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 !!

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 !!