8 August 2013 - Chicago

I spent five days in Chicago participating in a National Sales Meeting. Enough said about that. But in spite of the long days and many meetings, we all had some free time built in to see Chicago. And I certainly had some fun going places and seeing things. 

First, there was the view from my room which looked over the lock from the Chicago River into Lake Michigan. 

It made it hard to leave my room in the morning. 


After checking in at the hotel, I had about 90 minutes before the first event. Not one to sit in a hotel room, I took a brisk walk over to Millennium Park. To get there I had to pass some wonderful fountains and stop for a while to listen to an orchestra rehearsal in the pavilion. 

The gardens were incredible and to my mind were even more intriguing with the dichotomy of the city backdrop. 

 

Finding a bunny in the middle of the city was a surprise. 

 

Rather than formal gardens, it felt like you were walking through meadows full of wildflowers. 

 
All too quickly I had to head back. Two days later I took a cab over to Meigs Field on Northerly Island. In a controversial move, Mayor Daly had the small plane airport torn up and it is being naturalized as a park and outdoor event venue.  The part I was planning to see (written up as a good birding area) was all fenced off with lots of stay out signs.

I did get to see the three Daphne sculptures. They are gorgeous. The artist made them out of scrapped Cadillacs and she used her own face as the model for Daphne's features. In case you don't remember, Daphne was the daughter of a river god. She was being pursued by Apollo and cried out to her father to help her. He turned her into a laurel tree: her hair became leaves and her arms became limbs.

 

These sculptures must be about 12 feet tall. 

I left Northerly Island and walked along the lake front over to the Shedd Aquarium. 

On this stretch of beach I picked up some great pieces of sea glass and some really interesting pebbles. To my dismay I didn't get home with them. 

More sculptures by the planetarium.

 

And there were always boats to admire on the lake. 

If I had been there for the next weekend, the tall ships would have been in Chicago. I'd have loved to see them. 
 
When I finally reached the aquarium it was mobbed. Discovered that Jazzin' at the Shedd was going on. Three different jazz groups playing in the aquarium. Lots of liquor and canape stands. Attendees were dressed to kill. Women were in tiny little sparkly dresses or tinier little black dressses. These tiny dresses were displaying big cleavage. oof. I had about decided to abort that plan due to the sheer mass of bodies when I saw there was a special jellyfish display. I love jellies! Bought a ticket and ran for the exhibit.

The best part of this jelly exhibition was finding three totally new-to-me varieties. There must be thousands of varieties, but these? Spectacular!

First, a jelly I could not photograph. A small tank held hundreds of Umbrella Jellyfish. Each jelly was the size of a quarter and they were totally transparent. The eye could see whitish outlines, but the camera saw nothing.  I took this picture from the signage, but imagine this, nickel to quarter sized and absolutely translucent.

Next were the Upside-down jellies. These ranged from three to four inches across and lay on their caps on the shallow ocean floor. They have a symbiotic relationship with algae. The algae grows on the jelly, getting plenty of light through the shallow water to produce food for the jelly. They had so many of these in a small tank that you really can't see any one jelly, but hopefully you will get the idea.They looked like a beautiful garden.

The Flower Hat jelly is the most colorful jelly I have ever seen. These jellies hung over plants like hats on a rack. But wow!

Looks like a church lady hat, even down to the purple beads. 

Moon jellies are a favorite. When I win the lottery I am going to have a floor to ceiling cylinder filled with them!

Outside the aquarium...well, it must be some kind of fish story. 

Inside and outside the building... beautiful ornate cornices-- all with fish related themes. Love this stuff!

It kills me that all the new buildings are so boring--acres of glass and steel. There are so many wonderful things that can be done on buildings. Wonder if anyone even knows how to carve stone or cement anymore.

 On Thursday I had several free hours so I walked down to the Chicago Art Institute. Oh my. Complete and utter sensory overload. I tried to see as much as I could and ended up worn out. But a really good worn out. 

Not knowing how much time I could devote to the Institute, I started with a exhibit highly recommended by David Swan. Zarina: Paper Like Skin. Three gallery rooms showed about 60 of her large paper works - from printed images to texture fields created by poking holes in the paper. Really interesting!

From there I saw American Modern (Jackson Pollock et al); European Modern (Henri Matisse and Rene Magritte). I particularly liked the Impressionists (Monet and Manet). Loved seeing American Gothic up close. I was also impressed with Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent. 

A really interesting exhibition was called Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity. This exhibit showed the relationship between fashion and art, with paintings of exquisitely dressed men and women by such masters as Degas, Manet, Seurat and Renoir. In addition, next to the paintings, clothing (from the Smithsonian, I think) were displayed. The clothing nearly matched the paintings. Everything from hats, shoes, umbrellas, fans, dresses, corsets. It was fascinating. 

Another traveling exhibit was  Late Roman and Early Byzantine Treasures from the British Museum. Mosaic floors, bathing accoutrements in gold and silver, household items from the very rich from A.D. 300 to 650.  An amazing level of workmanship and artistry. 

And that is just the tip of the iceberg.  

The Art Institute is guarded by a gorgeous pair of lions. Their tails were polished to a bright shine from being touched by so many people.

Thursday's are free days for Chicago residents so there were lots of people.  In addition, Lollapalooza was happening. Music everywhere. Lots of people, vendors, food. You name it. Fun. 

Walking back to the hotel I found a huge water play area for kids. It was anchored at each end by four maybe five story high pillars with water spilling down the sides. 

My first thought was it was made out of stone. Then I realized it was glass block.  The two sides facing each other had projections of a woman's face. Every now and then the face would smile and spit a huge stream of water. The kids were all jostling to get under it. 

What a great way to cool off on a muggy day in the city. 

Just inside the park from the water feature was another sculpture installation. These are ceramic obelisks called Dangos by artist Jun

Kaneko. Dangos are a kind of Japanese sweet. A dumpling or rice ball that may be filled with treats like plum paste.

I loved the blue one. 

 

There were many more. It was a great installation. I was quite amused to find these two crows sitting in a tree directly over one of the dangos. They were muttering together like they were art critics. 

You can't walk by Millennium Park without taking a photo or two of the bean. Big and shiny. How could anyone not like this? 

In addition to all this, I had some really fabulous meals and it was great to be with my team. We are a small but very fun group.

7 August 2013 - Revisiting July part 2

Next up in July was a week long sales meeting in Chicago. I was very lucky that Robin was available to come and cat sit, house sit and water everything, every day. Did I mention it has been hot here? I created a spreadsheet of what needed to be done when. Control freak? Me? 

Robin was able to come out for a few days before I left so she could learn the routine and stay for a few more days after I got back. It was good to have some time to sit on the porch and do nothing more than watch the avian antics and the clouds float over Mt. Olympus. 

I practically wore her out on her first day. Picked her up at the airport then took a detour up to Park City to look at door handles for the shop. Found nothing. As a consolation took another detour from Parley's Canyon to East Canyon then back to Parley's. 

Here's Robin on the top of the world up at Little Mountain where East Canyon, Emigration Canyon and Parley's Canyon all converge. 
 

We also stopped to check out a section of the original Mormon Trail.  The area was gorgeous, but while walking down the trail we noticed that the waist-high foliage on either side was stinging nettle.  

On the UBird site I had read about a stable in East Canyon that takes people on trail rides. They owners put out a lot of hummingbird feeders and supposedly get four kinds of hummers. 

Since we driving by, we stopped. I only saw two varieties, but it was a good spot to stop and sit for a minute. The handler was getting horses ready for a big party coming in that evening. Chickens were wandering around checking out Robin's shoes. 

We finally got home to discover that David had stopped by and drilled holes in some 20 of the blue bottles I've been collecting. Wow. Robin had a go at it too. 
 

While I was in Chicago, David took some time off. He dug out an old lilac from the end of the porch, poured some cement for footings and built the frame for my bottle privacy screen project.  I need to get busy and drill out more bottles, but this is what it  looks like at the moment. Pretty wonderful!


Even with only three columns of bottles, when the sun hits them, it looks amazing.
 Robin and I went to the local glass recycle bin and I went dumpster diving for blue bottles. 

We got quite a haul since it was right after all the Days of '47 celebrations, barbeques and parties. Folks are starting to drink Budweiser's new Platinum beer which comes in blue bottles. 
 
It's tricky trying to fish bottles out of container like this, but we added another 15 or more blue bottles. 

Because people pitch the bottles in the holes you have to be really careful about glass slivers and broken bottles as well. 

Robin also spoiled the boys beyond belief while I was gone. She left them with all kinds of heightened expectations about getting brushed on demand, not to mention undivided attention whenever they needed it.  I'm having a hard time keeping up with their new standard of living. 

I came back to find yard work done, all kinds of cleaning and a fridge full of odd food. Robin went down to David's and picked a bunch of his grape leaves to make dolmades. 


Let me just say I am not a fan, however, she made these with a combination of couscous and tabouli instead of rice. They were delicious! The leftover stuffing was turned into a frittata with roasted tomato and shallot topping. Yum. That was just one of many many interesting meals she put together. And she left me with a list of what was left in the fridge.

This is my lunch made out of leftovers. Dolmades, shredded chicken, hot mango salsa, kale salad and bragging here-- tomatoes and basil from my garden. 




Even with all the work we did, we did have some fun. The Tracy Aviary has a colony of flamingos and three chicks were born this summer. I really wanted to see the babies and Robin was willing. We raced through the aviary to find the flamingos first. There was only one baby. We found out that one chick was buried in the mud when it slid out of the nest during a thunderstorm, and the second chick was abandoned by its parents, so it was being raised by hand. The baby that was flourishing was so darned cute. Who'd have thought that baby flamingos were born white with black legs?  Wonder when the black legs and beak start to turn pink?

 Unless the entire colony keeps an eye on the babies, my best guess is that these two adults are the parents. They were being pretty attentive, but since flamingos are champion squabblers, it is hard to tell.  I was surprised that no one stepped on him--it got pretty thick with legs on that little island. 

We also learned that flamingos will sit on any kind of bird's egg, so the aviary staff often use them to hatch other eggs.

 

The egg in this nest belongs to a swan. We watched her stand up, stretch a little then settle back down in a new position. Her knobby knees are way back under her tail. Doesn't look very comfortable.

The unexpected delight in this trip were the pelicans. Some child was having a birthday party at the aviary, and each of the kids was given a plastic container with fish to throw to the pelicans. This must happen regularly, because the pelicans were following the man with the bucket. All he did was call out "Come on, snappers!" and they came in mass, mouths open and ready. I asked him why he called them snappers, and he said "Well, you have to call them something."  And they definitely were snapping those long bills at the fish. 

The kids were up on the boardwalk to the left, and the pelicans were impatiently waiting. 

Here you can see a fish in the front pelican's pouch and another fish in the beak of the pelican behind him.

I learned something else about pelicans while watching this melee.
They have a sharp hook on their bills that would make it very hard for a fish to escape. If you look closely at the pelican in front in the next picture, you can see the hook.

It only costs two bucks to feed the pelicans. I am going to do it one of these days!  Add that to my bucket list of fun things.

 

1 August 2013 - What happened to July?

I am feeling the need to back up and look at July. It is a blur. So much happened in a very short time. 

First let's go back to June 26.  As I have mentioned more than once, I was trapping squirrels for a relocation project. Then a raccoon showed up. I put the trap out and it was ignored for days. On June 26, I was rushing out of the house to get to the airport on my way to the Western Writers Association.  Naturally the trap was sprung. Big raccoon. And mad. He managed to pull over 12 feet of heavy duty extension cord into the trap and he chewed it to bits. Many tiny pieces--even chewed the plug off the end of the cord. The cord that was left was totally riddled with teeth punctures. 

I couldn't just let him go after all the damage he'd been causing, so I threw the cage in the back of the car with my suitcase and made a quick stop up the canyon on my way to the airport.  And yes, I still made my flight. Barely. 

Two weeks later I realized I still have a raccoon hanging around the yard. I baited the trap and catch a younger one. But this raccoon is just funny. He or she was not afraid at all and was being very silly in the cage. He spent some time lying on his back while hanging from the top of the cage.

Amy was here visiting and she got this great shot -- she thought it must have been a she-raccoon looking for a manicure. It reminded me of the wicked witch after Dorothy's house landed on her. Those are some long toes!

To my great relief, I haven't seen any more raccoons. 

I got home from the Western Writers trip, had one day home then left for Detroit on July 2. I was able to take a quick trip through Tollgate on the way to the hotel. Found some very young swallows sitting on a railing and waiting for a parent to come feed them.

Saw a fabulous vulture. I could use one of these in my yard.

 I also just enjoyed the serenity and quiet after a day of travel. 

 The following weekend Amy came out for a quick visit. We had a wonderful time. Lots of time just talking and solving all the problems of the world. Pretty sweet. However, it was very hot. July set all time records for hot. 16 days over 100. If we didn't move too much it was fine. Unfortunately I was pretty sick and didn't have much energy, but we still got out to Red Butte Gardens and even had breakfast at the Saturday's Waffle food truck. 

Here is Amy in the middle of the fragrance garden. So many bees! And so many kinds of bees. Each flower must have had at least one bee working over the pollen. 

I always get great ideas for plant combinations at this garden. 

 And the best combination in the garden?  Friends!

Amy made me some amazing meals while she was here. It was lovely. And she left me recipes. Cool!  I may cook yet. She also brought her architectural ruler and made exact to-scale cutouts of the shop equipment. We spent a couple hours pushing little pieces of paper around a floor plan. Great fun, but no resolution yet. 

July was pretty fun bird-wise. So many babies. The yard was full of fuzzy, squalling babies.  Here's a Downy woodpecker child getting fed. 

 
Not the best picture, but this baby yellow-rumped warbler landed on the screen door.  Needless to say the cats were entranced. The baby didn't know what to do and was too scared to figure out how to get its little toes out of the screen. It was a circus. 

 


Then the baby quail showed up.  I was able to count eleven babies. Ping pong balls with legs.

Next, I discovered the hummingbird nest, which I thought had been abandoned, had babies in it! The nest was built on some electrical cord on the soffit of the empty house next door.

Yes, I have already put a few pictures up of the babies, but here is the series all together.  I tried to get a picture every few days as the babies grew.

Hummers build their nests out of lichen and spider webs. You can actually see the spider webs in the next picture. It was interesting to watch the nest open up from a cup shape to a bowl shape as the babies grew.

I suddenly understood the empty nest syndrome when I showed up and a baby was missing. I spent a long time searching in the bushes in case it had fallen out of the nest. 

Two days later the nest was empty. 

The fun continued with baby grosbeaks, uncoordinated blue jay kids trying to land on the suet feeder, two baby sharp-shin hawks, lots of baby chickadees and house finches. 

 

22 July 2013 - Rufous and Rude

In April the hummingbird population came back. Yes, they squabble over feeders. There are magnificent chase scenes, clever ruses where hummers sneak in under the guard's eye. Then when the babies are born the females encourage communal feeding. It is all very entertaining.

However in July the Rufous Hummers show up. They are bold and brassy in color and personality. These johnny-come-lately birds show up and take over the feeders. They are aggresive in guarding the feeders, chasing everyone away. This morning I was watching them chase chickadees and house finches out of the tree as well. 

I have to give them points for pretty with all the orange-y and metallic gold flash.
 

But it is surprising how territorial they are. I may need to put out a couple more feeders, especially since I still have babies in nests. 

Today the babies look like this.