Fahrenheit or Celsius...

Who cares...it is going to be brutally cold no matter how you look at it. I can deal with 10 C below zero, I got used to it, but minus 28 C ?!
I completely detest the weather in Chicago, it doesn't matter if it is winter or summer, these are basically two seasons here. Reportedly, it is going to be the coldest days in decades.

Let's hope it will be over soon.

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2014/01/03/winter-storm-petersons-newday.cnn.html



This is the weather forecast for my area:

in Celsius

in Fahrenheit

Air & Water Show

Chicago annual Air & Water Show takes place this weekend along the Chicago lakefront.
(10 a.m. to 3 p.m. August 17 and 18 from Fullerton to Oak Street, with North Avenue Beach as the center point)

It is said to be the largest free show of its kind in the U.S., only this year military planes and boats will not be participating, but I did see 'the full version' two years ago.

Finally gardening

As a child I was completely fascinated by a rock garden of my neighbor. I remember I just loved the alpine plans organized between rocks and the whole look of the garden. We had mainly carrots, tomatoes and potatoes in ours which I like to eat, but not so much to plant and care for, so I started to create my own tiny rock garden in a corner of the garden surrounded by vegetables.

If I think about it now that was exactly the moment when my passion for a landscape design started. My mother used to say that I have green fingers after my grandmother. Unfortunately with all the relocating and living mainly in apartments, I didn't have much opportunity to create many garden designs. Instead I turned to indoor plants ( WOW label - "house plants" in American English ) which I love as well.
Many years ago I also got my first Bonsai and I was hooked. I can't help myself, I love these mini plants and from there comes my interest in Japanese/Zen gardens. I find these arrangements so calming, peaceful and a feast for your eyes. At least for me it is, so it is no surprise that I would love to bring a bit of Japan in my own garden :-)

To be honest a tropical garden would be also on my list, I was in heaven when visiting my husband's family in South Africa and couldn't take my eyes off all the flora there, but I could hardly recreate any type of tropics here in Chicago. Well, at least not in winter. It is July now and the last week's temperatures were hovering near 35 C with the humidity around 70%. Definitely not for me, so I will stay with my Japanese ideas for now.

Last year I visited Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, Illinois which is about 1 hour and a half from my place. The 14 acre gardens were established in 1978 by John Anderson and landscape architect Hoichi Kurisu.

 

 

 

I took many pictures there and have been researching more about the design and plants I can use.

My first load of plants arrived last week and I can't wait to enjoy them in my garden. I just have to wait for all the utilities to be marked on the property.

 

 

 

Pelican Harbor Aquatic Park

 

We started swimming again after some time. It has been a very hectic period with the house search and moves, but we finally decided to return to our pool in Bolingbrook.

 

We live temporary in Naperville, but this Aquatic Park is one of many reasons why we made a decision to move back to Bolingbrook, where we were renting a house previously. Aside from many other attractions of the Aquatic Complex, there is also a great recreation centre with Lifestyle Fitness Center and other facilities available for a very reasonable price.

The most important for us is the fact that there is an indoor pool as we love to lap swim all year round. It is definitely a great place to be in summer. Also, the fact that it is only about 10 minutes to get there is a big advantage.

I love to swim. Anywhere really. I prefer natural environment - lakes, ocean, but a pool will do too, although I don't like chlorine that much.

My birth sign is Pisces and I definitely feel in my element when in water :-)

 

 

Main Entrance

 

 

Lap Pool

Leisure Pool

Slides

Outdoor Pool

Lazy River

UNDER WATER

We woke up this morning and were surrounded by water. It has been raining the whole week and this is the result. It is not a pretty picture. Many roads are blocked and so many houses flooded!

NAPERVILLE

I currently live in Naperville in the US state of Illinois, located in DuPage and Will counties. Naperville is a suburban city of Chicagoland with population of 140 thousand inhabitants. It was first found as Naper’s Settlement after Joseph Naper who arrived at the west bank of the DuPage River with his family and friends in July 1831.

 
DuPage County was split from Cook County in 1839 and Naper’s Settlement became the DuPage county seat and was incorporated as the Village of Naperville in 1857 (population 2000 at that time). It became a city in 1890.

 

I like Naperville downtown mainly for its Riverwalk, especially in summer time. Riverwalk was built in 1981 to commemorate the city’s 150^th birthday and has won state and national awards. I am not surprised as it is a really beautiful area with bridges, fountains and pretty landscaping.

There are outdoor concerts, paddle boat rides, you can stroll along the river, jog, have a picnic, admire sculpture art or just sit on a bench, feed a duck :-) and enjoy the moment.

 

 

White

This year the winter arrived in March. We have had hardly any snow in Chicagoland this winter and we certainly didn’t expect snow to arrive now, especially when we are waiting for the real estate market to pick up so that we can carry on with our house search.

So, we weren’t happy about the forecast at first, to be honest we were annoyed, but only until the day when the snow started falling. It was actually such a beautiful day, for my husband and me anyway. It was just about 0 °C (32 ° F), wasn’t blowing like crazy for a change, which is quite typical for Chicago area, so we couldn’t wait to get out and enjoy ourselves!

The pictures are from the area where Naperville and Bolingbrook neighbourhoods meet - between Knoch Knolls Park and River Crest Estates Park. We were following the DuPage river this time.

What a great walk in the woods!!!