Month: February 2024

If you have read many of our stories you’ll know by now the Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois, is one of our favorite places for pictures, rest, relaxation, beauty, inspiration, enjoying nature and each other, reading, and so on.

Every year the Arboretum has a weeks-long event called Illumination. In very general terms it is a light/laser light show, in the trees and sky, accompanied by music. Frankly, it is beyond the description of words and my general description doesn’t begin to do justice to the genius and hard work that must go into its preparation.

This picture, taken on the last day of the Illumination event of 2022-2023, January 7, 2023, to be exact, shows the moon, which had a significant presence in the midst of all of the other lights, framed by the limbs of a tree tinged in blue from one the lasers, that were in abundance that beautiful, mystical, colorful night that was filled with discovery, awe, and visuals beyond imagination!

We had been in this neighborhood for less than two years. It was our second spring. Less than a block from where we lived is a park. This tree is in the far west corner of the park. In the absence of snow, this picture has all of the makings of a black and white picture of a tree in winter; stark, no leaves, perhaps giving the feeling of a winter day.

But what you cannot see in this picture is that the vast, vast majority of trees and plants in the neighborhood, and they were in abundance, on this late April 2017 day, were in full bloom . . . except for this one tree. I thought, perhaps, this tree was diseased or dying or dead. However, as I would see in all of the years following, it was a very late bloomer with the buds on the limbs not showing until well into May. Then, almost magically, it transitioned into one of the most plush trees in the area.

In this picture I simply stood with my back against the tree, looked up, and took the picture. A rather interesting picture of a counterintuitive tree.

This is an October 2022 view of the advent of autumn colors as seen atop Frost Hill, one of the panoramic views to be found with the Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois.

This picture, as well as Trees – Untitled #79, can be found in our Etsy Shop.

This image is the same as Trees – Untitled #95 excepted for some editing/color differences.

The story behind this picture can be found by reading the story behind Trees – Untitled #95.

This is a picture of a cotton bush. It is neither a tree nor a flower but we put it in the trees category in the absence of a bush category.

It was taken in October of 2022 during a stroll around the pond at Prairie Walk Pond in Lisle, Illinois. The colors of Fall are evident in this bush while some parts still retain green leaves. Nearly all of the colors of the spectrum are on display here with the help of the water of the pond in the background.

The are four pictures taken this day that are available in our Etsy Shop. Flowers – Untitled #72 and Flowers – Untitled #77, which are the same picture but with different effects, and this picture and its companion, being the same image, Trees – Untitled #87, with a bit of a vintage look.

We were at the Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois on this August 2023 late afternoon, heading back to our car after having taken 20 or more pictures. The angle of the sun and its rays coming through the trees decorating the landscape with brilliant light in some areas, casting shadows in other gave an unusually ethereal feeling in the moment.

“Cathedral” is the word that came to mind as the curved branch in the foreground seemed to offer a doorway into splendor, peace, enlightenment, and revelation.

We were driving along one late summer day in 2022 and came upon a sharp curve in the road to the right. As I negotiated the curve, out of the corner of my eye to the left, I saw what I thought, in that fleeting moment, a body of water surrounded by some trees. We tried to mark the spot and plan our return.

Return we did, in fact, later that year in October. The was no entrance to that area from the thoroughfare we had been on previously and after considerable searching we finally found the pond which lay within the confines of the College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

The weather was perfect, a slight breeze put the trees in motion, and in the surroundings the autumn colors were in full array. There was a relatively small patch of ground there, the rest being undergrowth or water, but it was ample to take a variety of colorful pictures.

One of the trees there was this willow tree whose long hanging branches swayed most beautifully in the breeze. It was quite captivating and resulted in a picture taken that day being in our Etsy Shop in two versions. Trees – Untitled #91, which is the original picture, and this picture which is an edited version that captures a bit of the mystique of that day.

During a walk down one of the many hiking trails in the Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois, we came across another, steeper, less traveled path that led downward into this clearing. I’ll never forget the sense of peace and yet mystery, stillness, but the feeling of being accompanied by “something” we could not see but strongly perceived. It was unusually quiet; not even much of the winds blowing through the trees to which we were so accustomed. An occasional bird calling out, perhaps, but a tranquility, a place of repose, but not so much a place as a state of being in those woods and walking about as if we were on holy ground.

These were the moments in October 2022, one of which we kept in this picture. Another picture in our Etsy Shop taken that day is Trees – Untitled #89.