IT COULD BE WORSE

It's not Arizona, but after a moderate first half of summer here the southwestern sirocco has blown this way. 102 F is 39 C. This sign is on a bank and I assure you that nobody was walking up. This is America. We drive.

The hottest I remember in my years here is 106 F / 41 C. It sticks in my memory because a few people in my office had hired a teacher from the Alliance Francaise for weekly lessons. Her mother back home saw the reports on the news and called to ask if people were dying in the streets. Of course, that was before the same kind of thing started happening in France.             

MUTANT

Virtually all of the sunflowers we saw were very symmetrical - uniform, bright yellow outer petals; a middle ring of golden stalks or hooks; and a inner disk of tiny geometric whorls changing from gold to green. This one flower broke the pattern with the middle ring incomplete and the inner disk collapsing into a void. The bee didn't care.        

JUST GETTING STARTED

An immature sunflower just getting ready to pop into bloom. It is fascinating to see how the bright yellow petals begin to form. At this stage, they look like a plant that could suck something in and trap it.      

COUNT 'EM

A field of sunflowers at the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area. Not as far as the eye can see but more than the eye can count.          

AH! SUN-FLOWER

Ah Sun-flower! weary of time,

Who countest the steps of the Sun:

Seeking after that sweet golden clime

Where the travellers journey is done. 

                   - William Blake, 1794

The Columbia Bottom Conservation Area is a preserve in far north St. Louis County along the Missouri River. All summer long the state agency that manages it plants acres of sunflowers in staggered groups so some area is in its glory throughout the season. Mrs. C and I took a drive up to view the spectacle yesterday.

BACK HOME - THE GEYSER

We've been back home for almost a week and I have not been back out on the local streets. It's time to bring it back home, but for today I have to hit the archives. This is the Gateway Geyser. It is in a park in East St. Louis, Illinois, directly across the Mississippi from the Arch. They pop it off every day in the warmer months. How high the jet rises depends on the wind. If it's perfectly calm the water rises as high as the top of the Arch, 630 feet/192 meters.                 

STL DPB POSTS PRETTY PICTURES

The condo we rent at Playa Langosta faces roughly west with a view to the Pacific. The qualities of the sunset depend on the weather and cloud patterns. This was a pretty good one.