Chicago, Lighthouses, Black Book of Color

I went to Chicago for an evening of wandering and photography with a friend recently. She wanted to see the gardens and do night photography and I wanted to see the Lighthouse exhibit and ride the water taxi. We did it all. Lucky for us, there are very nice gardens right on the Magnificent Mile.

If you haven't taken the Water Taxi on the Chicago River, I highly recommend it. The Water Taxi is less than a block walk from both train stations and for under $10, you can ride up and down the river between Michigan Ave and Chinatown all day.

Just look at the gardens that separate the sidewalk from the busy street on the Magnificent Mile. So man colors, beauty, and nature within the concrete jungle.

      

An artist friend shared his journey in creating a lighthouse that would stand on Chicago's Magnificent mile. Rich Green spent three years preparing for this project to support Chicago Lighthouse. This social service organization supports people who are blind, visually impaired, disabled, and veterans.

The lighthouse exhibit is a call to action for access and inclusion of people with disabilities. They will be on the Mag Mile until August 11th. After that, each lighthouse will be auctioned off. (Hey, you could have one in your yard!)

By Rich Green in front of the Disney Store

We walked a few blocks before we came to Rich's lighthouse. One the way we saw many of the lighthouses on display. The first one we encountered:

This lighthouse and the weavings were made by people who are disabled, blind or visually impaired. Seriously! I am so impressed with the colors, the even weaving, and the fun wrapped up feeling. This piece really made me think about the exhibit as a whole. There is so much color on all of the lighthouses. It is a reminder that I am very fortunate to be able to see and process colors. It also means that I need to use my best descriptions to make this post and the images understandable and enjoyable to people who are not able to see. It reminds me that life is about using all of our senses to understand the world around us.

One of my favorite books is The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faria.

The book talks about colors in nature through the senses of someone who can't see. He describes each color based on the way things of those colors taste, smell, sound, and feel using simple descriptive language. This is a wonderful book to share with children to help them understand visual disabilities.

Below are more of the lighthouse that we saw on our outing. Take a look on the lighthouses on the magmile website to see more lighthouse and learn about the artists.

You can checkout a very nice video from Sunday Morning on CBS at this link.

Below are a few more photos of the lighthouses we saw.

I got lucky with the man on the left color coordinating his outfit to this lighthouse.

 

I see you.

If you have the chance to visit Chicago between now and August 11th, be sure to look for all the lighthouses. Appreciate all that you can do and see. Appreciate all that others can do as well.

I mentioned that we also wanted to see the night lights of Chicago. Here are a few photos. Even at night the City is full of colors and light.

Crown Park

 

Nighttime in Chicago. The train passes, people play in the water and lighted carriage rides travel under the Millennium Park Bridge.

Millennium Park Bridge

Cloud Gate aka The Bean

The Scent of Pineapple Sage

I have a very eclectic enjoyment of life. I write, make art, and spend a lot of time outdoors. This can be distracting and make it challenging to get things done. (Hey look, a Chicken). In the end, somehow; everything comes back to using my creativity for one purpose or another.

Time spent in the garden, cooking and making up recipes are of particular enjoyments. My mother was a fan of Julia Child and I still remember being with her in the kitchen learning how to cook and bake. I often pretended to be Julia adding my own flair to recipes. (Adding cinnamon red hots to cake batter was a favorite though not very successful idea when I was little.) Now that I have a better understanding of proportions and flavor combinations which I learned from years of cooking practice and reading and testing out recipes,  I often make up new meal ideas and rarely completely follow a recipe.

Pineapple Sage

When my Pineapple sage began to take over the herb pot on the deck, I needed to figure out a way to use it. BTW, Pineapple sage really does smell like pineapple. Yum.

Like Winnie-The-Pooh, I put my thinking cap on.

I got it. Sage goes with Turkey. Wait. Turkey is for Thanksgiving. Wait. Why? There is no rule that you can't eat turkey year round. Pineapple is summery, sunny, and delicious. That's it. Turkey breast with a little salt and pepper and a bunch of Pineapple Sage on the grill. Then pair it with a nice pineapple salsa and some guacamole.

Pineapple Salsa Recipe
pineapple (I bought a bag of frozen pineapple chunks and chopped them into tiny bits when they thawed. I was feeling lazy and didn't want to cut up a whole pineapple)
jalapeno pepper - Seeds removed (I used half of a pepper as I made a pretty small portion of salsa)
chopped pineapple sage ( a few leaves)
salt
and a bit of garlic.

No I don't have exact amounts. It depends on how much you are making and what your heat to sweet ratio preference is. I just started with the pineapple and mixed in the other ingredients until it looked balanced.

It was delicious. Turkey really can be a light summer treat.

I am not sure if the pineapple sage made much a a difference in the flavor of the meal, but it sparked the idea, and that made it priceless.

Whether you need to use some herbs in from your garden, want something different for dinner, or need an artistic spark for your next project, I recommend letting the scent of an herb take you on an adventure.