It was 52 degrees F, cloudy with light intermittent rain, wind SE 10 mph at about 1:45 pm. Dressed for rain and availed myself of the wonderful bike route improvements
to travel from downtown Urbana, through the U of I campus
to downtown Champaign to check out the 10,000 Villages shop to look for Christmas presents.
Found a few nice things and retraced the route (stopping at the White Street bridge over the landscaped water retention area to get a photo of the fog.)
Traffic was pretty much continuous, but light (classes are done for the semester). As always, it was good to get out and ride.
It was 39 degrees F, cloudy the wind NNW 5 mph at 10:42 am. Rode on Minty to Meadowbrook Park. On the way stopped to photograph the light-orange spread of decaying ginkgo leaves and fragrant (in an unpleasant way) fruit.
At Meadowbrook parked and locked the bike between the pavilion and the organic garden plots and walked in towards the Spomer Prairie.
McCullough Creek faintly babbled over the (black cherry, I think) root that grows across the creekbed.
The prairie was stark with pale, dry plant material; occasionally Baptisia pods,
thistle seed heads,
compass plant stalks /leaves,
and other former-flowers (asters?)
created interesting compositions. Some goldenrod seed heads looked like groves of tiny, snowy Christmas trees.
Stopped to look at a new stone sculpture between the wooden playground near Vine Street and the nearby bridge over McCullough Creek.
With all its roundness and texture it looked so much like fossil corral but not really like stone.
The water in the creek was lower than it was when there had been beavers downstream.
And the alder trees with their conspicuous dioecious flowers, that used to grow near the bridge, are gone, for a couple years, actually, I’m pretty sure. Stopped at the memorial plaque that bears a late friend’s name,
and at the welcome splash of color from the lingering red fruit of winterberry.
Velo du Jour 