Tag Archives: Missouri Botanical Gardens

Art by Day, Magic by Night

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Bob, Nink, Meghan and Andrew arrived in Saint Louis on Friday. All, long time friends and former Saint Louis residents, they blew into town for two reasons. They are attending a wedding in Branson and their son Andrew received an award from his alma Mater, Fontbonne. Nink met Professor Mary, our fellow Team Kaldi’s teammate. Andrew is now a doctoral candidate in Applied Sociology at Yale. Friday night, we all went to Ted Drewes, a Saint Louis tradition. It was a warm and sultry night. In the morning, we sent them on their way to Branson.

Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me? Red in the face and all covered with sweat-ie.

It was actually more like the butt-crack of noon before they departed. By then last night’s sultry had turned to down right surly weather. We rolled the bikes through the climate control airlock and entered the soup that passes for the atmosphere around here. Our modest goal, was Left Bank Books, just across the park from us, in the CWE. While winding down Wydown, I had an epiphany for today’s blog post: Check out the progress on preparations for the Lantern Festival, at the botanical gardens. It opens later this month. We’ll have to wait until then to see the magic.

So, we diverted to the gardens and photographed the new lanterns. These are elaborate outdoor sets crafted mainly of silk and steel. They celebrate Chinese culture through bold color, dazzling light and striking design. At this point it is still a work in progress. The gold dragon at the entrance is finished and I think, illuminated at night. The centerpiece of the show, what I’ve dubbed the Porcelain Dragons, is only half-finished. It is skinned with real porcelain plates, cups and spoons. They are all ornately tied together with string. This fiber artwork is repeated with precision throughout.

The show doesn’t officially open for another two weeks. It will run all summer. It just so happens that Dave departs for Hong Kong in about a week. I look forward to hearing about his trip. This is developing into a China-centric year.

Left Bank Books didn’t have Anne’s book, but she did buy a card. I will buy her books on Amazon tonight. I can hear the hissing from certain quarters, but the bad news is that publishing is dead. The good news though is that the written word is doing fine. [this blog aside] I’ve finally signed up for Amazon Prime, primarily for the online video service, but I also get free shipping. How long will that last?

We next stopped at FroYo, the home of premium frozen yogurt. Oh, come on, it was hot out. The business model is cafeteria style. You create your own frozen yogurt creation and it gets priced by the pound. I mean by the ounce. We ran into Kubie at the Forsyth entrance to the park. It just so happens that she had launched at about the same time that we did. She actually rode all of those four hours, while we played. We got a measly 15 miles, but better than none.

May-apple Leaf Rag

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May-apple Leaf

The leaf in this post’s photo is of a May-apple. It is sometimes known as an Adams Apple, mandrake root, raccoon berry, wild lemon, Indian apple, duck’s foot or the umbrella plant. It is a perennial, native to wooded areas of eastern North America. Its stems grow with two or three lobed leaves with 5-9 deeply cut lobes on reproductive individuals, or one umbrella-like leaf on sterile individuals. The May-apple has been used for a variety of medicinal purposes, originally by indigenous people and later by settlers. The plant in the above picture was sterile.

Yesterday, I added a new page to this blog. It is entitled ‘Calendar Pixs’. This page has the photographs that were used in the 2010 and 2012 calendars that I made on Lulu. The permanent link is at the top of this page, but for those who have trouble finding it, and you know who you are, I’ll give you this easy to find link to the page, here.

I got out on my bicycle after work today and rode the Katy trail. I rode 17 miles, did not flat and my bike computer worked, all better than last week’s inaugural ride. I startled a black snake on the trail. I had just rounded a corner and it was sunning itself in the middle of the trail. Fortunately, it had more presence of mind than I did, because it beat a hasty retreat, before I could even react. This is a good thing, because me and black snakes, we have a history together.

In the daily trench warfare that passes for our presidential campaign, the Democrats were the ones that got off the snappy one-liner today, and it came from a most unlikely source, Joe Biden. Biden praised Obama’s record with, “Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive”. Then he added that reverse might be true if Romney had been the president.

The Romney campaign’s retort was in the form of a question, “Why is the United States under Obama abdicating its leadership for keeping stability in the world?” What the heck does that mean? Are they playing Jeopardy? Does he think that we can abdicate, because we are the king of the world? I thought that that was James Cameron.

No One Sees You Cry, …

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LanternFest Welders

… when you weld. This is a Dan-ism that Anne recalled. Welding throws-off sparks of molten metal. When they land on the welder, they burn. This hurts, a lot. The welder’s mask hides your face; so, no one sees you cry, when you weld. We were reminded of this saying, while watching the Chinese workers weld the sets for the upcoming Missouri Botanical Garden’s Lantern Festival.

Saint Louis will host the largest US exhibition of larger-than-life, lighted works of art from China. “Lantern Festival: Art by Day, Magic by Night” will attract visitors from throughout the country to experience one of China’s most treasured events and ancient traditions, the annual lantern festival. Elaborate outdoor sets crafted of silk and steel will celebrate Chinese culture through bold color, dazzling light and striking design. The exhibition offers visitors a unique opportunity to witness a spectacle rarely staged outside of Asia. Next month, you will be able to view the “art by day” or experience the illuminated “magic by night”.

I captured the workers welding the steel frames, in a corner of the garden’s parking lot. A front page article in the paper captured the action within the tents. Skinners apply the silk fabric that brings these sets to life. Men do the welding and women work the fabric. The following video shows the finished products.

I was standing around, waiting, when Anne came out of the Ridgeway Center and announced that there was a group of women dressed-up in the lobby. I grabbed my camera and asked Anne to wait for me. These two agreed to let me take their picture. Playing my role as the cultural ignoramus, I asked them if they were part this year’s big Chinese festival. They were wearing Japanese garb. This group of local girls, just dressed-up and toured the Japanese gardens. When you think about it, it is a brilliant idea. MoBot’s Japanese Garden is a priceless set for such live action drama. I’m pleased as punch to see this in the Lou.

Garden Geishas

For what was only a potty stop, our layover at the gardens generated a lot of blog fodder. We got out on the bikes today. Yesterday, was too wet for us. No severe weather, no “mass devastation” or even “complete destruction” as the Weather Service is now warning people. There might have been some dogs and cats living together, but no mass hysteria, at least not yet. Another round is due tonight.

We got up too late to do the Trailnet ride and by the time we hit the park, the Go! marathon was over. When we passed the visitor’s center a line of porta-potties were punctuated by two that had fallen over. It was very windy. Anne called out to any occupants, “Is anybody in there?” She was joking, but passing them again, I asked the same question, “Is anybody in there?” I gave my own answer, “It’s me, Anne, my cousins have locked me in.” We got 26.2 miles. ;-)

Naked Seed

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Japanese black pine - male

I planned to post, but since I had double posted the day before, I planned to skate. Depending on when you read this, I either skated or not. I’ll let you, the reader decide. The photos are from the Botanical Gardens. The following teachable moment is courtesy Anne. Any inaccuracies could be laid at the feet of Practically Perfect Pooh. That would be wrong. Following along the thoughts of my friend, the “Perma-Bear”, I the “Great Dissembler”, should be responsible. This post is just fill and fare anyway.

Japanese black pine - female

Pictured with this post are the male and female reproductive organs of the Japanese black pine. With Anne’s help, I laid-out the taxonomy of this tree below. She taught me her mnemonic device: Kangaroos Playing Chess On Fussy Green Squares, to remember this sequence.

  1. Kangaroos = Kingdom = Plantae
  2. Playing = Phylum = Pinophyta
  3. Chess = Class = Pinopsida
  4. On = Order = Pinales
  5. Fussy = Family = Pinaceae
  6. Green = Genius = Pinus
  7. Squares = Species = thunbergii

What tripped this post was Anne’s explanation that pine trees employed gymnosperm, or naked seed. I could have delved deeper, but not kept my supposed PG-13 rating. If gym means naked, what does gymnasium mean?

Happy Domesticity

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Anne had Friday off, there was no school. I worked, but when I came home. I noticed that things were different. Anne had vacuumed the house, cleaned the bathroom, done the laundry and finished the taxes. She had also met with a contractor about installing a vent in the bathroom. Saturday morning, we shopped together for Easter dinner. We are going to cook instead of going out, mainly because it is more convenient. Later, I mowed the grass keeping us out of lawn court for another week. Between Anne’s Herculean efforts and my pro bono yard work, by noon on Saturday, all of our chores were done. It was time to go cycling.

Multifloral Tulips

We biked over to the gardens. On the way over there we saw the first egret of the season. It was a Snowy, but spooked and flew away too fast for me to get its photo. On the way back, we saw two Great Egrets and got good photographs of each of them. The one pictured below is the first of the two. On the way out, we also saw a couple of Team Kaldis members, Mary A. and Dr. Mad. We also saw a pair of STL bike cops in the Grove. On the way back we saw Bill A. If Mary and Bill exchanged notes, they might have thought that we rode all afternoon. We didn’t and we only got 15 miles.

1st Egrets of the Season

The botanical gardens were gorgeous. Everything was in bloom. Pictured are some of the tulips, but the irises were just as pretty and are out a month earlier than usual. There were lots of other people snapping pictures there too, but we got our fair share of photographs. The parking lot was full, but we just breezed in with our bicycles. They are done refinishing the parking lot and the bike racks are officially installed, anchored into the pavement and not just screwed to a pair of two-by-fours. There was a large bicycling family there when we returned to the racks, six kids, plus mom and dad. They had two cargo bikes that were loaded with supplies for the outing. Another bike had two child seats on it and a fourth had a tag-a-long connected. Only one child’s bike was not burdened. This was one serious biking family.

Palaver

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Cymbidium Valley Blush - Magnificent

I nearly had an accident this morning. I was headed northbound on 170 and had almost reached my exit, when this incident occurred. Instead of my usual NPR diatribe, I was listening to a podcast, off of the iPhone. The podcast was of an etymological bent, so I was rather self-absorbed by it when danger arose. A piece of metal was stretched perfectly perpendicular across my lane. Even in retrospect, I can only describe it as one of those spike strips that the police use to disable high-speed chase vehicles. Rousing from my stupor, I managed to get two wheels around it, but the other two wheels were forced to plow over it. It made a hell of a racket. I exited a half mile later and there was a police station right there. I found no damage to the car. I reported the obstacle to the desk sergeant, who turned to the dispatcher, who confirmed that it had been removed. Just not in time for me. On the return run, in the evening, the radio traffic report had a box spring bed and a car hood on different highways about town. There was a lot of littering going on today. Recounting all of this to Anne at dinner, she told me about her own road obstacle incident, from many years ago. Stuffed animals littered the road in front of her. She steeled her heart and did not try to serve around them; the traffic would not have permitted it anyway. Afterwards, she consoled herself with the knowledge that these were all factory fresh stuffed animals, so none had yet been loved.

The Waking Dead

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Pink Halo with Blue Vase

Like Dan’s artwork, “A Train Departs the City Traveling 55 mph”, which is a rough transcription of an object someone else dreamt he made; this post is also based upon someone else’s dream. This dream was relayed to me before my trip to New Mexico. At the time, I took some notes. Today, I attempted to clarify some questions that I had about those notes, but the dreamer no longer had any recollection of the dream. From this point on, the reader would be safe to assume that the remainder of this post is just fiction.

I awoke from sleep; or rather I was awoken from sleep. You know how sometimes you wakeup because other people choose to break the morning’s silence? Not related to this dream, last Friday, while still sleep deprived, I was awakened by my neighbor and his rented backhoe. I was trying to transition from my nocturnal schedule to my usual diurnal one. I had slept the night through and had plans to sleep most of the day when the roar of a neighbor’s construction equipment awoke me. My crash/cram recovery course then foiled, it has taken me even to today, to gain even some measure of recovery, in the mean time.

Anyway, back to the dream, I was awoken by a commotion. A cleaning lady was in my bedroom, and she was dumping all my clothes into a pile in the center of the room. I got out of bed, avoiding her and noticed a second cleaning lady asleep on the living room couch. The first cleaning lady noticed me and said, “She’s been working too hard. It’s my turn to do the work.” Moving next to the bathroom, I noticed that the sink was full of dirt, like someone had dumped a wheelbarrow into it. A new racket attracted my attention. A pair of contractors, one in the dining room, one in the opposite computer room, were using sledgehammers to make holes in the intervening wall, a load bearing wall I might add. They were making a heck of a mess. A still greater din was coming from out in front of the house. The street was being torn up. Children, elementary school kids, were tearing up the street, with shovels and pickaxes. They were being directed by their teachers. Finally, a strange man came out of the bedroom that I had just left. He had a pocket watch in his hand. He said that he was taking it as payment for a drug deal that had gone bad.

This dream occurred before the New Mexico trip. It has foretold nothing, while I was gone. When I returned, the house was still standing, the street was intact, there was a pile of clothes on the bedroom floor, but this shambling mound was there before I left and even before the dream occurred. We are planning some home improvement, so it may yet become a foretelling of things to come.