The Winter Crumble into Spring Shuffle Edition. That time of year when everything can fall to pieces but you get back up you get back up and you walk and you hike and you take pictures of cabins by the river and run from coyotes and eat bananas and granola on frozen door steps, where did these benches come from! “We’re in the middle of the woods!”

Ryerson Conservation Area; Riverwoods, Il.
January 28th, 2013; 3:30pm

And you keep walking, and you keep hiking, and you chase the sun and stumble across miniature worlds of snowball fights and tiny little alcove villages tucked into hollowed out tree trunks that look so sturdy and old. Where did all these birds come from! “We’re in the middle of the woods!”

Chipilly Woods; Northbrook, Il.
February 23rd, 2013; 1:11pm

And you keep hiking, you keep chasing the sun, it moves so fast this time of year like the moment you see it it’s already falling, heading home to the horizon so you keep going, you keep walking, you keep talking. And then one day, when you feel you lost a piece of who you are along the way, when you feel like winter has nothing left to take from you.

Ryerson Conservation Area; Riverwoods, Il.
January 28th, 2013; 2:12pm

When it’s beaten you down and you’ve forgotten why you do the things you do, when you curse the cold rain and snow with every corner you turn… there’s this breeze. And it smells like Jamaica! You’ve never been to Jamaica but you know that’s where this breeze came from! And it swoops down so fucking gently it stops you in your tracks.

Ryerson Conservation Area; Riverwoods, Il.
January 28th, 2013; 2:29pm

There are birds chirping, birds and birds and birds! And green grass and bulbs! Pushing their way up through piles of last years leaves! Is that guy wearing shorts!? This fucking bush has buds! Oh man, I could go for a margarita. That breeze… makes you feel human again.

Ukrainian Village; Chicago, Il.
February 3rd, 2013; 3:49pm

Everything good about warm weathered days is found in that single, first, southerly breeze. But don’t enjoy it for too long, not yet at least. Not here in the frozen Midwest. That’s why they call it the Spring Shuffle Edition. As quick and potent as it appears, it is gone.

Ukrainian Village; Chicago, Il.
February 3rd, 2013; 3:44pm

Winter walks with Abratni through Wicker Park and the Greenhouse Gardens. Cold trees and silent street lights, ancient stone facades and the quiet crunch under socked-in snowshoes to the beat of our feet on the sidewalk. Sidewalk.

Ukrainian Village; Chicago, Il.
February 5th, 2013; 9:04pm

Gun.

Wicker Park; Chicago, Il.
January 11th, 2012; 6:04pm

It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter at all! He built this table from wood he found in the alley. There was no forest around here. Just streets filled with garbage.

Wicker Park; Chicago, Il.
December 26th, 2011; 8:04pm

We sit in corners and read all day. Surrounded by books and nothing to say. Read read, read and keep reading, these books won’t be here one day.

Wicker Park; Chicago, Il.
January 5th, 2013; 4:15pm