Miscellaneous - Chicago Botanic Garden Orchid Show & Outdoor Walk - MyShadowProductions #222

Happy April everyone !!

I don’t have an April fools’ joke but I do have a few photos and comments to share :)

This is Post #222, remember the comedy-drama Room 222??

Well Preserved “FOSSIL” I found in the City Garden @ GPC

Have you ever overheard a child ask a question and then hear an answer from the “adult” with them and maybe think the answer might be “not quite right”? I was kneeling on the ground at GPC cutting last year’s faded growth from the newly awakening Hibiscus plants and I heard a little kid say “what is he doing”? The answer given to him was “that’s a worker” :) I didn’t look up, just hid my trademark smirk/smile and kept “working”/playing in the dirt and listening to the Plants grow!

Hibiscus Plants Coming Soon !!

And, on March 26th when I went to Morton Arboretum for my Phenolgy “LEAF Budding Check” with my group of Oak Trees there was a cool “coincidence”. My Uber driver from the Lisle Metra Station was named “LEIF” and amazingly he was also the driver on my return. In his words, “That never happens, until now I guess?”.

Now, official Blog Post stuff! Last year I went to the Orchid Show at the Chicago Botanic Garden in March and I repeated that again this year. It is a great way to look past some of the gray weather and brown landscapes and even see some of the first signs of Spring with a walk outdoors after the exhibit.

Click Here for my Video from Photos at the Feelin’ Groovy Orchid Show - 2026 - Chicago Botanic Garden.

After the Orchid Show it is always a good idea to wander around a few outdoor areas to see what nature has to offer, Click Here for a Video created from my photos doing just that :)

By the way, I am “Hunting Daffodils” for my next Post. If you would, PLEASE send me a photo or two of daffodils you see and I will mix them into my Video for some variety. Let me know if it is ok to share the general area/city or not, either way is fine with me. My email is kim-favero@hotmail.com or by text if you have my #, thank you!

Until next time,

FULL BLOOM AHEAD !!

Morton Arboretum Phenology - Chicago Pedway Stained Glass - Marquette Building Mosaics - MyShadowProductions #221

  Hi everyone !!

In my last Post I mentioned some “new words” for me. 

Equanimous, was pointed out by a friend and means calm and in control of emotions, you have to admit that sounds like a great idea!! There is an old fashioned word that can mean the same thing (maybe?), how about COOL ?

The 2 other “new words” for me are Phenology - the study of recurring plant and animal life cycle events and Quercus - the botanical genus of trees and shrubs in the beech family (Fagaceae), commonly known as OAKS.

So, my new volunteer activity at Morton Arboretum is Phenology Monitoring for eleven Oak Trees (Quercus 4), March thru November. Once a week +/- “visit” my trees and look for; breaking leaf buds, leaves increasing in size, pollen, flowers, fruit (acorns) and ripeness, leaves changing color, falling fruit and/or leaves, etc. Basically for me, an excuse/incentive to get out and walk :).

Who knows, it might even help me become EQUANIMOUS or Cool ??

Click Here for a Video created from my photos as I started the Phenology adventure including sights walking to and from “my trees” :)

Did you notice the Pine Cone Art in the Video?

MyShadow has some Pine Cone Art in his gallery :)

Now, do you remember my visit to Macy’s and the Tiffany Mosaics? There is an exit from Macy’s in the basement that enters a section of the Chicago Pedway (Pedestrian Way). It is a 5-mile network of underground tunnels and overhead bridges connecting over 40 blocks in downtown Chicago, click here for more details.

My short visit was to get a brief introduction of the Pedway and to see the Victorian Stained Glass exhibit. This Video will give you an idea of “underground Chicago” and a peak inside the Marquette Building, with the Tiffany glass mosaics depicting the 17th century Mississippi River expedition of Father Jacques Marquette and explorer Louis Joliet. There are also some cool bronze reliefs of some Indian Chiefs that roamed the area.

 

CLICK HERE for more info on the Marquette Building which is also architecturally significant.

If you are Irish and like college basketball, March can be pretty interesting. One out of two for me, I am not Irish but I do like college basketball (not the announcers, not the players screaming, not the hype, :) ……… (go ILLINI !!)

For the Irish and “Wannabe Irish” and in celebration of St Patrick’s Day, the Chicago Plumbers Union has been dying a section of the Chicago River GREEN since 1962. Against my better judgment I decided to venture that way to see how they accomplish the feat. I got to the DuSable bridge on Michigan Ave around 8:30 am to get what I think was a pretty good spot along the railing, for the 10 am start. The crowd spreads for blocks and blocks (8?) along both sides of the River from Columbus Drive west to Orleans Street. 

I didn’t hang around after getting my videos of the Green Dying, as I turned around from the railing at the River, all I could see was people, people everywhere :) I didn’t get photos or videos of the crowd just slowly made my way back to Union Station to Head West to Aurora :) Online estimates of the crowds entering downtown Chicago for the River Dying and the St Pat’s Parades say Iike 400,000+ people, insane! (in my equanimous opinion :)

The green dye lasts for several hours (not days) and is purported to be 100% eco-friendly. Watch this Video for the dying as I saw it.

Even the Garfield Park Conservatory joined in the dying (a first for them I think?), they dyed the pond in the Fern Room GREEN !!

 

All of that happened and also March 20th ushered in another SPRING, Mother Nature just keeps on giving !!

If everyone does a good job “absorbing” this Post (a lot of videos and links?? :) then there will be future Posts with Orchids, Flowers inside, then Outside, Colors wherever, last year MyShadow Hunted Tulips, this year I am hunting ……… ??

Like the Flower Buds say:

FULL BLOOM AHEAD !! ☘ 🏀

Chicago Architecture Center - Fulton Market District - Gin Alley - Wooden Alley - MyShadowProductions #220

Hola everybody and Welcome to the month of March !!

First off, I want to share some photos that allow the colors of tan and brown to be center stage and not competing with all the other “pretty colors”.

MORTON ARBORETUM 

Garfield Park Conservatory & Gardens 

Quaking Aspen Buds

I have been “struggling” with putting some Videos together but it’s “now or never” (not really, but the weather is warming up and that means more time outside :) so I am going to post them and hope for the best.

On February 15th I took a Day Trip from Aurora to the Chicago Architecture Center passing “Architecture” as I walked from Union Station to the corner of Wacker and Michigan Ave. The Center contains a lot of information about Chicago’s history shaping the present day Chicago.

Click Here for my recording of an 8 minute Video that plays in the Center about every 20 minutes. The “lighting” is a bit distorted at times because I recorded with my phone but I think the “story” was very interesting. Listen for the 3 nicknames given Chicago:

“City of the Big Shoulders - “Lightning City”  - “Porkopolis”

The present exhibit at the Center is titled “The Disappointed Tourist”. 

It was a little overwhelming to try and “read” every painting but I did see one “place” that I saw before it was “removed”, the Chesterfield Mall Carousel.

This one also caught my eye :)

CLICK HERE for a Video created from my photos walking to and visiting the Chicago Architecture Center.

OK, back to the present, I read that Chicago has over 1,900 miles of alleys and I was wondering if any of them would be worthy of photos by MyShadowProductions? :) I will keep my eye out for more but I found 2 (with the help of an internet search); Gin Alley in the Fulton Market District area (more photos in the summer and at night might be interesting) and Wooden Alley (see description below):

This Video visits both Alleys and captures some local sights nearby each of them.

I think that is all for this Post but I do have a little bit of a question?, realization?, observation?, ………….? There are 26 letters in the English language alphabet and there are hundreds of thousands of words and most only “use” 10 to 30,000? I just learned a few more, Phenology and Quercus (which I will share more about next time) and equanimous which sounds like a great adjective/idea/goal to “live”.

Before I go, a little more on GPC (Garfield Park Conservatory) :), the Spring Flower Show is off to a good start and the Tulips have popped up in the Artist’s Garden:

March 4, 2026
What Colors This Year ??

FULL BLOOM AHEAD !!

Another “TIFFANY DOME” - Portugal Paint by Number - New Idea - MyShadowProductions #219

Howdy everybody!! 

I think I am staying with the “Shadows Into Light Two” font, seems a shame to veer away from the “Shadow” connection :) I will continue as well to use the ROCK SALT font for the end of my posts :)

Also, I just want to remind everyone that I “create” my Posts on my iPad and sometimes when the Post is viewed on a phone some of the formatting may be out of line. I will try to prevent that but please understand.

The Video in my last Post ended with “To Be Continued” because I have another “Tiffany Dome” to share. This one is in the Macy’s building, also in downtown Chicago. Macy’s is in the old Marshall Field (not related to Sally, Wrigley, Soldier or Corn Field :) Building, an architectural gem!!

Here is a description of the Tiffany Dome:

Please pardon my “dome” shining in the reflection :)
Also, it was unveiled 48 years before my Birthday.

Click Here for a Video created from my Macy’s/Tiffany Dome photos and a walk to the Lake for some Sun, Snow & COLOR! (Feb 1, 2026)

Next, I managed to finish my Portugal picture Paint by Number painting :). In my last Post I gave some wrong information, the correct site I ordered from is MAGIC CANVAS, please do yourself a favor and try a painting of one of your favorite pictures.

Here is the original picture and my finished product:

You can see that the colors do not always “translate” exactly but overall “it works”. I took some “artistic liberties” as well; I added a centuries old Boulder to the beach, raised the water level in the Atlantic about one foot, stirred up some waves, adjusted the sun to reduce some shadows, hurried Spring by adding some yellow flowers, adjusted the clouds and called in a few birds. It gets “hard” for me to put down the brushes and call it “finished” but eventually I “sign it” and hang it on the wall :)

CLICK HERE to see the process :) One of the pictures is out of order, see if you can spot it (clue - paint color #8:)

Now for something new I want to try. I got the idea from my grandson Sam. Sometimes he watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on my TV, but he watches it through the camera on his iPad. He then takes photos or screenshots that he likes to look at later :). My idea is to take some screenshots from YouTube videos that I like to watch on my iPad and then make a Video like I do with my pictures. I know it’s “cheating”/“kind of weird” but it might be a good way to recommend a YouTube Video??

2 Teaser photos in Corsica by “But What’s Out There?” YouTube channel.

So, here it goes, a Video from 2 YouTube Videos by “But What’s Out There”, both on the French island Corsica.

If you are interested in watching the YouTube videos here are the links:

#1 - Hiking the GR20 in Corsica

#2 - Hiking the West Coast of Corsica

I hope 2026, it is mid February already, has been kind to you and until the next time -

FULL BLOOM AHEAD !!