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Frequent readers of Home Stories know that Norm and I often visit local birding and/or nature sites, including Powder Valley, the Confluence, Pere Marquette, and areas along our two great rivers, the Mississippi and the Missouri. One of our favorite sites, although I don't have many photos of it, is the Columbia Bottoms Conservation Area in far North St. Louis County. (This photo of the wetlands area at sunset was taken on August 3, 2008, by our friend John Sanders of Colby, KS.) About a year ago we visited the area with friends, and I posted some commentary and photos here.
A controversy has erupted in St. Louis County over a proposal by North County Development, L.L.C., to build a casino complex in the flood plain south of Columbia Bottoms along the Mississippi River. The site is immediately north of Interstate 270, along Riverview Drive. It's called the Riverview Casino Project. Although there have been numerous objections by residents, conservation groups and churches at the various planning and zoning meetings, the measure has advanced and a bill approving the zoning change and application of the developers was perfected at the Oct. 27, 2009 St. Louis County Council meeting. It will undoubtedly be on the agenda for final passage this coming Tuesday, Nov. 3, although that meeting's agenda has not yet been posted on the Council web site.
At the Oct. 27 public forum, two speakers favored the bill. A representative of the Spanish Lake Fire Protection district believes the project will bring more tax revenue to the district, and that this will help support schools, local government, and, well, the fire district. The Greater St. Louis Labor Council also supports the project, and its spokesman noted that it could create up to 4,500 construction jobs as well as up to 3,000 service jobs once the casino is up and running.
This is not a small project, although unless a gaming license becomes available, or the legislature approves removing the present cap of 13 licenses (6 are already in the St. Louis area and within 30 minutes of the proposed Riverview complex) a new casino cannot open. Nevertheless, the developer envisions "a casino, convention center, theater, hotel, sports bar, buffet, store space, an 18-hole golf course, a wind farm and more than 8,000 parking spaces"
on a little more than 375 acres situated between the Interstate and the border of the conservation area. Conservationists are alarmed because this area has been carefully developed to attract migrating waterfowl along the Mississippi Flyway, and the fear is that they will be repelled by the noise and activity of the casino complex, and perhaps in danger of being slashed by the blades of the wind turbines in the wind farm. Residents along this quiet rural road are fearful of the traffic, and of losing their tranquil community. The Department of Conservation has noted that the proposed casino, since Missouri Law requires it to be situated no less than 1000 feet from a body of water, will not only be in the flood plain, it will be in the actual floodway of the Mississippi River. The Audubon Society, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, the Spanish Lake Improvement Association, the Missouri Department of Conservation, and St. Louis Confluence Riverkeeper Association have all called upon the St. Louis County Council to table approval of the project until a comprehensive environmental impact study (paid for by the developer) can be conducted. (The graphic above appears in this online story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.)
At the Oct. 27 meeting, 19 citizens spoke against the development. The Council later voted on Bill # 297, moving it one step closer to passage. Approving it were council members O'Mara, Erby, Burkett and Stenger. Opposing it were council members Wassinger, Fraser and Quinn. Full accounts of the speakers testimony can be found in the Journal of the meeting, on the St. Louis County Council web site.
I fear I've come late to this fight. I had read about the zoning hearings that were held in August, and had seen something in the paper a few weeks ago. Then a friend sent me an e-mail last week, calling on people opposed to pack the Oct. 27 and Nov 3 meetings, sign up for a speaker's card, and speak. I had to lead another meeting on the 27th, and woke up Wednesday to hear an announcer on KMOX say the measure had been approved 4-3. Oddly, two days have gone by and nothing in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
If you live in St. Louis County, you can find the name of your council representative here and if you are interested, the Nov. 3 Council meeting begins at 6 p.m. at 41 South Central Avenue in Clayton. Coalition for the Environment members suggest arriving no later than 5:30 if you want to sign in to speak. If you cannot attend, you can also write to your council representative. The web site has a link to a message generator, or you can find out the council rep's phone number if you would prefer to call.
Although this bill seems pretty well assured of passage next week, this will probably not be the last battle to preserve a wild refuge and open space along Columbia Bottoms. And although I usually don't get political in this blog, I will be posting updates as I learn about them. We haven't been to Columbia Bottoms in several months, but it is one of the places along the rivers that we treasure. The eagles, herons, pelicans, snow geese, songbirds and other wetland residents lack the army of legal experts, financiers, and politicians who are advocating development in fragile wetlands. Ironically, the Federal Government has been encouraging farmers upstream to stop farming wetlands, to let them function as the natural buffer and flood preventer Nature designed them to be. It has bought out property so it can be removed from development along the rivers! Yet our local government sees "jobs" and "revenue" and doesn't hear the voices of the long-time residents, or the silence of the wild things. So I have decided, albeit rather late, to become a partisan in this issue. This development should never be allowed to happen. If humans continue to whittle away at habitat for wild birds and other creatures, some day we will have only ourselves to blame for silence in the skies.
This morning we awoke to brilliant sunlight, and a deep blue sky. It was a little chilly, but we had promised ourselves a field trip when the rain stopped. We had two possibilities: the Quilt National Exhibit at the Foundry in St. Charles, or the annual Calhoun County (Ill.) Country Quilt and Church Tour in Brussels and Hardin. Since Norm was still smarting a little bit from dental work on Friday, we opted for the shorter trip, to St. Charles.
As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, I could hear a mocking bird scolding. I soon spied him at the very tip top of a Bradford pear tree in front of the exhibit building. The area was filled with brilliant Bradfords, and with the sun shining through them, they glowed and glistened, leaves dancing in the light breeze. We hadn't even seen a quilt yet, but the play of color and light in Nature's palette had us entranced.
Our destination, The Foundry, is a venue that rents studio space to artists and has a huge exhibit space, just right for the 80 quilts in the Quilt National 2009 collection. After it leaves our area on Oct. 29, it will be split into three smaller exhibits, so we were privileged to see the entire collection. We remember when this building WAS a vacant foundry, sort of hulking at the north end of downtown. It has been transformed into something truly a local treasure. No photos were allowed in the exhibit, but you can read about Quilt National here and about the Foundry, here. Some images of quilts in the exhibit are online here. These are not traditional quilts, but fiber art. A local organization that combats domestic violence sponsored this exhibit, and all income from the show will benefit its programs. 
After two hours of looking at stimulating but often challenging art, most of it abstract, our eyeballs were ready to rest on something more definite. You can't get much more definite than the Missouri River as it flows past St. Charles. Today the river was as blue as the sky above, and moving fast. It is rather high for fall, but we have had a lot of rain upriver recently.
Although the photos look like summer, they really were taken just this afternoon, Oct. 24, 2009. St. Charles has a riverfront park that had many visitors, and this stretch of river also is bordered by the Katy Trail, a hiking and biking path that runs from east of St. Charles to central Missouri, and eventually will go all the way into Kansas City. It is so scenic, and it has improved the economies of several small river towns. We just wish our knees were young enough to make the trip on a bicycle. Days like today just underscore how rich our natural resources are, and how in need of protection from over development or pollution.
This is the Highway 370 bridge, north of St. Charles, as seen from Riverfront Park. It provides a shortcut between I-270 in north St. Louis County and I-70 west of St. Charles. It is much less heavily traveled than I-70, especially across the five-lane Blanchette Bridge, into St. Charles. The water looks calm and glassy here, but the ripples in the foreground tell a different story. The Missouri is shallow but very fast. Lewis and Clark found that out when they tried to pole their boats upstream over 200 years ago!
We felt that we had a bonus day, and thoroughly enjoyed it. This evening we met up with our friends Mike and Sandy, and went to the annual spaghetti dinner at their church. The pasta is great, but the real draw at this dinner is the home made pie. We had to choose between four kinds of fruit pie or coconut cream, chocolate, pecan or lemon meringue. Norm got strawberry rhubarb. Sandy had cherry. Not sure what Mike had. Me, I opted for the last slice of lemon meringue, and I have no regrets!
It's beginning to look a lot like fall around here, although the grass is still green, and so is the famous Arlmont backyard maple. All the rain we have had might be responsible. September and October have both been cooler than normal, although we have had about 4 "normal" days and three of those included sunshine. Our burning bushes by the driveway are redder than they ever have been before. They may like it better with the fence down.
On July 4, we planted some Zinnia seeds. Our friend Freda said to plant them that late in order to avoid mildew on the leaves. Well, one batch had mildew any way, but these turned out well. They are right next to the burning bushes, though, making a bit of a clash. In this part of the garden we also had a volunteer cantaloupe vine...the result of using home grown compost for mulch. The cold night last week zapped all the leaves and when Norm was raking yesterday, he found a small, perfect cantaloupe, about the size of a baseball, still green. You never know what is going to volunteer in the yard. On Wednesday, Norm picked a good cup full of raspberries, almost the last on the vines for this year. Raspberries in October. We are blessed! Now, we have to decide what to do about all of the green tomatoes that are still out there. No frost is due for at least a week so we hope they will mature some.
Who knew that a hosta could dress itself so royally for fall? Soon these golden leaves will fade and we can put mulch in the beds and plant some bulbs, but for now they are cool to look at.
This week has been less hectic than last, and for that we are thankful. I've been doing some knitting and today started re-organizing my sewing room. Norm has been mowing, raking, and turning the compost pile in anticipation of our coming winter. The 4 caladiums are back on the basement windowsills to hibernate until spring. I'm still debating how many geraniums to bring in, how many cuttings to take, and whether when the night comes that a freeze in unavoidable, which plants to leave. Usually I give in and bring all of them in, and we exist in a small jungle for the duration. I have this weird thing about plants: the other day I told my Tai Chi instructor that I believe plants have souls, and it's one thing for the native plants to go through their natural cycle of bloom, seed, die, and sprout again, but there's some responsibility on our part for these tender tropicals that don't get to reproduce as nature intended in this climate. Just as I wouldn't leave a dog outside on a freezing night, neither do I want to abandon a lovely plant to such a fate. I think this means that I'm eccentric.
Today we are supposed to get a soaking rain again, just what we needed....slosh, slosh. Norm gets a crown on Friday to complete the root canal he had last week. If the weather improves and we feel like it, we hope to take a day trip on Saturday to enjoy the foliage and perhaps see some nifty quilts.
Today I realized it has been almost two weeks since I have posted, and then I looked at my blog stats and there are all of you out there checking in: Colby, Irving, Mineral Wells, Garden City, Ft. Myers, Tulsa, Denver, St. Louis, and points I cannot quite figure out, although some of them belong to some of my high school classmates, I think.
We are still here. Every new month I think things are going to slow down, but they never do. On Oct. 2-3 we took part in a retreat our church held at Eden Seminary in town. Soon, I hope, I'll get photos of that posted on the Compton Rising Blog. These crab apples were part of the campus scene that weekend. On Sunday afternoon the 4th, we took in the annual Best of Missouri Market at the Botanical Garden. Many crafts and great food. Even some quilts! On Oct. 7 there was a church board meeting, on the 8th it rained three inches here but we got the church newsletter mailed and then I hosted members of the Prayer Shawl ministry here that night. We have been busy knitters lately as there have been 5 dedications of shawls or lap robes for ill church members or friends in as little as 4 weeks! Ava also came to stay with us that week.
On Friday, Oct. 9 I drove to Cape Girardeau for a women's retreat. Two long-time friends went with me. It was a good weekend and respite from all the busy-ness of the previous couple of weeks. We returned to St. Louis on the 10th, and I got ready to lead our Sunday School class the next morning. (I also did some last minute shopping for a baby shower.) Norm and I were also hosts for the coffee hour on the 11th, and Norm had gotten the items on my shopping list and baked cookies while I was away. We then attended a baby shower on Sunday afternoon, and visited with friends that evening. Whew!
Monday we tried to get back in the groove at our exercise class, but the teacher has upped the tempo. We had to take naps in the afternoon. Ava came back for a couple of days while Barb went to market in New York. Norm realized that a tooth that had been loose had started to hurt over the weekend, and it wasn't any better. He woke up on Tuesday with a nice lump on his gum, undoubtedly an abscess. One call to the dentist and they saw him at 1 p.m. He came home a couple of hours later with the news he had endured his first (and hopefully last) root canal. He says it is every bit as bad as advertised. He's on antibiotics for 10 days and will go back the 23rd to get his new crown. So we have put a mid-week trip to western Tennessee (more research on Emma and Jesse's families) planned for next week on hold for now until we see how that turns out. Tuesday night I went to women's circle where we stuffed toys for 5-9 year-olds into 30 stockings that will be distributed to families for Christmas. (I did some last minute shopping for that, too, on the way to the meeting!)
This week it is raining again--almost two inches more. The rivers south of here are at flood stage and the creeks are running full. On the one dry day we had, Norm managed to plant two chrysanthemums in our front wall garden. If it ever turns sunny, I'll try to get a picture of them! Ava went home tonight and tomorrow I plan to go grocery shopping while Norm is volunteering at Isaiah 58 ministries, an outreach housed at our church. Then I get my hair cut. Tomorrow night is quilt guild--but I have my block of the month ready! Friday it is supposed to quit raining, but still be 20 degrees colder than normal. I've promised a dish for a funeral dinner that afternoon. Saturday is Book Club, and maybe a quick trip to the Farmers Market.
So that's what we have been doing. The Weather Channel says next week our temperatures will be warmer (seasonal average around 68 daytime) and DRY! Although I have yet to buy Halloween candy (last year we had 218; a couple of years before we had 256!) I noticed in Kmart last night that the Christmas displays were going up. This year is winding down a lot faster than I had imagined. When I get a little more caught up I have some pictures of the retreat, and of the Best of Missouri Market to entertain you. Until then, as a certain English professor in Florida would say, please just discuss among yourselves. Comments are enabled. And thanks for checking in.
From late spring through fall, we look forward to Saturday mornings at the Ferguson Farmers Market. A few weeks ago, we realized that some of our Saturdays this month are taken up with other things, like quilt shows and retreats, so on Sept. 12, we took time to make an extended visit, that started with breakfast.
There are lots of kinds of food at the market, including baked goods, chef demon- strations by local restaurants, and free samples of fresh peaches, but week in and week out, the Omelet Man fixes a delicious hand-built omelet to your specifications and cooks it in individual cast iron skillets, carefully tending them about 4 at a time. You order your fixins and give your name and take a seat at a picnic table and wait. It's worth it.
Our breakfast on this day consisted of coffee from the market booth, individual omelets, and scones from Cosi Dolce bakery. Watching the Omelet Man, Norm decided the key to the puffy omelet was covering it with foil during the last part of cooking. So he tried it at home and by golly, it works. Our breakfast disappeared pretty quickly.
Some of the colorful veggies from Thies Farm were very tempting. We bought some sweet corn, and the last of the peach crop from Murray's orchard in Illinois, which had the sweetest peaches all summer. Other farmers had organic produce, dried beans, and various nuts and fruits. One man sells honey from the hives on his farm.
But there's more to the market than food. To borrow from the old song, we have both bread and roses... or in this case, pansies. I bought a dozen and brought them home to greet passersby from our new wall. In the spring there are many perennials, herbs and garden plants to buy as well.
There is also a community of artisans who sell their work at the market. This woodwork is exquisite and I can never decide which bread board I want--or who could use another gift of one. The gentleman who made these also created bookends for us out of the shelf brackets from grandma Williams that Norm bought at the family reunion a couple of years ago. He is wonderfully talented.
On this day, a visitor from the Weaver's Guild was demon- strating how to card and spin wool. She was very patient and explained all the steps to us. Other weeks there might be other artists demonstrating a technique of their art. So the market is also educational. Once a month there is a craft activity for children, too.
This couple from Hermann, MO come the farthest to the market. They bring fresh herbs grown without pesticides, and homemade herb vinegars (blackberry cinnamon, anyone?) and fresh cut zinnias. They also have four alpaca goats and they bring yarn made from their wool. There are four different colors: dark blue/black; brown, rusty brown, and light beige. I bought some of the dark yarn because it is so lovely. With each skein you get a photo of the goat that grew it--no dye jobs here. I'm waiting for it to get cooler so I can start a scarf.
Even whimsy finds its place. These two wooden dogs are in honor of all the real pooches who come to the market with their people. The market coordinator, Kathy N, is a friend we have met through our exercise classes. One day we were talking about all of the local markets and Kathy observed that Ferguson's is more than a farmer's market, it's a community market. People gather, eat, listen to the band, sample the wares, visit with friends, sometimes conduct business, and go home laden with healthful food, much of it organic, all harvested within 100 miles and within the last 24 hours. The market will be open through Oct. 31. Then it will be a long winter until we see the white tents sprout up next May on the Victorian Plaza again.
