Snowballs

I got a number of good shots during the botanical garden's spring snow. The topic will eventually become tedious but I like this one.

We are thinking of taking Madeleine to the garden on Saturday, when it is expected to be warmer. Some of you may have noticed that there have not been any pictures of her for a while. The child has become impossible to photograph indoors. She is 31 months old and is fascinated with her own image. She knows that when we take her picture it appears on the back of the camera and demands to see it. She can't type, of course, but knows the basic operations of iPhones and iPads, and can easily turn on videos we made of her. She loves to bang on our piano (and can find middle C on request), leading to demands to see "me piano!" on the screens. The only way I'm going to get anything new is to take her outdoors and hide in the bushes.                          

Queen Of The Underworld

Technical difficulties. The friendly American Telephone and Telegraph Company - ATT - managed to disconnect all Internet, television and phone service to my home on Wednesday. We have to wait for a technician to come this evening. I've been trying to persuade Mrs. C to let me drop their cable TV service altogether since we watch it so little and the price is so outrageous. At the moment, I can only get Internet service using my mobile phone as a hot spot and it ain't real fast.

Persephone, as all you classicists know, was the queen of the underworld and wife of Hades in Greek mythology. But, because she was allowed to return to earth in the spring and went back down below in the fall, she was also the goddess of plant fertility and, along with her mother Demeter, of agriculture. I guess that's why her statue has this prime spot in our botanical garden. It is a beautiful art nouveau-ish work seen on these pages before.                  

Au Printemps

A bit more spring snow at the Missouri Botanical Garden. If you visit our area (which no one ever does) it's a don't miss. These photos were all taken around the elaborate Japanese garden.                         

STL DPB's Ninth Anniversary

Today is this blog's ninth anniversary. This is the 3,274th post, one just about every day I've had an Internet connection. Images from all over St. Louis; from New York, Chicago, L.A., Phoenix, Denver, Anchorage and Birmingham; from Paris, Buenos Aires, London, Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai, Kathmandu, Tamarindo and Lhasa; from Mt. Rainier, Mt. McKinley, Mt. Fuji and Mt. Everest.

Sometimes I think of all the books I could have read, the movies I could have seen (pretty close to none in recent years), the letters I could have written and the recipes I could have learned. So, why? 

There have been some great benefits. I have been bit burned out with my work for a long time. Looking for a creative outlet that I could do reasonably well. This is it, I suppose. And all the people I've met on the streets of St. Louis, the ordinary, the weird and the special. All the things I've learned about my adopted city. And all of you, my CDP colleagues, with whom I've exchanged ideas and techniques, and the several of you I have met. How else could I have experienced barbecue in Birmingham, two or three hour lunches on an island in the Seine and a terrace in Provence, and dinner in Shanghai with someone who knew what to order? It has been worth it. It has broadened my horizons in so many ways.

The pictures today are little pebbles of the number on our streets: the intersection of 9th and Market Streets downtown, and Channel 9, the public television station.

Who knows how much longer.                 

First Day of Spring

It got cold Saturday and there was some snow Sunday morning, the first day of spring. That's one of the rare things that could get me out early on a Sunday morning and down to the botanical garden, where the cherry blossoms and other flowering trees were popping. Worth the effort.

There are some more of these to post but tomorrow is a special event.                  

St. Louis, Eh?

The quintessential Canadian coffee shop chain, Tim Horton's, is expanding all over the United States and it is popping up in The Lou. It was amusing to see a person wearing a large plastic coffee cup costume working the crowd.

By the way, I heard that while Donald Trump is planning a big wall on our southern border to keep Mexicans out, the Canadians are planning a similar structure on our northern flank to keep us out.                 

Down On The Farm

Well, not exactly. Another group that always shows up at the St. Pat's parade is this fan club for old, small-engine farm tractors. The top one looks like it came out of a steampunk video. Mrs. C remembers Farmall tractors growing up in Kansas. They aren't around any more. Her brother and his wife who run the old family farm have this gigantic New Holland machine.

We may get some snow tomorrow morning and the cherry blossoms are just beginning to pop at the botanical garden.  Hope it works out.