↓
 

words and images

🇺🇦✏️✒️📚📔🌜dreamer 🌕 thinker 🌕 aspirant📱📷🚴‍♀️🏕🍄🌻

Menu
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Book Reviews
  • Letters
  • Photography
  • Poems & Stories
  • About Diane Schirf
  • Site Map

Tag Archives: Chicago

Post navigation

← Older posts

“I’d rather be slowly consumed by moss”

The question is, “than _____”?

(From the other bumper stickers, this is an outdoorsy person/family.)

IMG_6186
February 19, 2023 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Chicago Tagged bumper sticker, Chicago, Hyde Park Reply

Dan Ryan Woods aqueducts, this time with water

May 8, 2022

When I first visited the Dan Ryan Woods aqueducts in autumn, they were dry, so I wanted to go back in spring when there was more likely to be water. According to the Forest Preserves of Cook County, “The limestone aqueducts at Dan Ryan Woods were constructed by the CCC to prevent water from washing away soil on the steep ridges. Visitors can still walk alongside the aqueducts as they wind their way through the woods south of 87th St.” The aqueducts are one of my favorite things in Chicago.

IMG_1857
DSC_7619
DSC_7640
DSC_7625
January 31, 2023 by dlschirf Posted in Adventure, Blog, Photography Tagged Chicago, Forest Preserves of Cook County, history, photo 2 Replies

Lessons and Carols, 2022

This is the first time since 2019 that Lessons and Carols, a Christmas Eve tradition at Rockefeller Chapel, has been held in person. I remember in 2020 and 2021, it was streamed. This year it was both in person and streamed. I attended, but within a few days had developed my first bout with COVID-19. I held out almost three years.

Rockefeller is always an experience. The snow was a great touch.

I love that the children don’t have to make or buy costumes to be farmyard animals. These days they can wear pajamas. My favorite was the Holstein cow (possibly an anachronism).

Lessons and Carols, 2022
Lessons and Carols, 2022
4 photos
IMG_5421
IMG_5423
IMG_5428
IMG_5438
January 6, 2023 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Life, Music, Video Tagged Chicago, health, holiday, Hyde Park, life, music, photo, video Reply

December sea smoke on Lake Michigan at -8°F

I’m not sure whether I’ve seen sea smoke in December before, but it is close to January. With bonus of Jack Frost on the window.

Accuweather

Sea smoke is essentially just fog above water, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Samuhel. The occurrence of sea smoke is similar to the steam that appears over a boiling pot of water or a hot bath.

“It happens when the air mass is so cold it makes the water steam like a pot on a stove would,” Samuhel said. Sea smoke is also sometimes referred to as arctic sea smoke, frost smoke, steam fog or sea fog.

In order for sea smoke to occur, the air has to be very cold and the water has to be comparatively warm. As a light wind of cold air sweeps in, it cools the warm air immediately above the water, which makes the air dip below the dew point. The air is only able to hold so much moisture before it condenses into fog, or sea smoke.

Sea smoke on Lake Michigan at -8ºF
December 23, 2022 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Photography, Weather Tagged Chicago, Hyde Park, Lake Michigan, photo, Promontory Point, sea smoke, video, weather Reply

Hyde Park, Chicago — drone footage

Even better, from a drone. There are likely a lot of these out there.

November 26, 2022 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Chicago Tagged Chicago, Hyde Park, video Reply

Hyde Park, Chicago drive

I’ve meant to get a GoPro and do something like this from my bike (when I could ride), but this will have to do for now. Not unlike many in Hyde Park, the driver doesn’t recognize stop signs.

November 26, 2022 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Chicago Tagged Chicago, Hyde Park, video Reply

Autumn color at Promontory Point

October 8, 2022

Autumn Saturday afternoon promenade around Promontory Point. But first the view on Friday that drew me outdoors on Saturday despite the persnickety and painful nerve.

Untitled

The leaves were colorful in person under a beautiful autumn sun. This year the color snuck up on me, and I don’t know how long it will last.

IMG_4560
IMG_4598
IMG_4621
October 8, 2022 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Photography Tagged autumn, Chicago, Hyde Park, photo, Promontory Point Reply

International Space Station (ISS) flyover

words and images Posted on September 17, 2022 by dlschirfSeptember 17, 2022

I subscribe to SpotTheStation, which tells you when you may be able to spot the International Space Station (ISS). Most of the time it’s at too low an angle (behind buildings or trees) or too late/early (or also too cloudy). Today, however:

Time: Sat Sep 17 7:44 PM, Visible: 7 min, Max Height: 89°, Appears: 10° above SW, Disappears: 10° above NE

Almost straight overhead and before my bedtime!

I walked to the park across 55th and got a great look at it until it disappeared 10º above NE. Even in all the light pollution. It took about six minutes from the time I spotted it until it disappeared. Here it is toward the end.

My dad would have loved this. We watched for the burn-up of Skylab together but conditions weren’t right. Still a great moment. And on the way home from family’s house in Eden, we saw a meteorite, which we were both thrilled over. Two of my fondest dad memories.

International Space Station flyover
Posted in Blog, Ephemera, Reminiscence | Tagged Chicago, family, Hyde Park, photo, weather | Leave a reply

Powderhorn Prairie and Marsh Nature Preserve, Calumet Fisheries, train, and Chicago Skyway

words and images Posted on July 9, 2022 by dlschirfJuly 9, 2022
July 3, 2022

Powderhorn Prairie and Marsh Nature Preserve

Sunday I had the brilliant idea of going to Powderhorn Prairie and Marsh Nature Preserve. This is the only place in the city of Chicago with remnant prickly pear cactus. I wouldn’t disturb it; I just wanted to see the flower if possible.

Later, the idea didn’t seem so brilliant when I realized I couldn’t find a trail. Some nature preserves don’t have trails (the better to preserve), but people had mentioned walking around. They must be better spotters than I. At least we saw a great egret across Powderhorn Lake. And an amazing amount of trash around it (egret and trash not pictured).

DSC_7801
DSC_7802
Impenetrable but lovely

Beaubien Woods Forest Preserve

There was no Plan B but we stopped at the Beaubien Woods boat launch. At some points you could feel like you’re in the country near a hill, but you’re in a former industrial area adjacent to I-94 and a large landfill. Allow me the solace of my imagination.

Beaubien Woods
I-94 lies beyond
DSC_7818
Calumet River at Beaubien Woods
DSC_7822
Landfill across from Beaubien Woods

Calumet Fisheries, Chicago Skyway, train, and boats

Since we were in the area, I suggested J visit Calumet Fisheries, a Chicago institution he’d never been to. I can’t eat fish, but he likes it. He was excited to see smelt on the side of the building. He got some. Meanwhile, I took photos and videos from the same bridge that Jake and Elwood jumped in The Blues Brothers (which I don’t remember that well anymore). The Chicago Skyway is in the background, and the closer bridge is the one my Amtrak trains use. It was great to see the bridges from this angle, and even better when a freight train came along. A pair of boats on the Calumet River completed the picture.

Calumet Fisheries
A Chicago institution with the bridge the Blues Brothers jumped
Calumet Fisheries
Calumet Fisheries
Calumet River at 95th Street in Chicago
Chicago Skyway and train bridge over Calumet River
Calumet River at 95th Street in Chicago
Cheeky tourist
Freight train crossing the same bridge I passed over last week on the Amtrak Wolverine
Now boats passing under the bridge — no planes, but later a helicopter made a brief appearance

Finally, we picked up sandwiches at Potbelly’s and dined at the University of Chicago campus, which was aglow in the setting sun.

IMG_9183
Back in Hyde Park
Posted in Adventure, Blog | Tagged Chicago, Forest Preserves of Cook County, nature, photo, train, video | Leave a reply

Pullman National Monument

words and images Posted on June 20, 2022 by dlschirfJune 24, 2022
June 19, 2022

J had thought to go to Sagawau Canyon or Chicago Botanic Garden, but the roads were too red and the delays too great for my tolerance (33+ minutes!). He suggested the National Park Service property closest to me — Pullman National Monument, about 20 to 25 minutes away via Stony Island, potholes and all.

A ranger who seemed happy to see visitors greeted us and gave us brochures and a neighborhood map. When I saw Cottage Grove and a Metra stop on the map, I realized I pass within a few blocks of the visitor center when I take Metra to Homewood or University Park. The Kensington station is at 115th Street and Cottage Grove. Pullman is near Lake Calumet, Big Marsh Park, Indian Ridge, and Dead Stick Pond, and not far from Hegewisch Marsh and Beaubien Woods. It’s a strange area, abandoned in part by industry, bisected by I-94 and its ceaseless noise, and only partially reclaimed by wetlands.

The visitor center is well laid out. Our ranger friend told us the second and third floors are being developed, and the building across the way, roofed with plastic sheeting, is being restored by the state of Illinois.

As someone who’s not from Chicago and who’s never fully embraced living here, I didn’t know much about Pullman or the economic and labor situation. From the 1890s, I know more about serial killer H. H. Holmes than anything else. Now I know a bit more.

A timeline on the wall shows the history of Pullman, from its association with luxury and its conversion to wartime production (twice) to its final delivery in 1981 to Amtrak. Mixed in are episodes of economic, social, and labor unrest, with federal troops called in, firing on and killing striking laborers.

Other exhibits include a gander at what a Pullman car looked like on the inside, with reproduced seats and ceiling.  A video shows a porter at work putting up a bed and a couple commenting on the car’s luxury. Displays cover the Pullman neighborhood and the restricted life lower-level employees led — what would it be like to sleep, eat, and be entertained within steps of work, with little means to go anywhere else day to day?

Race is part of the rail labor story. While many Pullman porters (most? all?), like one of Michelle Obama’s ancestors, were African American, they were not allowed to join the new rail labor unions. In their conflicts with the upper business classes, the unions turned down help from people with whom they had common cause, apparently without seeing the irony. To be fair, it’s noted that labor leader Eugene Debs did not agree with this choice to exclude African Americans.

One great thing about the visitor center exhibits: They’re tactile and include Braille. Instead of, say, a flat drawing of a Pullman car,  the graphic is grooved or carved so you can feel the shape and details. Sometimes Iv’e wondered if Braille is an endangered language but it seems not.

There’s also a spot where people, mostly children, can write their reactions. I wish I’d taken photos. One wrote that while capitalism has some benefits, it also creates problems, which are listed. That kid is smarter than the average bear, as we used to say.

The exhibits draw such observations out by asking questions about life for laborers, many immigrants, in the shadow of privileged and wealthy owners and leaders, and about the violence of the government response when rail service linking Midwest and West was severed. I’d like to think it wouldn’t happen again, but these are “interesting times,” with income disparity and other inequities driving unrest, overt and covert. While Pullman may seem to be in the distant past, the issues resonate today.

There is, of course, a very good gift shop, where we learned the author of one of the books for sale (which I was buying) was speaking nearby. His talk would have been half over by then, so I passed.

Afterward we drove around a bit to see some of the neighborhood’s highlights and housing. I especially liked the livery stable.

Next to the Lake Hotel, we found Gateway Garden. We’d seen a sign on a house about local honey; J discovered the property contained many, many beehives. They must have more than Gateway Garden to meet their needs. Unlike J, I didn’t see the apiary or meet the owners, but I wonder if they get complaints. I hope not.

See this article from May 2022: ‘Good memories’: Brothers revisit last Pullman passenger rail car they helped build

Pullman National Monument
Pullman National Monument
18 photos
Visitor Center
State of Illinois is working on this building
Pullman car ceiling
Pullman car seat (replica, I assume) — not comfortable
Pullman painter at work
I liked this grill at the Pullman Visitor Center
Yikes
Pullman advertisement "Take it easy"
Livery stable building
Pullman housing, I think, adjacent to livery stable
Lake Hotel
Pullman Gateway Garden
Pullman Gratitude Project
Pullman Gratitude Project
Grateful for cats
Pullman Gateway Garden
Pullman Gateway Garden
Pullman Freight Depot and Gas Works sign
Posted in Adventure, Blog, Chicago | Tagged Chicago, National Monument, National Park Service, photo | 1 Reply

Post navigation

← Older posts

Recent Posts

  • RANI incense cones
  • Backyard games
  • German Winter Nights by Johann Beer
  • Hungry squirrel and red-tailed hawk
  • Lodgings I have known: Arrowhead Lodge, Kabetogama, Minnesota

Top Posts & Pages

  • "I'd rather be slowly consumed by moss"
  • About Diane Schirf
  • Book review: Memoir from Antproof Case: A Novel
  • Camp Bullfrog Lake
  • Book review: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Tales of New York
  • Google Maps most viewed photos
  • Marshall Field family: Baby and Baby
  • Memories of South Shore Plaza, Hamburg, New York
  • Ghastly photos
  • Relics: Sands Motel in Ottawa, Illinois

Other realms

  • BookCrossing
  • Facebook
  • Goodreads
  • Instagram
  • LibraryThing
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Good viewing

  • Art of John Taft
  • bensozia
  • Bill of the Birds (no longer updated)
  • BrontëBlog
  • Edge
  • Karen Winters Fine Art
  • Mental Floss
  • Musical Assumptions
  • National Geographic News
  • Orange Crate Art
  • Sexy Archaeology
  • The Creative Journey
  • The Introvert's Corner
  • The Pen Addict
  • The Raucous Royals
  • Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
  • Woodclinched
  • World-O-Crap

BOINC Stats

Copyright © 1996–2023 Diane Schirf. Photographs and writing mine unless noted.
↑