Victor Tissot ebooks

Victor Tissot was a French journalist and writer. Two of his books from the later 1800s for the as ‘books of the week.’ They are both available on Internet Archive with illustrations worth browsing.

These books reflect the knowledge and perceptions of the time --- so remember ‘late 1800s’ when viewing the depictions of places and people. More people were interested in and traveling to remote places…hence more travel books being written. The authors sometimes combined the travels of others into their works…used multiple illustrators (some illustrators also relying on information from others rather than observing in-person). There was plenty of opportunity for incorporation of ‘not quite right’ information!

(click on small sample images to see a larger version).

L'Afrique pittoresque (Picturesque Africa)

Les contrées mystérieuses et les peuples inconnus (Mysterious countries and unknown peoples)

(Note the caption of the last picture mentions Missouri!)

Ring of Fire (vicariously)

My husband and daughter decided months ago that they would make a road trip to view the 10/14 annular eclipse. The first-choice location was near Albuquerque NM…the backup location (in case of clouds) was San Antonio TX; both were one-day drive from where we live in Missouri. My daughter made hotel reservations in both locations. About a week before the eclipse, the forecast for Albuquerque was surprisingly cloudy so San Antonio become the preferred location. On the Wednesday before the Saturday eclipse, the forecast for San Antonio was looking cloudy too! So – we quickly searched for another location. The Midland-Odessa TX forecast was clear and the drive was about the same as it would have been to San Antonio…and there were places just off the Interstate with parks and hotels….good eclipse viewing amenities. My daughter made reservations in Odessa and cancelled the ones in Albuquerque and San Antonio. They left early Friday morning to drive to Odessa; I stayed at home to take care of the cats and be home for my sister’s weekend visit. When they got to the hotel, everyone checking in was there for the eclipse the next day.

On Saturday, they set up easily. It was clear but windy enough that my husband opted to just use his cameras rather than his solar telescope. He got his classic ‘ring of fire’ picture.

After the eclipse they drove to Carrollton TX and got food delivered as they visited with my parents. They headed home the next day and stopped at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge along the way. They haven’t shown me any wildlife pictures…just  one of “grasshopper” oil pumps that are on refuge.

It was a busy 3 days for them and for me. We’re planning to all travel to be in the path of the total eclipse on 4/8/2024. We could view it from my parents’ house in Carrollton TX…or maybe in the southeastern corner of Missouri which would be even closer!

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge – September 2023 (2)

I saw more than birds at Hagerman in September. There were large numbers of dragonflies in the air. I managed to see one sitting on a bit of dried grass near the road; photographed it through my open car window (like I do almost everything along the road through the refuge). There seemed to be so many dragonflies; it’s a good sign that there is a healthy population at Hagerman; they’ll lay eggs in the ponds where the larvae will overwinter – food for fish.

I did get out to photograph a large piece of driftwood that was on an island in the deepest pond. I liked the curves and the mystery of how it ended up positioned the way it was. Were their branches buried in the silt that kept it from falling over?

Back at the butterfly garden, I photographed three types of butterflies. I had seen all of them on previous visits.

The Monarchs were more numerous this time and I realized that they were probably migrating south to Mexico for the winter.  Supposedly the ones that make the long journey are larger than the ones that live their whole life during the summer months – never making a migration. Will there still be Monarch’s coming through when I return at the end of October? Maybe. The first frost in the Hagerman area is usually not before mid-November.

There was a bumblebee enjoying the flowers. I tried to photograph it from different angles.

Road trip to/from Carrollton TX

I made my monthly trip to Carrollton in the last week of September. It was very hot on the drive down. When I stopped at the Texas Welcome Center after crossing the Red River from Oklahoma it was already in the 90s. I had been listening to a wider variety of music during the drive down – relying on other sources than my usual USB stick; it kept me more alert during the drive.

The usual check of the beautyberry at the welcome center revealed that the berries are almost all turned purple. I also realized that there seemed to be a lot more plants than last year. Hurray for the beautyberry surviving and thriving the extra hot days this past summer!

The trip home started a week later – a little before 6 AM. The color before sunrise dominated the horizon as I made my first stop about 7 at a truck stop north of Denison TX.

The completion of asphalt work on several stretches of my route through Oklahoma made the drive the smoothest I can remember….and my husband had barbeque ready when I got home. As usual – it was good to be home again.

Missouri Botanical Garden – Chihuly

I enjoyed the Chihuly glass exhibition at the Missouri Botanical Garden the second time as much as I did the first time…. photographing the pieces during the day and then in the evening. There were some differences between the two visits.

My husband was enjoying photographing them too, so the pacing of our visit was slower around the glass than it had been with my daughter (who did not bring a camera other than her phone).

It rained for about 30 minutes during the Chihuly Night event! We spent most of it in the visitor center then made a quick round of the pieces we wanted to see when it stopped – with lightning in the distance. It was not a leisurely stroll…rather an exhaustive power walk between the glass installations.

The lightning for the Chihuly night was not as robust. It seemed that the lights were configured at the beginning of the installation and then not maintained for the duration of the exhibition (i.e. some were poorly illuminated during the second visit).

I attempted to capture the structure within the glass more than I did the first time.

The Fiori boat has a lot of interesting shapes that I hadn’t noticed during the first visit!

Last time, I photographed the yellow glass on the rose garden arches…but didn’t realize that they were owned by the garden and not in the exhibit brochure. I remembered to look for the name of the piece in this second visit: Trellisses.

I’m glad we made the effort to go again…in September when the Chihuly Nights were still being offered. The exhibition will end in mid-October. Next time I visit the garden, I want to tour the Tower Grove House!

Clouds at Sunrise

My husband and I started a road trip to St. Louis just before dawn on a damp morning. I thought at first that the sunrise was going to be completely obliterated by clouds. My husband said it was a good thing since we were heading east and would have had the sun glaring in our faces.

After the sun was up for about 10 minutes – the color became spectacular and I started taking pictures, enjoying that on this road trip I was a passenger rather than the driver!

The clouds were prolonging the sunrise color --- partially blocking the sun…wrapping the disk in gray.

Later the color skewed toward the yellow….and the clouds made it just as interesting.

By the time the clouds cleared – the sun was up high enough for our visors to be effective. It was a great start to our road trip!

Ten Little Celebrations – September 2023

Welcoming cooler temperatures…the beginning of fall. Lots to celebrate!

Shaw Nature Reserve. A first visit…a short hike. Celebrating the place and an early fall day with my daughter.

Pawpaw. Celebrating a new fruit…and its native to North America. I planted the seeds; maybe they’ll come up next spring/summer and I’ll have pawpaws from my yard in 5-7 years.

Wood Duck in an Egret picture. I was taking a picture of an egret catching a fish but celebrated the wood duck in the background when I looked at the image on a big monitor!

Pineapple Whip. Celebrating a birthday with a unique-to-Springfield MO treat!

New addition for my travel computer. Celebrating a new mouse, mini-keyboard, and portable monitor to travel with my laptop. It will make packing easier and using my laptop more comfortable for my week in Texas every month.

Yellow/orange Watermelon. Cutting the watermelon, we got from our CSA revealed something different than the usual red! I celebrated a great watermelon and the memory of the yellow watermelon that my paternal grandparents grew (along with red ones) during my childhood.

Green Heron at the Neighborhood Pond. Surprise! The bird was hiding in plain sight, but I didn’t see it until it flew…and celebrated that I was able to photograph it in the place where it landed. Green herons are one of my favorite birds to watch because they can change their shape (extending or contracting their neck) so quickly.

Beautyberry. Buying a beautyberry for my yard had been on my list for a bit….I celebrated that I found one at the Shaw Nature Reserve’s Wildflower Festival.

Vaccinations. My husband and I celebrated that we could easily schedule getting both the updated flu and COVID-19 vaccinations…increasing our confidence of staying well as we travel more this fall.

5 Native Plants. I celebrated when I got the 5 new native plants in the ground…and they seem to be doing well in my yard.

New Tech for Travel

My monthly trips to Texas add up and I finally realized that I should improve my jerry-rigged laptop accessories that always seem not quite right….and fragile too because they are cumbersome to pack. My husband helped me make some improvements.

He suggested that I buy a second Bluetooth mouse that I could keep in my travel bag rather than always needing to grab the mouse from my desk at home. I bought the same Microsoft Mobile Mouse (different color) that I use at home; it is flatter than most mice making it easier to pack.

I had been traveling with my desktop keyboard (I don’t like to use the laptop keyboard but that makes the screen too low to be comfortable for long) but the keyboard is too long to fit in a laptop bag. So – my husband purchased a keyboard that didn’t have a number keypad (Logitech MX Keys Mini) which easily fit in a traditional laptop bag. It is very easy to make the adjustment between the keyboards since the keys I use are the same size as on the longer keyboard!

The most different upgrade was a travel sized external monitor – a 13.4-inch Intehill 4K Portable Monitor. My laptop is a Dell XPS 13; at home I have two large monitors and don’t used the PC screen; but when I travel, I run apps in full screen mode on that 13-inch screen…so having a second screen means that I can work more typically…with more than one app in view! It won’t be exactly the same…but a considerably improvement. I tested out the connection and power…the monitor works with one cable between itself and the laptop. Easy! The cover for the monitor makes a stand but it didn’t seem stable enough so I will probably add a bookstand that folds flat to my bag.

Everything fits neatly into a bag I’ve had since laptops were considerably thicker. The laptop, external monitor, and keyboard fit in the padded interior; the cables, charger, and mouse fit an outer pocket; the folded book stand fit in an outer zippered area that was originally for paper!

 I am looking forward to trying my new tech during my next week in Texas!

Fall Activities

September is the beginning of fall activities. I am doing some fall cleaning inside the house and doing the last plantings in the yard (hoping the plants will be well established before the first frost). The Indian Corn is on the front door.

There are more events scheduled in our area now that the temperatures are a bit cooler. We trekked to Shaw Nature Reserve near St. Louis for their plant sale, bought puzzles at the Friends of the Greene County Library book sale, and walked through Cider Days in Springfield (enjoyed a Pineapple Whip as we walked…being part of a Saturday morning crowd) then enjoyed a BBQ lunch as a new place. My daughter went to an evening Brew at the Zoo; my husband and I enjoyed it vicariously – learning that the lions and other big cats were very active as it got dark…the lions ‘caroling.’ Toward the end of the month, my husband and I made a quick trip to St. Louis – another visit to the Missouri Botanical Garden (and their Chihuly glass) and the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House….blog posts coming soon re that adventure.

And we are anticipating more travel in the next few months (other than the monthly week in Texas) – a fall foliage trip to a state park in Oklahoma…a birding festival in New Mexico. Overall, fall is a great time of year to be out and about – between the heat of summer and the cold of winter; it is often the ‘just right’ season of the year!

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 16, 2023

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Kitchen chemistry hacks explained – How many of these did you know before this article? I knew about lemon juice slowing browning of fruit…I’m going to try the ‘brown onions more quickly’ and ‘chop onions more comfortably.’

Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Distributed Wind Power – Interesting update….and map of annual average wind speed at 30 m. There is so much potential in the center of the country. It would be interesting to see the map extended offshore…but maybe that kind of wind power is only used for wholesale generation rather than distributed wind power.

Dust: how the pursuit of power and profit has turned the world to powder – A review of the book about ‘tiny particles doing terrible things’ created by detonation of nuclear weapons, burning coal, and drying of lakes via irrigation. These tiny particles influence our environment, our health, and our relationship with the world around us. They move around the planet through the air…no one is ‘safe’ from them.

More small airports are being cut off from the air travel network. This is why - A shortage of pilots is partially to blame for major airlines' departure from smaller airports. But changing airline economics means the challenge facing regional airports could become insurmountable. Williamsport PA is the example used in the article.

Health evidence against gas and oil is piling up, as governments turn a blind eye – An Australian perspective…but seems to be applicable to many developed countries, including the US. The methane leaks, water contamination, air pollution…why do we continue to push for gas and oil development rather that pivoting to cleaner (and renewable) sources?

Wyoming and Utah Borderlands – A picture from the International Space Station. I remembered a trip to Utah in 2008 where we drove in the area with a Roadside Geology of Utah book explaining the surface geologic features!

New research explains 'Atlantification' of the Arctic Ocean – Changes coming in the Arctic as a 15-year cycle is ending….and the next phase could result in a faster pace of sea-ice loss.

Stone Case Holding Precious Items Found at Templo Mayor – 15 stone figures found at the temple complex of Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire. The figures may have already been 1,000 years old when the Aztecs conquered the Mezcala people that carved them. Also in the case: two rattlesnake-shaped earrings, more than 180 green stone beads, snails, shells, and marine corals.

Workers like it when their employers talk about diversity and inclusion - Research has shown that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives improve creativity, innovation, productivity and organizational performance. One of the reasons DEI initiatives have a positive impact is because workers appreciate them. It’s about making sure everyone feels valued and included.

What Does It Take to Photograph a Bat Cave? – Photographer Stephen Alvarez….lots of specialized photographs.

Blanche McManus travel illustrations

Blanche McManus illustrated travel books written by her husband in the early 1900s. The books often featured automobiles…the new form of ‘road trip’ at the time. She evidently painted and sketched as they traveled. Enjoy the 6 books available on Internet Archive for the art, the places, and the history!

Castles and chateaux of old Navarre and Basque Provinces, including also Foix, Roussillon and Béarn   (1907)

The Spell of Algeria and Tunisia  (1924)

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge – August 2023 (2)

Continuing the early morning at Hagerman….

Sometimes the birds move about in a kind of ballet on the roost pond before they fly away to spend their day elsewhere. In this instance – the dance includes two great blue herons in the middle and three great egrets a little to the right. Other birds on the pond are either oblivious or looking on.

I took pictures of a heron catching a fish and realized, when I looked at the pictures on my large monitor at home, that there were wood ducks in the background!

There aren’t as many plants in bloom right now…I fixated on one type I saw as I headed back to the visitor center area.

A pair of Dickcissels flew into the top of some vegetation near the road. I enjoyed taking portraits of them.

I took some portraits of a great blue heron and great egret backlit in the morning sun that hav a very different look than the roost pond. The water has a metallic look…the birds almost silhouettes. They were the finale to this Hagerman visit.

Northern Pacific Railroad eBooks from 1880s

The eBooks of the week are from a railroad company in the 1880s…illustrating some of its routes. They provide a view of some special places of the time – when the west was still somewhat ‘wild’ but developing rapidly with the extension of railroads and more people coming. Enjoying browsing these books on Internet Archive!

The Wonderland route to the Pacific coast (1885)

 I think about where my ancestors were at the time these books were published. One side of the family was still in Bohemia (Europe) – not emigrating to the US until a decade later. The other side was already in the US and mostly in Missouri.

Zentangle® – August 2023

85 square Zentangle tiles…picking 31 for this post representing August 2023. I decided to challenge myself to use black ink (i.e. no colored inks) in August. I did enjoy colorful cardstock tiles though.

Another challenge to myself was to use a mono-pattern (i.e. “Crescent Moon”)providing some variety with different ‘threads’. 11 of the 31 tiles are that pattern.

Last but not least – I started with a string of 8 wedges and then filled in the edges in varying ways. I made 6 tiles with that strategy!

I realized that using only black ink when I travel makes packing trivial…so I might make tiles that way any time I am away from home ---- but I am looking forward to colored inks in September!

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. “Zentangle” is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Dickerson Park Zoo

We made our first visit to Dickerson Park Zoo last week. It’s on the north side of Springfield MO – the closest zoo to where we live. We got there about an hour after their opening; the close parking lot was almost full…others taking the advantage of the cooler than usual August morning.

Colorful birds seem to dominate my pictures. Many times, I was photographing through fencing; sometimes you can see the blur/shadow of that barrier.

The preening Scarlet Ibis was one of my favorites. The surprise was seeing the nictitating membrane (an eyelid that is hinged on the inner side of the eye and closes horizontally across the cornea).

Flamingos were in the same enclosure as the ibis – feeding and preening. They feed with their bill toward their bodies. One of the birds had a range of colored feathers.

In the trees above the flamingoes, there were several roseate spoonbills. Their bodies are colorful…their heads and large bills are bare – at odds with the body.

Peacocks (and pea hens) roam the zoo; they are relatively acclimated to people. There were no males with full tails. All the birds I saw appeared to be juvenile birds (younger than 3 years).

There were two Gray Crowned Cranes. I had seen similar birds at the St. Louis Zoo too. The birds at Dickerson Park Zoo were better positioned for a photograph!

The turkey enclosure had one male and a lot of hens…some immatures as well. I heard a mother telling her child that it was a mom and babies; I guess she thought the male was the ‘mom’!

Black swans are dramatic. The pair seems to have more ruffled feathers than I expected.

There were several parrots; we heard them before we saw them! The one I photographed was using its beak like an appendage for balance as it moved around its enclosure.

There were two types of tortoises in different parts of the zoo with signage that they bite! The first one was large but not giant…and I was intrigued by the pattern of the shell…plates like flatted pyramids.

The second was a giant tortoise --- looking well fed!

There were monkeys – somehow they tend to look sad to me. The one I photographed had companions that were moving about, but he was sitting still.

The zoo was working on the giraffe exhibit (they usually have giraffe feedings) so we did not see them like they would normally have been out and about in the morning.

The zoo has a rescued bald eagle – large but one of its wings was not right. It didn’t move from its perch but kept a watchful eye on movements outside its enclosure.

There were metal statues for climbing on (with signs warning that the statues might get hot in the summer) and backdrops for photographs.

There was one elephant with the explanation that when the matriarch died, the two remaining females did not get along…so they each are outside on their own. They get socialization time off exhibit with a male elephant.

There were other animals to see but not easily photographed. The big cats and bears were either in their dens or sleeping.

We didn’t ride the train (I photographed it with a giraffe sculpture in the foreground) – but I like that it is available – another dimension to a visit to the zoo that we might try on a future visit.

The Dickerson Park Zoo might be my favorite. It is not overwhelmingly big or crowned…and its design provides plenty of shade along the paths.

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge – July 2023 (2)

The butterfly garden at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge had butterflies in July. There were Queen butterflies feeding in a group – the longer one looked, the more butterflies there seemed to be! This butterfly is seen more frequently further south than north Texas (almost into Oklahoma); maybe the extremely hot summer is pushing them further north.

The other butterfly I photographed was a male black swallowtail – a large butterfly that flutters as it collects nectar (as seen in the video below).

There were grasshoppers too! I photographed two after I startled them on the path and saw where they landed on a plant (and managed to zoom in with my camera to photograph them without being close enough to force them to move again).

It didn’t take long in the butterfly garden before I needed water…and air conditioning! I continued my road trip to Carrollton.

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge – July 2023 (1)

It was in the 90s when I visited Hagerman in July…early afternoon so not yet the peak for the day which would be over 100. As usual, I started my visit on the dusty wildlife loop – using my car as a blind and with the air conditioner working to keep the car cool even when I temporarily open a window for photography. I photographed a few birds near the ponds: Great Blue Heron, Snow Egrets, and a Great Egret.

There were still colorful wildflowers in the meadow areas…lotuses blooming on one of the ponds. Some of the plants are already producing their seeds.

I headed back to the butterfly garden near the visitor center. I appreciated my hat and darkening glasses! The garden is not large, but densely packed with blooming flowers; there is something to photograph at every turn! I had my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX 70 HS) on a monopod – which made it easy to stand on the path and use the zoom to compose the images I wanted.

More from Hagerman tomorrow (butterflies and grasshoppers).

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 22, 2023

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The ground is deforming, and buildings aren’t ready – Underground climate change in urban areas where heat islands underground cause enough expansions and contractions to damage building foundations…particularly in older buildings.

How noise pollution impacts nature – A study out of Vail, Colorado, showed that increased trail use by hikers and mountain bikers disturbed elk so much the cows birthed fewer calves. Another out of Grand Teton National Park showed that backcountry skiers scared bighorn sheep during winter when food was scarce, with potentially lethal consequences.

Hospital understaffing and poor work conditions associated with physician and nurse burnout and intent to leave - The study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing found that physicians and nurses, even at hospitals known to be good places to work, experienced adverse outcomes during the pandemic and want hospital management to make significant improvements in their work environments and in patient safety. The solutions to high hospital clinician burnout and turnover, they say, are organizational improvements that provide safe workloads and better work-life balance NOT resilience training for clinicians to better cope with adverse working conditions.

The simple ways cities can adapt to heatwaves – Heat monitoring and planning is become more important for cities…the climate emergency in cities is a health emergency.

New biodegradable plastics are compostable in your backyard – New plastic made from blue-green cyanobacteria that isstronger and stiffer than previous plastics from the same raw ingredient. They can be recycled…but also degrade rapidly in the environment.

Giant Hand Axes Discovered in England Point to Prehistoric Humans’ ‘Strength and Skill’ – More than 300,000 years old perhaps from an interglacial period. Early Neanderthal people inhabited Britain then…and maybe other archaic human species too.

Germs, genes and soil: tales of pathogens past – DNA sequencers and powerful computational tools…applied to ancient microbes…probing their role in human history. This article describes how the work is done, ethical considerations…using examples of what has been accomplished so far. The field of archaeogenetics is just beginning.

Back from the Dead: New Hope for Resurrecting Extinct Plants – There is a global effort to digitize herbaria specimens which had helped identify holdings of extinct plants…sometimes finding seeds. And then the challenge is how to best attempt to grow old seeds.

Pain risk varies significantly across states – Pain due to arthritis varies geographically in the US – with the moderate to severe pain being 23% in West Virginia vs 7% in Minnesota.  There is also a difference between people that did not complete high school…and those who obtained at least a bachelor’s degree – with the delta being greatest in West Virginia, Arkansas, and Alabama. There is a need to focus on the macro-level policies (i.e. generally at the state level) while continuing current individual interventions.

The Acropolis Adopts Crowd Control Measures for the First Time – The post-pandemic travel surge is overwhelming at some places – including the Acropolis!

St. Louis Zoo

After our visit to the Jewel Box, we spent the rest of the day at the St. Louis Zoo. We parked in the south parking lot and noticed the animal sculptures as we made our way to the bridge that leads to the zoo entrance.

The giant tortoises were out and the smallest one was moving about. I noticed one of the larger ones had a hole in its shell; was this tortoise shot at some point in its long life?

The Reptile House was one of our early stops beginning a big loop around the zoo (starting up hill first). The lizard peeking out of a tree in its habitat was one of my favorites.

At one of our first breaks, there were large catalpa trees with the long seed pods still green. It was good to see healthy catalpa trees again; my maternal grandparents had catalpas around their home and business in the 1960s --- seeing the trees triggered fond memories.

The Flight Cage is the oldest part of the zoo; it was built for the 1904 World’s Fair. There were quite a few birds in the large mesh-enclosed area.

One of my favorites was a wood duck. Was the eye injured or is that just the way a wood duck eye looks when it is closed/half open?

Leaving the flight cage – there are mosaics of natural areas.

Cranes were in habitats with other animals. I enjoyed getting different views of the one bird as it was feeding.

In the big apes area, my camera’s zoom managed to get a gorilla in the back of the habitat…looking serious and scratching his brow.

Flamingos and other water birds enjoy lakes with islands at the zoo…visible but able to get further away from noisy crowds. The pelicans are rescued birds (i.e. are birds that have a significant enough injury that they couldn’t survive in the wild).

I enjoyed the ways the zoo uses nature themes in their structures….and that they have solar panels too!

There is a carousel. It looked to be well-maintained but not busy when we were there (hence the pictures).

Of course – there is also ‘wildlife’ in the zoo that just finds the zoo a good place to be!

We enjoyed the people watching as much as the animals at the zoo. Some children obviously were locals familiar with the zoo and enthusiastically making their way to their favorite exhibits…couples with babies in strollers (with visions of the time their child would be old enough to make requests)…families clearly on vacation…older people – sometimes with grandchildren, sometimes as couples or small groups using the zoo as an interesting (and safe) place to walk.

It was a hot day and by about 3 PM we were ready for a cool down. We retreated to our hotel for a few hours before walking to a Lebanese restaurant for an early dinner. It was a day well spent.

St. Louis Jewel Box

The Jewel Box is a 1930s vintage greenhouse in St. Louis’ Forest Park. There was a major renovation in 2002 so the building is in excellent condition. The plants are primarily around the edges of the interior leaving space for weddings and other events. Our visit was on a Monday morning – the only other people we saw were people outside working on the water lily pond and the flowerbeds around it.

From the outside, the Jewel Box has the glass walls stairstep up to a flat roof. The framing of the glass panels has a blue patina. There are trees and grassy areas on the sides of the building…the water lily pond in the front.

Inside there were glass panels that divided the entrance area from the larger open area.

The fiddleheads of tree ferns always get my attention. The interior space was appealing – full of light…lush plants around the edges.

Getting to the Jewel Box required a short walk. There is no parking area close so we parked on Macklind Dr. and followed the sidewalk past a naturalized pond,

A nearby magnolia blooming profusely,

And plantings, including a columbine, in a shady mulched area.

Then we came to the lily pond in front of the Jewel Box. It was an opportunity to photograph them in the morning sun.

We took a different route back to the car after seeing the Jewel Box: past the Colonial Daughter Fountain

Then over to the Korean War Memorial that includes a sundial. We puzzled over the flag on the far left…realized later in the day that it was the St. Louis flag!

The short visit was well worth it – for the architecture, water lilies, learning about a part of Forest Park!