STL PUBLIC SCULPTURE - MIGHT AS WELL INCLUDE THIS ONE

 

Often seen here, the statue of the Apotheosis of St. Louis in front of the art museum in Forest Park. The streets are clear now but the ground is still snow covered and it's staying cold for awhile.                  

SORT OF ST. LOUIS PUBLIC SCULPTURE: T REX OF THE TUNDRA

 

Well, I guess it's sculpture of a sort. T Tex here and a triceratops, just out of the frame to the right, stalk Forest Park beside the planetarium. A quick look online suggests that the monster's habitat was subtropical forests and plains in what is now the western U.S. and Canada. It probably wouldn't like our current weather (it was cold-blooded, after all). It is still frigid here but the sun was out Monday and the streets are clear.                    

ST. LOUIS PUBLIC SCULPTURE: MORE FROZEN PINOCCHIO

 

We got a lot of snow over the weekend by our standards, maybe 9 inches / 23 cm. The temperature forecast for Sunday night is -5 F / -20.5 C, frigid to us. Under the circumstances, I thought I'd bring back a chilly picture of Citygarden's other Pinocchio statue (we have two!), Jim Dine's Big White Gloves, Four Big Wheels. I'm not so welcoming of the conditions.                

WINTER IN FOREST PARK 2

 

A membrane of ice here, some open water there. Temperatures fluctuating a lot in recent weeks. There used to be more big trees on the horizon before last June’s tornado.                     

WINTER IN FOREST PARK

As I am always happy to point out, Forest Park is the largest urban park in the U.S., just a bit bigger than Central or Golden Gate Parks. It has plenty of variety for images.                        

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - UNSCHEDULED LAYOVER

 

Adventures in winter travel. As each flight from Chicago to St. Louis yesterday was canceled we were put on another, which was then canceled. Eventually all of them. Our flight from Flint, Michigan, to Chicago amazingly got through - seven hours late. It was still snowing at O’Hare when we got this far. Found a hotel and now booked on a noon flight Sunday. Success to be determined.               

YEAH, IT’S COLD

There would be a lot of competition for this title over the last several days. Like many places, our winters have become gradually milder and some years we get no more than a touch of snow. Not this time. It was 0 F / -18 C when I got up Wednesday. I know, I know, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Canadian prairies, but this is Missouri. 

I must acknowledge Robert Cohen, one of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's superb press photographers, as the inspiration for this picture.               

SOMEBODY FIND A WARMING SHELTER

 

Saint Louis, King Louis IX of France, and his steed look like they need more than a horse blanket.The statue, seen here a number of times over the years, is called The Apotheosis of Saint Louis, standing in front of the art museum and overlooking Art Hill.                 

STILL...

 

Well, it was as cold as expected yesterday and I still didn’t feel like getting out. So, back into the archives. But the real news in this country is the big storm along the Gulf coast. (And it’s still the Gulf of Mexico, no matter what someone says.) Record-breaking snow in New Orleans. New Orleans! Many streets are lined with palm trees. This stuff is an inconvenience for us, but it’s shattering for them.                

COLD WATER

 

We are having the coldest weather we’ve had in years. The forecast high is for today 9 F / -13 C. No trash talk from people in Minnesota, etc. We are on about the same parallel as Madrid and Rome, and these days we are more accustomed to record high temperatures. This is an old picture taken from a walkway over the center of the Mississippi. We are not far downstream from the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. The ice all comes from the Missouri, which flows freely. The Mississippi is damed nearby, preventing the formation of ice.                              

SOME MELTING

 

We’ve had a couple days of milder temperatures. The packed snow and ice receded a little but there is a lot to go, and we’re back in the freezer tonight. Of course, the roads are clearest where there is the most traffic, unlike the lonely post-industrial area south of the Arch.                      

DUCKS ON ICE

 

A little bit down the road in Forest Park. There are always ducks around the water features, and sometimes geese. (Who can be really mean. Don’t mess with them.)  The ducks are far better insulated than we are and don’t give a quack about the cold. I do. I wish I could have gotten a better POV over the grass but the snow was piled up so high beside by the plows that I couldn’t get up on it.              

LATE WINTER AFTERNOON, SOFT LIGHT

 

Still closer to sunset. The blue of the shaded snow is touched by a bit of gold in the sky.                    

A QUESTION OF VISION

The roads were passable yesterday so I took my camera out to Laumeier Sculpture Park, a lesser known gem in our area. It has 102 acres / 42 hectares of open fields and hilly wooded trails studded with contemporary art. A piece called Aurelia Roma by Manuel Neri has a protective wrap for the winter. The park’s iconic work, Tony Tasset’s Eye, stares back.

I should acknowledge that this picture was inspired by one that appeared in our local newspaper this week. Although the paper is a shadow of what it once was (Joseph Pulitzer’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch), it has some damn fine photographers.                      

IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

 

A significant winter storm has been sweeping across the middle latitudes of the U.S. from Kansas toward the east coast. This was my street yesterday afternoon. Snow is predicted to continue through Sunday night into Monday morning. It will be followed by very cold (for us) temperatures, 2 F / -17 C Wednesday night. We are on about the same parallel as Madrid and Rome so this doesn’t happen much, but there is a lot of flat land between here and Canada.                   

IN NEED OF A WARM HAT

It's finally getting quite cold here, although it's much worse further north. 18th Century wigs just aren't enough to keep the brain warm. Woolfie should get someone to make a run to REI for him.

Today is a travel day, with an major change of scene by tonight. Hope to have something to show Sunday morning.                

BOATHOUSE

Turn around from the view in yesterday's post, take a few steps across the road and you come to this. There is a series of waterways through the northwest quarter of Forest Park that eventually lead to the Grand Lagoon below the art museum.The boathouse rents paddle boats, kayaks and paddle boards. There is also a decent restaurant. Hard to see in this deliberately soft image but there are still paddle boats in the water in January. Business was poor.              

A SIMPLE BRIDGE

There was a more distant view of this bridge to the tea house in Sunday's post. The craftsmanship is beautiful, joinery rather than nails. The up hill part feels a bit steep to old legs. It's representative of what we saw in gardens during our visits to Japan.                

TWO TRACKS FORWARD

Only one of them won't get your socks wet. I'll take the flagstones. Still in the botanical garden.               

THE PATH

Photographers love leading lines and curves, so how could I go wrong with a picture containing both. Winter in the Japanese garden again.