Ice In The Missisippi

Phone cam shot taken from my office window a few minutes ago. We usually see a little ice in the river during the winter but not like this. The low here overnight was -4 F / -20 C. Up in Chicago, it was -25 F / - 32 C. It's not that far, about 300 miles or 482 km northeast.

We expect spring-like weather for the weekend.

Chilled Art

The art museum through bare winter trees on a damp, chilly day. The cold might have begun to affect my vision. The artworks were safe in the climate-controlled interior. Wonder what they did to protect them when the museum was built more than a century ago.    

             

The Darkest Days

Gloomy around The Lou these days. Mostly overcast, bare trees, getting colder. This is Forest Park near sunset a few days ago.

Ice Water

Yesterday was clear and very cold (for us). The family took a ride to the state park at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The point on the right is literally the tip of land between the two. The view is roughly to the southeast. All the ice is coming in from the Missouri, on the right. 

The Mississippi, on the left, is clear for a reason. The site is just below the massive lock and dam at Alton, Illinois. Ice backs up behind it and only clear water flows through. There hasn't been enough time and space for it to re-freeze. The drop in elevation downstream is so gradual that there are no locks all the way from St. Louis to New Orleans.             

Winter Trees

Near sunset, looking out from Kiener Plaza towards 10 South Broadway.       

Winter Pastorale

A pond in a nearly hidden corner of Forest Park, not quite frozen over. Cattails in the foreground, prairie grass in back. It's just down the hill from the dinosaur in Wednesday's photo.

The family has plans to go to the Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Garden tonight. (Some pix from last year here.) However, the forecast is for rain and temps a few degrees above freezing. We will see what happens.       

Christmas Is A Time For Giving

Look carefully at the sign in the window. The contrast is poor but check it out. It's not really a product of the times. In fact, it's very old. See Matthew 26:11. It was about 6F/-14.5C when I took the picture.

Found on Cherokee at Jefferson.         

Cold Walk

A long path in Tower Grove Park, all for the love of a dog. It's a question of values.                    

Cold Snap

The family had dinner Sunday night at one of our favorite restaurants, Nathalie's in the Central West End. The temperature had dropped to the low teens F (around -10 C). We entered the courtyard and found this fountain. It has a beautiful Belle Époque look (as does the restaurant's interior design) but someone forgot the water valve. Hope the pipes didn't burst.                          

A Bit Of WInter, Finally

It has been a mild winter so far. The temperature has started to slide a little. Yesterday we got our first hint of snow. It didn't last but it did get quite cold last night by our standards.
 
Alexander von Humboldt observes the event in Tower Grove Park. He was quite an interesting guy, a geographer, explorer and naturalist, but is no longer well known, at least in this country. A new biography was recently published to very favorable reviews. It's on my list.                 

Winter In Kansas

We drove from Kansas City to Marysville, Kansas, Thursday morning in a cold rain. Nothing dangerous. We awoke Friday to find about a third of an inch / 8 mm of ice on the car. The main roads were fine but the rural gravel roads were glazed over. Slow, cautious driving.

Mrs. C's brother Mel and his wife Pat still live on the old family farm. They throw a big potluck dinner for the family on the day after Thanksgiving. The barn out back is in bad shape. It may be that Mel intends to restore it but there was such a crowd I didn't get to ask him.                 

Design Award

A creative approach. Keep off the chill but be careful. If you give this snowman its arms too early in the party it will look like it is hemorrhaging.                         

Vue 2

There is more of a difference between yesterday's picture and today's than landscape and portrait. Both are HDRs, shot in color and converted to black and white. I've been going back and forth about whether I prefer Photoshop Merge To HDR Pro or Photomatix for HDR processing. Yesterday's was Photoshop. It keeps the final image pretty simple while bringing in a wide range of tonal values. This one is Photomatix. Color photos made with this application can be lurid and overblown, IMHO. The B&Ws still don't look natural but can have a lot of dramatic pop.

Any other HDR technicians out there? What do you prefer?                        

Icecircles

The end of the Missouri River, just before it blends into the Mississippi. At this time of year it's full of ice disks. This happens mostly in North America and Scandinavia. Eddies in slow moving rivers spin the water. Equal temperature on all sides lets the water freeze in rough circles. They spin downstream into the fast-flowing, clear Mississippi.                

Captain Morgan, I Presume?

So all the goofy sans-culottes climbed out of the subway downtown into the winter night air and headed into Pi, a sort of upscale pizza joint. I don't think they were expected but they were welcomed anyway, uniform of the day notwithstanding.

One of the participants was dressed up like Captain Morgan, without the pirate trousers, of course. It's the name of a popular brand of flavored rum. (Never tasted it. I'll have a Carneros pinot noir, thank you.) Pictures of the captain always show him standing in the same pose, with the left foot on the side of a rum barrel. Name your poison.                            

Just Another Commute

Ho, hum. Let's ride downtown on MetroLink again, only this time with bare legs in the middle of January. That'll wake you up better than a triple espresso.

Sponge Bob No Pants

Okay, that was just a hook. This is a bit of mid-winter madness done on transit systems in cities around the world. This is the third or fourth year in The Lou. People do have gym shorts or swim bottoms or whatever - there are certain city ordinances. They hop on the MetroLink train with, um, insufficient insulation for the time on year on their lower halves, much to the amazement or amusement of the other passengers. Some of them pretend that it's just an ordinary day, nothing special.

It ended up at a fancy pizzeria downtown, conveniently located a block from my office. More to come.                            

Cold Day, Empty Park 4

Tennis, anyone? The last of this series. Based on the week's visits I should go back to color. Desparately need new material.
           

Cold Day, Empty Park 3

Nil - nil.                    

Cold Day, Empty Park 2

 

Still cold and empty in Forest Park, now at a golf course. I did these in color because of the zoyzia grass in its winter tan. This is a very thick variety, perfect for fairways and resistant to the heat of our summers. It turns a light golden brown at this time of year.

No one there. You can have any tee time you want. Coldest day in a year predicted for tomorrow, with a forecast high of 10F/-12C.