Howdy everyone and Happy September (it arrived just as expected, immediately after August :)
If you don’t mind - one quick reminder/suggestion. When I “create” my blog posts I use my iPad and in my opinion it is best to view the Blog and Videos on an iPad or laptop. In addition the “Web Version” has the “Subscribe/Follow” and “Comment” options. Ultimately, a little enjoyment for you as a viewer is the goal so whatever works for you is great!! THANKS!!
Speaking of August, on August 15th I ventured out to Rogers Park, the northernmost community area in Chicago. Chicago has 77 distinct “community areas” which include 100’s of smaller unique neighborhoods. My trip was to the Rogers Park neighborhood within the “community” which is considered a “vibrant, bohemian lakeside enclave” boasting over 60 languages spoken and a “mile of murals”, etc.
After the Metra from Aurora to Union Station I walked about 20 minutes to the Monroe Station on the Red Line “EL”. At Monroe it is a subway line and continues that way north, under the Chicago River to just south of Armitage on the North Side using a portal located near Willow Street where it is elevated the rest of its way north. I got off at the Morse Stop and was immediately in the “action” of the Glenwood Ave Arts Fest. The area was pretty crowded and it just didn’t work for me to get photos of any of the art being displayed, I find that they kind of frown on that anyway (:( ??) but luckily there was plenty of “street art” to catch my attention. An extra bonus for me was that Lake Michigan was about a 20 minute walk east (even stopped for an ice cream cone :) and the long Beaches were totally accessible to the public (not always the case).
Luckily for you I took a lot of pictures and a few short videos so I could create a Video that will better portray the day than my verbiage. CLICK HERE for my ROGERS PARK Video. (I slipped in a street photo from a different day, can you spot it?)
There are plenty of things to make a return trip for in the future: Jarvis Square, a Frank Lloyd Wright house, variety of global foods like Caribbean, Turkish, Smack Dab Breakfast, etc., Howard St and the huge CTA rail “turnaround” (my word:) for the Red line and also continuations of the Yellow and Purple lines.
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| Somebody designed that !! |
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| Yellow and Purple and Red Lines, FYI |
In the next portion of this Post I want to share about a section of the Garfield Park Conservatory (GPC) that has “reopened” with some fresh features. This area is the Sensory Garden which had been closed since at least summer of 2024 ??.. I was fortunate to help with some of the “cleanup” and the area brings its own style of “color” to the outside gardens, along with a Labrynth that draws a lot of attention. Just this week a new Sculpture exhibit has opened in the Sensory Garden. It is called “Soul of the Stone” and features sculptures from the Shona people in Zimbabwe, Africa. The artists use locally found hard stones from the Great Dyke region, such as serpentine, dolomite, springstone, cobalt, butter jade, verdite and leopard rock to name a few.
Click Here for details of the journey to acquire the sculptures by Andre and Frances Guichard, owners of Gallery Guichard. (Click on “About” under the heading)
There were similar exhibits back in 2003 called the Chapunga Exhibition at GPC and other USA sites.
Denver was one of the sites and it so happens that one of my favorite spots in the Denver Botanic Gardens features a Shona Stone Sculpture - “So Proud of My Children”:
The exhibit also reminded me of a couple of sculptures I saw in Savannah, Georgia (click for those posts), they aren’t Shona Stone from what I can tell, but similar I think. If you check out the old Posts the Denver Shona Sculpture coincidentally shows up :)
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| September 5, 2026 Fair warning, I am working on a Video of the demolition sequence, start to finish :) |
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| Dead Branches trimmed and the “mistake” |
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| Looks like the crabapple tree shade was the culprit. This is Cool !! Bananas in Horticulture Hall !!  |
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