We make changes to our earth. What was once farm fields is transformed into a Stepfordlike housing development attempting to replicate the look of quaint hometowns of the past. Newtown development in the northeastern portion of St. Charles.
Category Archives: Sights of St. Louis
Weekly Photo Challenge: The Road Taken
This is literally “the road taken”. On a rainy, fall day, I was on patrol in the northeastern portion of our county which is very rural and bordered by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers when I rounded a curve and was greeted with this view.
To see more of this week’s challenge, click here or The Road Taken.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Resilient
Lone Elk in Lone Elk Park
Resilience is “the ability [of a system] to cope with change” (Wikipedia). To be able to adapt to your surroundings and deal with things, both good and bad, is the essence of resilience. What better example is there than wild animals who live from one season to another, adapting to whatever comes their way.
To see more of this week’s challenge, click here or Resilient.
Weekly Photo Challenge: It’s Not This Time of Year Without…
My brothers and I were unfortunate that we lost both our parents at a fairly young age. And as our own families grew, we found it rather hard to accommodate all the nieces and nephews and grandbabies in our rather small homes. We opted instead to have a siblings only Christmas celebration where we go to dinner and then to a special outing. This photograph was taken the year we went on a carriage ride to see the Winter Wonderland Christmas lights in Tillis Park, a St. Louis County park. I look forward each year to our outings and although we get together several other times throughout the year, the Christmas season wouldn’t be the same without it.
To see more of this week’s challenge, click here or It’s Not This Time of Year Without….
Weekly Photo Challenge: Tiny
My brother asked me to photograph house doors for a poster called “Doors of Webster Groves” to be sold in his gift shop in Webster Groves, Missouri. Residents were asked to submit entries along with a $10 donation to the Webster Groves School District Foundation and from those entries, he and his staff chose twenty-five favorites. One of those favorites was a tiny “fairy door” at the base of a tree.
Tiny doors of like this apparently originated in Wayford Woods in the county of Somerset, England. According to an article in The Guardian:
“the first fairy door appeared more than a decade ago, a beautifully handcrafted work of art with a working handle, hinges and a little bed tucked behind it.
Since then, doors in all shapes, sizes and colours were added, some adorned with names and numbers. Some builders opted for grandeur – Grand Hollow Hall boasted a door with clear gothic influences. Others went for a more homely style, installing the sort of cosy door that might have appealed to Bilbo Baggins.Most were fixed to nooks and crannies in the mossy bases of trees. Many visiting children, apparently convinced that fairies lived behind the doors, often left them notes, snacks or presents. As many as 200 doors were in place at one point”.
But, as with many things, too much of a good thing isn’t a good thing. The fairy doors drew such crowds to the residential area that a decision was made to remove the doors.
The completed “Doors of Webster Groves” poster is available for purchase though the” gift shop” link above.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Local
The southwest area of St. Charles County hosts beautiful rolling hills and is populated by a number of wineries, from Defiance to Augusta. This photo is a view from the Chandler Hill vineyards in Defiance, Missouri.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Quest
My grandchildren walking among the Flags of Valor
On the 15th Anniversary of the terrorist attack on 9/11, Forest Park in St. Louis hosted “Flags of Valor” on its iconic “Art Hill” on the grounds of the Art Museum. This large hill, normally used for sledding during the winter, became the breathtaking stage for 7,021 America flags, each flag representing one American soldier who has died since September 11, 2001. It is hard to describe the feelings I had when we first glimpsed the rows upon rows of American Flags. One such soldier commemorated is Sgt. Sean Cooley, the husband of my children’s cousin. Each soldier’s name is indexed and the location of his flag is documented by row. As we were walking among the rows on our quest to find Sgt. Cooley’s flag, I couldn’t stop my tears as the realization hit me that each one of these flags represented a man or woman who sacrificed their life for me and whose loved ones will grieve them forever. It took a little while, but we were finally finally able to find his flag.
Sgt. Sean Cooley
Sgt. Sean Cooley, 35, a member of the Mississippi Army National Guard and assigned to Co. B., 150th Engineering Battalion, 155th Armor Brigade of Lucedale, Mississippi was killed on February 3, 2005 in the Northern Babil Province of Iraq when his armored vehicle was hit by a roadside IED. Sgt. Cooley had been in Iraq just a little over a month. Back home in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, Sean was an emergency room nurse who was liked and respected by all. “Sean M. Cooley’s dedication as an emergency room nurse and kindness to his patients were obvious when surveys of patients came in. ‘Sean still has the most stars on the board, and he has been gone several months. Everybody loved Sean Cooley,’ said Darlene Phillips, a registered nurse who worked with him. ‘He just loved people and touched the lives of so many children who came through the ER.'”–From Legacy.com. I wish I’d known him.
Flags of Valor–We Will Never Forget
To commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, America’s Heartland Remembers is putting 7,021 flags on display at Art Hill in Forest Park. Each one will have a photograph of a fallen member of the military killed in the war on terror since 9/11.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Frame III
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