All White on the Eastern Front

We flew 1,800 miles east (well, southeast) to St. Louis to escape winter and -- ha ha! Winter came with!!

It was a storm that closed schools for two days and left this normally busy stretch of Lindell Boulevard empty (I shot this as I motored back from a nearly closed Missouri Botanical Garden).

Actually, we flew east to celebrate the wedding of STL friends, to see other old buddies and then to drive farther east -- in our uber compact rental Mazda 2 -- to Louisville for my mother's benchmark birthday. Before that, I'd spent a treacherous hour driving to and from the botanical garden to pick up her birthday gift -- a personally autographed copy of this wonderful new book:

My friend and the great, young Missouri wildlife photographer Noppadol (Nop) Paothong has spent a decade camping out thoughout the Plains states to capture some of the last remaining habits and habitat of the grassland grouse.  Nop is in and out of St. Louis, signing this splendid book and it's getting rave reviews, nationwide. A must-see. (http://www.savethelastdancebook.com/) He also shoots for the Missouri Conservationist magazine (http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag, to read online or pay $7 annually for out-of-state subscription to this gorgeous journal).

Also before leaving St. Louis, we sheltered from the storm in a new restaurtant by Chef Girard Craft, called Pastaria (http://pastariastl.com/). It was bustling. And the food -- my smoked-pork pappardelle and Alex's salad of shaved kale, pecorino and creamy anchovy dressing -- were divine.

A Pastaria view from the bar.

Handmade Pastaria pasta, to go.

 My mother loves her new book,  by the way.  She's a long-time birdwatcher.  She also was an early foodie. Still is. So, we spent much of her birthday weekend eating out.  There was delicious shrimp-and-grits at the home of my brother (sous chef/photographer) and sister-in-law (chef and great home cook). Another day, we had carmelized-onion-and-goat-cheese tart at the sparkling new Louisville restaurant called Relish (http://www.relishlouisville.com/).

A glass of red wine, salad, tart and view of the river -- woo hoo!

Everyone, it seems, is doing carry-out, as well as dine-in. This is the Relish carry-out counter.

 Still another noontime found us at The Cheddar Box (http://thecheddarbox.com/), where I ordered, and we shared, a sublime Hot Brown.

Never had one? It was invented decades ago at Louisville's Brown Hotel. It is sliced turkey (or chicken) on toast points, covered with cheesy Mornay sauce, tomato slices and bacon and run under a broiler until hot and flecked with brown. Yum!

Mom at 86 years young. We're about to dine at The Cheddar Box!

We had beautiful weather in Louisville -- crisp, cool sunny days. Snow had entirely missed this part of the country. Alex and I decided to try out another new attraction. We walked the former railroad/now pedestrian-only Big Four Bridge (http://www.louisvillewaterfront.com/projects/big_four/) across the Ohio.

Walkers on the Big Four Bridge.

The re-designed bridge soon will have a ramp down to the Indiana side, for cycling commuters as well as for hikers and dog walkers -- that is, unless a plethora of dog poop on the bridge and the controversy it's stirred up in the community (think Page One stories in the local paper) will nix the site for dog walking altogether. We saw first-hand some unprepared walkers and their pooping pups.  Surely, this could function as a big, public dog park with the attendant dog-waste stations that roll out free plastic bags?

We also saw, from this otherwise glorious bridge, a coal barge wending its way past Louisville's downtown and up the river.

We took advantage of another gorgeous day to walk off our lunches where the river water comes to settle and get cleaned up (you saw how murky the Ohio looks from the bridge). This is the Louisville Waterworks reservoir -- a beautifully kept-up Victorian structure, at sunset.

And then we left the flat lands and came home to the mountains.

A cloud whisps over the Rockies, as seen from our Delta flight between Salt Lake and Missoula.

And guess what? We found a semblance of spring! Yesterday temperatures reached 55 in Hamilton, Mt. I rolled the Meyer lemon tree out to back steps for the afternoon. When I checked in on it an hour or so later, it was covered with bees! You could hear the buzz before you stepped out the door.

What a spectacle to see a tropical lemon flowering (9 fruits and counting) outside in early March in Montana, against a backdrop of snow-draped mountains and thick-branched evergreens. 

We expect snow here today, especially up high (Alex is skiing there with friends). And the lemon tree that I bought in St. Louis and drove out to the Bitterroot Valley is freshly pollinated and snug in its grow-light corner of our mud room. But the flip-flopping of the seasons -- from mountains to Midwest and back, from one day to the next here, and there -- is unsettling, to say the least. We hope this all means a end to drought and to a subdued wildfire season this summer. Stay tuned.