Merry@St. Louis

Theme Day: Graffiti

2010-10-01T09:54:00.005-05:00

Get together a bunch of stone workers with chisels on lunch break and this is the graffiti you get! Top two photos from Elephant Rocks State Park in Missouri; last photo from Giant City State Park in southern Illinois.

October First Theme Day on City Daily Photo: Graffiti

Click here to see all Theme Day participants

Theme Day: Reflections

2010-07-01T00:01:00.016-05:00

The Gateway Arch, bedrock of my photographic life in St Louis for 16 months!

On the first of every month, City Daily Photo hosts Theme Day. This month the theme is reflections.

I took this at sunrise from the Illinois side of Eads Bridge last fall, as our time in St. Louis was swiftly coming to a close.

It was my great privilege to have the joy of exploring the city of St. Louis and fractions of the states of Missouri and Illinois for sixteen months. I may never be a mid-westerner again, but I now readily understand from experience that there is a great deal to love about the region and its people.

I very well remember the election when John Kerry was running against George Bush. I drove through the midwest on my way to Colorado and Utah that fall. Where I came from, in upstate NY, there was some conviction that Kerry could win. Being a Democrat, I must admit that I was hopeful, though not particularly thrilled with Kerry.

But as I hit Kentucky, and then Illinois, and then Missouri, and then Kansas, and without even talking politics with anyone, not a soul, I began to understand that Kerry didn't have a prayer. The lives of many midwesterners just didn't seem to match the message we were getting from the Democrats and Kerry that year. I still cannot find a clear way to explain this feeling that I had. I just knew it to be true. Call it intuition, which we all know is based upon a lifetime of experience!

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Konza Prairie

2010-05-03T12:22:00.000-05:00

Konza Prairie near Manhattan Kansas.

We stopped at Konza on May 14 a year ago on our way back from the West. I had just gotten off the Colorado River, Ed had met up with me at Albuquerque and we had a week for driving home. In Santa Fe we learned that his mother had died, and so the trip took on a different life than we had planned. Things have a funny way of working out that way some times.

Konza is close to the northern end of the Flint hills, those hills immortalized by William Least Heat-Moon in PrairyErth. It was early in the growing season, so we didn't see the great diversity of flowering plants that we might have seen in another month, or two. Instead we saw the views, the bones of the landscape, and migrating birds, and buffalo far off in the distance. Everything in this picture is part of Konza, preserved as a fragment of the heartland before Europeans descended upon it and plowed it up. The Flint Hills defied the plow and so the tenacious and precious prairie survives.

NEW YORK POST Headline: 2ND GIG=EXTRA GIGS

2010-04-01T05:21:00.002-05:00

We were shocked to discover that in his obsessive quest for extra memory the famous St. Louis photog took on a second career in Binghamton NY. "No, the commute isn't great, but our customers are outstanding, and that has made it all worthwhile," says Crowe.

Tiffany Dome atop the Atrium at Marshall Field

2010-03-22T17:10:00.002-05:00

This week last year I spend the better part of a day in Chicago in transit to Syracuse to uncover our perennial garden of its fall coat of suffocating leaves. We had been gone to St. Louis for seven months. If I could give it a good going-over, I hoped it would have a better chance to survive the lack of care until the summer, when I would be back to give it a stiff weeding. We, of course, still had no idea that we would be moving back to Syracuse and our home and garden.

So, I had this luxurious day to explore a city I know very little about. I took the train from St. Louis early in the morning and had about 9 hours before the overnight to New York was due to depart.

I set out on foot. Who hasn't heard of Marshall Field? I wanted to see this architectural landmark, and what I found, among other things, is this Tiffany dome on a five story atrium. The store has changed hands; it retains all the grandeur of its original conception and it has multiple historic designations that will help ensure its survival.

Shaw's Garden

2010-03-08T10:54:00.000-06:00

Witch hazel February 15 2009

Shaw's Garden

2010-02-08T07:22:00.001-06:00

On the same day we visited the orchid show at the Missouri Botanical Garden last year, at about this time of year, we wandered outside into the garden. It was an overcast and misty day, conditions that make the garden a much different experience than on a sunny day. Here Henry Shaw's country home comes into view looking up a main axis of the garden.

Double Slide

2010-01-25T10:13:00.000-06:00

Double Slide by Karyn Oliver at Laumeier Sculpture Park, taken about a year ago. It always makes us chuckle.

Snow near Syracuse

2010-01-11T12:37:00.003-06:00

Hello from Syracuse. We have a lot of snow here in Central NY.

In the city there is about 16 inches, though it will settle over the coming warm (high 30s) spell. There is no snow left on the trees because the sun came out yesterday making a big difference on any surface it hit.

I took this yesterday morning twenty miles east of here and 700 feet higher. Altitude makes a big difference.

I am posting many winter pictures on Merry@Syracuse, http://merryatsyracuse.blogspot.com/

my new blog about life in Central NY, and further afield when we can get away!

St. Louis: Around Town

2010-01-01T14:49:00.002-06:00

Maybe you didn't know that St. Louis is the home of Tums, the perfect New Year's Day antidote. Hope you had a happy one!

PS: Toasted Ravioli...yuk! Tums are good for that, too.

I've begun my new blog in Syracuse called Merry@Syracuse. Please visit.

Gateway Arch

2009-12-31T14:43:00.002-06:00

I wish for a New Year that brings you

and all the world's people safety and peace.

Mark Twain School

2009-12-30T14:28:00.024-06:00

Another of my tile finds, this time on the Mark Twain School on the far North side of the city. It is an Ittner school, now abandoned. Blow it up for best effect. I promise to post everything in the way of architecture and ornamentation that I have, which is considerable, on St. Louis Mosaic, my second blog, as soon as I get a block of time.

I now have a third blog, Merry@Syracuse, as we have moved back to Syracuse NY, in my old home region. Expect lots of pictures of snow in the next while over there. We got twelve and a half inches

in the past 24 hours.

Shaw's Garden

2009-12-29T14:18:00.001-06:00

To celebrate and amuse us during the holiday weeks the Garden creates a flower and train show, this year commemorating the Garden's 150th Anniversary. Someone created models of all the buildings, and Henry Shaw is everywhere. Miniature staff are involved in lots of interesting activities. Be sure to scroll down to find out what happened to a hapless Climatron gardener.

Gateway Arch with Snow

2009-12-28T14:00:00.029-06:00

We got a bit of snow, so I hurried to the Arch. Scroll down to see other scenery from up top.

Top and center...see the legs of the Arch and the covered entrances. The black lines are the snow brush machine tracks.

The Old Courthouse looks like a model.

The Original Cardinals

2009-12-27T08:25:00.000-06:00

Claudia Ernesto

Joli

2009-12-26T17:23:00.004-06:00

Always curious...always ready to go out.

We had a snow storm at midday yesterday

after the temperature dropped by 15 degrees between 5 and 7am.

The storm came at us from the south,

right up the Mississippi valley in a giant cyclone

carrying cold air in from the northwest

and picking up moisture from the Gulf.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T07:30:00.001-06:00

Thank you, Robert Indiana.

His iconic LOVE design was first published as a Christmas card in 1964.

The sculptures came a little later.

We were in New Orleans last Christmas and found this with great delight

at the sculpture garden adjoining the New Orleans Museum of Art.

It was a balmy day.

Season's Greetings

2009-12-24T11:07:00.000-06:00

City Garden

2009-12-23T10:50:00.001-06:00

St. Louis Zoo

2009-12-22T10:46:00.000-06:00

There's a rock at the entrance to the zoo....

Gateway Arch on Winter Solstice

2009-12-21T08:02:00.003-06:00

After I bring Ed to work, returning home I am treated to a scene which includes the Arch directly ahead.

Lately darkness prevails, giving the Arch a one dimensional look. It is not lighted by the National Park Service at this hour, though it shines with the reflected light of downtown streetlights and the slowly awakening hotels and offices.

The morning I took this, a few days ago, a break in the clouds showed that the sun would be coming along, though the break soon closed.

So it is with today, the darkest day of the year. Just after midnight, the light began, incrementally, to return.

Gateway Arch Park

2009-12-20T15:59:00.001-06:00

We chose an overcast day to go to brunch in the Millenium Hotel tower. There are irregular shaped pools to the north and south of the Arch, hidden especially in summer by leaves and the valley which contains each.

One of the wondrous things about this region is the presence of bald cypress trees, which I have always equated with Florida. I will miss them.

Bald Eagle

2009-12-19T12:48:00.001-06:00

This was our first bald eagle when we started to look for them last year soon after we arrived in St. Louis. Near Columbia Bottom we walked way out, half way across the river bed on sand flats because the Mississippi was so low, when we spotted this bird just taking it easy.

We felt very fortunate to be able to watch this one for over a half an hour. Ed writes about bald eagles on his blog, St. Louis Sojourn, today.

Many villages and towns have Eagle Days during January: great fun on a chilly winter day.

Soulard Tiles

2009-12-18T16:05:00.002-06:00

This stunning mural is right on Russell St. in Soulard. Made of extremely irregularly shaped pieces of terra cotta, some details don't make it to adjacent tiles such as the left cow's legs. No matter. It is still a magnificent picture.

Below is the entire tableau. Click to enlarge them to good effect.

Budweiser Clydesdale

2009-12-17T15:40:00.002-06:00

Budweiser keeps a large group of Clydesdales at Grant's Farm here in St. Louis, mares with foals in the spring, large groups of geldings from which to choose for the famous 8-hitch teams, and probably a stallion or two.

There are always a couple of horses at the brewery near the river, in a paddock outside the Busch family's historic and architecturally beautiful stable. The family lived in an adjacent house at this site, gone now, and also at the farm which is now Grant's Farm.

Butterfly House

2009-12-16T14:30:00.001-06:00

West of town, the Missouri Botanical Garden's Butterfly House is a very cool place. Actually it is at constant shirt-sleeve temperature, and at any given time there are 1500 butterflies fluttering in the air, resting, or eating. They arrive as chrysalises from butterfly farms all over the world and are released when they have completely metamorphosed into butterflies. Just sorry it took us so long to go there.

St. Louis Zoo

2009-12-15T05:37:00.000-06:00

At the entrance to the Flight Cage at the St. Louis Zoo is a long mural showing cypress swamp animals in great and subtile detail and shading, using tile shards. The colors are lovely. The mural has all the feeling one finds at Corkscrew Swamp or the Everglades in Florida.

St. Louis Zoo

2009-12-14T05:21:00.003-06:00

St. Louis Zoo

2009-12-13T11:36:00.001-06:00

The flight cage at the St. Louis Zoo was built by the Smithsonian Institution for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the 1904 world's fair. Slated to be taken to Washington at the close of the fair, the people of St. Louis worked to keep it. They have a strong history for getting and keeping public spaces.

The flight cage became the first exhibit of a new zoo after the close of the fair.

The present exhibit is a cypress swamp and is a lovely, quiet, contemplative outpost at the Zoo. There are beautiful tile pictures of birds in swamplands at the entrance of the Flight Cage, which I will feature in another post.

Joli at Forest Park

2009-12-12T16:31:00.003-06:00

JDo, one very happy dog!

Forest Park

2009-12-11T16:24:00.003-06:00

I posted a picture of us in a peddle boat on a warmish day here on Post-Dispatch Lake just three weeks ago. Some difference. St. Louis Art Museum, one of the few remaining structures built for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, is on the hill in the background.

Shaw Reserve

2009-12-10T17:07:00.004-06:00

Shortest Afternoon of the Season is Past!

2009-12-09T16:43:00.006-06:00

By the astronomic numbers, yesterday afternoon was the shortest afternoon.

Starting today, the afternoons begin, ever so slowly, to regain light. By mid-January you can already see the difference as you go home from work or milk the cows. This is illustrated here:
http://www.analemma.com/Pages/framesPage.html

Go to the last section, Other Phenomena, for an explanation.

Sorry, the mornings continue to lose light until early January.

The shortest day is but an average of mornings and afternoons. Analemma is the answer. A Farmer's Almanac will reveal the numbers.

Horray.

Shaw's Garden

2009-12-08T15:57:00.001-06:00

Gateway Arch Reflection

2009-12-07T15:40:00.001-06:00

Syracuse Preview

2009-12-06T15:37:00.001-06:00

The State Tower Building excites the eye and the imagination. Notice the three levels of ever-lighter bricks at your eye travels upward.

Fancy and Groucho, Syracuse's pair of peregrine falcons, successfully raise a brood every spring at the top of this urban cliff. USA Datanet, major tenant of the building, helps support the annual project including a live cam which is well worth bookmarking:

http://www.wvtc.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=555

Fancy starts investigating the box by late March and lays around 4 eggs by early April. As they incubate Groucho plays a major role, and they both feed and teach the eyeses to fly and hunt. It is an exciting time in the skies over Syracuse.

Kodak in Rochester plays a similar role for their pair, and their watchers.

Syracuse Preview

2009-12-05T11:12:00.020-06:00

Proposed in 1808 to connect the Hudson River to the Great Lakes, the Erie Canal wasn't completed until 1825, nearly two decades after Lewis and Clark completed Voyage of Discovery. Thomas Jefferson thought the canal couldn't be built. Long before the Gateway Arch, the Erie Canal was called Gateway to the West.

Syracuse Preview

2009-12-04T10:44:00.004-06:00

The Syracuse zoo cannot hope to hold a candle to the St. Louis Zoo,

and I will miss the StL zoo. Still, the Syracuse zoo has a wonderful

collection of cold climate mammals who really come to life

in the winter, including caribou, reindeer, markhors,

Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, red pandas, snow leopards,

wolves both gray and red, Eurasian lynx, Amur tigers,

and Humboldt penguins.

Very few people appreciate the nature of this strong collection

of cold weather animals.

Syracuse Preview

2009-12-03T10:39:00.000-06:00

The height of Art Deco design,

the Syracuse landmark Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. building

was completed in 1932 in the middle of the Depression.

Melvin L. King of Syracuse was the architect,

with consulting architects Bley & Lyman of Buffalo.

Today it is the regional headquarters of National Grid.

After a huge renovation in the 1980s, the lights were all brought back to life,

so that now the tower lights give us infinite possibilities for color combinations

using helium-filled tubes, and the colors can be set to rotate on timers.

It is still as wondrous a building as it was when it was built.

Orangeville PA

2009-12-02T20:22:00.003-06:00

Ed's grandmother, his father's mother, Pearl Delong, came from Orangeville. We uncovered and scanned some photos from there earlier this year. The terrain is distinctive.

Last week on my most recent drive to Syracuse NY, getting our house ready for our return at the end of December, I went east by way of I 80 from Akron to I 81 in NE PA, passing by Orangeville. A very short side trip brought me to this little town that time seems to have forgotten. With five hundred residents and the median age at over 45...it is a quiet place. I found the cemetery and a Delong stone, that of Pearl's uncle.

Next summer during the trip to Ed's college reunion at Bucknell we will visit Orangeville, right on the way, and see what else we can discover at the cemetery and at the local library. Maybe we will find the family homestead. We have a photo.

Dogon in Mali, West Africa

2009-12-01T00:01:00.040-06:00

These photos were taken in the region of the Dogon in Mali, West Africa. This structure is where men go to resolve disputes. The disputants along with other important men of the village sit or crouch beneath the tall and heavy crisscrossed layers of wood, and no one leaves until the disagreement is resolved. This may take minutes, hours or days.

I actually have been to Timbuktu and back! In 1977 out of the sky the impossibly amazing opportunity fell to me to travel with a group of 10 others in two Land Rovers (owned by three of the party and stored in Marsailles since another trip 2 years previously to Johannesburg) across a significant stretch of Arab Africa from Algiers south across the Sahara into West Africa in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, returning back across the Sahara to the Mediterranean through Tunisia. Three months we were on the road, and no two moments were the same.

I learned quickly that if I wanted a photograph I had to take it immediately. There were no second chances. Every day, every minute, was utterly astounding and totally outside my experience. As a bonus, my sister and her husband were in Burkina Faso doing graduate work, and we got to spend a couple of days with them in Ouagadougou, which was fun.

The first of every month is Theme Day at City Daily Photo. This month's theme is Waiting.
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Gateway Arch

2009-11-30T07:05:00.003-06:00

St. Louis Zoo

2009-11-29T05:54:00.000-06:00

Art Hill

2009-11-28T05:52:00.000-06:00

Treemonisha

2009-11-27T10:27:00.007-06:00

This monumental steel sculpture in near-South City was created by Chicago sculptor John Henry to honor the opera Treemonisha by Scott Joplin. Joplin lived here for a time just a few blocks away.

Treemonisha's story brings up timeless struggles between education and ignorance, and between reconciliation and retribution. It was not staged during Joplin's lifetime.

Ah, Thanksgiving Day

2009-11-26T09:48:00.001-06:00

Ah, Thanksgiving Day

Instructions for living a life:

Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it.

- MARY OLIVER -

Wild Turkeys in Nebraska

2009-11-25T09:35:00.002-06:00

Click to enlarge for full glorious effect.

Forest Park

2009-11-24T08:20:00.000-06:00

A boy, edging his way across the outside of the bridge structure, parents unafraid.

Jeanne-Claude, In Memory

2009-11-23T06:23:00.000-06:00

We very sadly note that Jeanne-Claude, artistic partner and wife of Christo, passed away on November 18. We experienced The Gates in NYC in February 2005. We loved it. She will be very much missed.

Forest Park

2009-11-22T05:52:00.002-06:00

We Northeasterners are agog with the Missouri Novembers. Sunny sixty degrees on November 21, a trip around the lagoon on a peddleboat at the Boathouse, leisurely lunch outdoors and the waiter brings water for Joli and all of the many other dogs there..we are going to miss this!

Forest Park

2009-11-21T07:36:00.000-06:00

Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis

2009-11-20T07:18:00.001-06:00

Citygarden

2009-11-19T15:24:00.002-06:00

Shaw's Garden

2009-11-18T08:21:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was a wet day at the Botanical Garden, moody and close. I like the emphasis on the near distance imposed by a rainy day.

Toynbee Artifact

2009-11-17T08:02:00.003-06:00

In my world stuff embedded in asphalt have become Toynbee artifacts. Google Toynbee tiles to clarify the reference.

Syracuse Preview

2009-11-16T07:58:00.004-06:00

The view from our house east toward Syracuse University.

Syracuse Preview

2009-11-15T07:37:00.000-06:00

Syracuse sits on Iroquois homeland. The Onondagas are and always have been box lacrosse champions. Before they built a modern arena for lacrosse and ice hockey, the Redhawks played outdoors at a field at the Onondaga Nation. I like this portrait painted on the wall of the refreshment stand. I highly recommend a New Yorker article published in 1998 by John Seabrook about the Onondagas and box lacrosse. John Seabrook, The Sporting Scene, “The Gathering of the Tribes,” The New Yorker, September 7, 1998, p. 30

Syracuse Preview

2009-11-14T19:57:00.000-06:00

The famous traffic light on Tipperary Hill!

Syracuse Preview

2009-11-13T19:51:00.003-06:00

Our gardens! There are built-in boxes on the back deck, and hens-and-chicks gone wild!

Syracuse Preview

2009-11-12T19:36:00.008-06:00

Onondaga Creek: Syracuse's River des Peres. In St. Louis, the River des Peres is utterly channelized as it flows through the city, and so is Onondaga Creek. And both become channels for an overflow mixture of sewage backup and street run-off when it rains a lot. Poor planning, and now extremely expensive to remedy.

How clear it is flowing right now! We have run the creek in our canoe, and participated in the annual creek cleanup. You would not believe how much stuff ends up in the creek...bikes, teevees, baby strollers, tires, pipe, wallets.

Syracuse Preview

2009-11-11T19:25:00.001-06:00

Crows! There are tens of thousands of crows here, and I am crazy about them. They are smart, they talk, they have family ties, they clean up the roadsides, and more, much more.

Back in Syracuse for the week, this time with a Syracuse daily photo blog in mind, I am finding so much old familiar stuff that jumps out at me in a different way as subject matter for the blog.

Thinking in terms of a daily photo blog has been and will continue to be a great and wonderful challenge.

Now for a name!

Syracuse Preview

2009-11-10T19:07:00.023-06:00

Coffee! Freedom of Espresso has a good history. Originally named Federal Espresso, soon FedEx or actually Federal Express before they rebranded their name, thought this little coffee shop was competing and went to court. The big guys had more money and so then, at least for a time, the name might have been ExFederal Espresso. Big guys nixed that too. Freedom of Espresso finally emerged, grew to 4 locations and brews great coffee.

I drove 900 miles to Syracuse, from whence we came to St. Louis last year, and to whence we return at the end of this year, to work on the house we kept and are so happy to be able to go back to. It is a week of reminders of why we like upstate NY.

Gateway Arch

2009-11-09T05:28:00.000-06:00

Shaw's Garden

2009-11-08T09:29:00.000-06:00

Mississippi River Ferry

2009-11-07T09:06:00.003-06:00

Returning home from visiting my nephew in Iowa City, I drove through a section of the countryside south of Keokuk, southernmost point in Iowa.

In the stretch of Mississippi River between Keokuk and Quincy IL is a small ferry that runs between Canton MO and Meyer IL. At this time of year it runs constantly, ferrying large grain trucks between Missouri fields and the grain elevators in Meyer.

Aboard the ferry with me were two empty grain trucks returning to Missouri for more corn, and a dump truck.

On Google Maps you can actually see the ferry at mid-river, Lock and Dam #20 up-river from the crossing, and the grain elevators just above the lock and dam at Meyer. Meyer is a very small town built on stilts behind the levee.

Gateway Arch

2009-11-06T08:37:00.002-06:00

St. Louis: Trick the Eye

2009-11-05T18:07:00.010-06:00

Like magic, Trompe L'oeil is fun.

St. Louis has at least two large buildings with exteriors finished to look very different from the originals. This is the back of the Lennox Hotel built in 1929.

See the man standing on the balcony?

Shaw's Garden

2009-11-04T08:01:00.002-06:00

Chrysanthemum Wall

St. Louis: around town

2009-11-03T17:18:00.000-06:00

I really love this little dog and its accommodating family. It avidly watches the corner from its first floor perch and the evidence indicates that this was its idea. Also, it doesn't bark.

Gateway Arch: River in Flood

2009-11-02T12:16:00.003-06:00

This morning the Mississippi River is flooding, though not seriously and expected to start receding by tomorrow, because of the tremendous amount of rain that fell here last week.

There are six-twelve inches of water covering the riverfront drive. The two sightseeing river boats are currently moored well above the brick waterfront apron where people often park while visiting the Arch.

The second photo is from two days ago at the top of the Arch and shows the top of William Clark's hat on the bronze sculpture Captains' Return.

The third and fourth photos of Captains' Return are from last year when the river was at different stages. The river is in constant flux and not necessarily influenced just by local weather.

I took the fifth photo earlier this fall from a parapet on the Eads Bridge on the Illinois side of the river. Captains' Return is near the base of the bridge and well out of water.

Gateway Arch

2009-11-01T08:08:00.002-06:00

St. Louis: around town

2009-10-31T08:13:00.001-05:00

Cape Girardeau: Southeastern Missourian tiles

2009-10-30T10:31:00.003-05:00

Two large murals picturing the history of printing and developments in the field of news, made of highly colorful 6 inch ceramic tiles, are on the eastern exterior wall of the Southeastern Missourian newspaper building in Cape Girardeau. The paper commissioned the murals, completed in 1947, from the Mosaic Tile Company of Zanesville, Ohio. You can (or will shortly be able to) find more details on my blog St. Louis Mosaic. Pictured here is the first mural, The Art of Printing, as well as several individual tiles from that mural. The colors are rich and the murals are filled with detail.

Millstream Garden Conservation Area

2009-10-29T09:57:00.005-05:00

Elephant Rocks State Park

2009-10-28T09:33:00.054-05:00

By some miracle of anti-mining and pro-beauty, a concentration of gigantic round pink granite boulders survives, sitting in the open, high atop a sheet of pink granite.

This wonderful scene is near Arcadia, historically a summer colony for city folk. Tamm Sauk, Mina Sauk and Johnson Shut-ins are also in this beautiful area of Missouri.

The park is surrounded by mining operations, and many of these boulders contain patterns of drill holes, the first step in reducing granite into building material. Also easy to find are many chiseled names and initials of miners proud of their skills.

Cape Girardeau

2009-10-27T09:24:00.020-05:00

We are back at Cape Girardeau for the week, in an area of great beauty and interest.

I took this through the window of the Conservation Nature Center during a rainstorm. Lots of photo-adversity could not hide the color and the lines.

Current RIver

2009-10-26T06:10:00.001-05:00

Maramec Spring Park

2009-10-25T05:59:00.000-05:00

... and this is what they were fishing for.

The Missouri Department of Conservation maintains the Maramec Spring Fish Hatchery and Trout Park.

Maramec Spring Park

2009-10-24T05:52:00.009-05:00

Fishing at Maramec Spring Park on the shiniest, clearest, most perfect fall day on the next to last weekend of the trout season in Missouri.

Gateway Arch

2009-10-23T09:53:00.001-05:00

Gateway Arch

2009-10-22T09:49:00.001-05:00

St. Louis: Old Courthouse

2009-10-21T20:29:00.003-05:00

Not wanting the Old Courthouse to be my New Yorker's equivalent of the Statue of Liberty, today was the day. Nor will it be my last and only. Wow!

As we get closer to leaving St. Louis for the frosty reaches of New York State, the part near Canada, not NYC, we are getting serious about seeing the rest of Missouri. Well, at least the things that have lingered on our list for months.

Such as: this weekend we are finally going to canoe the Current. The colors ought to be at their best.

Which reminds me, if you live around St. Louis these are the precious few days to go up the Arch and get an eyeful of the leaves below! Double wow!

Gareway Arch: The View

2009-10-20T09:12:00.003-05:00

There is a block of gardens between the Old Court House and the Arch. On the ground it is not so easy to see that the Arch shape is reflected in the outlines of the beds.

Gateway Arch

2009-10-19T09:03:00.002-05:00

Thousands of visitors to the Arch on Saturday took snaps just like this one. It was a most beautiful day!

St. Louis: Lightweight Halloween Costumes

2009-10-18T09:00:00.019-05:00

Another sunny crisp morning and the "first annual" Go! St. Louis Halloween 10K was on! Great runners all, and to those who were in costume, extra hurrays!

Gateway Arch: The View

2009-10-17T06:11:00.000-05:00

I have featured Citygarden several times here since it opened this summer, and so has Bob Crowe. These pictures will give the viewer an idea about where Citygarden is located. I took them from the Arch on Saturday, a much needed, extraordinarily beautiful sunny day in St. Louis.

The first picture is a close up. Inexcusably, through some hidden brokering, someone(s) permitted the Peabody company to plant a skyscraper in the middle of the public park and garden aisle of center city, so you can only see the south side of the two blocks that make up the garden. Behind it, to the west, is the monumental Robert Serra sculpture, in a block of its own in front of Civil Courts Building. How I wish someone would design and execute landscaping that would make the Serra pop!

The second picture shows the whole scene. Citygarden is between 8th and 10th. The Old Courthouse is between 4th and Broadway. Blow them up for the full effect!

St. Louis: Around Town

2009-10-16T06:02:00.008-05:00

Hmmm, wonder what this fellow does for a living?

Jefferson City MO: Yanis Coffee Zone

2009-10-15T07:43:00.015-05:00

Yanis Coffee Zone: Home of Rocket Fuel

This fortunate find in Jefferson City MO has great coffee, food and music. The owner is the cook, and he warmly greets strangers and regulars alike.

Cool place!

A good review by Opulent Opossum is here: http://opulentopossum.blogspot.com/2009/08/coffee-zone-aka-yanis-coffee-zone.html

Missouri: York

2009-10-14T12:08:00.034-05:00

York, Lewis, Clark and Drouillard at the Lewis and Clark Trailhead Plaza in Jefferson City.

Clark owned York; he was given to him by Clark's father. In literature and diaries he is variously called a manservant, "body servant", "my black Servent", my boy york". Because he was a slave he was not paid when the Corps returned. He was married to a woman who was enslaved by someone else and could rarely see her. He was not freed by Clark for at least ten years after the Corps returned.

Missouri: Jefferson City

2009-10-13T17:43:00.021-05:00

York, Meriwether Lewis, Seaman, Joli, Ed, William Clark and George Drouillard at Jefferson City where we spent our last night on the road. Seaman is checking out Lewis' hat. It is still very early in the trip for the Corps of Discovery.

The sculptures on the site, Lewis and Clark Trailhead Plaza, were designed by Sabra Tull Meyer, Missouri sculptor.

Nebraska: Omaha

2009-10-12T17:12:00.002-05:00

It is a long way back to St. Louis from Valentine NE. We stopped for the night in Omaha and took a couple hours on Sunday morning to look around, finding a stiltwalker on the plaza in front of the convention center.

Six figures, a gigantic stainless steel clock and assorted shiny globes comprise the wonderous and colorful composition Illumina by Matthew Placzek of Omaha.

Nebraska: Western Sandhills

2009-10-11T06:57:00.000-05:00

These pictures are from early October 2004 when I came to the Sandhills to find Mari Sandoz. Old Jules, her biography of her father, is a favorite of mine. This marker is at the site of the Sandoz sod house and homestead, south of Gordon and 122 miles from Valentine. The other photos on today's post are from that trip, here or nearby.

Nebraska: Mule

2009-10-10T16:59:00.020-05:00

On our last morning, we awoke to snow and the last of the several-times-a-day visits by the mule and seven horses, let loose the day we arrived, to graze anywhere they wished on the ranch, which is entirely fenced, with cattle guards at the roadways. They gave us a lot of enjoyment.

Joli the Dog was curious but somewhat afraid and not much interested in inter-species communication with the equines, and not at all the predator that she became when she caught sight or smell of the mule deer or white tails.

Nebraska: Smith Falls State Park

2009-10-09T16:40:00.020-05:00

On the south rim of the Niobrara, the land dries out stretching away to the sandhills. Two hundred yards away in the other direction, looking down toward the river, everything is green.

Nebraska: Valentine National Wildlife Refuge

2009-10-08T16:17:00.024-05:00

Many lakes sit amid the sandhills. The hills are but a few dry years away from deserthood, but where it is flat the water is so close to the surface that cattle ranching is possible, and year-round marshes and lakes are scattered everywhere.

Nebraska: On the Niobrara River

2009-10-07T20:56:00.025-05:00

We were so lucky! Wednesday dawned clear and warmer. The rest of the week before (and after) Wednesday were colder by at least ten degrees and more cloudy than not.

I have dreamed about canoeing on the Niobrara. We had a great day on the water.

There are Mule Deer in the river in the last photo; blow it up for the full effect.

Nebraska: Niobrara River Valley

2009-10-06T20:33:00.053-05:00

Black Tailed Prairie Dogs in Prairie Dog Town at Fort Niograra National Wildlife Refuge; Porcupine at Smith Falls State Park; Elk (in captivity); Mule Deer (from our porch); Joli in the Niobrara River

Nebraska: Great Horned Owl

2009-10-05T07:07:00.008-05:00

A Great Horned Owl sat on the ground directly in front of our cabin for 20 minutes as we quietly watched in the fading light. It was almost cat-like, comfortable on the ground, head rotating considerably more than 180 degrees, and waiting. Those "ears" are plumicorns, feather tufts having nothing to do with hearing, but they twitch like cats' ears.

Nebraska Vacation

2009-10-04T07:38:00.104-05:00

Sandhills, Niobrara River, native species including several large mammels, a complicated natural history...this place is a treasure.

The Niobrara lies at the northern edge of the Ogallala aquifer, one of the largest sources of underground water in the world. Water seeps from the aquifer to form the river, highly deserving of the designation National Wild and Scenic River.

The Sandhills is not desert by the grace of a wetter climate today than when it was formed. Surprising, at first sight, are the lakes, water from the aquifer that pools at the surface.

Six distinct ecosystems meet at the Niobrara: Northern Boreal forest (Paper Birch), Rocky Mountain forest (Ponderosa pines), Eastern Diceduous forest (Black Walnut), and three kinds of grasslands.

Think of bison...in numbers without end, now in preserves in managed herds. Think of the Souix people ...many bands moving about on the land with the seasons, now on reservations. Think of paleowater...once inexhaustible, now quickly depleting.

I found this place on a cross-country drive a few years ago and longed to see it again.

The first picture is taken on the way, from a fire tower in the Nebraska National Forest, an experiment in planting a forest for the first time on the Sandhills. The Civilian Conservation Corps was here too (if you read this blog you know I am a big fan of the CCC), employing young Nebraska men during the Great Depression. Most of the Sandhills has no naturally occurring trees except near surface water.

The second picture is the Niobrara River with the the Sandhills to the south.

Kansas City: Western Auto Building

2009-10-03T18:54:00.004-05:00

This is the old Western Auto headquarters in Kansas City, rehabbed into wonderful apartments. We visited and were treated to an entire curved wall of windows. The old neon sign on the roof still works, though the owners' association chooses to light it only a couple hours in the evening. It was breaking the bank. (I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the neon.)

We are on our way to northern Nebraska for a week's vacation in the Sand Hills and Niobrara River region. I discovered the area a few years ago on a return trip from Utah. It's not the Nebraska people see when they drive from the East to Denver or Salt Lake City, as I will illustrate in coming days.