We had thunderstorms on and off all day Saturday so we didn't attempt the Chinese cultural festival at the botanical garden. Today should be glorious and we will give it another try. For now, another earlier shot from the garden, a bush packed with rhododendron blossoms. Ironic that something so beautiful is poisonous.
Our Missouri Botanical Garden must have thousands of species of plants. Being a child of the concrete jungle, I usually have no idea what's what. We use a phone app called PlantSnap, which can identify most of them from taking a photo and comparing it to an image database. This is the bud of a Greek peony, which the app says is endangered. It's well cared for here.
We have the return of a big annual event at the garden this weekend, the Chinese cultural festival. It's a photo feast but the forecast is for on and off thunderstorms all day. If we can go, you will see it here.
Staying with our spring walk through the botanical garden for now. Weather can get in the way of cruising with a camera in the Midwest at this time of year. We had some severe thunderstorms last evening and a couple of small tornadoes in the area. Then there can be fine days when you can find an image like this.
I thought I was running out of material but I forgot that Mrs. C and I recently did a long springtime walk through our wonderful botanical garden. Lots of opportunities to get in close.
Time to move on from the People's Joy Parade. I'm pretty low on new inventory so I better go find something. However, I have this one from last weekend that will do for today.
St. Louis has a wonderful children's museum, The Magic House, that Ellie loves to visit. The new exhibit is based on the Molly of Denali TV show about a Native Alaskan girl. Although that's indoors, a sculptor was in the yard building this fanciful impression of the mountain. It couldn't be made of sand or it would melt away with first rain. The sculptor was busy and I didn't get to ask him about the material.
Stephen Sondheim, were he still with us, might not approve, although one of our local opera companies (we got three) is doing A Little Night Music later this summer. These two are examples of why some children are afraid of clowns. They wouldn't harm a fly, but they might threaten one.
The forecast for viewing the lunar eclipse last night was looking bad around here through Sunday afternoon. I stepped out onto my porch around moon rise and saw the brilliant full orb peeking through clouds. I got a tripod and set up in a neighboring school yard with an unobstructed view. The clouds blew away completely and patience was rewarded.
