Outside of a three week span in January, winter 2023/24 has been a bust. No real snow, no real cold, just a whole lot of bummer. At least so far as I am concerned, I am pretty sure that most of the rest of Chicago has been happy not to have to deal with much winter weather.
Between the lack of appealing weather and my busy winter work schedule, I have not been outdoors much. But I have managed to get out a bit which is always nice. One way to work a mild winter along the southern shore of Lake Michigan is to take advantage of warm moist air from the gulf running up and into the 38 degree lake water which creates some great foggy and misty conditions. Perfect for capturing water droplets.
Another frequent occurrence are clear and cloudless days which provide good opportunity to work on my landscape techniques, which really can use some work.
At the start of 2023 I set a goal to make it out to the park an average of once per week. I hit visit #52 with two weeks to spare!
This visit was to the Bailly Calumet trail. The lack of winter around here is getting pretty annoying, but by going out a bit early I was able to catch some of the lingering morning frost, hidden in the deeper shadows. Ice is nice, just wish we had more of it.