New Popotillo, The Little Prince, Morton Arboretum & 2025 Photo Review - MyShadowProductions #217

Howdy to all, hope you remember me, I haven’t Posted since last year, haha :)

Welcome to 2026 with MyShadowProductions :)

I ended 2025 sending one of my photos to my Popotillo Guy (doesn’t everybody have a Popotillo guy?) to create a custom “Straw Painting” for me.

This link will show you my previous Post about Popotillo/Straw Art/Straw Marquetry. The post has a link for a Wikipedia history of the art and also a link about the family of Popotillo artists that have made Popotillos for me.

This is the picture I sent via WhatsApp:

Garfield Park Conservatory - Artist’s Garden
Purple Flowers are Mexican Bush Sage

This is the finished product, simply amazing!! Not “exact” but “exactly portrayed”.

Size is 8.5 inches x 11 inches

Enlarged Section to Show Detail

I still kick myself for not reaching out to the Artists when I was in Mexico City in February 2024 and asking for a visit and viewing of how they create the “straw paintings”. This is definitely on my list the next time I am in Mexico City!

Changing the subject, have you ever heard the question “Has the sheep eaten the flower?”, me either until a friend mentioned the book “The Little Prince” (a children’s book for adults :), I googled it and was able to find it immediately and after a quick review I could tell it was my kind of book, short, easy to read, with pictures and according to my friend, “a message”. (Danke schön)

I am not a big reader but once in a great while I can be literate :)

Here are a few “messages” that stood out to me as I enjoyed a quick read on Christmas morning:

“The Grown-ups are very strange.”

“The thing that is important is the thing that is not seen.”

“But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart.”

“One runs the risk of weeping a little, if one lets himself be tamed.”

and

“Has the sheep eaten the Flower?”

Here is the cover:

CLICK HERE to Read The Book.

There is no requirement for submitting a Book Report but the Final exam will definitely have a question or two about The Little Prince :)

Now, let’s start the New Year off right with a couple of Videos created from my photos adventuring around the Chicago area.

Click Here for Morton Arboretum with (Dec 7) and without (Dec 21) Snow, nothing spectacular but for me there is always something that catches my eye. I was fortunate again to spot a few deer and give them something to wonder about :)

For another Video, I went to Chicago and made my way to the Field Museum. I don’t know what it is about me but I find it hard to patiently walk through a “museum” absorbing/reading all of the available information but I still enjoy it. One fact that I remember reading is that Flowering Plants only started appearing 130 million years ago, but maybe 300 million years?? Either way, much earlier than “Humans”, possibly explaining why “flowers” are much more interesting than “humans”, I didn’t say that!, thinking doesn’t count, right?! :)

Click this Link for The Field Museum Video. (Complete with Kazoo music, when is the last time you heard that? :)

I haven’t done this in the past but in this Post I will try a quick 2025 in review using the iPhotos app suggested photos for each month, you might even be able to name the location of the pictures (if you have paid attention to my previous year’s ramblings/posts, haha :)

View 2025 Review now!

                  HAPPY NEW YEAR !!