McHenry County Blog

I took this picture last Sunday afternoon.

It was really windy. A gray kind of day.

Leaves had been thrust through the chain line fence at Crystal Lake's Main Beach.

They tried to get through, but were not as successful as the wind was cutting through my thin Heartland Blood Centers jacket.

Heartland more or less traded it to me, along with a bar-b-cue apron and cooking utensils, for four pints of blood.

Labels: Chain Link Fence, Crystal Lake, Leaves, Main Beach, Message of the Day, Wind

Who would have thought that I would see a “Message of the Day” on the way to our mailbox?

On a road the last traffic count found 6,500 vehicles a day.

More than on parts of the four-lane highway on the way to Western Illinois University, Route 67. (And, yes it sticks in my craw that there are four lane highways built where there are not 20,000 cars a day, while local state highways locally lie virtually abandoned—think pothole-ridden Route 31 between Crystal Lake and McHenry, which most assuredly should be a four-lane road.)

My son wanted to go to school early, but I saw some letters on the bench that needed mailing on Thursday. It was about 8:25 when I walked down the steps to Lake Avenue.

And, this is what I saw.

Sunlight shining on and through what I think are red oak leaves.

Simply stunning.

Look closely and you will see a huge semi loaded with sandstone or limestone heading to some landscaping job.

Labels: Interplay, Lake Avenue, Lakewood, Leaves, Message of the Day, Red Oak, Sunlight

Leaves settled on the newly flowing water in Cress Creek on November 3rd.

They are from one or more silver maple trees that shade the creek between Lake Avenue and Broadway.

Crystal Lake Park District employees were down by the nearby outlet using pitchforks to remove seaweed, which had become a vegetative dam holding back lake waters.

Labels: Cress Creek, Crystal Lake, Leaves, Message of the Day, Silver Maple

This picture was taken Friday, November 16th, after I took my 10-year old to school.

It was the day the maple leaves were falling in and, as you can see from these pictures, on Crystal Lake.

The most beautiful I could find were on and in front of Dr. Don Brandeau’s lakefront home at Gate 3 in Lakewood.

I took the top one from the edge of his yard, right by Crystal Lake.

There was a swath of yellow on the lake, as you can see below.

I took so many photographs, it is difficult to select which other one to post.

You may remember that despite my red-green colorblindness, I can see yellow.

It is so vivid!

The photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Don Brandeau, Gate 3, Lakewood, Leaves, Maple, Yellow

Not only are leaves hanging on waiting for a new bud to push them off a branch, but neighbors are cleaning up leaves that fell since last fall in our oak-hickory forest.

This neighbor goes high tech.

I use a rake.

Labels: Leaf Raking, Leaves, Message of the Day