FEATURE image: October 2024.
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FEATURE Image: July 2024. deer. St. Joseph Creek. 7.62mb 0479 (1)
FEATURE Image: June 8, 2024 6.87mb 8154
Since late May 2024 Illinois has been the epicenter of an historic emergence of two broods of trillions of cicadas whose buzzing presence is expected to continue into July. The Northern Illinois Brood (Brood XIII) came out of the soil on schedule during its 17-year cycle. In 2024 there is an adjacent emergence in the central United States occuring at the same time. It is the emergence of the Great Southern Brood (Brood XIX). It is this dual emergence of the two groups of cicadas that is historic since it has not happened since Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the U.S. in 1803.
According to a 2024 publication by the Ohio Biological Survey of “The 2024 Emergence of Periodical Cicada Broods XIII and XIX” by renowned cicada expert Dr. Gene Kritsky, Professor Emeritus of Biology and former Dean of the School of Behavioral and Natural Sciences at Mount St. Joseph University, the Brood XIII emergence extends from the center of the state of Illinois around Springfield and spreads as far north as southern Wisconsin. Brood XIX also extends from around Springfield, Illinois, to points south past Cairo, Illinois. “This is not just a cicada year,” Dr. Kritsky observed, “it’s an historic convergence of Broods XIII and XIX, making it a once-in-a-lifetime experience for enthusiasts and researchers alike” (See- https://www.msj.edu/news/2024/01/dr-gene-kritsky-releases-book-cicada-emergence.html – retrieved June 15, 2024). As trillions of cicadas mate and lay their eggs this year, the buzzing activity will gradually fade and 2024’s broods of adult cicadas die. Their offspring of 2024 will emerge, in the case of Brood XIII, during its next 17 year cycle in 2041.
FEATURE Image: June 2023 85% 7.86 mb.
“Storm line breaking over the fields as the last light pushes through.”
FEATURE image: Viewers near Chicago, Illinois, of the Total Eclipse of the Sun, April 8, 2024. Author’s photograph. All rights reserved.
On Monday, April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse crossed North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The path of the eclipse first entered into Mexico then into the United States in Texas and into Canada in southern Ontario province. In the U.S., the solar eclipse’s “path of totality” traveled through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The central event took less than two hours. See – https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/where-when/ – retrieved April 8, 2024. In the U.S. over 30 million people resided in the path of the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse. The next total solar eclipse in the mainland U.S. and Canada won’t be for more than 20 years. See – https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/08/science/total-solar-eclipse#what-to-know-about-the-great-north-american-eclipse – retrieved April 9, 2024. The last total solar eclipse across the U.S. was August 21, 2017 and, before that, one must return to the 1970’s for a total solar eclipse in the U.S. though their paths do not begin to match the 2024 event in terms of crossing the center of the country.
Yet, a “total eclipse of the sun” is, if not one of science’s misnomers, clearly one of nature’s optical illusions. If 1.3 million Earths can fit in the sun (https://www.iflscience.com/how-many-earths-can-fit-inside…) and 50 moons can fit in the Earth (https://www.reference.com/…/many-moons-fit-inside-earth…) then 65 MILLION moons would fit in the sun. That science can learn much from the tiny moon “covering” the sun – more akin to a visual pinprick – can only be limited despite the belief (like the ancients) that it signifies more. Yet as Einstein’s Theory of Relativity demonstrates (i.e., that light bends by gravity) even a limited empirical physical footprint’s significance such as a solar eclipse can be outsized to learned points greater than its intrinsic data range – that is when viewed and processed by the universe’s most vast body – the human imagination.
In the media, everything is hyped and what’s important is ignored; as if earth’s tiny moon is going to block the solar system’s sun. At best it’s a dim overcast for 5 minutes where, afterwards, many express some disappointment in the drama of expectations. A lunar eclipse (that happened March 25, 2024) is more interesting for the masses of naked-eye low-tech earthlings. As far as a cosmic event, the solar eclipse is eagerly anticipated whatever its scale as it will contribute to science and scientific knowledge based on its rare natural phenomenon and the development of astronomers’ newest tools. Yet humankind’s imagination by itself is the more interesting aspect of the cosmos, starting here on earth, and ascending to the stars and planets.
FEATURE image: Downers Grove, Illinois. April 20, 2017 7.31 mb 99%
FEATURE Image: February 2018. Downers Grove, Illinois. 3.05 mb
FEATURE image: Downers Grove, Illinois. October 2018.
FEATURE image: Memorial Portrait of Hiroshige, 1858, Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865), Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format landscape series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō and his vertical format landscape series One Hundred Views of Edo.
His subjects are an expansion of the ukiyo-e genre, adding to its usual focus on beautiful women, popular actors, and scenes of urban pleasure districts during Japan’s Edo dynasty (1603–1868).
In 1603, the city of Edo (the earlier name for today’s Tokyo) became the urban center of the ruling Tokugawa shōgunate.
One Hundred Views of Edo is a series of ukiyo-e prints by the Japanese artist Hiroshige (1797–1858) that were published in serialized form between 1856 and 1859. Following Hiroshige’s death, the series was completed by his apprentice and posthumous son-in-law, Hiroshige II (1826-1869).
Meguro was a quiet outskirts of forest and fields at Edo. Megudo was named after Fudo-Myoo, an awesome guardian diety established during the reign of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616).
Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa shōgunate of Japan. His great adviser was Tenkai (1536-1643), a Tendai Buddhist monk. The Tokugawa shōguns ruled Japan from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
Shōguns sometimes practiced falconry at this spot depicted in Hiroshige’s print. Each spring peasants gathered its bamboo shoots to sell. The old waterfall, which existed until the 1930’s, spilled into the O-Chiyo pond.
Hiroshige, in his depiction of springtime, included the shadows of trees in the pond which was an artistic device from European painting which the old artist mastered though rarely used.
The foreground of the color print depicts flowering wisteria (fuji)—a symbol of summer.
The shrine was dedicated in the 17th century. It is associated with Sugawara no Michizane, known as Kan Shōjō or Kanke (845-903), an excellent poet and politician in the Heian period (794-1185). He is the patron of scholars and students—and was deified as a thunder-god known as Tenman Tenjin.
In a popular Kabuki play, poet, scholar, and statesman Kan Shōjō is deified as Tenjin, the thunder god, so that his spirit may take proper vengeance for Kan Shōjō’s death in exile.
The shrine itself was built under Shōgun Tokugawa Ietsuna (1641-1680). It started as a small prayer house to protect against the kingdom of demons to the north-east.
Tokugawa Ietsuna was the eldest son of the third shōgun Iemitsu and great-grandson of the first shōgun Ieyasu. A detail from a drawing attributable to Kanō Yasunobu (1614-1685).
In time, the shrine developed into a picturesque garden with a pond that was kokoro (heart or soul)-shaped. The pond had a pair of high-arched “drum” bridges (taikobashi). One of the bridges, made of wood, is impressively depicted in the Hiroshige print above.
This was a relatively level country of groves and ponds. The large maple depicted in the print and whose leaves fall in front of the viewer’s eyes was one of this area’s major attractions. The trunk was so big around that two people with their arms stretched out could not embrace the tree’s entire trunk.
The tree grew on the grounds of the ancient and revered Guhoji monastery. One of this place’s admired features was that it offered some of the finest autumnal foliage in Japan.
Hiroshige does not depict the monastery but the Tekona-no yashiro Shinto shrine.
The shrine is associated with Japan’s most ancient poetry of the Eighth Century.
Tekona was a beautiful village girl from Mama. She was courted by many wealthy and high ranking suitors who began to fight over her. Tekona was so upset by their fighting that she drowned herself in a nearby river to end the discord.
Her story passed on into the ancient poetry which led to building the shrine in her honor in the sixteenth century.
Tekona was a beautiful village girl who drowned herself after becoming upset by the disgraceful actions of her suitors.
The same poetry also mentions the “Linking Bridge” (Tsugihashi), a small bridge painted red which is depicted in Hiroshige’s mid-19th century print.
Mount Tsukuba, one of Japan’s most famous mountains, is depicted on the horizon. These mountains would be known to be covered by an abundance of trees and other flora as well as filled by animals. It is mentioned in the same ancient poetry as Tekona’s tale.
FEATURE image: July 2021. Farmer’s market. Downers Grove, Illinois 7.90 mb 79%
“Shoppers pause at the produce stand, comparing squash, beans, and berries under a midmorning canopy.”
“A shaded porch, soft light and a ‘76’ flag stirring above the garden’s early‑summer bloom.”
“Color blocks and bus lines frame the morning market, a grid of tents and movement stitched into the city’s routine.”
“Where the white fence meets the summer bloom, small flags stir the quiet air, and the garden holds its gentle brightness like a promise kept.”
“Uncle Sam stands on the porch as late‑morning light thins, a storm massing in the distance and pressing a quiet tension into the air.”
July 2026. Dining al fresco. 3.89mb DSC_9222
