Another Visit Home!

We're back in Illinois at the moment, partly to visit family, mostly to get some more work done on the house, continuing the modifications started in July in preparations for the new roof.  We'll be blogging more on work on the guestroom the next couple days. 

Upon our arrival, they were deep into some Fall temperatures here, but we were disappointed there is hardly a lick of any Fall colors.  They look to still be a week or two away.  We found another sign of Fall, though - our house was surrounded by the racing sculls of Wheaton College, who train on the Fox River here.  We're just lucky that now, in addition to the usual rack of canoes between us and the Fox, we've also got a half dozen 8 and 4 person sculls.  I almost tripped over the nearly 40 foot sculls on my first walk down to the river the night we arrived.  But that has been the only inconvenience - always interesting to see them go out for their evening training runs.

It has only been 6 weeks since we were here last, but the cool temps almost make it seem like a different place!  I've had a couple brief chances to get up to Tekakwitha Forest preserve - fall is definitely coming, but there are some last gasps of color and some of our regular buddies to greet us.  My first trip over, a visit near sunset, I spotted a couple white tail deer.  While getting out of the car very slowly with the camera, one walked right past me and the car to join them.  A fourth fawn joined them from under an apple tree at the edge of the woods to feed on the mown grass and acorns.

The open prairie section of Tekakwitha that a month ago was dominated by Queen Anne's Lace is now overgrown by Goldenrod and patches of Sawtooth Sunflower.  Each of these shots were taken on each of my two trips - one right near sunset that shows the silhouette of the inner flower on the petals, and the other a noon wide-angle shot that contrasts the yellows of the Sawtooth Sunflower and Goldenrod.

We've promised ourselves to spend more time outdoors while the weather is nice, but the demands on our limited time in home improvement work makes it hard.  We've got a few days left, so hope to make more time to get out!