Essentially the Only    One

I spent this afternoon and evening at a Missouri countryside gathering in the resort willage of Innsbrook among a group of people most of whom I did not know but who made for most pleasant company.

The houses in this village are built right in the forest, off dirt roads, and satisfyinglyly close to nature.

There are plenty of ponds and lakes, a paradise for the many playing children.

It was they who seemed most in tune with this not-quite-tamed wild area.

For the many of the adults it was a place to gather, drink beers and make conversation.

For others, there was swimming and kayaking in a large lake over a rise. My wife and one of her close friends did a circuit of this, singing songs as they went.My son splashed in the water, having a lot of fun with a water pistol until it was taken away!

I stood on the shore by an artificial beach - a common Missouri construction and one I still find weird - and had fun with my camera. It was hot but not too much so, and relatively dry which made for a very congenial atmosphere.

The afternoon ended with a barbecue, a delightful mishmash of scorched vegetables and seared meats. Very satisfying food to wash down with some good local beer.

Still playing.

This is a photograph from my room at Sussex University when I was student there early in 1980.

Note the pinned-up copies of science papers, all looking very studious. I don't remember a single one. I don't even remember the subjects and projects that led me to photocopy them from the library. But "Ramones" - well, I remember that alright.

Just another example of what is really important.

Yet another tilt and shift shot. Taken (as was the bee and flower) with a 2x extender on the 24mm lens. Mostly shift on this one, giving me flexibility as to the shooting angle. Without it, the shot would have come in much higher and I would have lost both the foreground and background that you see here.

The Mississippi River is close to its forecast crest in St. Louis today, and we went down to the riverfront this afternoon to see it.

We started by walking across Eads Bridge (the long arched bridge in the top photograph) from the far (Illinois) side back to the city. Again, there were a lot of people on the walkway looking at the rapidly flowing mass of muddy water.


From the bridge you could see the riverside road completely submerged and the riverfront restaurant boats cut off. The park rangers had erected barriers to prevent people in the Westward Expansion park - site of the arch - from getting too close to the water. It had covered up the lower steps of the stairs leading down from the park to the river.


After we exited the bridge walkway, we walked into Laclede's Landing, the conglomerate of bars and restaurants right by the riverside. The water was reaching well up into this area, but only parking buildings were flooded.

The most affected riverside attraction was the President Casino based on the gleaming Admiral riverboat. The boat floated, of course, but the same was not true for the entrance. No gambling here at least for a while. All to the benefit of the Casino Queen on the Illinois side of the Mississippi, no doubt.