops.  Here are some of them...and my impressions:

The Artistic Gardner - This was the first shop we went to...and quite possibly my favorite of all the ones we saw.  There is a lot of lawn art made of reclaimed metal.  All of it is very well done.  There were a few pieces I liked...but will have to go back when I have saved up some money.  They do sell jewelry, some furniture, and various other things.  We actually ended up buying some very cool placemats there.  (Never thought I would string the words "very cool" and "placemats" together....)  I'm sure the Nature Nerd and Chicago Gardner have already been there...but if they have not - it is a place they should check out.

Paddy's on the Square - This was an Irish-themed shop that I loved, as well.  While there were many nice tweed and wool articles of clothing being sold, the thing I liked the most was the artwork by Wild Goose Studios.  Some were simple sayings, some were intricate Celtic crosses and knots, and some were replicas of different historical carvings.  All were very well done...and there were a lot I could have bought.  There were also some illuminated page artwork pieces being sold there.  The historian in me really liked those.

While those were the two main stores that stick out in my mind, there were several others I liked.  There was the Dakota Designs which sold moccasins and Native American artwork.  There were some nice pieces there (and my wife ended up getting some Minnitaka moccasin slippers there).  There was also a yarn store there.  If you wanted a certain type of yarn...I'm sure they had it.  They even had some alpaca yarn.  It was so soft that it inspired my wife to start to learn how to knit...that way we can go back and get some for her to use.

The one store that was a disappointment to me was the "British Import" store.  Having some Christmas crackers, some Marmamite, and black currant soda does not make you a British Import store...or if it does, not a very good one.

We were going to go to the Mill Pond Cafe...but the wait was a bit too long.  That gives us something to look forward to visiting next time we go.

Final Step

Mailed off the short, short story today.  Final word count: 1,143.  Don't hear anything about it until around February 15th...and that is only if it is in the top 25.  Already working on another story for the next contest.  This time, however, I can use up to 4,000 words.

What's in a name?

My wife and I were driving through Cook County and I started to see some of the names for the different nature preserves in the area.  They were really interesting...and got me to wondering how people come up with the names for different things like this.  Is it quite the literal translation that creates the name?  Were they just being creative?

It reminded me of when I was living in Medmenham, England.  This was a small place just outside another small village named Marlow.  (It was down the Thames...pretty close to Henley on the Thames...where the royal regatta was held and George Harrison lived).  One of the street names always struck me as funny - Spittle Street.  I'd joke with my friends and family about this.  Where people trying to figure out to name it...and then someone spat and the guy said, "I know..Spittle Street!"

These names struck me as similar:

Belly Deep Slough - Is the slough really only so deep that if I waded into it, it would come up to my belly?
Hidden Lake -  Not so hidden now...is it?

I am sure others were more literal:


Little Red School House Nature Center - I assume there is a little red school house they made into a nature center here... (I'm sure the Nature Nerd would be able to tell me if this is true)
Moraine Valley - I assume the valley is a moraine...
White Oak Forest Preserve - umm...there were a lot of oaks there...my guess would be they were white oaks.

We did have a good time walking through one of the woods down there.  Surprisingly, I never got the name of the one we actually walked through.  We did a nice hour hike that took us down through a ravine and a long a lot of switchbacks.  The forest down there is different than up by us.  Not a lot of undergrowth...but definitely a lot of fallen leaves.  It did seem to be a lot of oak trees.

Sonic Landscape

Heard the howl of coyotes tonight...eerily beautiful...

...especially when all the other sounds I heard on my walk were cars, sirens, and the like.  Makes you wonder what the sonic landscape was like back when there were no cars or noisy machinery.

In Denial...

...well, not really any more.  I was enjoying the unseasonably warmer weather, but the cold has hit with a vengeance.  I guess this would be as good a time as any to go ahead and post some of the fall pictures I have taken as my wife and I have been taking the dogs for walks in our different forest preserves.

The pictures below are taken from Grant Forest Preserve over in the Fox Lake area.  It is a nice forest preserve that is divided by a subdivision into two parts.  We walked the larger southern loop this day (it was bout 3.6 miles) and there were a few fallish type things I found along the way to take a picture of.  I do have one interesting tid-bit, however.  We were originally going to go for a walk through the Chain 'O Lakes State Park.  We were pulling into the entrance when we were met with a sign stating the park was closed for hunting.  Now I'm glad they have signs letting you know that...but I really with there had been some other way to find out before we made our way all the way there.  The funny thing is was that it was closed for young hunters and those without licenses (or something like that).  Needless to say, we turned around quickly.

Anyway, here are a couple of the pictures I took:

This is a close up of a milkweed that has "popped."  Most of the seeds have flown, but I thought it has some interesting shapes in it.

It amazes me the different places you can find bird nests.  This was right among all the grasses and, obviously, not that big.

I think golden rod is pretty cool looking when it has gone to see, as well.  I like all the little white puff balls.

This is some grass that was there.  I liked the shape of it and the chunkiness of the seeds.  You can see the feet of my dogs and my wife at the upper left-hand corner. :)

I love trees with interesting shapes.  I thought this one had a cool shape, but it also had a lot of saplings around it.

This is just some nice fall browns.

I am amazed by how fast this year seems to be going.  Pretty soon I will probably be doing some winter picture posts...but until then, I will enjoy the rich browns of autumn.

Finished

I finally finished the short, short story that I am going to send in to the contest last night.  All I have to do now is fill out the entry form, peel a stamp, and send it off.  Ended up being around 1,200 words.  I think it would be great if it got published...I'm not thinking it will get any prizes.  Who knows?  I'll let everyone know if anything happened later.  (Then I might float the story, as well...we'll see :) )

Putting Theory Into Practice

The last couple of weekends have had my wife and I seeing films like Food, Inc, and Fresh.  As anyone who has read my blog can tell, they have made a pretty big impact on me.  We already were moving toward getting much more organic food...but now are trying to do that combined with getting more local fare.

We went to the local farmer's market, and found  a lot of good things...even during the winter session:

There was a lot of produce...and very cheap.  For around ten dollars, we were able to buy all of the produce I have in the  pictures below...plus mushrooms (which is really what drove it up to about ten).  It was not all organic, but it was all locally grown and fresh.

You cannot really tell in this picture...but the yams are quite big.

These two heads of lettuce were small...but they taste very good.

Yes, I do like brussel sprouts. These were very tasty.

We stopped by farmer Nick (recommended to us by the Chicago Gardner). He runs his farm much like Salatin does - with the mobile hen coops, pasture fed pigs and cows, and the like.  We paid probably close to double what we would for a whole chicken at the grocery store - but this chicken was easily twice as big.  We also bought a ham steak from him - which we are putting into a split pea soup.  To give you an idea of what a difference treating food the right way makes - my wife does not like pork that much.  With everything that has been going on, we haven't even had "ham" in a very long time.  She took one taste of this - and said that this was how ham was supposed to taste.  I have to agree. It was some of the best ham I have ever tasted.

Guess we'll be going back again. :)

The only problem I am seeing, is the farmer's market is only open until December 19th.  After that, we will have to go to the local grocery stores and see what we can get.  Next year..there will be more freezing and canning - I'm sure.

A Fresh Look

Last week, my wife and I rented and watched the film Food, Inc. and found it to be very eye-opening.  It made us look at how we buy food, take stock of what we are doing right, and look at what we could do better.  It also made us want to make sure we were switching to grass-fed beef and other meats - which we had started to do - and look for different ways to buy more locally grown food.  Luckily our friends the Chicago Gardner and the Nature Nerd are always there to help us out.

One thing both of them did was point us to the movie Fresh which is being viewed at different screenings over the nation. (In fact, we went to the screening with them, Five Crows and her husband, and another friend of ours.)  The screening happened to be very near to our place of work (one could say it was on the campus...even though technically it was not).  Just like Food, Inc., Fresh was a look into the industrialization of our food supply.  Fresh, however, spent a little more time focusing on the alternatives to this corporate mentality to raising livestock and growing food.  It also builds a very compelling argument that medium-sized local farms is the way to go when trying to "feed the world." As with Food, Inc., I want to give some impressions I had of the movie and some facts that were given.

• I found it interesting that they stated 3 new jobs would be created for every one that was lost if we started to deindustrialize our food supply.
• One acre of Polyface Farms (run by my new hero Joel Salatin) makes $3,000.  One acre of his neighbor's livestock ranch makes $150....hmmmmm....(and Saladin doesn't need to buy seed or anything)
• I loved Saladin's comments on being stewards of the land and embracing the rolls the animals perform in the wild.  Feed an herbivore grass...what a novel concept! ^*
• The specialization of farms is leading to more virulent diseases.  They are becoming more resistant to antibiotics and the like...yet the natural farmers do not have as many disease problems.
• I loved the Growing Power organization that is found north of me in Milwaukee, WI.  More people should know of such programs.
• There is a lot more hope felt in this film.  You see multiple people starting to try and turn against the industrialized food supply.
• I loved the fact they had local farmers and CSA opportunities at the screening.  Good job with that!
• The industrialized food supply system is non-sustainable...naturally....hence all the antibiotics, herbicides, and the like.
• I liked how they stated there is no such thing as cheap food.  You either pay for it up front with money, or through taxes and health problems.  I know some people would scoff at this last statement, but I have not eaten at what one would traditionally call a fast food restaurant since August.  In that time, I have lost almost 25 pounds...and the taste of the food is so much better.
  

I liked this film at least as much as Food, Inc..  I really liked the way it showed the alternatives and showed how they are working...right now.  My wife and I are going out to our local farmer's market tomorrow.  Hope you get a chance to go out to yours when it happens...you won't regret it.

^{* Please note the sarcasm in this statement...}

Superstitious?

It is a good thing I am not superstitious.  I had a couple of things would have sent me over the edge today if I was. :)

First, I was typing up my weekly newsletter to my students' parents last night when I noticed something interesting.  I'm in my 13th year of education, it is the 13th issue of the newsletter I am sending home this year, and I am sending it home on Friday the 13th.  That's right...a 13 - 13 - 13...

Second, on my way to school today, a huge turkey vulture flew up from the road about five feet in front of me.  Some people may think having a huge black bird fly up in front of you is not a good omen...I actually thought it was pretty cool.  I have only ever seen the "V" shape of the bird gliding in the sky, so this up close look (even though it was brief) was really nice.

I find it very interesting the hold Friday the 13th has on some people.  It is not as if Paraskevidekatriaphobia has been around since the dawn of man.  It is often stated that it comes from October 13th, 1307 when the Knights Templar were arrested in France.  Others say that it did not even come to be until the 20th century.

I always find these type of things interesting...especially when you find some cultures find the number 13 to be a lucky number.  Who knows?

Pictures Not Needed

Yesterday was a ponderous day for me.

While that really should mean it was a slow moving day, it wasn't.  It was a day that made me think hard and reflect on several diverse things.  I was glad I watched Food, Inc. because it meant I could have another day to process my thoughts before I wrote about my visit to the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

A few entries ago, a lamented the fact I did not bring a camera with me to take pictures of the animals I was able to see during a walk in the forest preserve by my house - that is not always the case.  There are some times in life one does not need a camera, because the images is something that is burned into your mind forever.  Anything to do with the holocaust is like that for me.

My wife is a teacher of the German language, so we visit the country often with her students.  On one of the trips, we went on a trip to Buchenwald.  There are two lasting impressions I had from that trip.  The first was the all-pervasive silence that hung over the place.  It was eerily silent - almost as if nature itself was in perpetual mourning for the atrocities that took place there. The second was the reaction of the students to the place.  For the most part, the students were able to last about 20 minutes before tehy felt the overwhelming need to go outside of the camp and sit - it was all too overwhelming.

I write about that experience to give a little context about what my experience has been with dealing with the subject of the Holocaust - so that when I let you know the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center is a moving experience, I do not say so lightly.

The main exhibit of the museum does a very thorough job of giving the history of Hitler's rise to power and how the Jewish people (and other minorities) were increasingly robbed of their civil rights.  The narrative continues through the enactment of Hitler's final solution, the Allied victory, liberation, and the forming of Israel.  There are several artifacts scattered throughout the exhibit, as well as video of survivor's memories of what was happening at different points in the history narrative.  I think this record of first-hand accounts is one of the most important things.

The exhibit ends with a film showing some of the atrocities that are taking place today.  It was a very important link to let people know that atrocities like this did not just happen in the past.  The docent made a very clear point during the course of the tour that there is no such thing as a by-stander.  True neutrality is something that cannot be obtained.  If you are neutral during such events-you are simply enabling the atrocities to continue.

Also with this tour, a survivor came in and talked to our group about her story.  It was very moving...she lost a whole lot during the course of her life, but she was so thankful to be in the United States now.  There are also several different galleries of art.  Some we were able to visit, others we did not have time to.

As something like this always does - it made me think.  It made me think about what we as Americans - or just citizens of Planet Earth - treat with indifference and allow to continue - when it should not.  Starvation in all places of the world, homelessness, genocide in places like Darfur, the fleecing of different families because they cannot afford health care...the list can go on and on.  If we continue to treat in with ambivalence, what will happen?

I will end my post with a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  He was a member of the German Resistance and a theologian.  In one of his writings he said:

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."

I think that is something we all need to remember.

Eye-Opening Movie

I really need to start this post by thanking both the Chicago Gardner and the Nature Nerd for cluing me in to this movie.  Having literally just finished watching it, I can say it has changed the way I am going to look at and shop for food from now on.

One thing my wife and I have had a lot of discussions about lately is America's disconnect from the land.  A lot of Americans do not know and do not care where their food comes from - as long as it is cheap and readily available.  It is this dispassionate attitude toward food that leads to the system that is laid before us in Food, Inc.  It is also this ambivalence that makes such a movie necessary.

The movie is an investigative look into where our food comes from and how industrialized it has become.  It looks into the way animals are raised and slaughtered for consumption.  It also does the same thing for key cash crops like corn and soy beans.  Along the way we run into corrupt politics, greedy corporate heads, victims of the industry, and a few heroes.

Here are some of my impressions from this movie:

• Joel Salatin, the head of Polyface farms, is now my hero.  He was so well spoken and made several astute comments on how the people and corporation that treat their animals like a number will end up treating people and other cultures the same way.  I think all we need to do is look at our world today to see how true this is.  He also has a wonderful way of embracing the natural tendencies of his animals to run his farm in a very efficient, yet healthy manner.
  
• If cows are made to eat grass...why do we feed them corn?
• I've always liked Stonyfield Yogurt...now I like them even more... 
• The big corporations in this film treat their employees like their product...not very well.
• I'd say what I am going to do with my meat purchases now...but I could be sued - evidently...isn't there an amendment about that?
• If we want to have a solution for food safety...it would be better to get someone outside the food industry to be the head of the FDA or USDA...
• When money and politics comes before the safety of a people...there is something patently wrong with that.  Oh wait...isn't that happening with the health bill now, too? (more of a rant on this later)
• Chipotle will be getting more of my business....
• So will the local Farmer's Market
• I'm glad the grocery stores in this area are starting to show where their produce comes from.
  

I know I have only given a little bit of a snap-shot of what this movie is about...but that is on purpose.  It is one of those few movies I would say everyone should go out and see.  In fact, even though I rented it from my local Blockbuster, soon it will take a place beside other documentaries such as 6 Degrees which have opened my eyes a little more and spurred me on to a little more change.

Rock Cut State Park

Two weekends ago, my wife and I went out to Rockford, Illinois to help my in-laws with some different things around their house.  I ended up creating a dry-well for one of their underground drainage pipes to drain into.  It was not as hard as I thought it would be, because after digging a hole about four feet deep, I hit sand.  That was a wonderful surprise considering the fact that if I was going to do the same thing in my yard, I would have hit clay at about two feet deep.  I also moved some gravel and added it to different places.

While I was doing that, my wife went to a local orchard there and came back with a good six bags of apples (which later turned into several quarts of very tasty apple sauce).  When both she and I were done with our different activities, we were able to go to Rock Cut State Park and observe how fall was hitting the state just about and hour and a half west of us.  (Interestingly enough, they are in a different zone than we are for growing plants).  There were a lot of cool things that I saw there...here are some of them:

This is a fungi of some sort we saw at the beginning of the walk.  Perhaps the Nature Nerd, Chicago Gardener, or someone else will know what type of fungi this is.  It reminds me of that egg-shaped building in London.

The Rockford area was definitely further along in the autumn season than where we live was.  There were a lot more leaves on the ground than in the forest preserve by our house.  That being said, there were several trees like this one.  The colors of certain trees (usually maples it seems) have been amazing this year. 

I loved the shape of this tree.

It was really a day to see different types of fungi.  I think this is another version of the one pictured above.  Maybe after it has started to open, but I could be wrong.










There were shelf fungi all over the place.

Finally, to find this was quite a surprise to me.  I didn't expect to see flowers and berries on a tree.  They were really beautiful.  If anyone knows what type of berries these are...

All in all, it was a nice walk.  We saw a few other things, such as a mass of what looked like milkweed bugs all over a rusted railing.  We also found a path that was supposed to be a bridge turned into a ford of sorts.  If I had had my boots, we would have gone across.  Maybe next time.  Rock Cut State Park has a lot more to explore.

Quick Update (or Do My Eyes Deceive Me?)

I have seen a couple of things nature-wise I did not think I would see here in Illinois over the last few days.  The first was a black squirrel.  Well...it wasn't really black - but more of a very, very dark gray.  I have seen black squirrels in Michigan - and this was very close.  Once again...no camera.

I also saw a big hairy dog-like thing as I drove between the entrance to our local forest preserve and a bog across the street.  It happened at night and it was the glow of the eyes that grabbed my attention.  At first, I was thinking it was a coyote, but it seemed to be too big for that.  I suppose it could have been someone's dog on the prowel, but it seemed a little too shaggy and feral for that.  I know there have been lone wolves down in our area before...makes me wonder.

The last week has been miserable temperature-wise.  It has been at least 10 to 12 degrees cooler than it should be all that time.  It is much better today with sunshine and light jacket temperatures.

Time Flies...

For those people that know me, they probably have only a vague inkling of how important/influencial music is in my life.  To say I have an ecletic taste in music may be an understatement.  I like music ranging from classical guitar to symphonic metal.  The only types of music I do not give much of a chance are country and rap...and actually I probably give country less of a chance than rap - there have been a couple of rap tracks that I have liked.

All of that being said, my favorite genre of music is progressive rock/metal.  I love the complexity of the music.  I love the 20 minute epic songs and the weird time signatures.  I think what I love about it the most is every time I listen to a piece of music in this genre,. I end up hearing something I did not hear in earlier listenings.  Mind you, this is more true for some bands than others.  For example, one of my favorite concept albums is Brave by Marillion.  I have had that album in my possession since 1994, and I still hear new things when I listen to it.  That may not be as true for something like Arena...even though I really dig a lot of their tracks.

Porcupine Tree is one of those bands that creates music I hear something new every time I listen.  They have changed over the years...morphing from a more trance-like musical style to a more driving rock style - and I have loved being on the journey with them.  On September 22, I had the opportunity to see them for the third time since moving up to the Chicago area.  On a side note, I love the fact I can catch these bands because I am near the big city.  I had really thought hard about going to the show.  It was the only one in the area, but it was on a Tuesday.  As a rule, I usually do not go out to something like this on school days...since I have to teach the next day.  The one thing that finally put me over the top was that Kings X was going to open up the concert for them.  Kings X is one of the older bands I love to listen to...they just have songs that get stuck in your head.

I am glad I took the time to go.

The show was at the Vic Theater.  I had never been there before.  Usually my bands end up playing at Park West.  It was a neat old theater with the box seats, balcony, and everything.  Luckily, the floor was a standing room only type of place.  I was able to get within five feet of the stage with no problem.

As I stated before, Kings X opened for Porcupine Tree.  The played some of the older songs I love like Lost in Germany, Dogman, and Over My Head.  They ended with the latter - and it was wonderful when he had the whole crowd singing the chorus at the end.  I also was able to see my first 12-string bass in this portion of the concert.  I am assuming it was the regular four strings strung at different octaves...but don't quote me on that.

There was a bit of time while they tore down Kings X and set up for Porcupine Tree.  The Tree did not disappoint.  The whole first half of the concert was a playing of The Incident in its entirety.  This may not seem like much, but when you realize The Incident is a 55 minute song...

I don't think I've seen so many guitar changes in one part of a concert.

While I like the whole song...the part I like the most is "Time Flies."  Very smart lyrics are throughout the whole song.

The band took a ten minute break and then came back to play some old and new songs.  I didn't think there would be any way they would play "Anethesize," my favorite song from their last album - Fear of a Blank Planet.  Most of this opinion was based on the fact that the song is about 17 minutes long.  They did not play all of it...but they played a good portion of it...and the crowd went wild.  They also played "Remember Me Lover" for the first time live.  There was one encore.

All in all, and amazing experience.  I'm glad I made the decision to go against what I would usually do.  I would have missed one of the best concerts I have ever been to.

That Time of the Night

I feel really fortunate to have a forest preserve literally right across the street from where I live.  It means I can go over there and explore at a moment's notice.  I had such an opportunity today.  I had taken the dogs for the big loop around the lake, come home, and then realized my wife had gone off to try and catch me on the walk.  While we did not meet up when I went out to try to catch up to her, I was able to explore the woods at one of my favorite times of day to do this - dusk.

I love the animal activity that I see in the preserve at dusk.  Today was no different.  The first thing I was able to see was confirmation that the beavers are still there - beyond the fact their dam has been reconstructed.  One of them was out and swimming around in the bottom portion of the lake.

Just a few feet down from this, I saw a small ball of fur.  I stopped and found it was a small field mouse or vole.  (I'm leaning toward the vole...but will have to do some research to make sure.)  I was able to just stop and sit down to watch it - no more than a foot away.  It was a fat little thing and was eatting grass as I sat and watched it.  It never moved...just kept on eating.

The final event of my walk happened when I was about to turn the corner to go out of the preserve.  On the path in front of me was a herd of at least six deer.  They stopped and looked at me, and I froze in my tracks.  I started to inch forward very slowly - stopping whenever they would stop eating and look at me.  At about twenty feet away, I stopped and waited.  A doe decided she was going to come and check out what this new animal was stalking toward her herd.  She came straight at me - stopping once and  awhile to stomp the ground.  She came within ten feet of me before she slowly when off the path into the woods.  She did not run off though...just walked inside to eat some more.  I think I may have been able to get even closer if people would not have come up the path behind me.

What you see at dusk can be amazing.

Beaver Update

In my last post, I lamented the breaking down of a beaver dam in our local forest preserve.  Well, we went on a walk through there again today, and I was pleased to see it was being built again.  It seems the beavers were not too pleased with what was done to there dam, so they are using bigger and better wood.  The last dam seemed to be made out of saplings and twigs.  Now there are some nice big chunks of at least ten-inch diameter branches in there.

More updates to come...

Dam Forest Preserve

Just got back from a walk with my wife through the local forest preserve.  A couple posts ago, I commented on how cool it was to see a beaver so up-close and personal.  My wife and I rounded the bend to the lake...and heard the sound of rushing water.  The Park District had destroyed the beaver's dam between the two lakes.  The water level was noticeably lower.  This made me think a couple of things - are we really conserving nature if we wreck something one of nature's creatures has constructed to survive... and I really hope the beavers are still here.

Frogs, Frogs, Everywhere...

I do not know if it is the rain, or just the time of year, but I have been seeing a lot of frogs lately.  Last night, I went on a walk with my dogs.  A couple of minutes in, I saw something hopping across the sidewalk - a little toad.  About half-way through the walk, the dogs all of the sudden stopped and looked to the side.  I followed their gaze and saw the biggest frog I have seen in a long time.  It had to be at least 5 - 6 inches long.  I am guessing it was a bullfrog.  Near the end, we saw a medium-sized toad.  So I saw the small, medium, and large of the frog and toad family on that walk.

Today, my wife and I took the dogs on a longer walk around the lake.  It was in full sunlight, and I still saw three small toads along the way hopping along the path.  These were a reddish brown in color though.

I also saw another interesting thing on the walk today.  Earlier in the year, we had seen mother turtles laying eggs along the path we walk around the lake.  I though all of them had been eaten or hatched by now.  However, today we saw a hole that was newly dug out of and had the remains of hatched eggs.  It looked like all the baby turtles had made it into the reeds. :)

1,500?

As a hopeful novelist, I have a Writer's Group that I go to. There are three of us, and we simply read each others' pieces of work and help to edit, give ideas, and the like. I look forward to doing this every week, and am able to do it a vast majority of the time. I think it is an invaluable tool because it gives me some people I can bounce ideas off of...and gives me an incentive to make sure I am working on my stories. I hate it when I go there with nothing.

I explain all of this because we have decided - as a group - to enter a short story contest. I would call it a short short story contest or a flash fiction contest...because the word limit - including the title - is 1,500 words. I at first thought this would be a pretty easy undertaking. I mean, really, cranking out 1,500 words is pretty easy for me. I used to do it in a couple hours every Thursday evening for my History essays.

Wrong.

Happily, I am finding this to be a challenge. How do you add depth and suspense to something that is only 1,500 words long? How can you develop a plot in such a short time? You need to have some sort of theme...but not let the whole thing come across as unfinished.

The strange thing with the story I am writing is that I know where I want to end up. I have the setting, the theme, the ending, and I know conversation is going to be a large part of the piece. But how do I start? How do I get to the ending? Ah...there's the rub. I think I am liking this challenge because it is like a Haiku...conveying meaning in a very minimum amount of words.

It is nice to explore this kind of intellectual challenge every once and a while. We'll see where this goes.

Off the Beaten Path...Kind of

If you are ever traveling along 173 between Antioch and Rockford, Illinois, take time to stop off at the Tuttle Clarkson Nature Area. I have driven past it many times as my wife and I have traveled to visit her parents in Rockford. This time we were actually able to stop and explore it.

The Nature Area is actually not that big. It has two paths. One is a paved path that goes through a prairie area. That path is pretty uneventful and is extremely short. The best path is a grass path that takes you through the different habitats of the area. It is only about a half of a mile loop, but you go through at least three different areas. There is an upland woodland area, a sedge meadow area, an oak forest area, and - my favorite - the fen.

A fen is actually something I had never heard of before. It is a lot like a bog. The big difference is that whereas a bog has source of ground water that is not moving...the fen has a subterranean source of water that is moving beneath it. Peat is still formed and there are a lot of the same types of vegetation. Tuttle Clarkson takes you through the fen by means of a boardwalk and bridge system. It was a very cool experience...especially since a fen is a rare thing to see in northern Illinois.

It's great to see what happens when you take the time to explore somewhere new.

When to Remember a Camera

It is amazing the things that can happen when you decide to go a different way in life.

Mind you, it was not anything really major today. When I got home, my wife and I decided to take a large loop around the lake for our daily walk. The forest preserve near our house is really great. We usually get to see deer, rabbits, swans, and other birds almost every walk we take. Today, we were able to see a small brown snake (maybe someone will know what kind it might have been), but, even more impressively, we were able to see a beaver. I literally came with in two feet of it as it hid in the long grass surrounding the lake it lives in. I stood there looking at it, and it looking at me. I then slowly made its way down through the grass and reeds to the lake and slowly swam away. We have seen them swimming in the lake this year (which I have never seen in the seven years we have been here), but I have never come this close to one before.

Wish I had had a camera with me. :)

Blog 2.0

The whole once-a-week entry thing obviously did not happen since the beginning of the blog, so we will consider this a reboot of the blog and go on from here.

The summer has been relaxing in some ways. My wife and I actually stayed home to rest - which is a big departure from what usually happens. Usually we are traveling or taking some school courses. It was nice to just have a "staycation" this year.

This being said, there were a lot of different things going on around the house. We made a lot of improvements in the landscaping. With the help of friends, we reworked our raised bed garden, installed a fence around it, and created some gates for easier access. We also created a better pathway around the house. Inside, we repainted all of the house...and...as usually happens...found some things that were done wrong the first time.

Note: It is not usually a good thing to have a light fixture in the shower that is not waterproof...or have light switches/outlets that are not grounded. I know it was made in 1968...but really...

Beauty - Invisible

People who know me, and some of the jobs I do, would probably find it a little surprising that there are many times that I find technology to be invasive and disillusioning. Times like that bring to mind a song from Marillion:

This is the 21st century
I heard everything you said
The universe demystified
Astronomy instead
This is the 21st century
Can't you get it through your head
This ain't the way it was meant to be
Magic isn't dead...

There are definitely many times technology seems to demystify and take the wonder out of the world. Life just seems to speed by.

Then technology - and astronomy - will bring across something like this.

Beauty can be seen in many things: the large, the small, the close, the far, the growing, and the There is a type of magic to it all. Now, with the help of technology, we can see the beauty in the dying and invisible.

The picture here was taken by the Chandra X-Ray observatory. It is of a dying star called a pulsar. This spins around extremely fast and spews forth x-rays in all directions. The high energy x-rays are colored blue, mid-range green, and low-energy red. The whole scene is 150 light years in size and is 17,000 light years away from us - so we are seeing something that is 17,000 years old!

The beauty of it all is quite evident, and we would never be able to see it with the naked eye. It is an invisible beauty that I was truly surprised and happy to see.

A Beginning

I guess when one starts a blog, they should have some sort of unifying theme or focus to their entries. However, as the name of this blog suggests, the only thing the various entries found here may have in common is the author. As you can probably guess from my profile, I have wide and varying interests, all of which may find there way here onto Fracture Thoughts. You can expect thoughts on poetry, literature, film, and life in general.

As for how often I will post, since this is a new experience, I am looking to post at least once a week. I'm sure that will pick up later on...but, no matter what, it should be fun!