One of the more creative costume ensembles at the Central West End Halloween party. Our temperatures have gotten much cooler and we’ve had some rain, so maybe we will get more natural versions of this. Note, though, what is in the hand pf the person on the left. Someone was selling cocktails in IV fluid bags, with the liquid tube to use as a straw. Medicinal purposes only.
It’s increasingly common here. Autumn has been very warm and dry. Officially, we are in moderate to severe drought. The leaves turn brown and just fall. The only way to get some color may be putting them right in front of the setting sun.
Unfortunately, there are strong storms predicted for Saturday, the day of our nationwide No Kings protests. I really want to document it. We’ll see.
We did a brief road trip the weekend before last to visit an old college friend and his wife. They live in Ottawa, Illinois, about a four hour drive north of here. The area contains the valley of the Illinois River, which, with a little engineering, flows south from Chicago and meets the Mississippi north of St. Louis. There are beautiful state parks in the area. This is Matthiessen Lake. It flows into a gentle waterfall over limestone strata, but I wasn’t up to going all the way down the hill and climbing back up.
It was time to drag myself out of the house and do something. Give myself a mental health day, so I took my camera and went to Forest Park. Autumn has come late here. Sometimes we get no color at all; leaves turn brown and just drop. October was very warm and dry, not good for leaf color. November has been cooler and wetter, so we are getting something. The view here is the top of Art Hill, with the art museum and the heroic statue of St. Louis in the background.
As I mentioned yesterday, our fall colors are spotty at best. This is one of the best exceptions, found around my favorite location in Forest Park. I'm no arborist. Anyone know what it is?
There is something unusual for the family to do tonight, which we will see Saturday or Sunday.
I've about run through the circus pictures so it's time to find something else. Not much going on but there is some color to see here and there. Fall foliage is hit and miss, depending on temperature and rainfall. Most years it is too warm and dry to produce a lot of color. This year we have some good spots but they aren't general. This tree is from my favorite grove in Forest Park, all of which looks aflame in the best years.
Citygarden covers two full blocks downtown. The landscaping is done in zones, reflecting the variety of flora in our region. The ginkgos we saw recently are flanked by a flaming Japanese maple and still tender birch. A few varieties of Midwestern prairie grass fill in the bottom. This is the best of the gardener's art.
From Citygarden last weekend, looking east along Market Street through the ginkgos. They won't be around much longer.
Autumn colors can come late here, or not at all. If the late summer and early fall are dry, everything goes brown and then plops. We've had some periods of rain this year and things are better if not perfect. We are also not that far north, about on the same parallel as Washington and San Francisco (and Rome). If colors come, they come later than much of the country. Last weekend, Citygarden was awash in golden ginkgos. People's clothing tells you how warm it was.
I'm getting a Covid test this morning. First time. One of my co-workers tested positive and I was in her vicinity in the office last Friday. Not very close, everyone wearing masks, but still. I'm 70 and immunosupressed by my meds for rheumatoid arthritis. Fingers crossed if my joints would let me.
The architecture of the Pulitzer is decidedly spare. It was designed by the multi award-winning Japanese designer Tadao Ando, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadao_Ando. The walls are featureless concrete slabs that direct the viewers attention entirely to the art work. (For similar reasons, there are no placards on the wall describing the art. There is always a brochure to read after the visitor engages the the work.) Ando makes ingenious use of outside light and water to create spacial and material balance.
Visitors can step outside into courtyard. It contains a site-specific monumental sculpture that we will come to. Last weekend the simplicity had fiery accents.
