Sad/Happy

Some things over the Memorial Day weekend made me sad, like this little mansard buddy near Ohio and Sidney in St. Louis near St. Francis de Sales.  It's owned by Stanfield Investments and delinquent in taxes.

But the remainder of the weekend was filled with visually pleasing things.  Our girl scout troop had planned to go to the Junior Jamboree at Forest Park.  That event was cancelled due to low registration likely due to the fact the Girl Scouts had no publicity for the event, especially when compared to the PR overkill they are doing on the Big Day for Girls on September 22.  We are probably skipping the Big Day for Girls.  The 100 birthday bash was traumatizing and I am not sure I can handle that kind of crowd again, especially on a precious Saturday. 

Back to the picture.  Our troop (now Juniors!) went to Forest Park anyway with absolutely no plan.  And it was a good day.  We fed the ducks, played on the playground, took the Metro bus around the park and hung out at the History Museum where low and behold we had a campfire in front of a VW bus.  

And lots of other good stuff- bike racks, hydrangea, digging rocks.

These bike racks have been popping up everywhere.  I think they are handsome.

OMG.  Is there anything better looking than this year's hydrangea?  I have NEVER seen them this colorful.

BBQ at the neighbors where the local kids ruined a lovely landscaped garden by digging rocks to haul around in dumptrucks.  Sorry Jen!

Sunny Side of the Street

A sunny day made more delightful by the discovery of a sunny mansard with a bad green top and then a trip to the zoo with my favorite 5th grader and preschooler.  

Children #1 and #4 were on a zoo field trip together.  The 4/5th graders are 

'buddies' to the little ones in the Montessori preschool classrooms.  With 2 of my kids going to the zoo it was clearly one of those field trips I was going to be chaperoning.  I tried to cram in a million errands before reporting to school by 9 for driving duties.   As I made my way down Pestalozzi I spotted this yellow and green disaster.

I am getting a little sad this special school year is coming to a close.  It was neat to have a 1st year preschooler, a kindergartner, a 3rd grader and a 5th grader.  I'll never have that line up again.  

Sunny Side of the Street is one of my favorite Pogues songs.  It's even a little cheerful.  Click here

Mimi (in jumper) and her friend Beatrice.  I call them Miatrice.  Some trivia for you- B's sister is also a Mimi (her real name is Mildred whereas my Mimi is a Magdalena).  B's dad and I went to law school together and my father in law (Mimi's grandfather) went to grade school with Beatrice's grandfather at Holy Redeemer in Webster Groves.  

The mansard that almost killed me...

I run about 10 miles a week, divided between two 5 mile runs. This past Sunday, with temperatures in the upper 70's and humid, I decided to go for a longer run, just to prove to myself at age 40 that I could do it.

I run during the winter on the YMCA treadmills, frequently 7 miles. But running outside in the humidity for 7 miles is a little different. The first run in the summer heat is brutal, and upping my mileage by 2 miles was probably stupid. I ran from my house in Soulard all the way over Sidney, through Tower Grove Park to Kingshighway and then back. About 7 miles. By mile 6.25 I was about to die. I was on the stretch of Sidney between California and Jefferson and there were no trees, I was running uphill and kept looking for something that would give myself permission to stop running (red light, police barricade, chatting with a friends, ANYTHING!).

Saw a mansard in the distance. An oasis of sorts. A weird mansard next to the Bank of America at the city's most confusing intersection of Jefferson/Gravois/Sidney. I stopped and took a picture of a mansard.

This appears to be an art deco addition on the front. It is easy to miss because the house is hidden behind a tree. Goodness do I hate that door. After my badmansard break, I kept running and arrived home so sweaty that all the kids wanted to feel my calves because they were so wet and shiny.

Also featured is a great carriage stone on Sidney Street. I wonder if this is even a carriage stone, or a fancy hitch. A carriage stone is a big rectangle piece of marble or limestone plopped in the front of city homes, usually right by the front walk. The stones would allow the passenger of a horse-drawn coach to exit gracefully. They were installed when the houses were built, usually between 1870 and 1910. Once the automobile arrived people didn't need carriage stones anymore.

Some remain in place in the city of St. Louis in their original spot between the sidewalk and the street, others have been moved into gardens (they make great benches for kids to play and for grown-ups to read) and others were discarded (buried, put in the alley or broken into pieces). I am not sure I've ever seen a top part with a bar. Maybe there was a separate stone and this was the hitch. Or this could be the stone and the hitch together. I have no idea. Ideas regarding my miserable run and the carriage stone appreciated.

Cornerstones

I love cornerstones on churches. I HATE when the original organizers' identities are sandblasted away like at this church, Trinity Baptist on Sidney. This botched attempt at covering up the name of the original church looks a little like White-Out.

My message to the current churches is this: look, church people, you may own the building now but you cannot change who laid the cornerstone.

This church looks like it used to be a German church- maybe Lutheran or maybe German Evangelical (some of which are now Evangelical Lutheran and others are part of the UCC. I know about this because the guy who built this house was German Evangelical "Evangelische Kirche" in German).

If you are keeping track, I am collecting pictures of cornerstones, bad mansards and Lustrons.