Iris Blooms

Smells like subtle cotton candy. Is beautiful under the spell of raindrops. Maybe my favorite flower.

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Twilight Apple Blossom

Number 33

The cows were having babies and they are super cute. Big eyes and lashes. So sweet and cute. The apple blossoms are also sweet but they smell it. The baby cows don't. One pooped on Dad's hand as he tried to keep it from running off when we were petting it. Mama cow was mad at us. But she was eating and only glared at us over the trough.

Dad brought the cows out to pasture, so only the pregnant Moms were left. More cute babies on the way!

Tulip Time

This is a serious Dutch celebration and it is the first i have been to since high-school. It is also why i always disliked tulips. But i have since changed my mind about that.

Oh my, I saw my 4th grade teacher, a girl i ran away with, old friends, the vacant lot where my high-school was, a long-ago babysitter (my friend Jessica and I dumped buckets of water in her car...brats).

It was fun.

Bee Swarm

Well, the bee saga continues. The first bought batch left. We are not sure what happened. Perhaps they were too upset to stay after all the disturbance? But after inspection of the hive, we know they were happy enough to make a considerable amount of comb and there was also larva present.

So we ordered some more bees.

A few days later, a friend was informed of a swarm not far from here. They had taken up residence in a local parking lot. He contacted Justin and they went and got them. It is possible they are our runaways.

But our new batch arrived the next day. Justin constructed a new top bar hive and they were doing well. Until they left a week later. And so it goes.

So we have another vacancy.

Bees

10,000 Bees

Their New Home

Justin drove 4 hours with 10,000 bees in the car this weekend. They bee-haved themselves.

He managed to get them in the hive without getting stung.

And he didn't get stung after he had to take the queen out the next day and take the tab off of the case she is in. And also when he got back in the following night to fix something. And then again later that night to pick up the queen covered in bees after she dropped to the bottom of the hive and put her back up top. No one has been stung and i am surprised.

Learning curve and the bees have been gracious with all our mistakes.

Knob Lick Lookout Tower

Vulture Print

Glowing Happy Pirate

Jasper And A Friend

Not far from Pickle Springs is an old fire watch tower. It offers excellent views of the St. Francois Mountains. The area below the tower is a glade and lizards are abundant. Broken glass is also plentiful, hinting at this area's life after dark. I cannot imagine the tower being a fun place to go drinking, but teenagers do a lot of dumb things.

Speaking of the tower, Justin and I both had a fair amount of anxiety up there. Not sure if it was the high winds blowing in with the storm or the patchwork of chain link, but it felt very unsafe. Nevertheless, we were glad to see the expansive view. And glad to get down again.

Pickle Springs

Dome Rock Overlook

Tullaia And Double Arch

Pickle Spring (A tiny gurgle underneath the waterfall)

Tuckered Out

Pickle Springs is only 4 miles down the road from Hawn State Park, one of our favorite campgrounds. And that is only an hour and 15 minutes from home. It is a marvelous day trip!

It is a 2 mile loop of fascinating geological features. A 16 page trail guide highlights the rock formations, canyons, waterfalls, caves, arches, bluffs, and hoodoos.

I am envious of William Pickles, the man that settled this land in 1848. Although it is said he was murdered about Sam Hidlebrand and a bunch of renegades during the Civil War. (Justin's former boss' Great Grandfather) Either way, he had a sweet place to live and we are fortunate enough to enjoy it.

Spring Time Blooms

I am amazed at the resilience of all things. These flowers had buds when we received 5 or so inches of snow. They are virtually unscathed.

It is Hope to last for a year to come.

Web Cam

My Mom sent this Eagle web cam link to me.

You can watch the family live or see past videos of various things like the eggs hatching.

http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles#utm_campaigne=synclickback&source=http://www.raptorresource.org/falcon_cams/decorah_eagle_xcel.html&medium=3064708

Thanks Mom! Very neat to see...

Short Life Of Pruitt-Igoe

Beginning

Middle

End

I have always been fascinated by this story. Last night we were talking about it and then today it was talked about on St Louis On The Air. Chad Freidrichs, director of Pruitt-Igoe Myth, was on to share his insight. His movie is playing at the History Museum on Saturday at 2. I would love to go but it's $10. It sounds really good. He presents a personal side to the story rather than just the failure of it all.

Pruitt-Igoe was a large federal public housing project completed in 1956. The 33 high-rise buildings were demolished in 1972. It is now a huge forest encircled with tall barbed wire. If i was brave I would love to venture in and take a nature walk.

Minoru Yamasaki was the architect who designed the complex as well as the World Trade Center Towers. Both of these projects have blown up for different reasons. I find that interesting.

The Federal Government helped build it, but did not maintain it. This led to all sorts of problems and decay was rapid.

I don't know if Paul McKee has his futuristic hands on this property, but i would love love love to see it turned into a fabulous park. Or an urban farm. Something green. Nothing else would make sense. It would make that part of the city desirable in a way it isn't right now. No sort of strip mall or casino can do that.

If i had time and money, it would be something i worked toward. But i have neither, so i am hoping that someone else takes it on. (Gateway Greening?) I would help.

March 31

"One of the subtlest burdens God ever puts on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning other souls. He reveals things so that we may take the burden of these souls before Him..."- Oswald Chambers

I feel very hurt by someone. At one point, we were friends.

Even though i don't want to think about this person, they pop into my mind a lot. Instead of thinking bad thoughts or even ignoring their existence, i should be praying for them in specific ways.

Sometimes i do.

But i also think about all the reasons they were wrong. I want to prove my intense hurt is justified.

I want reconciliation. But sometimes this cannot be. I am praying for all the things that need to happen in both of us so true healing can occur.

Confluence 2011

We spent time at Confluence this weekend in order to wrap up our study on Lewis and Clark's expedition. They set off on their journey out west at this location where the Missouri River merges with the Mississippi. (Missouri is on right, Mississippi is on left of the land jutting out behind Tullaia.)

Can you believe they moved against the current all the way?

I Am Irritated

Has it been a bad week?

-I was summoned for jury duty (only the 5th time in 8 years)

-Someone hacked into our bank account and took it all

-Our lateral line is bad

-Our lateral line might not be bad

-Our sinkhole is now 6 feet deep and 4 feet wide

-My period was 15 days (Too much information?)

But in light of other bad weeks, it's OK. My family is alive and well. Nothing washed out to sea.

We are not in quarantine. We have water and it is clean.

St. Patrick's Day 2011

It was hot, hot, hot during the parade. I gave the boys free-reign with my camera and they took 157 pictures in all. Some of them were closeups of indistinguishable items, but most were very good. By the end of the day, everyone appeared as though they had been camping. A lot of dirt, sweat, and sticky. The best part is playing with the neighbors in the street and picking up all the candy that is leftover. Am i a bad parent because i let the kids eat candy off the road?

Pictures courtesy of the boys.

Bellefontaine Cemetery

I had not been here until today. And after we spent a few weeks studying the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark's journey through it, I wanted to see where he was buried. There are 86,000 people buried at Bellefontaine and many have contributed greatly to the growth of our city and country.

This information is taken from the Cemetery Tour Book, which helps navigate the 314 acres.

General William Clark (1770-1838)

They led the expedition that explored the Louisiana Territory all the way to the Pacific Ocean. After 2 years and 4 months Meriwether Lewis and Clark returned to St Louis.

Adolphus Busch (1838-1913)

Forty breweries existed in St Louis when Eberhardt Anheuser bought The Bavarian Brewery before the Civil War. His daughter, Lilly, married Adolphus Busch who sold supplies to the brewery. After the Civil War, Busch joined his father-in -law in the brewing business. Anheuser-Busch is the world's largest brewery. (Inbev)

Captain Isaiah Sellers (1802-1864)

He was the most famous of all steamboat men. He was the first man to use the pseudonym, "Mark Twain", and after his death, Samuel Clemens adopted it because it stood for truthful writing, as Clemens explains in his "Life on the Mississippi."

Hempstead Family/Manuel Lisa (1772-1820)

The former Hempstead family burying ground is the oldest section of the cemetery, which was their farm. Stephen Hempstead, father of the family, was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, having served in Nathan Hale's regiment. One of the largest monuments in this section is of Manuel Lisa, a famous fur trader of Spanish descent. He married Mary Hempstead even though he was a Roman Catholic and she was Yankee-born Presbyterian. She was the first white woman to go into the Indian country along the upper Missouri River.

Blog Recommendation

This comes highly recommended!

http://tullaiaspicturesandpoems.blogspot.com/

February Wind Ridge

Silence and solitude were overdue. And the weekend had a fresh layer of snow to tromp in.

Waiting.

I am more apt to act.

Forcing things.

The door,

the drawer,

the vacuum back in the closet.

Reconciliation.

I saw and heard 4 Red-Shouldered Hawks doing crazy acrobats in the air and disturbing all with the sound of it (whatever "it" was). And later in the day, one perched in the tree outside my hermitage. I watched it for quite a while until i embarrassed it by staring.

Others heard/seen:

Red-Tailed Hawk

Pileated Woodpecker

Barred Owl

Eagle

That evening, while i was cozy in bed, i heard coyotes on the prowl. They sounded close. The next morning i followed tracks through the woods and meadows around my hermitage. Because of the fresh snow, i was able to see all the details...snuffling for a treat, scratching for a smell, squatting for a poo. I wandered and ambled wherever they took me. And it was easy because all the trees and bushes were bare. I never knew until recently the difference between coyote and dog tracks. I do now and i am happy about that. (Dog prints are often erratic and more splayed out and coyotes are slender and also more in a straight line.)

I watched drops of water slide slowly down the warmed branches of evergreen trees. I listened to the plip plop trickle sounds.

I sobbed and mourned loss. Losses i have not known for myself. Grief i never want to experience. Sorrow that should never be known.

I am thinking of the

sinking feeling

Pam felt as she realized

her daughter was missing.

And knowing the brutal end

a child suffered at the hands

of an evil man.

I feel sick,

I am angry with God,

that this is allowed.

I read Finding My Way Home by Henri Nouwen

This bit i needed to soak in.

"It is through total and unmitigated powerlessness that God shows us divine mercy. The radical, divine choice is the choice to reveal glory, beauty, truth, peace, joy, and, most of all, love in and through the complete divestment of power. It is very hard-if not impossible-for us to grasp this divine mystery."

I walked all day until my nose turned red. I laid in snow drifts until my ears ached with the beautiful sounds of so much nothing. It is always a gift.

"Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say, i love you too."

Elissa

A friend recently witnessed the execution of the man who brutally murdered her daughter. I have mourned the loss of this little girl so many times. And i never even knew her.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_fcb05ab5-596a-59d3-9f49-3ecf8c0393eb.html