Phenology Day - June Blooms Continue - The INK Filter - MyShadowProductions #227

Hello again everyone !!

As I write, scribble, one finger type this Post, the month of June has ended, the second half of 2026 is beginning and Spring has turned to Summer without skipping a beat. You might think that Mother Nature has been through this a few million times before but with never ending variety and tricks with sun and water.

Parts of that variety are the world’s Oak trees, belonging to the genus “Quercus”. Google says there are between 500 to 600 species of oaks worldwide and North America counts about 90 of those.

My volunteer opportunity at Morton Arboretum this year involves Phenology Monitoring of a group of 15 oaks, Quercus 4. There are about 35 groups of trees, Elms, Maples, Oaks and 2 separate observers per group.

So far, I have “monitored” 15 times and will continue about every 8-10 days until December. (So my goal of walking more at Morton Arboretum is working :)

Not a lot to write home about or even to “blog” about :)

Basically, leaf buds form in the Spring, opening to leafs that grow in size and eventually turn colors and “fall” to the ground. Also in the Spring there are flower buds (some oaks every year and some every two years) there are flower buds that open, flower, release pollen and produce fruit (acorns) that ripen and “fall” to the ground. Human scientists think they need to “understand” all of this and untrained volunteers like me provide “data” to muddy the waters :)

The following Video - Phenology Day was created from my photos during a couple of recent visits to the Morton Arboretum to give a quick look at the different leafs.

Not to be outdone but the perennial plants and “weeds” continue their personal routine reacting/growing from the changing daylight, temperatures, rain, weeding by volunteers :), etc.

Click here for June BLOOMS Continue !!

Milkweed

In the past I have experimented a little with the Filters that IPhoto and Google Photos offer and now I noticed in iMovie that after a picture is uploaded there are Filter options available. One of those is the INK Filter. I am curious what type of photos this filter would be interesting to apply. With that in mind I created a Video using the INK Filter of a variety of my pictures and pictures that friends have sent me time from time.

This is one example of an original picture and the Ink Filter applied:

See what you think of the INK Filter, a Video.

There has been plenty of hot, humid days, thunderstorms, people saying “stay hydrated” :), etc. as Summer is here, no time like the “present” to enjoy !!

LET’S BLOOM 4th !!!

Passing Storm - Sunday Walk in Downtown Chicago - First Week of June - MyShadowProductions #226

Hello again !! Happy mid June :)

I don’t think this Post will have a “theme” (do any of my Posts?:) but it turns out that when I started sorting through my pictures to make a couple of Videos there was more than I expected. Basically what I mean by that is the Videos are longer in minutes than I anticipated :)

Good or bad, exciting or mundane, bright or dull, busy or calm, interesting or boring, and to use an overused phrase, “it is what it is”. I don’t even know if I can finish that thought so I will distract you by offering what I think is a “get up and go” song from Bob Seger called American Storm, and a few pictures I took from my east facing, 8th floor windows of a Midwest storm moving east from Aurora.

Partial Rainbow 

Click Here for American Storm by Bob Seger! One cool line of many, is:

“Everybody casts a certain light”……. 

Speaking of light, the daylight gets close to its longest this time of year and the growth around us is nothing short of amazing !!

As a follow up to all the Spring Blooms in May I made the following Video with my random early June pictures at Aurora, Morton Arboretum and Garfield Park Conservatory, with a little “wildlife” mixed in. 

The First Week of June, this years’ unique version, a small slice of the big picture we all experience, if we choose to !!

My next Video was created from my pictures on a mostly sunny Sunday in Downtown Chicago. I walked from the Adams St exit for Union Station a little south to VanBuren St then east to the Buckingham Fountain and the Lakefront Trail then north past DuSable Harbor, Polk Bros Park, Ohio St Beach, the Chicago River and back to the train.

The picture in my last Post about a damaged building near the Clinton St Green Line Station is a continuing story. The building is being “demolished” but in a very surprising and “controlled” way and I am trying to get pictures and videos of the progress a couple times a week as I make my way to Garfield Park Conservatory.

Here’s the latest photo:

Ok, that’s it for this Post and I want to make a suggestion to everyone who is still reading (thank you) after all the chatter above :)

How about finding a big, clean (or muddy) puddle and JUMP IN IT !! If you do it, you will know what I mean !!

SPLASH and BLOOM !!

Pardon the shovel handle :) I took a quick break from weeding :)

Salt Cedar or Tamarisk Trees

PhotoBySam - May Flowers - YouTube Screenshots in SAHARA DESERT - Other Stuff - MyShadowProductions #225

HOWDY !! Hope your Spring is Blooming along !!

I shared my “camera/phone” with a guest photographer the other day on a walk in Downtown Aurora.

See what you think. I told him as we started walking, “just let me know if you want to take a picture”.

Surprisingly he was pretty selective :)

Here they are: (I added the notations PhotoBySam)

I took this one :)

Here are a couple of pictures I took that need to be shared :)

No more Skeletons in that closet?? :)

Is there a politically correct term for a “man overboard dummy” ??

It turns out that this past April’s rainfall was quite a bit above average here in Aurora and even more so in Chicago. The reason I mention that is because I have a Video to share that I am calling “May Flowers”, you know, “April showers bring May flowers”. And despite the ridiculous number of pictures I take I did not take a picture or short video during a rain shower, just a couple that show some small puddles :) I realize now that a “rainy” photo/short video would be nice to start off a “May Flowers” video, but instead I have a few “puddle” photos and a very full Fox River :)

I hope you enjoy my “May Flowers” Video created from my photos during, you guessed it, the month of May. I have tried to be accurate with the flower/tree names but sorry to say, no guarantees. It is a good idea to pay attention as you watch it, could be parts of the Final Exam sprinkled (pun intended) throughout :)

CLICK HERE for MAY FLOWERS !!

Next up is another “Screenshot Video” created by MyShadow, this time from the YouTube channel “Amazing Places On Our Planet”, in the Sahara Desert (remember I did a screenshot video in Post #219 about Corsica hiking). Definitely not how I pictured the Sahara to look like, and this is just a small section, the overall variety is most likely “endless” ?!?!

Click Here for my Sahara Desert Screenshot Video.

Moving on, does it mean I am getting old when I use a word in conversation that a 45+ yr old person hasn’t heard of?? Remember Post #220, we only use several thousands of words out of a much larger selection and evidently my vocabulary has at least “one” rare word :)?? Raise your hand if you know/use the word “nomenclature”, not everyday but maybe once or twice?? :) At least I was “heard”, it even generated some laughter :).

By the way, if you need an excuse for anything right now, there is a Full Moon (unless you are reading this after May 31 :)

Oh, check this out………

Ciao for now !!

People Taking Pictures - Early Spring at GPC - Showers of Flowers - Art Institute of Chicago - MyShadowProductions #224

Happy CINCO de MAYO !! I love how it always seems to fall on May 5th :)

It is also after the day when you might hear the phrase “May the Fourth (Force) Be With You” - aren’t humans so creative??

My “brain” seems a little scattered lately for a variety of reasons so luckily I have been busy getting out and taking pictures. I think you know what that means, right? Eventually (now) I will make Videos to share.

This Post I have 4 Videos and hopefully you can find some time to enjoy them and maybe even notice a few “new tricks” I have been learning with the iMovie app.

Video 1 - Garfield Park Conservatory and Gardens Early Spring 2026

Video 2 - GPC Spring Show - SHOWERS of FLOWERS - an ever evolving process that started mid January and continues through Mother’s Day. 95% of the flowering plants were started months earlier in the Conservatory’s greenhouses. The hundreds of plants are set/sunk in their pots and lightly covered with mulch for their time in the Show, with daily shuffling and replacement as needed including new varieties as they are Bloom ready. This year the center “island” was not constructed to allow for the “shower” of hanging plants.

Video 3 - Day Trip to The Art Institute of Chicago with Sights Before and After

Video 4 - People Taking Pictures (created from photos I have accumulated in an album over the past couple of years)

I haven’t done a HAIKU poem in a while so no better time than the present !!

They asked a Question 

What is your most liked Season?

the “PRESENT” SEASON !!

Let’s Keep on BLOOMING !!