There is a crook in the downspout of our house that sometimes attracts nesting birds. It's a bit precarious but squirrels can't get to it. Some years no one shows up. We have had robins a couple of times. This year we have not seen the usual cardinals and robins but there are lots of doves. A pair has set up housekeeping in this spot and we are waiting to see some little peepy heads.
But here, in suburban St. Louis, the Easter Bunny tools around in a Ford Mustang convertible. I wonder how many eggs fit in the small trunk.
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Sometimes I feel near despair for my country, allowing this incoherent, childish egotist to run things. I have hope that our November congressional elections will bring a strong tidal change but fear that the process and results may be suppressed. As it happens, we will visit Hungary late this month. It will be interesting to see how things feel there.
It should be a pretty Easter weekend in St. Louis but I'm not very mobile. Thursday's nerve root ablation can't come soon enough.
According to Merriam-Webster:
Fascism : a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition
Sound about right? Again, from the No Kings rally. Don't know what I'll do over the Easter weekend since my mobility isn't very good.
I didn't listen to the president's speech last night - I wanted to get some decent sleep. Everything I needed to know was on the news this morning. Here's something that struck me. Although the U.S. and Israel started the war and Iran's closing the Straight of Hormuz was an obvious consequence, Trump thinks it's the rest of the world's problem to reopen it. Not ours. We spilled all the candy but somebody else has to pick it up.
What do you like to see, hear and do when you go out for an evening of fun - or choose to stay at home? Our choices of entertainment in today's society seem limitless. As the house photographer for the St. Louis Fringe, I have an obvious place to look for an example but a huge amount to choose from. These girls from a high school on the edge of the area performed a spin on A Midsummer Night's Dream called A Tale of Puck. Now that was entertaining.
Catholic Worker is a long-established left wing Catholic organization based in New York City. When I was in high school and had the run of the city by subway I think I ended up at some event there. A contingent of them was at No Kings Saturday, with this man calling out "Free burritos! Don't march hungry!" They gave a neatly foil wrapped snack to anyone in need. I guess that was part of their point.
I think I will leave the commentary to you, gentle reader. He does like his face and name on absolutely everything possible. Think of the opportunities.
The third No Kings demonstrations took place across America yesterday. There were 50 scheduled in Missouri, with a big one in downtown St. Louis. Mrs. C and I went, and an absolutely perfect day brought out a big crowd. No estimates yet of numbers. The mass of people marched 2 miles / 3 km down a main thoroughfare to the baseball stadium, where a game was about to end. My spine didn't carry me that far.
It's opening weekend of the baseball season in the U.S. When I was young, I was interested in all kinds of sports, like most American boys. Over time, I have become bored with most of it, particularly our version of football, which I despise for its gratuitous violence and crass spectacle. There is still a soft spot, though, for baseball. I spent a bunch of my youth in the cheap seats in Yankee Stadium (two versions back). Thursday was opening day for our beloved Cardinals, who squeezed out a come-from-behind 9 - 7 victory over Tampa Bay.
We are going to try to get to the No Kings rally today with my rollator, camera and help from Mrs. C.
Fake ruins in Tower Grove Park, a 19th Century Romantic fantasy. No flowers around here yet, maybe because St. Louis can't figure out what season it is. When I shot this yesterday afternoon, the temperature was 94 F / 34.4 C. This morning as I write this, it is 40 F / 4.4 C. Not normal.
Another early sign of the season. I have to confess that this is from the archives. The arthritis at the bottom of my spine has gotten a lot worse and I'm not walking well. There is a pain management procedure scheduled for April 9 that has helped in the past, but until then it will be either old stuff or whatever I can shoot from my car (sitting is okay).
First signs on a gray day. The trees are confused. Our temperatures have been zooming up and down, summer hot one day and need a coat on the next. It has not been as extreme as some parts of the country but many plants don’t know which way to go.
Long, tedious drive home yesterday from Kansas City, with an awful lot of construction on I 70. So, I thought I'd post something spring-like from Forest Park.
Today is St. Louis Daily Photo's 19th anniversary, having first appeared on March 22, 2007. 6,831 posts to date. Hooda thunk. Most of the pictures are from St. Louis, but there are others from Tibet to Patagonia. So how much longer?
A photography teacher once told me that outdoor light was good enough to shoot if the angle of the top of an object to the tip of its shadow was at least 45 degrees. That's surely the case here, winding up our trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. We question when or if we will be back. We're getting old and physical activities are becoming a challenge. The arthritis in my lumbar spine is worse, and I needed a bunch of airport wheelchairs last weekend. Having a super duper pain management procedure that has helped before, but it's not for three weeks.
So I need to search for something new. Suburban Kansas City this weekend for a family event.
I mentioned that I would show something about Nicaraguan roads, generally better than Costa Rica although CR is much more prosperous. All Chinese foreign aid. (Someone still believes in soft power.) What's notable is the tree-like thing in the center. They are all over the place, maybe 15 meters tall, brightly colored and splashed with LEDs at night. The government calls the design Tree of Life. The locals call it Tree of Garbage. Chinese designed and manufactured, but built at great cost to the Nicaraguan state. What could the money have done for education or health care?
We rent a mid-size SUV when we go to Costa Rica. Although the roads have improved a lot over the years, it's never a bad idea to have all wheel drive. However, when we arrived at the agency hours late, they didn't have what we booked. They offered an "upgrade", this behemoth. I didn't like it. I mean, the thing had mood lighting on the inside that changed when you played music. The name is like all those mysterious Chinese products you see on Amazon. Someone puts a bunch of Roman consonants and vowels in a box, shakes it, and sets out any short string that is pronounceable in a European language. I half-expected someone to say "bless you!" after I said the name.
Got a problem? Any problem? This is the place to come. Pharmacies in Costa Rica work more like those in Europe than in the U.S. No giant chains like Walgreen's or CVS here. They tend to be tiny and independent. You have to talk to the pharmacist about your muscle pain or diarrhea, and they will you tell you what to take. No vast selection of over the counter stuff like here. This one, though, seems to eliminate any need for a physician.
One of the stops on the Nicaragua tour was El Mirador de Catarina, located in the town of the same name. The view is of the extinct Apoyo volcano, whose caldera is filled with water to the depth of 200 meters. I didn't know the snack quesillos. Turns out there are varieties across Latin America, both sweet and savory. The Nicaraguan version is a thick corn tortilla, soft cheese, pickled onion and a sauce. I might have tried one but the stand was closed.
A nicer than average house in Granada, Nicaragua. No light coming in from the front. Windows traditionally face an interior courtyard.
We have not had a good flying experience on this trip. As I mentioned, both our STL - DFW and DFW - LIR segments were four hours late. Not too much inconvenience, as we had planned to overnight at DFW anyway. On Saturday, our inbound plane to Liberia was on time. However, The Liberia CR airport is so far over capacity in high season that the plane had to wait a long time for a gate to open, so much so that the pilots timed out and can't fly all the way to Dallas. So we are landing in Houston to get another crew. Customs and immigration there, then on to Dallas, where we will miss the last flight to STL of the night.
Never been to Houston. We've visited Kathmandu, El Calafate, Alice Springs and X'Ãan, but never America's fourth largest city. I could do without.
An autorickshaw or tuk-tuk, if you will, in the old colonial town of Granada, Nicaragua. I think that's Our Lady of Guadalupe on the back, along with a sticker of a hostile, science fiction-y face. Vaya con Dios.
I've done some reading about Nicaragua since our visit Tuesday. Its GDP per capita in 2024 was US$ 2,600 per year, second poorest in the western hemisphere after Haiti. There are trucks and vans, but horse drawn carts are common.
It is striking, though, that Nicaragua's main roads are clearly better than Costa Rica's. Chinese foreign aid, according to our guide. I'll find an illustration.
We spent a lot of time on the road Tuesday driving north from the Costa Rican border into Nicaragua. This is the southern town of Rivas. Some general impressions: Nicaragua is notably poorer than CR. The houses are mostly smaller and in rough shape. The cars are older and more beat up, and there are fewer of them. Lots of horse-drawn carts. In more populous areas, there are many autorickshaws, like you see in parts of Asia. Busses and some trucks are as festively painted and religiously decorated as in India. Few if any modern strip centers that are now common in CR. Many fewer supermarkets; our guide said they are too expensive and people prefer to buy from local roadside vendors. Flags are everywhere, with more of Daniel Ortega's Sandinista National Liberation Front than the national flag.
The day was exhausting and we took yesterday off. More of this to come.
. . . that we watch spider monkeys on a volcanic island in Lake Nicaragua, eating fruit provided by tourists during a boat ride. As I mentioned, this is a big lake (19th largest in the world), with volcanoes in and around it. Some big blow sent huge chunks of black rock through the air, creating a group of islands in the northwest corner. This pair of monkeys were settled here, we were told, for rehab purposes.
Late post today. The tour company picked us up at 4 AM and got us back at 9 PM. Now a slow day.
Another scene on Playa Langosta. Dad needs to keep a careful watch among the waves and rocks. Looonnnggg day trip up into Nicaragua today. They are picking us up at our condo at 4:15 AM. Hope we can drag ourselves out in time.
Back to our old haunts on Playa Langosta. Lots of surfing here and at next-door Playa Tamarindo.The waves are big enough to be interesting but not so much as to be dangerous - with one exception. This was shot just short of high tide. Lots of the beach has sharp, black volcanic rock, mostly submerged at this time. You really need to know where you are going or wait for low tide.
Stefan asked for pictures of volcanoes, among other things, when we got to Costa Rica. The route into the airport at Liberia, where we always go, comes down the western shore of Lake Nicaragua, which is pretty darn big. It contains an island with two volcanoes, the larger one called Ometepe, which last erupted in 1983.
I can usually get some good shots when we arrive early to mid afternoon. But, remember how our Friday flight was four hours late? Well, yesterday's flight was four hours late for reasons I won't begin to discuss. It was hazy and the sun was setting as we flew through here. I hope to get much better pictures Tuesday when we take a long day trip into Nicaragua.
Gate C 12 yesterday afternoon at beautiful Lambert St. Louis International Airport. (No one today knows who Lambert was.) The plan was to fly to American Airlines' biggest hub at Dallas-Ft. Worth, spend the night, and then go on to Costa Rica this morning. However, our flight to DFW was four hours late. As usual, the gate agents know nothing, see nothing and say nothing. Later, a flight attendant who worked the flight into STL said there was an air leak in the back of the cabin that created a terrible noise. It got fixed after a long time.
Lots of people missed connections but no one freaked out. We had a hotel room waiting for us so it was okay.
Maybe not the best picture from Art In Bloom, but it's a travel day. Flying today to a giant airline hub and spending the night. Saturday morning down to our home away from home in Costa Rica. I think it's +/- our twenty-third visit to the country over some decades (we obviously like it). Anybody want to see pictures of beautiful Dallas - Ft. Worth International Airport?
