Millennium Park

The Pritzker Pavilion an outdoor ampitheatre

 Millennium Park is actually the world's biggest rooftop garden, or so  they claim, and is built above a busy parking garage and the Millennium Statiion/

It houses many places to visit, but on a blow 0c Chicago day, an hour or so was all I was up for.

 It would be lovely to wander through on a warm day. and is in the centre of the downtown ares

 The Magic Bean is the most popular attraction, it's smooth silver surface reflects the city skyline, and even on a very cold day, attracts a large crowd. This was around 11.00am and you can still see the ice on the top surface.

 Finally with frozen fingers and toes, I decided enough was enough and headed for the warmth.

Constitutional Right

I find it quite confronting when opening a door to a shop or at the entrance to a railway station, to see this sign  prominently displayed literally at eye level and in my face, then to read these type of headlines

Toddler shoots, kills mother at Walmart store in northern Idaho

A two-year-old boy shot dead his mother when he pulled a handgun from her handbag and accidentally fired it in a Walmart store in the US, police say.

Why, I wonder, does a person going shopping need to have a gun in their handbag, particularly when there are small children in the vicinity? It is beyond me why this "right to bear arms" is such a part of everyday life and so hotly defended when this type of "accident" is all to frequent.

Winter Begins?

 Or so all the forecasts say. It started snowing yesterday morning, then as the day warmed, all turned to rain. Today the snow has been a little heavier and more constant, but the temperature is still hovering around the 0C mark. All the forecasts predict this is just the start of what is going to be a bitterly freezing week, with extremely low temperatures.

 As you can see the beach no longer looks so inviting, the water no longer calm and the waves are crashing to shore, but thank goodness there is still not much wind - that could be the killer

 George loves it, he gets all frisky and loves his walks, they may decrease in length if the cold comes as predicted, the part of me that really feels it is my fingers - I lost me best gloves, but I don't think even they would help. I actually have been wearing my snow boots and even using the leg brace, as it is the ice under the snow that is the challenge, although the snowploughs are out and about all the time.

Happy New Year 2015

After a later awakening this morning, (the upstairs dweller didn't bounce out and into the shower until 7.15), George and I headed out for his early constitutional  . Another beautiful, sunny and crisp morning, but a mere -7c today. Lake Michigan was totally calm with the outgoing tide just lapping the shore gently and the high tide mark glistening with a crisp coating of ice and icicles and the surface showing the first stages of ice. I doesn't freeze, but there was just a film of ice over the surface. A beautiful way to start the new year, may it continue as calm and serene.