Mmmm...(nearly) Summer

The last couple of days here have been nothing short of idyllic. It's been humid enough to make distant views hazy...

...but not hot enough to be stifling. Cool breezes have kept the air fresh, but have refrained from growing into the more typical merciless gales that almost unceasingly blast in from the lake. The overwhelming crowds that surged outdoors on the first anomalous warm days of spring have thinned a bit as locals have relaxed into the idea that the sun really is going to stick around for a while this time.

It's the kind of weather that compels trombonists to the lake shore for a good open-chested warm up...

...while keeping his neighbors sufficiently lulled to prevent any conflict over an excess of noise.

Butterflies flit contentedly from flower to flower...



...and allow me to get so amazingly close I can almost see my face reflected in their tiny eyeballs. This little guy couldn't have been much more than a half of an inch tall. He settled in atop a blade of grass and seemed to watch me and my camera lens with some bemusement as I slid in ever closer for a good view. When was the last time you got to look right into the face of a butterfly like this?

The fish in the "river" (it's so short--maybe 50 feet long--that I hesitate to give it such a label) that runs between the campus pond and Lake Michigan crowd its banks and jostle for the best spots in the current, while fisherman just a few feet offshore hope to hook a big one...

While everyone else seems to be taking a load off, a mother dove is still working hard to keep her nearly mature chicks fed and happy. When I encountered this trio the two chicks had their faces shoved way up inside the mother's beak and both were aggressively thrusting further and further against her as she presumably regurgitated some nutritious snacks for them to munch on...yumm?

And overlooking it all, a row of barn swallows rest comfortably in their penthouse suites and survey the landscape. (nearly) Summertime and the livin' is easy...