Saying Goodbye to Chicago, Part Four: Autumn

Maple branch in autumn, UIC, Chicago, IL

My favorite season in Chicago was always autumn. After a hot, stifling, humid summer, autumn would arrive and provide great relief. Mornings with the window open, listening to a cool breeze blowing through trees and rustling their leaves, would always evoke feelings of gratitude. So would the slow transformation of leaf color, from green to gold, or to fiery orange or red, or to a cinnamon-like brown. When I was kid, autumn was the season when my family and I would go pick apples at Wauconda Orchards, now long closed. When I lived in the desert, autumn was one of the things I missed the most. Going forward, after my move back to the desert, I will need to identify suitable locations for taking an autumn vacation.

This photo I took last fall, while walking around the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). It was a misty day, which was good for the photograph, as it obscured the background enough to effectively offset the clarity of this fiery maple branch in the foreground. I always wanted to take an autumn photo as vividly colorful as this. Enjoy!