I stole this shot from Anne. I admit it. I’m proud of the shot and I’m glad that I took it. I with a real camera, she with an iPhone, I did better justice to her vision then she could have. The branch was twenty feet in the air, well beyond an iPhone’s grasp. We were walking in Tower Grove Park, easily Saint Louis’ second best park. Smaller, by more than half, then its big brother, Forest Park, if Forest Park is Saint Louis’ front yard then Tower Grove is the back one. Smaller and more intimate then its big brother, Tower Grove’s attractions are not the landmarks of Forest Park, no zoos, no museums. Tower Grove’s main attractions are its picnic pavilions. Each one is unique. Each one is a work of art. It is in this quiet park, especially quiet on the sunny, but cool Sunday morning that we walked in Tower Grove.

As we walked into the park, we matched pace with a neighborhood Shaw resident. She seemed to me to be a bit on both the kooky and the cantankerous side of society, but she was pleasant with us as we walked together into Tower Grove. She was walking to breakfast at the Pieper Palm House, which was on our side of the park. She invited us to join her, but we had to walk a bit before we broke fast. We were thinking of dining at the City Diner, one of our perennial favorites, but she recommended Mokabee, at Grand and Arsenal. As it turned out, the City Diner was too crowded, so we ended up at Mokabee after all. Mokabee is a veggie establishment, but did serve bacon (labeled not vegetarian). On the way back, we almost got caught up in a PKD charity walk. We escaped, but inadvertently drew astray a couple of the walkers. On our way back, we also met again the woman that had recommended Mokabee to us. She was pleased with our decision.

The Shaw Art Fair was our next itinerary stop. This was my fifth and final festival for the weekend. It was also by far the most artistic of the five. I’ll speak of two artists at this fair that moved me. Both were photographers, the first, Lou, I was convinced had photoshopped his pictures. Speaking with him, I came to understand that he used a process that I’ll call more old-school. I don’t pretend to understand his process, but I‘ll give it a go anyway. Many of his pictures look like collages of photographic elements. He explained that he uses modeling to achieve this effect. He also uses CorelDraw and not PhotoShop, but I am unclear as to this distinction. What I liked best is that he mixes his own ink cartridges for his Epson printer. The other artist was named Gosia. While with Lou, I got the impression that his art was his life, his day job, the same was not true for Gorsia. I would categorize her photography as travel photography, extreme travel photography. She has already summited at least three continent’s highest peaks and plans on doing Everest next year. This is a lofty goal to be sure. In closing, I should mention that we ran into the Nelson’s, not Ozzie and Harriet, but the best bike family I know.