Flower for the Day Redbud 4-30-2020

We love our redbud trees. They have been blooming their gorgeous color and silently they begin to leaf and it is soon over for another year. It is a treat to observe this.

Redbud

Crimson seeds of spring 

leaf light air, butterfly rain 

soft as summer's swirl.  

Copyright © Glen Enloe | Year Posted 2006                 

Flower for the Day Grape Vine 4-29-2020

This time of year it is fun to see the grape vines coming to life. Many years ago My brother-in-law gave me several grape trees (Vilus labrusca) to plant. They are cold hardy and have done well. Here are the grape leaves coming off the vine. 

It produces Niagara grapes which are the most common green grape. 

Russel Kraus and the Grassy Ridge a Memoir 4-22-2020

              Russel Kraus and the Grassy Ridge

                             A Memoir

                                                                           

 Our former neighbor Russel Kraus was an extraordinary man - artist, designer, neighbor, and friend. Every year inApril he would show up at our back door with a bouquet of fresh daffodils. He and Jan had a special relationship centered on their art - the both were graduates of Washington University School of Fine Arts - Russel in 1940 and Jan twenty years later. They were both born in St Louis of German immigrant parents - Russel in 1918 and Jan in 1938. Russel's father was a house painter and Jan's sold houses.
 Russel Kraus married Ruth Goetz in 1949. She was an attorney and a Washington University alumna. They were both working for the WPA.  Russel was creating  posters for the war effort -'Loose lips sink ships'. Here are several of his posters.

      

In the late 1940's Russel purchased 90 acres of undeveloped land at the corner of Ballas Rd and Daugherty Ferry Rd in Kirkwood. This seemingly includes  all of the land in High Meadow, our subdivision, including our lot, the 10.5 acres of what is now Ebsworth Park and the parcel to the south now owned by Tibor and Jan Nagy.

 Dick Daly built our house for John and Gerry Roedder in 1973 and we bought it from them in 1976. When we moved in there was an open field to the west of us with common ground west of our property line all the way to Ballas Rd. The field had been a fruit tree orchard but was mostly empty of trees down to some low brushy growth near a creek bed. I call the creek Grassy Ridge Creek. It is fed by storm water from the ravine that goes west down from Rieth Terrace and from a large culvert coming from the corner of Ballas Rd. and Daugherty Ferry Rd. Near our house is a spring which seeps water year round. Here is an image of that natural spring after several days of rain. It is down the hill just north of us on the east fork of Grassy Ridge Creek.

 

         
 There is another spring just north of the bridge to Russel's House. The creek bed is Missouri bed rock lime stone which has been exposed by the washing away of the softer top soil. It has produced an impressively beautiful series of natural creek bed areas. 

  

 Soon after his marriage in 1949 Russel contacted the architect Frank Lloyd Wright requesting that he design a Usonian house  for Ruth and himself. Russel proudly said that about  five days later he was contacted by Mr Wright (he always called him Mr Wright) who said, "You shall have your little house." So in consultation with Russel and Ruth Kraus Mr Wright designed  the house in 1950. With much give and take (mostly with Mr Wright telling the Kraus's how it would be) construction was begun in 1951 and the Kraus's moved into their partially finished house in January of 1956.

 Russel began using the house for his workplace. Because the house was too dark for him to work in Russel added a skylight over his desk. Although mostly known for his stained glass and mosaics Russel Kraus also created textiles, jewelry, sculpture, and oil paintings. We were most familiar with the oil paintings that hung on his walls. Ruth was very private but we saw and talked to Russel regularly. He was a sweet man with a natural formality. He was one of those who made sure actions were performed correctly. Ruth was reportedly very sharp intellectually but suffered periods of depression. She loved to target shoot with a 22 rifle. Russel and Ruth walked together almost everyday. It was not uncommon to see them wearing their berets  walking on the north side of Sugar Creek Road totally ignoring the traffic zooming by.
 It is Ruth Kraus who penned the note to Mr Wright which has become a famous quote.

 "We love our home Mr Wright. Love it passionately and intensely. To us it is not inanimate brick, mortar, steel and wood. To us it is a personality, a thing that lives and breathes."

  Russel Kraus was a very unique person  and as with many true artists at times he was strange. He and Tibor Nagy, another artist, became friends.  Russell sold Tibor and Jan Nagy a portion of his property so that they could build a house there and become neighbors. South of the Kraus House and separated by a gentle draw it was an exceptional piece of land. In the southwest corner was a small compound which included a  primitive shack with a well and an out house. These were connected with stone pathways. 

 In his father's later years Russel moved his father to this shack where he lived until he died. After that Russel rented out the shack to students for a nominal amount. Russel asked that the Nagy's  allow the current tenant to live in the shack until he graduated. It was not an issue. Tibor designed a house and he and Jan had it built. During this time and thereafter Tibor was able to help Russel with multiple projects around the Kraus compound. The shack has been removed but the walkways are still there.

 During these years we were able to assist Russel at times. The Kraus House got its water from a well. Kirkwood City Water distribution ends at the Nagy's house.  One day Russel came up and asked if I would help them get city water. He could hook up to the main water line near our mailbox and run a new line down to his house. I said sure and we got it done. The water gauge for the Kraus House is just west of our mail box.

 When we moved into our house on Grassy Ridge Road the area behind the Kraus House was surrounded by barbed wire. It was a pasture for the three horses that Ruth and Russel kept there. They did not ride them. They were pets but really more like family. There was an open pole barn-like structure so the horses could get out of the weather and a metal trough for water nearby. Tibor said they had run a hose from the house for the water. 

 

As the years passed two of the horses died. Tibor got help from Mike Mullen, the concrete man who did our front walkway replacement. Mike brought in a bobcat and dug a hole large enough for both horses and dragged them in. Russel asked that they be buried facing each other which was done. 

 After this Jan and Tibor donated an 8 foot pine tree to be planted over the grave. It is now the huge lone pine tree in the southern part of the meadow. Most of the barbed wire is now gone except between our common ground and the Kraus land in their northeast corner.  When we first moved here there was a swimming pool across Ballas from the Kraus entrance. We mowed a path through the meadow grass beside the barbed wire fence and down so the boys could cross Ballas to get to the pool. 

 One day I got home from work to learn that  the last horse, a white one, had foundered and died between Russel's House and a part of our property. The barbed wire fence was in place. The horse was lying on its back with its four legs in the air. Russel had called Jan for help. Lee and Gordon were available.  Russel had called a man to pick up the horse and take it to the rendering plant. After looking at Russel's bridge he said that the bridge would not hold his truck so he couldn't do it.  Russel and Lee and the renderer came up with the idea that he could back his truck down our driveway and drag the horse across the field and our yard into the truck. He drove over, let out a sturdy cable, cut through the barbed wire fence and attached the steel cable to the horses neck. With my boys and Russel watching he slowly started dragging the horse by the neck. This was more than Russel could handle so he had to leave. My boys hung in there until the horse was in the back of the truck. We have always wondered what was produced by the rendering and how it was used.
  
In the 1990's we obtained a four panel heavy mahogany room screen with four window panel openings. I asked Russel if he would create stain glass with flower designs for these panels. It was a privilege to watch Russel work on this project. With great enthusiasm he designed the four windows on paper. Each individual piece of glass had a number corresponding to the desired color of glass selected. Russel and I went to an art  glass  store on Manchester Road in Ballwin to pick out the glass. A stain glass technician put each piece glass into the frames according to Russel's design. Then one day he and Russel came over and permanently  inserted the structured windows into the mahogany screens. The great Russel surprise was that he added a butterfly to each panel. Because of their weight we have them separated into two doors of two each.

 

                                       


                                       

                                        

                                       

 After an extended illness Ruth passed away in 1992. Russell remained in the house until 2001. Several years before that  Russel had come over and announced that he was going to have to sell the land around the house.There were plans for about 14 houses in a subdivision. The houses would be  strategically placed around the Kraus House. This idea did not excite Jan and me. He told us that day because being a good neighbor he was going to plant some trees which would partially block our view of the mayhem (my word).
 That afternoon he planted four holly trees. Every week for the next few months he watered these newly planted trees by hand carried buckets from his house. Through the years I have done everything possible to keep these holly trees alive. They have become quite large.  Two have died and two remain. 

Russel was able to sell the land and the house to a Foundation, the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park, so we were spared a home invasion. The foundation cares for the house and St Louis County is in charge of the park setting. Each spring the wildflowers and plants arise in splendor.

Bluets in the pasture

Spring Beauty in the woods

The foundation and the county have been wonderful neighbors. The interest of the foundation is, of course in the architectural history of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian gem. My continuing interest remains in the artistic presence of Russel Kraus. You can still feel him around - for sure. 

Don's Blog A Natural Spring on Grass Ridge Creek 4-27- 2020

As you know  the woodland area behind our house has been an area of calming peace during this time of  pandemic chaos. We have been mostly house bound for the last two days because of a generous rain. 

The rain has swelled the stream bed that I call Grassy Ridge Creek. In one area on the east fork even a day later there is an exquisite waterfall.

Just downstream from the waterfall is an amazing phenomenon. During dry times in this spot there is always some water coming from a crack in the stream bedrock. Since there is usually not enough water to produce a current it is called a seep. Today after the rains a natural spring has developed.

To the left of center of the image water is bubbling out of the crack. This means that the water pressure in the aquifer under the crack is causing the water to come out 2-3 inches above the level of the water in the creek bed. How fortunate we are to have this in our back yard.

Flower for the Day White Periwinkle 4-26-2020

I thought that you might enjoy a rarity. This is a white periwinkle flower. I never saw one before.

Someone may feel that  'that dog was not too shaggy' but it was for me.

Flower for the Day Chocolate Vine 4-25-2020

Chocolate Vine (Akebia quinata alba) is a perennial bush that flourishes on our dog cage. We have been between dogs for many years. It has five leaves(Quinata) and white flowers (alba).

The flowers are delicate,

and they have a faint chocolate scent.

Flower for the Day Blue Bells 4-22-2020

These blue bells (Mertensia virginica) are in the middle wildflower garden. I believe birds have 

dropped them there but the small patch is slowly widening.

I find them very calming.

Precious and special

admiring each petal

A gentle friendship bluebell

Copyright © hiqma humaidan | Year Posted 2018                 

Don's Blog : Coronavirus Update 4-21-2020

About five weeks ago my son Lee sent me an article about the coronavirus by Tomas Pueyo. 

It addressed the pandemic in a thoughtful, dispassionate, apolitical and well documented scientific way. 

It was so convincing that Jan and I went into lockdown that day. I have continued to follow him.

This is his fourth article. If you read it you will see the current need for testing, contact tracing, and masks. We all, especially those of us who are no longer young, need N-95 masks and as soon as possible if we are to leave our quarantine safely. At my age and with my asthma the current mortality from the disease started at 14.5% and now is over 16%. I have heard recently on the radio that some are equating wearing a mask as a sign of weakness. This is truly "flat earth" talk and not helpful. 

Feel free to share this.

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-learning-how-to-dance-b8420170203e

Flower for the Day Celandine Poppy 4-20-2020

I have an enlarging 'drift' of celandine poppy (Stylophorun diphyllum) which is a Missouri native in the poppy family (Papaveraceae). 

It propagates by self seeding. It thrives in the semi-shade of our side yard. 

It flourishes for several months.

Don's Blog Two Trips Out 4-18-2020

We  have been sequestered in our compound in Kirkwood. We have not left the grounds for going on five weeks. We are definitely at risk for pandemic issues some more than others. Unfortunately the USAF made me turn in my standard issue gas mask when I mustered out of the service. Here is Major Sessions in 1970 on the front lawn of our 

home on Baxter Road in Anchorage, Alaska. That's the Chugach Mountains in the background. Presently we have two surgical masks that were sent through the mail by my son Gordon.

Because of ongoing retinal macular problems which are held in check by regular injections of Eyelea ( an anticancer agent) into each eye I determined that I would keep my appointments. I have the right eye done first

followed in two days by the left eye. My regular doctor was quarantined but his several offices were set up to continue as  essential so people could be treated. 

My first visit was to the Clayton Office. In preparation I wore sweat clothes and my gardening shoes. I took Flonase and Allegra so I wouldn't sneeze after the injection. I put my wallet, insurance cards, iPhone, and car key into separate plastic bags. I had hand sanitizer, a surgical mask,  Nitrile rubber gloves and an extra red bandana mask around my neck. I drove myself. There were very few drivers on the side streets, Th highway had some cars and trucks but everyone was driving on the slow side. The usually filled parking lot had three cars in it. When I left the car I put on the surgical mask and gloves and my glasses and a baseball hat.. I get a daily paper wrapped in plastic and I used that wrapper on one hand to open the door to the office. I used the stairs for the one flight to the office. I  pulled opened the door.  Inside the door was a 'nurse who asked me questions (eg. Had I been to Wuhan lately etc.) and forehead scanned my temperature. There were three ladies behind the desk. Standing back I handed my insurance cards to the desk lady who after studying them placed them carefully back into the plastic sack for me. 

I walked into the waiting room. There was one patient there. Soon I was called into a room for an OCT picture of my retinas. The chair had a sign - Sanitized - as did the areas on the machine where I was to place my chin and forehead. I reversed my baseball hat so that it would touch the forehead rest. Reportedly there was fluid under each retina. Back in the waiting room I was then called into a room by a tech who checked my vision. I had to hold a 'sterilized' plastic piece with a solid circle on the end to block the each other eye. She put drops in and checked my pressures for glaucoma. I had to hold a 'sterilized' pen to sign a permission sheet for the Eyelea

injection. It was back to the waiting room, still only one other patient,  and then into the injection room. While lying down on a comfortable bed multiple eye drops and ointment applications were applied to the right eye.

It got numb. An eye speculum was inserted. Several drops of Betadine were bombed directly onto my pupil causing a tan-brown change in color perception. The doctor injected the medicine and there was literally no pain. The eye was gently irrigated and the speculum was removed. The eye was irrigated again. I walked careful out of the office again using a plastic cover for the door handles and the elevator button which I used this time.

Luckily it was a gray day. I used the plastic cover to open the door to the car. I put my hat  and mask and gloves 

onto the floor of the car. I used the hand sanitizer on my hands and the steering wheel. My glasses were on.

I felt like I could see 'fairly well in my right (injected) eye so off I drove - slowly. Staying in the right hand lanes as much as possible I drove home safely.

In the garage I left my glasses in the car I disrobed completely putting everything but my coat and my shoes in a black plastic bag for later washing. Using hand sanitizer on the door to the utility room I went straight to the shower. Putting on clean  clothes I was ready for a nap.

Two days later I repeated this stressed out saga for the other eye. The second office was in a hospital but was set up pretty much the same. The only material difference was that there were more patients ( and their relatives) in the waiting room. It did help psychologically that everyone was wearing a mask and being careful about distancing.

I am already excited about repeating this exercise in 5 weeks.

That was more than you ever wanted to know about the treatment of macular degeneration in the midst of a pandemic. Peace!

Don's Blog Splat! 4-13-2020

I don't know if you have ever felt like this. It is the outline of a huge bird that tried to come directly into our kitchen the other day in full flight. The measured wing span was about 14 inches. There was no body on the ground so it was probably all right if somewhat dazed.

Flower for the Day Happy Easter - The Gnome Garden in the Midst of the Pandemic 4-12-2020

Its Easter Sunday in the Heartland. Despite the dangers of the Pandemic the gnomes

demanded that they be allowed outside after the dark of winter.

In the foreground, Big Boy has become the head of the family despite joining less than a year ago.

On the other side of the walkway the garden phlox are lighting the area with their flaming color.

Surprisingly they have appeared on the table inside.

 

Flower for the Day Periwinkle 4-10-2020

Beds of dwarf periwinkle (creeping myrtle) surround my house on two sides. It is Vinca minor and is my favorite ground cover. The vines are tender and stay green all winter. They don't  twine and they don't climb trees. They are soft to walk on. They have beautiful emerald colored flowers. Once established their shade smothers most weeds. They started to bloom more  than a month ago but in the last week with warmth and sunlight they have exploded with growth - flowers and a bushy height. 

It creeps around with perseverance but I have found it easy to control by pulling it up by its roots.

And by the front door I  have some that are purple-burgundy. These are called Atropurpurea.

Waiting For Spring Haiku

Sullen lead tendrils  embrace emeralds brought by  periwinkle skies....

© Gerard Keogh Jr.  

Flower for the Day Tulip 4-8-2020

The tulips have been up for weeks. I am not a tulip lover but I put a bunch I last fall. The  squirrels and the deer have decimated this crop but many still came up.

I think the inside of the tulip is more interesting the the outside.

But perhaps the most fun is their use as a cut flower.

The blossoms gradually open as the days pass.

Flower for the Day Henbit 4-6-2020

Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) is another meadow miniature. It is also called henbit deadnettle and greater 

henbit. My favorite common name for it is giraffe head. The specific name refers to the amplexicaul leaves - that is, leaves grasping the stem. The stem is square and hollow as in other members of the mint family.The leaves are 2-3 cm in diameter, opposite and rounded with a lobed margin.

The flowers are pink to purple, 1.5–2 cm long and are formed in a terminal spike.

 

The leaves, stem, and flowers of the plant are edible and are said to have a slightly sweet and peppery flavor, similar to celery. Henbit can be eaten raw or cooked. I have not tried it yet but in this time of quarantine it is nice to have a full meadow of it nearby.

Don's Blog A Walk in the Woods 4-5-2020

When we moved here in 1976 there was meadow behind us which seemed to stretch forever. At the west side of the meadow was a stream bed that was usually dry but could turn into a torrent of water when it rained. As the years passed the west part of the meadow grew into woods with some dense undergrowth and many tall trees. Many years ago I began creating a system of trails. As the weather has warmed the woods have come alive.

The stream bed is based on Missouri bed rock.

In many areas the water remains. 

There is a small spring coming out of the center in one area.

I have come to appreciate how labor intensive it is to keep a trail system open.The woods are in a constant state of living and dying. I am expert with my lopper. Its good that I have some friends with chainsaws to help free the trails of larger downed trees.

One is never alone in the woods. As well as squirrels we have deer, raccoon, possum, fox, and coyotes.

At the end of my walk as I looked up at the remaining meadow this robin was in a tree above me.

 He has just begun to attack his own reflection in my bedroom window in search of love.