I’m starting to see Halloween decorations on suburban front lawns. Too early. Maybe people want to decorate while it’s still warm, but it won’t be that cold in October.

Been cool in the evenings and warm during the days. The other day I took a noontime walk around Volkening Lake here in the northwest suburbs, since I was running errands nearby.

Really a large pond, but pleasant to walk around. A 0.7-mile trail goes all the way around.
Birds like it too.
Goldenrod is in full bloom now, taking the blame for ragweed pollen, which has been pretty bad this year.
Apparently the site of the pond has long been low-lying and damp, even when it was farm land. Volkening Lake seems to have been created about the same time as the surrounding suburbs, in the 1960s, which is really no surprise, though put in its present form in the ’80s. The Volkenings were the farmers who owned the property before it was suburban.