Jimmy Carter committed political suicide by telling the American people that austerity and reason could lead us to future health. Ronald Reagan preached greed and god. The American people practiced group denial, chose Reagan and modern America was born. The Reagan mythology was created to support and perpetuate that denial. Now the political right calls its group denial “populism”.

And you thought we were in the midst of a recession!  People losing their jobs and their homes?  No health insurance?  Can’t pay the bills? Well only in some places.

A neighboring subdivision in our village is called Timberhill because it used to be a glacial deposit consisting of several broad hills covering a few hundred acres and covered with, guess what?  A forest.  A lush, thick forest, habitat for an equally lush diversity of wildlife.  Used to be.

Now the cheapest new home here is about $1.5 million. 

(Above: Just sold for $1.5 mil - new owners new landscaping and pool installed in back before winter…with bonus money?)

And in the depth of this recession, not only are they still building, but people are buying.  Would I be surprised if I was to learn that a majority of folks buying into this exclusive neighborhood work in the financial industry?  Maybe a few in insurance, and the less well off, doctors and lawyers?  Not really.

By ordinance, each house must be at least 4000 square feet, have no less than 2 stories, no less than 6 gables (or separate roof lines) and at least a three-car garage.  If you want to build a ranch, have a flat roof or have an architect design your house in a style that is not “traditional”, you’re out of luck – you cannot build in Timberhill.  They even have an “Architectural Review Committee” in the village to make sure that any new houses conform to the rest of the neighborhood, but do not look the same.

That’s a joke.

No it’s not. 

We call this place, below, “the hotel”:

And there’s more – they just go on and on!:

There is so much to say about the state of architecture today, not much of it good.  I’m not even sure if this kind of crap is worthy of the name.  And with not one of these monstrosities, has an effort been made to be part of, or compliment, what little remains of the natural landscape.

And notice how unnaturally green many of the lawns are in the middle of November (when these pictures were taken)!

Forget it if you were considering building a “modern” house that reflects the era we live in.  It’s the 21^st Century, folks!

The most “modern” house in the subdivision?  Here is a pathetic attempt at a Prairie style house – they didn’t quite get it:

In the neighboring subdivision where we live, the “poor” part of town, the average house is about 2250 square feet.  The average adult, in the “poor” section, does something called “working for a living”.  After all, someone has to pay the income taxes to bail out the financial institutions and pay the bonuses so the that the folks at Timberhill can have some extra cash on hand to put an addition on their hotel…er…house. 

I mean, how can a family of four cram into a place with only six bedrooms and seven baths?

And you can never have enough garages.

Kind of like Stepford, but a name more befitting the Midwest, in Timberhill, every woman is white (that goes without saying), blonde, and, I think the unofficial rule is that she cannot drive an SUV that is not a Cadillac, Lincoln, Lexus or Hummer.  Every child in Timberhill does not have his or her own bedroom, but has his or her own suite. 

And no resident of Timberhill is allowed to swing over while driving on Barreville Road (the common road that connects our subdivisions) and make room for a walker or a biker.  No, when you see what looks like a Timberhill SUV barreling down the road at 45 in a 25, it is your responsibility to dive into the ditch to avoid becoming roadkill.

Want to guess how they vote in Timberhill?  Just saying.

Northeastern Illinois is a painfully beautiful in the autumn.

I spent part of it today at the Glacial Park Conservation Area in McHenry County.  One of the finest tracts of restored prairie and savanna in the Midwest.   The place is huge, and there is still a lot more for me to explore over the coming years.

I put together this 360 degree panoramic shot standing atop a glacial kame.

(click on picture for larger image)

I picked up this grass snake so some other hikers could photograph it. Unfortunately, it was a little hard for me to hold it an take a pic at the same time.

Just a few miles north of Glacial Park is the small town of Richmond. Just at the Wisconsin border, it is like a place that time forgot.

Coming back home to our modest village of Prairie Grove.

This is our 1970’s subdivision.

Our house is back near the top of that hill, hidden by trees in the center.

(click on pictures for larger image)

They don’t build subdivisions like this anymore.  Now they cut down all the trees, and bulldoze the landscape to level it so that they can jam as many houses as possible on an acre.  Then they put up huge, ugly, vinyl-sided houses in rows on streets with curbs, sidewalks and ornamental trees planted in rows.  Goodbye landscape, hello suburbs.

Don’t know how much longer we can hide from the big developers.  I hope for a long time.  Right now most of the people in the village do not want it.  Depends on how long it takes the greed to kick in.

Every flutist knows this piece, but it seems hardly any violinists do. Yet Enesco probably composed it on the violin (and of course on the piano – he played both superbly), as it “lays” very well. I also have it from one of my teachers, Adia Ghertovici, who studied with Enesco who first made me familiar with this astoundingly lovely impressionist piece. More violinsts should put it in their repertoire – it makes a nice ending to a recital, or a fine encore — I’ve used it many times.

Please watch, then send this video to your friends:

Haymarket monument – Forest Home Cemetery – Forest Park, Illinois

I bought this video camera about ten years ago to document some landmark buildings that I was trying to save. Unfortunately they all were destroyed, inevitably, which was why I was documenting them. It was always very depressing. What a waste of time and money!

Anyhow, I think I found a new use for this camera. And one that is a lot less depressing. I had no idea it could do close-ups (the quality is a lot better than what I can put up on YouTube).

I was trying to capture some birds on tape, and I was having little luck. Then I got fascinated (again) by the pollinating insects that inhabit our little Eden here.

Honey bees, unfortunately becoming rare around here, feeding on sunflower nectar, dragonflies, copulating beetles (yes all you nutcase religious conservatives ((substitute “hypocrites” at your discretion)), sex, sex, sex!), a butterfly I can’t identify at the moment, small wasps, bumblebees on the goldenrod, and full circle, our old friend the honey bee at the sunflowers again.

So I’ve had the camera for ten years, now I just have to learn how the use the darn thing. And editing? Not a clue.

This is what it sounds like during the daytime around here.