Chicago Tree

state street in downtown chicago on a rainy day

good morning

Need a cool spot to watch fall colors? Try the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool, which reopened after two years. Public park spaces like the lily pool, where Chicagoans can pause to catch a breath and experience some of nature's beauty, are well worth preserving and protecting.

Today's architecture column. "Public park spaces like the lily pool, where Chicagoans can pause to catch a breath and experience some of nature’s beauty, are well worth preserving and protecting."

This was every sewer grate I passed last night before the really heavy rain fell.

A modern photo of the Humboldt Park boathouse parking lot

A 1918 photo of the Humboldt Park boathouse “music court” set up for a performance

The statue of Alexander von Humboldt in 1916, with the boathouse behind it

An illustration from the early 20th century showing proposed improvements to Humboldt Park in Chicago. The “music court” has been circled.

Today in Cars Ruin Everything:

The Humboldt Park boathouse parking lot was actually designed as a “music court” for outdoor performances, and was used as such until the Parks Department began reconfiguring park space to accommodate the automobile in the late 1920s and 30s.

Moonrise Version 2 - Seen on my walk.
New Trier West Northfield, IL.- 10/6/25

#landscapephoto #cheryllrubyphotography #seenonmywalk

A slender four-story yellow brick building behind a gate

All these elements--the gate, the brick, the windows, the door--scream "courtyard building" to me, so this super-slender thing looks very goofy to me.

A tree lined path on a sunny morning.

Pink sneakers and orange leaves.

A sticker of a cross stitched Pride flag.

AM walk - or, just LOOK at this scary Chicago war zone. #fuckICE

Cooper's Hawk perched on the branch of a dead tree. The bark is peeling off the branch and encrusted with lichens. The bird is medium-sized with a brow-streaked breast, fierce glare, brown wings, yellow feet with big talons, and a black-and-white banded tail. Photo by M. Rogus, Montrose Point, Chicago, Oct. 6, 2025

Hey, a little #DeadTree appreciation of my own––look at this superb perch, with the bark starting to peel off providing opportunities for insects and insect-eating birds. Loving those #lichens too. Oh and a Cooper's Hawk, yeah. 🪶 #PlantAwareness

Oil painting by Gustave Caillebotte titled 'Yerres, Soldiers in the Woods' (c.1871) showing soldiers in red and blue uniforms positioned among tall trees in a forest setting, with a light-colored path winding through the wooded landscape—including one soldier on the left with exposed buttocks, a detail easily missed on first viewing—painted in loose Impressionist brushstrokes with rich greens dominating the forest canopy.

Been obsessed with @artinstitutechi.bsky.social’s Gustave #Caillebotte show and his consistent subversion of the artistic norms at the time, esp w/ male subjects. But wow, only just caught that 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐦 on the left on my 3rd visit 😅. #Impressionism #ArtDiscovery #chicago #gay #MuseumPup

skyline photo of chicago masked by trees and other closer foreground buildings; the sky is deep blue, tinted orange behind the sears tower in the distance. the moon shines above

i love her. the moon

☹️

A rinse statue of Leif Erickson atop a large granite boulder in a park

A pair of large bronze bison flanking a staircase in a park

Humboldt Park’s monuments get very little love, probably because they’re placed along Humboldt Boulevard. Nobody wants to linger by the traffic-choked street, so consequently the monuments are overlooked.

Well I paused today to admire Leif Erickson and the pair of World’s Fair bison.

The clouds are slowly approaching. Let it rain, it’s been way too long

Recently at Thatcher Woods in River Forest, Illinois.

#photography #photo
#Photographersunited #blueskyphotographers #photographersofbluesky
#nature #naturephotography

View from train - heavy clouds on the right, bright sky with white clouds on the left

Could we actually get rain? #Chicago #weather

Love what’s being done to the old Rev pub! 😍😍😍

Sky to the south just now. Chicago. Color photo of blue sky with vapour trails in various stages of crispness/recency. Most dissipated/spread out at top of frame. building flat roofs along bottom. I wish certain LE personnel were on planes out of here, leaving no more trails of their presence activiely terrifying our communities.

Sky to the south just now. Chicago.

To the west just now. Chicago. — color photo of 2 cumulus puffs and various other ragged cloud bits strewn around presunrise sky. A chimney at right, and rooftopss at bottom of frame.

To the west just now. Chicago.

A banner hung on a fence that says: HELP WITH LEGAL SERVICES REPORT ICE SIGHTINGS AND ARRESTS SE HABLA ESPANOL 855-435-7693 ILLINOIS COALITION FOR IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS FAMILY SUPPORT NETWORK

Chicago, stay strong and take care of one another.

For help for your family or to report ICE activities, call 1-855-435-7693 (HELP-MY-FAMILY)

Para ayuda para su familia ó para reportar actividades de ICE, llame al: 1-855-435-7693

National Lawyers Guild Chicago Legal Support Hotline: 872-465-4244

A Meditation and an Offering on Chicago: A Thread

I wanted to take a moment to describe a different scene from Chicago today, than the ones I've been sharing and posting about these last few weeks. Because there is grief, so much grief, about what is happening here.

Did not think this bespoke knowledge would be as genuinely relevant throughout this year as it has been

An east-looking view down Chicago Ave. in West Town, with the moon just visible over the buildings on the right side of the street.

Tonight's West Town sunset/moonrise

Large heron with long black legs and blue-gray feathers perched on a tree limb. It's beak is open.

Close-up of the heron's head, showing its yellow eye. The beak remains open and its tongue is visible. Green foliage fills the background.

Great blue heron, Columbus Park, Chicago. It is engaged in gular fluttering, which helps it cool off.

Two fly fishermen stand in waist-deep water in the middle of the Milwaukee River and cast their lines on a bright sunny afternoon. The trees are still green in October on a 75-degree day.

It’s a fine day for vintage baseball! On the banks of the Milwaukee River at the Estabrook Park biergarten for the Chicago Salmon’s season finale.

Fine mosiac work (like you'd see in a fine old building) filling in a sidewalk pothole.

The epitaph in the middle of the mosiac: Here lies a pothole 2005-2024

Inadvertently found some of Jim Bachor's mosiac work to my great delight. Found on the corner of Van Buren and Michigan, near the Fine Arts Building. "Here lies a pothole 2005-2024"

My photo of a group of people, including a woman sunbathing, on Wilmette’s Chestnut Beach.

My photo of a group of people on Wilmette’s Chestnut Beach with rocks in foreground.

My photo of a group of people on Wilmette’s Chestnut Beach.

My photo of a man running on Wilmette’s Chestnut Beach.

Enjoying a day at the beach…in October.

Photograph of the landscape in Chicago's Columbus Park. In the foreground are a lot of plants, including some purple asters. At left is at tall dead tree. In the center is a long 2-story light orange brick building. The sky above is blue and streaked with cirrus clouds.

Columbus Park, Chicago, with the refectory in the background

feel compelled to point out that this is not intended to imply that the problems will go away on their own, just that some things can and will outlast them

Round planetarium building behind a smiling man (me). Its walls are tan brick. Part of the lawns and trees of the Triton College campus are visible. Hanging from the wall of the planetarium is a set of banners forming huge photo of astronaut Eugene Cernan seated in the jeep-like Apollo 17 lunar rover. I appear from the neck up. I have pale skin, dark brown hair, a white beard, and glasses. Photo copyright 2025 b by William S. Higgins.

Tonight I gave a talk to the oldest astronomy club in the Western
Hemisphere: The Chicago Astronomical Society, founded in 1862.

Place: Cernan Earth & Space Center. Topic: How the Moon's Features Got Their Names.

After the talk, members set up telescopes outside. I saw Moon, Saturn, & Neptune.

Orange Door in Dabbled Morning Light - Seen on my walk.
Skokie,IL.- 10/2/25

#landscapephoto #cheryllrubyphotography #seenonmywalk #morninglightphotography