Autumn chill and the next big event in Fulton!

We started last week with temperatures in the 90's. The bedroom fan on at night and sun hats for walking. By sunday, the temperature had dropped dramatically. Today, we tried the central heating, found my winter clothes and am wearing shoes for the first time for months. The change was literally overnight.

We had a trip out on saturday, which was sunny and hot. We went west along the Missouri to several 'historic' towns. The first- Rocheport, was more a one street village of pretty brick houses, nothing outstanding and nothing open! It's true, there aren't many tourists round here, but they don't exactly encourage it. Rocheport, however is right next to the Missouri and straight on to the Katy Trail. A 200 mile nature trail, bicycle track along what used to be the Kansas/Texas railway line. This is one of the more interesting bits with tunnels cut out of the cliffs and bluffs above the river plain.

You can see Roland is pleased. It's the train thing again!

The old railway bridge over what would be a creek is over a rather large river. This is not the Missouri, it is the flood plain, and there has been a lot of rain.

The whole of the Missouri valley here is under water. It looks very attractive, but I don't suppose it's doing the trees much good.

We climbed to the top of the cliffs and all the water you see is flooding. In the far distance, you can see the actual river. Too many trees to see properly.

We went on to the next historic town, Boonville. Bigger, but also closed.

 I now realise why we have come here when we end up here.

The tourist information centre in the old station is closed, but we run in to a direct descendent of Hannah Cole, the first women to set up home here and founder of the town. She had nine children and no husband, the indians had got him. She must have been tough.

This was interesting. It was the Sheriffs home, with jail attached. In the back garden is the old tin barn where they hung the convicted prisoners. Very compact justice.

This is the shed out back.

Boonville looked a bit more lively. It's a bigger place and it has a number of listed mid 19th century houses. It also is home to an old theatre, which dates from the 1850's and is a very fine building.

Opposite was a church with an unexpected and rather pleasing message.

These old adverts were rather good. The price is 5c. !

As the weather has got cooler, it has been easier to walk further afield. I can actually walk to Walmart- deep joy. I tend to just walk around the streets, looking at the houses. There are several I will try to photograph at some stage, but I want to do it unobserved! They are in the less salubrious parts of town.

The old railway line still goes through Fulton.  

The station still exists, but is now used as a storage shed.

On one of my walks I managed to get this squirrel. I know they are a menace, but I liked this.

Well after the symposium the next big event in Fulton is Roland's lecture! It is being advertised all over town and they have produced postcard sized flyers, with Roland's face beaming out from them. It's open to all comers, so I told him it better be good. It is not supposed to be too erudite, so that we, the riff raff can understand it. Somehow, I don't think it will get the coverage that James Baker did, but it's fame for a day. They also put on a reception afterwards.

Well I'm off for a chilly walk. It's a beautiful day, but icy.

St. Louis and James Baker.

We have had a pretty exciting week. St. Louis and James Baker within 4 days. It's all go in Missouri!

We had another huge storm on saturday night. Thunder and lightening and torrential rain. I thought we would wake up to a lovely clear day, but it was still going strong in the morning. Roland was not very keen on driving in those conditions, but we were meeting my friend Leslye to celebrate her birthday in St. Louis.
We left in torrential rain and it was still bucketing down two hours later.
Lunch was in Leslye's son's home, his so called 'starter' home, which I think to most people would be a pretty good permanent home. It was interesting to go into a fairly typical home of the younger generation. He is a lawyer and has just got married. His main interest is sport and to keep him up to date with what is going on in the sporting world, he has 8 televisions. Not piddly, little televisions, but great, half room monster, flat screen ones. All on, with different games and sports. The large basement, so typical of american houses was also dedicated to sport. Memorabilia, TV's. a bar to keep you lubricated while you watch and lots of big sofas!
We spent rather too long over lunch and then had the lightening tour of St. Louis, starting with the arch.

It is far more impressive in real life and actually rather beautiful.

As you can see, the rain had actually stopped. The arch is right by the Missouri river, which is a very wide, muddy affair. Impressive rather than beautiful. They got rid of a lot of old industrial buildings to create this park and put up the arch and they seem to have almost erased the past, which is a pity.

They still have the Eads bridge, which was the first cantilever bridge in the world. It's the one in front.

Not a good photo, but taken from the top through some rather thick glass.

We were lucky with our timing. There was no queue to go up the arch. Apparently you can wait for 4 hours. Roland didn't want to come. He is not too good with heights. But curiosity got the better of him and he didn't want to miss out, so he came.
The whole thing is very old fashioned. You go up in tiny capsules, that hold 5 small people.

The viewing chamber up the top is also small, and the windows even smaller. You do, however get a pretty good view over St. Louis.

The building in the centre is the old court house and it is rather lost amongst the skyscrapers.

This is the Cardinals stadium. The St. Louis baseball team.

Roland was very pleased to come down and his colour improved considerably. He's glad he did it and won't be doing it again.

Our last port of call was a famous ice cream parlour- or frozen custard as they call it. I had a small tub and could hardly finish it. Rather too much hot fudge sauce! The parlour just happened to be on the old route 66, so that called for a photo.

We weren't dressed appropriately for the photo, but never mind.

We were given a quick drive round the city just to give an impression of the place. It is huge, spread out and very green. It has one of the biggest metropolitan public parks in the world, Forest Park, which covers 1,370 acres right in the centre of town, left over from the 1904 world fair. The art gallery also dates from that time. What we see looks pretty prosperous.There is a lot to see and we intend to come back and do it over several days.
By the time we are driving home, the sky is clear and we get another fantastic sunset. Sorry, I get a bit carried away with them.

As you see, America is big on telegraph poles and cables. None of it is hidden.











This week, the college is hosting it's annual symposium, which this year is on global conflict. The star guest is James Baker, who was secretary of state, secretary of the treasury and other important positions under a number of presidents. He is eighty, but still very on the ball, articulate, informed and runs up stairs!
He speaks to a packed auditorium and there are a lot of media people present. He very pointedly in his examples, only talks about the first gulf war and it is pretty obvious he was against the second but is being tactful. He takes questions from the floor and impresses with his intelligence, knowledge and good sense. This is not someone who would rush into something without looking at all the alternatives and someone who would be aware of the consequences of his actions! unlike some!!!

We meet him again at the president's house for a reception.

 Roland has quite a long talk with him and confirms our impressions. I just get to shake his hand! It was very interesting to be able to hear and meet a man who held considerable power in this country. It's a pity there aren't a few more of his calibre around.

Back to reality today. It has been in the 90's for the last week, but this is supposed to be the last day of summer! Tomorrow it is going to drop to 70 and you would think the big freeze had started. I can't imagine the cold, but we know it's coming. The next month however is supposed to be beautiful, so will try to enjoy it while it lasts.

Couldn't resist taking this photo. It was parked just up the street.

My favourite street, trees and butterflies

My favourite street is Court street. It is where I would choose to live if I lived here permanently.
 As it's name suggests, it used to be the main street in town, leading to the courthouse. It still does, although the courthouse has undergone several rebuilds. It is now, quite an impressive 1930's deco style building, but it no longer matches the grand avenue of houses.
They use the term avenue rather freely round here and some short, treeless, 4 house roads are called avenue. Court street really is an avenue and at this time of year you can hardly see the houses for the trees. All the houses sit well back from the road and it feels cool, green and rather grand!

What we like is that none of the houses are the same. Even the very small houses are all different, you never see the same pattern twice.
A lot of the houses in this street and indeed just about every building of any age or grandeur in the town were designed by a local architect by the name of Bell. His name is unknown outside the area, but he was prolific and important here.
What this street also shows is the use of huge expanses of grass. Beautifully cut and manicured grass, with trees. Even on small country roads, tiny houses sit in large grounds of well maintained lawns. They stretch right to the road edge and along, go round any trees and up and down hills. It's as if they want to have an area of tamed countryside round their houses. There are usually no fences. Nothing to distinguish where your property ends and the next begins. Very un british.
As you can imagine, lawnmowers are big business. The lawnmowers round here are all sit on and are more like tractors. People spend a lot of time mowing. A friend said it was a good way to have time out and relax and I had to explain that it would be hard to do that while cutting our three by six foot bit of grass back in London.

Another thing we have noticed is they do not seem to mind having huge, mature trees very close to the houses. In England they seem to think a tree will destroy your house from 50 feet away.
The trees are quite a variety. Oaks of various types- Pin oaks, black oaks, northern red oaks, Blackjack oaks none of which I'd heard of, although I gather pin oaks are very successful in Australia. Chestnuts, Walnuts, Elms, Maples, Dogwoods, Redbuds and a lot more. The latter has long, black seed pods,  like runner beans that hang off the tree and like the sycamore in Britain, the seeds all seem to germinate. We have them in our garden and the seedlings are everywhere.
 Forest cover one third of Missouri. That surprised me. Oaks seem to be the most important tree for commercial use, but walnut wood is the most highly prized. We have just been struck by the diverse nature of the forests.

I have been trying to learn more about the local flora and fauna and have got books out of the library to identify things.
There are huge butterflies. Some four and a half inches across!. Roland thought they were bats, because one of the large ones is mostly black. The Black Swallowtail, or Parsnip! There is also a very spectacular black and orange striped Monarch, also huge. Of course try as I might, I cannot get one to stay still long enough to photograph it. I did get this one though- the Red-Spotted Purple

Not as big, but very beautiful.
The squirrels round here are red rusty grey and prolific. I suppose there are a lot of nut trees. The farmers in the farmer's market were complaining about them scoffing all the mulberries before they could pick them.

Lastly and the only one that posed for it's photo!

I saw this while walking along the main road. It is very typical.

We are off to St Louis tomorrow for a day in town.

Settling in to our new surroundings.

It has been a quiet week. A taste of times to come I fear. The weather is more changeable, cooler nights, but very hot days and evenings. The humidity is largely gone except when we are building up to a storm. These seem to happen fairly regularly and when it rains it's as if someone has emptied a bucket over you. This rain will soak you in a few minutes.
I like to sit out on the swing seat on the front porch and just watch it until I am forced to retreat inside with the seat cushion as the storm intensifies. We get very loud thunder and dramatic lightening and it sounds and feels as if it is right on top of the house.

Our street turns into a river and it is obvious why they need storm gutters round here. The so called creeks that surround the town, become rivers almost instantly.

I like storms, so have rather enjoyed this. Also our house appears so far to be waterproof!

We had an evening meal out with friends on sunday at a nearby winery- Holt's Summit, just outside Jefferson city. It was a beautiful setting, sitting outside overlooking the Missouri valley, warm evening, with dramatic sunset.

We had to have the house wine, which was not bad, but the food was crap! Such a shame. Beautiful setting, but haute cuisine, or cuisine of any description does not appear to have reached these parts. Still, we enjoyed the occasion and are grateful for the one restaurant in town, which is our nearest, which can actually cook meat properly.
The norm round here is to order twice as much as you need, i.e. one helping and take what's left, home in a doggy bag. All the restaurants, fast food places, have huge piles of polystyrene boxes especially for this. The helpings, of course, are far too big, but personally, I do not want to take home food, which wasn't much good in the first place and is not going to be improved by reheating or keeping. To be polite, I have been taking it home and binning it.

I have had my first taste of private health care, or rather dental care. I do have insurance, I hasten to add and made sure dental was included as my teeth are getting to that sort of age!
Something gave way and I couldn't chew on one side. So on the way to my weekly yoga, we visit the dentist, where they are all bright eyed and bushy tailed at 8 in the morning. Before you could turn round I was in the chair, x-rayed, prodded and diagnosed with 600 dollars worth of treatment. I can handle this rather bad news at this early hour, because I know I only have to pay 20%. He probably took one look at my mouth and thought he could retire on the proceeds.

The hours here are very different. Roland nearly died, when he found that two of his classes started at 8am. He is amazed that when he arrives- on the dot, they are all sitting up, ready and waiting.
Lunch in the cafeteria ends at 1 and dinner ends at 6. Dinner and party invitations are for 5 or 5.30. You are often home by 9. It doesn't seem too bad at this time of year, but the early starts will be hard mid winter.

I will leave you with two images of the master at work. Firstly in his large and rather empty office.

And secondly, on the front porch, where you can pretend to be engrossed in a book, but actually having a good nose around. We do after all live on a corner.

We are heading for another storm, so I'm going outside to watch it come!

A few things that amused and interested me.

I have these random photos that amused me and thought you might like to see them

We came across this when out for our evening walk. Something lacking in the presentation I feel.
Some of the advertising is very old fashioned. This is just across the street from us.

Personally, I think she looks rather scary. It would put me off going in. Mind you they do like very white and perfect teeth here which ours certainly aren't.

This also is interesting on the front door of the public library.

I hope you can read the writing on the lower panes. We have seen this on several public buildings. The reason they put it on is because in Missouri it is still legal to carry a concealed weapon. You can have as many guns as you like and you don't need to lock them away!

Since this is a big gun carrying state I thought it might be my first and only chance to go hunting! I'm working on it. It is a matter of knowing the right people. I'm also hoping to go fishing, which is also a major thing here. The supermarkets are full of fishing gear. I have asked if I can do these things with just the one hand, and they all seemed to think I could. The game is grouse, geese, and I think wild turkey and lastly, but least likely for me, because the license is very expensive, deer. We will see, but I'm hopeful.

I can't remember whether I've shown this one or not, but I like these church message boards.
Lastly some of the large and as you can see prosperous churches right in the centre of Fulton. They are not just single buildings, they have huge annexes, with all sorts of activities on offer. Like everything else it is a business out to get new customers. Judging by the size and state of the buildings, these are very successful businesses.

Roland liked this. We came across it in Columbia.

Another party at the presidents house on tuesday. This time it is the faculty meeting local business people. This is quite interesting, they don't just mean top business people, it's every tiny little shop and business. A weird and wonderful mix. Roland gets invitations to talk to the local Rotary club and the rival college, William Woods. He doesn't really want to do either, I can tell this a mile off, but hope they don't notice his marked lack of enthusiasm! Anyway, he feels obliged to do the Rotary club one as it is important for the college. It's all about connections and getting money. Half the faculty who turn up at these do's are not the teaching staff, but the people in development. They have a lot of fancy and impressive titles, but they are all basically fundraisers.
It was interesting that the party before this one was sponsored by an old westminster student. The menu for this was very amusing. The title was:-
Westminster Welcome Back & On-Board Celebration.
Mentoring Future Leaders of a Global Community & Appreciating Cultural Diversity.
The food was described as cosmopolitan sophistication, and included such things as peach cobbler a la mode!!!
I will leave you with the latest public safety notice given out at our local library, it's called ready in 3. The title is:-
Tornadoes, Floods, Earthquakes, Terrorism. In Missouri you can be ready in 3.
We obviously have an exciting year ahead!