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 !! ☘ 🏀