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| THE SAINT LOUIS ARCH |
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| MADELINE ISLAND EVERGING FROM THE MORNING FOG |
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| BEAKED HAZLENUT MALE CATKINS |
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| BEAKED HAZLENUT BUSH |
Thursday, 9:30 AM. 46 degrees F, wind W, calm. The sky is overcast, it has rained a bit and it was foggy earlier. It feels like an early spring day, and the barometer predicts sunny skies.
Another sign of spring: the male catkins of the beaked hazelnut bushes (Corylus cornuta) have emerged and although not quite yet at full anthesis are very obvious, even from a distance.
We started our trip to Texas with an urban forestry meeting in the capitol at Madison. The protests, or whatever they may now be called, continue, although they are not as disruptive as a year ago. The “protest” I witnessed this trip was a large group of grade school children singing some kind of “mother earth” song under a teacher's direction, which of course related to the mining controversy. Which has, incidentally, gone away for the present as GTECH, the mining company requesting a permit, has given up in disgust at least for now and withdrawn its request, leaving the whole scenario in limbo, along with thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in tax revenue.
If our children are fullyindoctrinated by the environmental extremists no one will be able to legally drill a water well one day. We had better be raising hardy progeny, as stone age life is rather tough.
From Madison we headed south on I39, and then took I55 to St. Louis, and then I44 to I35 and south to Texas. The St. Louis downtown is easy to negotiate, at least if it is not rush hour, and the Gateway Arch is always spectacular. The ride up in a little cab like a space capsule is worth the effort, as are the views from the top.
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