Weekend run

Before I say anything, I want to congratulate all the registrants, participants, volunteers, organizers and finishers of this year's Chicago Marathon. AMAZING!

And now...

I'm a farm girl at heart. I dream of goats, sheep, chickens. I really do. Chris and I seriously considered trying to buy an old farm house in Sidney, IL a couple years back. But somewhere along the way I made a choice that landed me here, in the third largest city in the country. I probably should have lived on some farm somewhere.

But I live in the city. And....I love it.


And because I live in this city, I run in this city. I've had some beautiful runs in my life, etched as firmly in my memory as the time I fell off my dad's shoulders at the McLean County Fair as a girl. I've run along a cold and foggy Oregon coast, through the forests of the Smoky Mountains, across the hot sandiness of Sanibel Island. I've woven my way through Urbana cornfields, Wisconsin farmland, Michigan river paths. But my weekend runs through my neighborhood here in the city rival them all in beauty, especially at this time of year.

My route meanders in a mostly North-South fashion. I head South out of Ukrainian Village, eventually veer East into West Town only to turn around back North and run through Wicker Park and Bucktown. For the most part, the brick two-flats and the tall condo buildings do a nice job of shading me from the sun, but when I pass those East-West cross streets, I'm hit with a blast of the most beautiful, magical autumnal sun imaginable. It's like being on stage, golden and illuminated and breathless. I can't describe how beautiful it is to run through the streets of my neighborhood in October.

My neighborhood

And this has been quite possibly the most beautiful week all year. The tops of the trees are reddening. The yellows are brilliant. The low angle of the sun is spellbinding and gives a sense of surreality to everything. I purposely trod on the fallen leaves because, like a little girl, can't help but love the sound of it.  I close my eyes as I run past wrought iron fences, because the play of light and shadow on my eyes (dark light dark light dark light) makes me dizzy.

7:00 a.m. on a Saturday or Sunday around here these days is all leaves and golden colors and people walking dogs and people with coffee and men playing chess in the park and the smell of bacon in the streets.

This weekend did not disappoint.

Cortez

Oakley

Grand Street Gardens

Grand St. Gardens - I used to be the manager here

Grand St. Gardens - Leavitt and Grand

Sundays in Wicker Park

Squash in Wicker Park

Sweet Autumn Clemantis

Sweet Cakes Bakery - Damen Ave.

Waiting for the leaves to fall

Our Neighborhood Ukrainian Church

And another one...

And another

Holstein Park

On the way home...

And finally home.

I ran around like a love struck lunatic this weekend and last, snapping pictures with my phone along my run. I can only hope my girls will join me one day, and I can only hope we live in a place I love as much as this one.