Nicholas Thurkettle

(Many months old, but the pictures are new to you!)

Maybe I give the impression that there isn’t a nook left in downtown Chicago I haven’t explored, but this is thoroughly untrue. City be big, you may have heard. Usually only one or two of my days on these winter trips are spent exploring on my own. The weather dictates the pattern: walks punctuated by shelter. There’s a train station lobby halfway between the Shedd Aquarium and Michigan Avenue that, on this trip, proves vital more than once for taking the sting out of my cheeks.

It’s a mix of pursued goals and fortunate finds, and I never hesitate to stop for a meal. A good one of those is rarely too far away. And I really believe the city has a way of rewarding the wanderers. How else could you explain the random gift on a snowy night of a puppet show riding up to you on a bicycle?:

Somehow I always end up walking. If it’s freezing or blazing, wet or green or gray; if I’m in downtown Chicago, I want to see what’s a little further down every street. I want to take it at a speed where I can see the age of every brick.

The spouts at Buckingham Fountain

I think some statues wait for the dramatic weather. In peace and sunshine they must feel so out of place.

The goose survived another Christmas. He must love America, where we all eat the turkeys.

Outside the Aquarium. We’ll go inside in a future post.

A mural in the underbelly of Steppenwolf

The Harold Washington Library downtown – I had to cheat a LOT to make this shot anything close to visible this near sunset without a tripod.

I keep returning to this spot with my camera year after year – still don’t know that I’ve taken a truly awesome shot from here; but I’m getting better.

Just outside Union Station, right before my train to the suburbs

Yesterday, Roxie and I spent a couple of hours strolling through the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden near her home.

The pictures can do most of the talking:
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More substantial post about Valentine’s Day Weekend is in the works – but in the meantime, a brief taste of Pretty from a recent walk Roxie and I took in Upper Newport Bay after several days of rain.

Behind the cut you will find, taken on Saturday, my first-ever Multi-shot Panorama; which proves that:

1) Silver Lake is chock full of The Pretty
2) I am nowhere near good enough in Photoshop to blend out places where the sky failed to merge seamlessly.

Torture your browser window behind the jump:
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