I will not lie. In general I'm not much of a naturalist. When life gets to be too much, though, I'm all in favor of an excursion someplace wild, unspoiled and, in the fall, colorful. And what passes for that around here are called "forest preserves," pockets of undeveloped land some hippie freak protested to set aside, thus saving it from development.

Here's the sort of stuff I found:

Now it's time to go collapse on the sofa, as between the above photos and now I've spent roughly five hours shopping with my daughter. Among other things, we discovered a store called Five Below (at which nothing costs above $ 5, natch). We are both in love with the place. Pure, capitalistic bliss.

More soon, quite possibly tomorrow. Not more nature, let's get real. But more book-related stuff I've been working on but haven't finished, like my interview with Michael Cunningham. Yes! THAT Michael Cunningham!

My life's rough that way.