We walked in Tower Grove Park this morning. Our launch was a little bit later than normal, not getting off until ten. I was worried that we hadn’t gotten out early enough to beat the heat, but the weather was fine, at least as long as we were in the shade. That’s the beauty of Tower Grove though, with all of its trees, it is probably the shadiest walk we have, easily beating out Forest Park. We were able to circle Tower Grove, with only brief bouts of full sun. These are halcyon days that we are living, with Anne now retired too. These morning walks with Anne are the highpoint of the day.

Tower Grove Park has been working to revitalize two of its dozen or so historic pavilions, with a million-dollar preservation effort that will add new lighting, improve accessibility and restore the structures. The Turkish Pavilion and Old Playground Pavilion are signature landmarks from the Victorian era and are almost 150 years old. Pictured is the Old Playground Pavilion, where work is expected to be completed this month. The larger and more ornate Turkish Pavilion is not expected to be done until the fall. New lighting is intended to showcase the architecture and allow visitors to host gatherings more safely. Brick pavers and stone thresholds were upgraded to concrete, and tables anchored. Preservation included lead paint abatement, restoring intricate ironwork and wood embellishments, and painting the ornate roofs.

The park’s master plan has similar improvements slated for all of the park’s other pavilions too. In addition to the pavilion work, there are also several other projects underway in the park. It appears that the street lighting in the park is getting an upgrade. Last week when we last walked in Tower Grove there were two men with a mini-backhoe, who were working on the lights. The man who was operating the backhoe had stopped working and was berating the other man for not paying attention. I think that the backhoe guy had cut a line or something. In addition to the lighting operation or maybe part of it, I don’t know, but one of the kickball fields has been festooned with dayglow orange fencing, for tree protection. We’ll have to wait and see what this is all about. Finally, in our ramblings we came upon a field where survey stakes had been planted throughout it. Each stake had cryptic writing on it. I think that they are markers for new tree plantings, but Anne thought that they were too close to each other and existing trees to work well. Time will tell. Your neighborhood volunteer sidewalk superintendents are on the job, at least this week.