CDP Theme Day: 2016 Pictures Of The Year

Maybe I lack self-discipline but I'm just not able to pick a single image for the CDP New Year's Day theme. These are some of my favorites, sorted into arbitrary categories. 

First Place: bonfire finale at Artica

Second Place: anti-Trump rally in downtown STL

Best Travel Photos

Der Dicker Engel restaurant in Berlin

  

Chihuly and Seattle, desaturated 

 

On the other hand, best pure use of color

Transit tunnel, Seattle 

Best candid portraits

One day on Art Hill

 

Andy and Audrey

Outside the Reijksmuseum

Best black and white

Airstrip, Clare, Michigan

Levee, Eads Bridge and Arch

 Best performance photo

Finite-Infinite at the 2016 St. Louis Fringe Festival

And finally, best quotation from James Joyce

A bar in Chicago

   

Happy 2017 to all.        

A Wagon of Rubbish

I haven't abandoned aglimpseoflondon (in case you were worried), it was an enforced temporary arrangement courtesy of BT.

Finally and after hours of calls and chats they sent an engineer who could confirm we had no line at all.  Oops he said.  Despite a few hours earlier been told it was all repaired and working well.  Another visit and rewired somewhere in the street, communication has been restored.  Only problem now is how I am going to manage the massive speed of 2mbs from my restored broadband.

Wishing you all a great New Year and a fabulous 2017.

After The Year We've Had...

... I'd take any form of emotional help, any form of relief, even if it's from Dr. Madeleine. She was at a day of special kids' activities at the history museum. Maybe there are some good pills in that desk.

We can hope 2017 will be better but I can't say I'm optimistic. The climate just gets hotter, a particular political party gets crueler, and we face an unfathomable, horrifying condition: President Donald Trump. Maybe I could just stay in bed under the covers, but I'll probably go out and take pictures of whatever it is that happens.

CDP New Year's theme day tomorrow. My pictures of the year are ready.      

Ten candles tonight

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Lots of light tonight, with the two Sabbath candles joining the Chanuka lights.
The chanukia, made from a liquid-filled bottle, and the candlesticks are both gifts from my sweet daughter, Naomi.
Tomorrow night we kindle the 8th and last candle of the Festival of Lights.
So happy Chanuka and Shabbat shalom!
Oh, and also chodesh tov (a good month) to you, as the Hebrew month of Tevet begins today.
And enjoy the last day of 2016.
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Dedicated To Art

These pictures are from the same foggy day walkabout as in recent posts.This is the front of the St. Louis Art Museum, finished just in time for the 1904 World's Fair held in Forest Park. The architect was the renowned Cass Gilbert.

It is an excellent museum for a city our size. However, it has the best motto for a public building I've ever seen: dedicated to art and free to all. Really. Gratis. It, the zoo and the history museum (which I expect to visit today) are supported by a small bump on the real estate tax in St. Louis City and County.            

Louie Louie

https://youtu.be/4V1p1dM3snQ .  That's all I have to say today.             

A wet, cold, windy welcome home

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The easyJet small-ish jet left Geneva promptly at 7:05 am while it was still dark.  A crescent moon hung in the sky as it gradually got lighter and lighter.

Snow on the Swiss Alps made the mountains visible even in the semi-darkness of pre-dawn.  

The pilot was happy to announce that with our strong tailwind the flight would take only 3 hours 40 minutes, but to expect some turbulence.  

Just before reaching the eastern end of the Mediterranean, our clear blue skies got full of clouds, and snowflakes rushed past my window. 

The pilot said Ben Gurion airport was experiencing severe weather and we would have to "hold" over the sea until a landing was possible.  
We flew slow and low over the water for some 40 minutes, just drehing around in that holding pattern. 
Finally the Israel coastline appeared and we went in on an unusual route I've never seen before.

The landing, thank God, was fine and everyone applauded.  
There were big puddles of water everywhere.  
When we walked out into the Arrivals Hall a tall crane was inside, and two men were fixing the ceiling panels.   
All it takes is a big rain (usually the first rain) to flood and paralyze this country. 
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Fool On The Hill

He was sitting on the wall under the great statue of St. Louis, gazing through the fog down Art Hill to the Grand Basin. I walked by under the wall, taking pictures. I said hi. He said hi. I asked him what he had with him. A glass chess set and a volume of Aristotle, he said. I asked if I could take his picture. He said sure. I did, said thanks, and then walked away with a tune in my head.          

The Mother Ship Has Landed

That's what the Climatron makes me think of when it glows with green LEDs. The image below could be moon rise or set in another solar system.          

Christmas Day In The Lou

This is the ghost of Christmas present. Chilly and damp. Fog, thicker and thicker as you approach the river. Not approved by Charles Dickens, Santa Claus or Macy's. But, hey, it's home and we're together.

Top to bottom: Forest Park, Maryland Plaza, Citygarden.         

Christmas In St. Louis

From Madeleine and all the Crowes.          

The star

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Follow the star!
You may end up in Sonnenhof, the House of Stillness, in Switzerland, where I photographed the nuns' bright Moravian star.

It is also called a Herrnhuter Stern.
You can find out why in a previous post.

Merry Christmas to my Christian friends and happy Chanuka to my family and Jewish friends.
The two holidays starting on the same night; this has happened only five times in the last 111 years!
Double joy!
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(Linking to inSPIREd Sunday.)
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Angels On The South Side

We made it to the Garden Glow. A light rain was falling with a temperature of 38F/3C. It made our visit shorter than other years. Still, the display always has some old favorites and new arrangements.

Nothing changes in the top image. It's not really an angel but the statue of Persephone next to the home of Henry Shaw, who founded the garden in the 19th Century. Below, the silhouette of an angel in front of the Climatron, a geodesic dome.     

Tour Boats - Lake Sumter Landing

Baubles in the city

The stylish Xmas trees in Paternoster Square behind St Paul's cathedral.

Up out of the fog, into the sunlight!

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The river flows right next to the Community of Grandchamp, a canal diverts some water through and even under the monastery, and we are also close to Lake Neuchatel.
Having all this water around, the air is saturated with humidity for many months during the gray winter.
Sometimes the nuns just get the urge to drive upward in search of the sun.

And last Sunday we did!
First you go up the Jura Mountains a few hundred meters and enter a dense band of fog.

The band of fog is even worse than our misty greyness down on the plain.

But finally you come out into the bright sunlight!   Yay!

And as the hotel's name promises, at the top you have a view of the spectacular Alps way on the other side of Switzerland!

If you enlarge the photo you see the jagged alpine peaks in the distance and the rounded Jura mountains in the foreground; the white stuff in between is fog.

Lots of beautiful places to hike to.

Just across the cattle guard, one of  the trails ascends.

It was freezing cold windy up there, but look at all the Swiss folks climbing up there!
The ski lift is on top.  But no snow.
It's OK. We'd rather see sun than snow.
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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