October has gone again, has gone again, and in Virginia the chinkapins are falling.

But in Chicago the leaves are turning; not as good a show as last year, but we have some nice bits. Here are four photos I took yesterday right outside my office, on the way to where I get lunch noms. The student union (“Reynolds Club”) is the building to the left (click all photos to enlarge):

Here’s the door (left) I go through on the way to get noms:

A close-up of the ivy (or Virginia creeper) -covered walls:

And the red tree to the right in the photos above. Can anyone identify it? (I can’t.)

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
— Ezra Pound (“In a Station of the Metro”)

The evening of October 22:

I’m getting behind in posting because of THE BOOK, but here’s a sunset picture taken on October 15, when the buildings downtown turned gold from the slanted light:

The weather was strange last Friday: hot and sunny most of the day, with a storm rolling in suddenly about 5 p.m.

In the end there wasn’t much rain, and the storm cleared at sunset, leaving a view of clear sky above the city topped with cloud, like a parfait:

I believe this was taken on Saturday—another stormy day.

Alert reader Lance called my attention to a nice collection of photographs—”Top 100 photos of the year” from 2012, at the Socialphy site.

Note that photos #100 and #54 are views of the Chicago skyline (#100 is particularly striking): a favorite subject of mine. You can see those on the site, but I’ll also post a dozen of my other favorites. If you’re a photography buff, or simply like gorgeous images, though, go see them all.

The Titanic‘s engines underwater:

A cloud illuminated by lightning:

An airplane crosses the moon:

Skydiving into Burning Man:

The Perseids meteor shower:

Moth trails at night:

An Olympic full moon:

Mount Rainier casting its shadow on the clouds:

A green vine snake (Oxybelis fulgidus, from Central and South America):

An amazingly strong ant:

The waterfall island at Igazu Falls:

A pod of sleeping sperm whales: