Essentially the Only One

The Mississippi is in flood, unusual for November. I took the train downtown after work to catch these images.

I detoured driving back from the Confluence into my favorite part of St. Charles County where corn fields, power lines and railways criss-cross the landscape.

I felt in need of some big sky, and this is one place locally where you get it. Not Montana big sky, but good enough. As happens more often than not, the sunset obliged with some beautiful color and I felt that lovely sense of awe and wonder that I get when gazing at such a light show. Who needs anything man-made when nature gifts you with sights such as these?

A corn plant standing proud - and alone - in a large field of soybean plants. This was intentional.Sunset taken, once again, near Fort de Chartres. I had kept my camera in the car with the air conditioning on. It had got quite cold as a result, and, when it met the warm dew of the evening, a condensate fog covered the lens. This was the result.

Sunday evening, same location as here.

What a great month it has been. And it is still cool!

Taken on a drive out to Duck Lake in the Kootenay valley this evening.

The season is changing rapidly, with spring moving into the sticky, hot, St. Louis summer. Last night as I took this photograph, I needed to be well-coated with N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide to keep the mosquitos off - a small bottle of 100% DEET is an essential member of my summer camera equipment. Even so, a cloud of bugs hovered over me, keeping a slight distance and obviously sniffing for any chink in my repellent armor.

They, or I should say, their descendents will be around until October. They used to bother me a lot, but after suffering a couple of summers with their Canadian siblings, the Missouri insects seem almost benign.

Nonetheless, it is the appearance of the biting insects that is the true mark of summer's beginning for me. It's hot now, and we have the air conditioning on as of yesterday, but as long as I could sit in the garden chair without a swarm zeroing in on me, I could kid myself that it was still spring.

No longer. But that's just fine, because summer itself had its own special qualities. One of these is the changing quality of the natural light. Partly because of the dirty Midwestern air, and partly because of the heavy humidity, a haze that filters in favor of the red end of the spectrum settles over the land. During bright daylight, it is most noticable as generating hot-air distortions over long distances, but at the beginning and end of the day it produces glorious rich color.

So that is why I stand in the buggy evenings with a camera waiting for the sun to go down. Yesterday, it was so beautiful and so peaceful that I felt that deep bonding with the land that refreshes my soul and, more importantly, gives me a sense of belonging and place. It has taken a long time for such feelings to grow in relation to Missouri but they are now there and they are very meaningful. Another part of this world has claimed me.

I decided to chase the sunset tonight.

There are too many trees, buildings and hills in my neighborhood to get a really good view, so I got in the car and drove north into St. Charles County.

I left late and the sun was descending fast. By the time I got to a clear, open, area it was almost below the horizon.

I was close to the village of Portage des Sioux. I thought it might be worth driving down to the Mississippi riverside to see what it looked like there.
There was a lot more water than I expected. I drove through the village and down towards the statue of Our Lady of The Rivers. As a rise came up and then the drop to the river bank, I hastily stopped.

The road was completely flooded.

A pain for the locals, I am sure, but it made for a very pretty view.Ahead of me lay the flood water. Standing in it, there was the statue of Our Lady. Unapproachable now except by boat, but still lit up and glowing. I waited until it became a little darker and then headed home.

My son and I are enjoying a night in New Harmony, Indiana as a one night winter retreat. This means walking round the pond and watching Dr. Who videos.

Perfect.