It's a Beautiful Day!

Actually, today's been pretty dismal - cool, overcast, and (thanks to the leaves falling), a bitter reminder of the transience of summer and of warmth, plus a gloomy herald of things to come.  Also not very productive.  But yesterday, on the other hand, was quite pretty, and I got things done to boot.  That's when I took the photo on the right.

After registering for classes - a mini-fiasco in and of itself, as graduate registration for the U of C is done by paper, and my registration card was lost - I decided to go explore the massive hulk that is the Regenstein Library, figuring it would do me some good to familiarize myself with it.  After an hour or two crawling around that concrete honeycomb (I'll get a photo eventually), I decided it was time to leave, checked out a book (some German plays translated into English, because I want to finish them before classes start), and left.  I had a meeting in an hour, but nothing to do until then, so I thought I'd find a quiet spot and read.

I was just passing through the Cobb Gate, a lovely portal topped with stone gargoyles, when I saw out of the corner of my eye was looked like a little garden, hidden behind some hedges.  Intrigued, I stepped inside, and found that it was not a garden, but a set of ponds, topped with waterlilies and fallen leaves.  I found a bench at the far end of one of them, opened my book, and read. 

Although my reading material was quite entertaining - a satirical play by a Swiss-German author of whom I am very fond - I could only keep going for so long before I became distracted by my surroundings.  I looked up over my book and shot the photo above with my phone.  It's quite a lovely little nook that I stumbled into - I think the scientists, possibly the botanists, are responsible for it.  Of course, winter will change it, but it may retain a certain kind of beauty nevertheless.  We'll have to wait and see - I promise photos.  But I could get used to stumbling across little pockets of pulchritude (it means beauty - look it up if you don't believe me, and blame the Romans for the ugly root) and, because the U of C is such a rabbit's warren, I very well may find some other lovely places.  I'm looking forward to it!