Well, not really in the country – but it almost feels that way.

Just off Eden’s Expressway (I-94) at Lake Cook Road in Glencoe is one the best gardens I’ve ever been to, the Chicago Botanical Gardens. I’ve be going to the bot gardens for decades, but yesterday was the first time I’ve been there in two years – and are they doing some impressive work there.

I’m finally getting around to creating a gallery for this precious piece of real estate; the first pictures will be (a handful) of digital pics I took there; I’ll slowly add other scans – 35mm color; 4×5 B&W; images; 35mm infrared (I have to do some more infrared shooting there!). This gallery will quickly grow.

If you’ve never been there, I highly recommend it. It’s a flat entry price – $12 per car – but be prepared to walk. And it’s not a place most kids will enjoy. Sure, they can run around in the woods and along paths, but wouldn’t they rather have a picnic in some forest preserve?

The Bot Gardens are very strange: It is bordered by a major expressway of a major city, and it’s in the suburbs, where you’re more likely to find a strip mall than a garden.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, the Bot Garden is an emerald island in a concrete sea…