My husband and I take at least one long walk-hike together each weekend. When pressed for time, we wander the neighborhood, but we prefer to head to one of the parks or conservation areas. (And our middle-aged feet and knees certainly prefer the trails to the sidewalks.)

From Anna Botsford Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study:

In my belief, there are two and only two occupations for Saturday afternoon or forenoon for a teacher. One is to be out-of-doors and the other is to lie in bed, and the first is best. Out in this, God’s beautiful world, there is everything waiting to heal lacerated nerves, to strengthen tired muscles, to please and content the soul that is torn to shreds with duty and care.

Winter at the sites we most enjoy can be stark, but even in the gray hardness, cold beauty is evident. That said, it is difficult for this trail to compete with its autumn afternoon finery.

From James Joyce’s “The Dead”:

A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. […] His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

About five inches of snow faintly fell yesterday. The walks and roads were clear when we rose this morning, but the yards were a white blanket, wrinkled only by my husband’s path to the feeders and the many prints of seed-seeking birds and critters. Beautiful.

Plan accordingly: We “gain” an hour this weekend. From “The Case for and Against Daylight Saving Time” (National Geographic):

Scientists have examined DST’s impacts on human health, and the conclusions have been mixed.

The article continues:

Two studies, conducted in the United States and Sweden, found that heart attack risk increased by up to 25 percent on the Monday after we move the clocks ahead. The same researchers found that the risk dropped by 21 percent when the clocks fall back.

Till Roenneberg, a chronobiologist at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, argues that our bodies’ circadian clocks never entirely adjust to the shift in daylight hours. So while more morning light helps jump-start our bodies, the extra evening light leads to a lag.

“The consequence of that is that the majority of the population has drastically decreased productivity, decreased quality of life, increasing susceptibility to illness, and is just plain tired,” Roenneberg previously told National Geographic.

The Lincoln Park Conservatory, which is adjacent to the Lincoln Park Zoo, is one of my favorite spots in all of the greatest city in the world. To enter this building is to enter the otherworld.

On each of our last five or so visits, the most recent of which was yesterday, a character of a caretaker has held court with any visitor who will stop and listen. He is intent on letting each of us know that staff has been reduced, volunteers are none too plentiful, and the building is falling apart. The latter is apparent. The former? Not so much. The plants seem abundant and well cared for. The floors and bathrooms are clean. For all of its decrepitude, the building is beautiful. Isn’t this just “the way things are” in 2015? Many people, businesses, cities, countries have fewer resources to meet their needs, let alone their wish-list of hopes, dreams, and wants. We must do what we can with what we have. It seems that the time to rail about what was has passed — especially if one, after all, still has his job.

From Anna Botsford Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study:

In my belief, there are two and only two occupations for Saturday afternoon or forenoon for a teacher. One is to be out-of-doors and the other is to lie in bed, and the first is best. Out in this, God’s beautiful world, there is everything waiting to heal lacerated nerves, to strengthen tired muscles, to please and content the soul that is torn to shreds with duty and care.