Something exciting is approaching in the Fourth of July parade -- probably Tootsie Rolls.



Blowing rainbow bubbles -- 'cuz the Fourth is all about freedom and equality, baby.



The Grace Lutheran 25th Grade School reunion (No, we didn't go to 25th Grade, it just felt like it). Stevie and Martin sit on a plate of baked beans and hug, just like the old days.



Nyah nyah nyah, you're extinct and I'm not!



Climbing trees at Brookfield Zoo.



Brookfield Zoo's new "wall of effervescence" where kids and adults can explore the world of trapped air.

Cheese fondue, special polish sausage (some wrapped in bacon), bread, and vegetables for fondueing.



At 39 I can still work a fondue pot!

Saturday our new family had a walk in the Bernheim forest. We even had our own naturalist along to help Jelly appreciate the frozen, non-green landscape.

Here's Jelly in front of a fairy house that she found. The lesson of the day was about seeing the barren-seeming woods with imagination -- Jelly's got the imagination, but not the attention span to really stare at a twig for more than two seconds. She did find and interesting black shiny thing in this fairy house that stumped the naturalist.






Jelly stands on the frozen river. We really did see some amazing things -- minnows darting beneath the ice, leaves frozen in mid-drift down the river -- things we might not have noticed without the naturalist keeping our pace slow and eyes open.




Kristin and Jelly, plus Agron IV, a minor tree-deity in charge of brown-gray lichens.




Kristin and our guide fondle a large fungus.

There was a picture in my old photography book, circa mid-80's, that had a haunting image of a woman alone in a forest of aspens (or some kind of skinny, shadowy tree). I always liked that image -- it certainly has stuck with me. (I have forgotten the photographer or I would link to it.) I guess the feeling was one of making your human-way in a confusing, random natural world. Something like contemplating a riot of stars on a clear night. Anyway, whenever I happen to be in a bare, shadowy forest with a friend and a camera I try to re-create the feeling of the image. Here's my college friend in 1990 in the Kashgar Oasis of Xinjiang Province, China:

And here's Kristin and our friend in Wyoming eighteen years later at Veedawoo -- that's some mighty fine tree-holding.




If anyone knows the original photo, let me know!