African Garden + time

Big City, Little Village OOTS*

Exelon Plaza, Chicago

I'm a little late for the spring edition of * Out On The Streets, the public planting meme started by VP of Veg Plotting, but I hope you find it worth the wait, as I took the photos of Chicago yesterday when my parents took VIS and I and the kids to see Stomp at the Theater Formerly Known as the Shubert. We parked the car with that venerable Chicago restaurant, Italian Village, then walked through the Plaza Formerly Known as First National, but now called Exelon Plaza.

The clock still says "1st National." The kids got to see the Chagall mosaic, which used to be open to the sky, but now sports this nifty canopy.

Next to the theater, a planter with flagpoles.

State Street is lined with planting beds filled with Tulips.

They look a little worse for the wear after thunderstorms the previous night.
In the middle of April, I went to Long Grove, Illinois, a quaint little town frozen in time and converted to a shopping district.

I had more images, but Picasa Web Albums is giving me grief.
Picasa is once again playing nice, so here's some more of Long Grove.

The plantings are a good foil for the charming old buildings. (Old by Illinois standards, anyway.)

I really liked the way the brick wall set off the tulips here.
Finally, a drive-by shooting to show how Crabapples are everywhere in Northern Illinois. I took this at the peak of Crabapple season last week.

Although this stripmall is in Island Lake, it could be anywhere in the suburbs.