Monthly Archives: December 2009

Saint Louis Eagles

Posted on by
1

The Thursday morning paper announced that the Bald Eagles had returned to Saint Louis.  I’d even seen a picture of one in the Park, but I had not seen one and more importantly I did not have a picture of one.  So the day’s expedition was already hatching in my noggin, off to the river, across to Illinois and onward to Pere Marquette State Park.  Anne and I launched in falling snow, under grey skies.  We drove northward all the while trying to keep the car windows from fogging.  It must have been the hot breath of our pursuit.

Our first stop was just this side of the Mississippi River at the Riverlands Environmental Demonstration Area.  This is a wetlands area that is operated by the Corps of Engineers.  As we drove into the area, we saw dozens of Trumpeter Swans, Canada Geese and an as yet unidentified species of “duck-like” waterfowl, of which we did not get a good picture.  I was going to use a picture of flying swans with this post, but I’ll save it for later.  I’m thinking of calling it, White Swans in a Snowstorm.  😉

We stopped at the visitor’s center and were instructed on how to find eagles.  Look for them in the tops of trees along the river’s edge.  We saw one across the pool, but it was little more than a dot.  We drove on to Mel Price Lock.  An eagle was fishing below the spillway, but it flew off before we could turn off the engine.  We headed back out, but before we got onto the highway we turned off to check out Ellis Island.  We saw a pair together in one tree and a third further down the tree line.   Any attempt to get closer was foiled by a sign proclaiming that the island was closed to the public as an Eagle Rest Area. 

We met a couple there.  We lent them our binoculars, so that they could see the eagles too.  They repaid us with a great suggestion for lunch, the Fin Inn, Grafton, IL.  The fin in the inn is a fish fin.  The place is a fish house.  Anne and I both had catfish sandwiches.  Anne’s applesauce side was to die for.  Each booth had a fish tank at one end.  Pictured are relatives to the piranha, but these guys are vegan.  By the end of the meal though, they were starting to creep me out.

 

We made it to Pere Marquette and asked the ranger where we might see eagles.  He directed us back the way we came to the Brussels Ferry and there next to the ferryman’s building were a pair of bald eagles.  Now TMZ may have the scoop on Tiger, but I have even more salacious material on the very symbol of our nation.  Look at the header again.  Now, cue the music: Bees Do It, Birds Do It …

We wound our way back down the River Road, stopping whenever we saw another eagle.  I fruitlessly tramped down an embankment to try to get a better shot.  We stopped back at the Grafton Visitor’s Center and were accosted by a troupe of boys.  They greeted us with the question, “Did you see any eagles?”  We answered their questions, by showing them our pictures.  In the gathering gloom we stopped once more in Riverlands.  It is there that I snapped my eagle for this post.

Best Photos of 2009

Posted on by
2

It seems as though everybody and their brother has a best of list or two at this time of year.  Well, I’ve got one too.  So, I would like to present to you twelve of my best pictures, that were taken in 2009.

Today’s header was taken last January in the Temperate House at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  It shows a portion of a Clanwilliam Daisy.  The first picture in this post’s gallery shows a Palm Beach Sunrise.  This was taken in Florida, on the first morning of our vacation there last winter.  Then next picture shows Charles the Great Horned Owl.  This one was taken in the Park last winter.  The California Poppies were taken in the front yard of my folk’s house in Monterey, California.  Tahquamenon Falls is next.  I think this one was actually taken by Dan, whoops.  Next is a Great White Egret, taken in the Park.  A Dragonfly is next, again from the Park.  The Gone to Seed pod was taken while biking along Grant’s Trail, in south Saint Louis County.  A very red Cabin Sunset is up next.  The Juvenile Osprey were photographed in Vermont, on our Quebec trip of last summer.  We’re back in the Park again for a Foggy Dawn along my favorite bike path.  Fall Maple Leaves were also taken in the Park.  The final picture was taken in Oak Knoll Park, which is only a block from the house.

I used these pictures to make a 2010 calendar and then I distributed it as a Christmas present this year.  Didn’t get one?  Not to worry, just contact my new publisher, Lulu, and for just $12.49 plus shipping you can own one too.  Be sure to preview it (its right below the picture), I wouldn’t want you to buy any pig in a poke.  😉

Let the Sunshine In

Posted on by
1

Let the sunshine
Let the sunshine in
The sunshine in
Let the sunshine

It has been cold, rainy, snowy and altogether rather cloudy for quite a few days here in Saint Louis.  That is until Monday.  On Monday the sun finally came out.  I took advantage of this break in the clouds and headed to the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  I wanted to collect some blog fodder.

The lot looked full when I got there, but I got a parking space.  Most of the people were there to see the holiday display.  Think model trains and poinsettia.  I skipped this and headed to the Climatron.  There is nothing like stepping out of a Saint Louis winter’s day and immediately into a tropical rainforest.  Your glasses fog up immediately, but they quickly clear, not so the camera.  Eventually I gave up and went to the Temperate House and was able to start taking pictures.  I took the picture of the African Daisy there.  I eventually worked myself back to the Climatron and was able to do some tropical photography.  After a couple of hours, I headed for home.

After lunch I went for a ride in the Park.  It was warmer than Saturday’s ride, but just as windy.  I stopped by Owl Hill to pay my respects to Charles and Sarah.  Afterwards, I was trying to photograph a flicker when a mounted policeman came by.  He wanted to know what I was looking for and seemed a little disappointed when I told him that it was a bird.  He said that his horse was acting a little skittish and thought that it might be smelling a coyote.  He had seen one the day before, he added.  I told him about the owls and gave him directions, but then his radio squawked and he rode off at a canter.

I tooled around for a bit, all the while clocking my miles.  Once I had made my goal (fifteen miles) I turned into the wind and headed for home.  Clawing my way upwind, I passed another Saint Louis Police tableau.  Two squad cars had stopped in the middle of the road, with their lights flashing, in answer to a 911 call.  The caller’s passenger side window had been smashed in and something had been stolen. 

I think that the policemen’s demonstrative response was in part motivated by the Monday paper’s front page article about the rash of car break-ins this year.  The Park was called out as one of four problem neighborhoods.  To add insult to injury, the article quotes a woman, who had come to the Park to bicycle.  Returning to her vehicle after riding she finds a window caved-in and the interior vandalized.  She complained that the responding patrolman had said, “What do you expect, driving a fancy car like that?”  She was driving a Chevy Suburban.

Most of the Park’s attractions have parking lots, but all of them rely upon on street parking for overflow parking.  The Park’s streets curve and snake around.  Patrolling lines of parked cars along them is a difficult job.  The city street sweeper doesn’t come through the Park very often.  The dozen piles of broken auto glass scattered about the Park testify to this problem.  Near the curb they sit undisturbed, glistening in the winter sunlight.  Few people would notice them, except a bicyclist.

Monday night, Anne and I went out to dinner with friends from work.  We went to the Square One Brewery, just off of Lafayette Square.  Clockwise, from the right we have, Don, Dan and Mary, Anne and I and Erin.  Everybody seemed to have a good time.  Well, at least nobody got up and left the table early.  😉

Tree In Tree

Posted on by
Reply

Saturday Night, Anne and I went to go see the Christmas classic, A Christmas Story, in 3D.  I love this story about Ralphie and his quest to own an official Red Ryder carbine-action two-hundred-shot range model air rifle.  But poor Ralphie is foiled at every attempt.  First by his mother, then by his teacher and finally even by Santa, they all sing the same chorus. “You’ll shoot your eye out.”

I awoke Sunday morning to falling snow.  We got a couple of inches by the end of the day.  So no biking on Sunday.  Instead Anne and I walked over to the Art Museum to see the show, Five Centuries of Japanese Screens.  It closes next week.  This was a collaborative show between the Saint Louis and Chicago Art Museums.  Due to its joint nature, photography was not allowed in the show.  However, as I was wandering around the rest of the museum, waiting for Anne to finish the show, I found this one screen that did not make the show.  It is certainly of lesser quality then the pieces in the show, but it adequately convey’s the concept.  It is entitled, Flowers and Plants of the Four Seasons.

I always enjoy finding something new in the Park.  After leaving the Art Museum and heading for home, we came upon, Tree In Tree – New Grows from Old.  One part art work, one part work of nature, a plaque named this site and dedicated it to honor the ancient Osage Indian presence in Missouri.  A Osage Orange sapling had been planted within the hollow trunk of an old red oak tree.  One branch of the sapling had been drawn through the eastern side of the trunk and tethered. 

The plaque explained that the planting of the sapling symbolized a “re-rooting” of the Osage in the earth of their ancestral homeland.  Indians of North America often manipulated trees by bending branches or trunks, as the trees were growing.  These marker, or guide trees, usually pointed the way to water of sacred places.  The tethered branch, in this tree, points eastward. 

The Osage consider that they are always traveling eastward in their life paths.  This is a conceptual journey they take each day.  The orientation towards the rising sun is also a metaphor for a new beginning.  The plaque concludes with the following wish: This is a gesture of support and hope for the revitalization of Osage culture and language, the growth of more positive relations within and between cultures and the generation of more positive conditions for the environment we all share.

I uploaded another YouTube video.  Enjoy!

What’s On Tap?

Posted on by
Reply

I got back on the bike on Saturday.  The weather was cold (in the twenties) and windy (in the twenties).  I launched and got to the top of the block when I realized that I had forgotten to put on my booties.  Without my booties I knew that my feet would get cold.  I turned around and headed back home.  As I was wheeling the bike into the backyard, my cell started to ring.

It was Anne; Don had called and wanted to get together for lunch.  The Schlafly Tap Room was celebrating its eighteenth anniversary.  They were offering 1991 beer prices.  We set a meet time, Anne prepared to join us by car and I re-launched towards the Park.

I tooled around the Park, clocking my miles.  I stopped by Owl Hill and was reward with the sight of Sarah and Charles, the Great Horned Owls, sharing the same tree, another sign of true love.  The Saint Louis Track Club was finishing its Saturday morning run when I arrived.  Afterwards, I spied some swag that must have fallen off one of the runners, a Santa Claus cap, and stopped to pick it up.  After a while I headed downtown.  The wind was at my back and I quickly made it to the Tap Room.  I got fifteen miles.

I was the first to arrive and put my name in for a table.  Don, Dorothy and Dennis, friends and all Team Kaldi’s members arrived next, our table was ready, we were seated and Anne arrived.  We were seated near the brewery part of the Tap Room.  Tom Schlafly, the owner, was being filmed for a TV spot across the glass from us.  In addition to brewing beer, Tom is active in Saint Louis politics.  His politics are diametrically opposite to those of the conservative, Phyllis Schlafly, his relative.

Anne was wearing her new Farhquarson tartan blouse, thank you Jay.  This got us to discussing our heritages.  It turns out that Dennis is of Dutch heritage.  He had an interesting explanation of Dutch last names.  I found the following text on the web that neatly summarizes what he explained.

Many Dutch names are of the form:  van (“of/from”), de/het/‘t (“the”), der (“of the”), van de (“of the/from the”), and in het (“in the”) or simply de (“the”).  All but the latter denote a place of origin or residence, and the latter an occupation or attribute.  In 1811, the French under Napoleon occupied the Netherlands. They started having a census for the purpose of taxation, and forced everyone to have a family name, which was not a common practice for the Dutch.

The Dutch thought this would be a temporary measure, and took on comical or offensive sounding names as a practical joke on their French occupiers.  Some examples are: Suikerbuik (Sugarbelly), Spring in t Veld (Jump in the Field), Uiekruier (Onion-crier), Naaktgeboren (Born naked), Poepjes (Little shit), Schooier (Beggar), Scheefnek (Crooked-neck), Rotmensen (Rotten people), Zeldenthuis (Rarely at home), Zondervan (without a surname), Borst (breast) and Piest (to urinate).  Imagine the Dutch standing in line to register and having a few laughs at the expense of the French officials, only to have the name stick to them and their descendants for centuries.

Afterwards, I drove home with Anne.  We decided to detour through the Park and made a stop at Owl Hill.  Anne got to see Sarah and Charles, for the first time.

A White Christmas, Sort Of

Posted on by
1

Wednesday was my last day of work for the year.  The last day of work before Christmas break is always rather quiet and this Wednesday was no exception.  Usually I eschew the last regular day of work and take a vacation day just to avoid it, but not this time.  It was deadly dull though. 🙄

On Thursday, Anne and I walked up to downtown Clayton.  We met Edie at First Watch for breakfast.  Anne presented Edie with the sweater that she had added edging.  The sweater is to be a gift to one of Edie’s nieces.  It was pouring after breakfast, so we asked Edie for a ride home.  We would have gotten soaked otherwise.  On the way out I snapped the picture for today’s header, of a row of Quaker Oats containers.

After we got home we quickly turned around and this time drove to a new big box computer store near the house.  I got an enclosure for the old computer’s hard drive.  As I was walking towards the back of the store, I walked by a guy on a step ladder.  At first I thought he was working on wire chases in the ceiling, but as it turned out he was trying to fix the store’s model train setup.  Then I recognized him.  He is the same guy that I blogged about a few day’s ago.  His name is Dan and this is the guy that has turned his front yard into an elaborate model railroad diorama.  Saint Louis really is a small town.  Speaking of which, we bumped into Joanie at our next stop, the grocery store.  We finished the day watching, It’s a Wonderful Life.

Friday, Christmas Day brought the most snow that we have seen so far this season, about half an inch.  According to Cindy, the weather girl, a White Christmas requires a minimum of one inch of snow.  So we had a White Christmas, sort of.  The picture with this post is of some chocolates that I got Anne.  They are Christopher Elbow’s Artisanal Chocolates.  They almost look too good to eat.