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It's a marvelous night for a moondance

This is another one of the photos I shot on my saturday night run to see the sunset. One thing I like about where I live--a lot of sky.

Autumn Sunset

I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner yesterday and kept stepping to the patio door to watch the sunset. After awhile, I decided to go get some pictures of it. So, I ran to get my camera and tripod and jumped in the car to get away from the houses. These pictures are taken at a spot about 5 minutes from my house.



I must have looked kind of odd with my car pulled over on a gravel road, door hanging open, frantically trying to set up my tripod with my camera and telephoto lens. I was only standing there for about 10 minutes. But the whole thing was glorious.



I managed to get about 30 pictures before the sun disappeared. These are my favorites.

Oktoberfest

This weekend it's been just crazy in my little corner of the world. It's Manteno's Oktoberfest weekend. It included garage sales, a marathon, a talent contest, a food contest, an arts and crafts show, a carnival, rides, food and even a tour of the bottom of a quarry. Bottom line is that it's just been crazy in my quiet town. Personally, I like it better when a traffic jam is two cars at the stop light. But that's just me.



I brought the kids to the carnival today. We did rides and games. I only let them play games that guaranteed a prize. It's so sad to see them play a game that costs $5 a shot and walk away empty handed. Of course, that meant that I was not only juggling my camera, but all of their little prizes as well. They did pretty well with the prizes. I must have looked kind of funny.



It always cracks me up to post pictures of the silos in the "downtown" area of Manteno and say that they're the tallest structures in town....but they are. Here's a shot of the carnival against the water tower with the silos standing behind. Oooops...almost forgot to mention the riding lawn mower races. I don't think I've ever seen so many riding lawn mowers all in one place. I think there were a few tractors in there as well. We saw them after the races were over and they were all riding together to the local Ace Hardware. LOL...can't wait until next year.

it's wild

Monee Reservoir is a peaceful place. Many people go there just to fish. So, any amount of noise is not welcome. The place is surrounded by native plants, including this wildflower. I see it all over the place, but of course, couldn't tell you the name. As usual.

monee reservoir

I had a few free moments to take a drive today. Lots of corn that's drying out, some ripening soybeans. Before you know it, the fall colors will be here. Until then, here's a picture of some floating thingys in storage over at Monee Reservoir--a nice fishing spot near Monee (of course.) One thing I wanted to mention--I saw a lot of beautiful open land, miles of cornfields, soybean fields, forest preserves, hawks etc. Plus we all around here have heard the cries of the coyotes late at night (or in my case, very early in the morning) and the likes of all kinds of critters. Why would you want to pave all of that over with an airport? Furthermore, who would ever think that the Chicago area needs a third airport? Okay, I'm done ranting.

summer turns me upside down

Well, the kids go back to school tomorrow. Summer has just flown by. We had a lot of fun this summer, especially in the pool. Plus, we were able to spend much more time in our pool this summer than last. We still have days ahead of us for swimming. But too soon, we'll be closing the pool and getting ready for another Chicagoland winter.

night creeps
across corn fields
quiet snow drifts
snake across the road
remembering summer

-bpl 8/10