I am still around!

I have neglected this blog for some time now, since I moved to Illinois in August of 2011 (with Jacqui! Who moved out here with me, and I am very grateful to her for doing so!) for graduate school at the University of Illinois. I have a great deal of back-photos and things to share and explore about life in the Midwest and central Illinois (the pancake-flat corn desert!), so check back again very soon! Thanks!

On a transect at a wetland mitigation site in Ogle County Illinois along the Rock River.
Check out the huge amaranth! 

cloud front

click on the image to expand

On our way back from Springfield a few days ago, driving on highway 72 (visited Lincoln's home) there was a cloud front moving east, I pulled over and jumped out of the car to snap a few shots. It actually felt like winter that day, about 15 degrees F, with strong wind gusts. The wide open sky of Illinois can sometimes be quite impressive, the only time out east I would see such an open sky, is in the alpine areas on the top of a mountain.

Vintage Stamps

Me and Jacqui visited The Idea Store in Champaign yesterday. It is a store full of a wide assortment of random and interesting items, things that for the most part would likely otherwise be in a landfill. Here people can find a second use for them, for arts and crafts etc. Jacqui found a bunch of ziploc bags full of old/used stamps, from all over world within the last hundred years. Each one is an interesting piece of art in its own right, it is fascinating to consider where they were sent from, to whom, and why, and how they ended up being sold in ziploc bags in east-central Illinois at a thrift store. She started using them for some creative crafts today (so far she has made some really awesome coasters).

  Here is a very small sample from the hundreds of stamps. 

Apparently Belgium had control over Congo for a while, and it was known as the Belgian Congo (wikipedia).

From Japan

I think this is one of the "federal duck stamps," the program, which was started in the 1930s (I think) raised money that was used to protect wetlands around the country

"Family Planning", the "perfect nuclear family." This website discusses the family planning stamps, "...virtually every other Family Planning stamp is from the third world, none are from Europe, and the U.S. would later (under President Reagan) pull out of all international family planing programs."

Luxemburg

I think this is from Hungary

the city-state of Monaco

Peru

Spain 1979. I think translated this reads, "running, a sport for everyone"