Nicki's Central West End Guide

Passport to CWE benefits Children's Education Alliance of MO

Passport logo and booklet designed by Diann Cage

I have loved using the Passport to CWE in years past and am happy to post a press release from Peter Franzen, the Director of Development of the Children's Education Alliance of Missouri, announcing the launch of the 2013 fundraiser. There are great deals inside the Passport to CWE and the cost, $25, is more than recouped in area shops, restaurants, and galleries. To make this year's coupon booklet even more appealing the deals are available from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The shops that are participating are listed here).

From Peter Franzen:
For the third consecutive year, the Children’s Education Alliance of Missouri (CEAM) is offering a fun and unique way to raise money for their Parent Academy through the sale of a special “Passport to the Central West End.” Passports cost $25 and are filled with great deals, giveaways, incentives and discounts from various Central West End retailers and restaurants. The Passport serves as a guide to a summer of fun in one of the city’s most distinctive destination neighborhoods.

Passports are on sale now at Vino Gallery located at 4701 McPherson and The Eye Bar located at 401 N. Euclid. Passports can also be purchased through CEAM’s website. Passports are valid from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

More than 40 Central West End merchants are participating in the 2013 Passport. Offers include complimentary sides, appetizers and desserts at various restaurants; buy-one-get-one-free offers; and many dollar and percent discounts.

Navigating school, district and state policies is a challenge for any parent. Proceeds from Passport to the Central West End sales support Parent Academy which equips parents to better understand how education policy impacts their children's chances of accessing a high quality education and to become more effective advocates for their own children and education policy change.

For more information about Passport to the Central West End, please visit the website or call (314) 454-6544.

The Children’s Education Alliance of Missouri (CEAM) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps parents and other get involved in education policy change.

Earth Day Festival 2013 in Forest Park

The St. Louis Earth Day Festival, which was held this past weekend on the grounds of The Muny in Forest Park, is 24 years old and the third largest in the country. Read article in Thursday's article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

A "Stop the Drones" booth, above, sat next to one devoted to meditation.

There was a display of electric vehicles including a 1974 VW Beetle that had been converted from a gasoline engine to electric power at a cost of $6000.

 

Bill Smith's magical art on view at World Chess Hall of Fame

Put artist Bill Smith's exhibition at the World Chess Hall of Fame on your "must see," "to do," "just get there!" list(s). His work, Beyond the Humanities, is on view until September 15, which allows plenty of opportunity to stop by the neighborhood museum more than once. Go especially when you need some quiet reflective time. It's that magical, and calming.
In the opinion of Amanda Cook, spokesperson for The World Chess Hall of Fame, people from this area are not as familiar with Bill Smith's art as those from other parts of the country. The O'Fallon, Illinois native, who creates multimedia pieces in a big barn on his property there, is represented by New York's P.P.O.W Gallery and has had solo exhibitions around the country. Smith's work is not completely unknown in St. Louis however, as I noticed in the WCHOF brochure that Smith exhibited at the Saint Louis Art Museum five years ago, and at White Flag Projects, 4568 Manchester, in 2005.

Smith's educational background provides a window into why his work, which combines art and science, is so special. His academic credentials include a certificate in mechanics from Ranken Technical Institute (located on an 18-acre campus on Newstead just north of Delmar), a B.S. in Microbiology and Chemistry from SIU, and a M.F.A. in Sculpture from U of I, Champaign-Urbana.

The WCHOF brochure states that Smith's "Beyond the Humanities explores how rules guide the creation of our world's structure and behavior...Smith uses art to show the underlying similarities of all things..." The connection between Smith's work and the game of chess is explained thusly: "Like Smith's work, chess is defined by rules, patterns, and interactions. The rules of a game are analogous to the laws of nature..."

My camera couldn't pick up the extra-fine filament in Structure, above, a multimedia piece that weighs 2 ounces and reaches up 240 inches through the museum's staircase from the 1st to the 3rd floor. Structure moves just slightly in the ambient air, which is measured by a computer, above. Watch Smith's video below:  

Inside the gallery space further magic awaits. The centerpiece of the exhibition is sperodendron, which could be viewed as a dandelion, a cell---whatever your imagination allows. The following photograph and video were provided by Amanda Cook courtesy of the World Chess Hall of Fame.

  

On the second floor there is an exhibition titled Everybody's Game, Chess in Popular Culture, which includes chess sets made of Legos, sets made for Coca Cola, Anheuser Busch, and Winnie the Pooh characters. There are stills from movies, television shows, and commercials where chess was featured (e.g. Star Trek, Smirnof). Everybody's Game closes this Sunday, April 14.

The third floor exhibition space features The President's Game, which shows how chess has fascinated American presidents for over two hundred years. Among the pieces on view is George Washington's chess set with its wooden storage box, 1770's. The President's Game closes April 21.

When you visit, take time to view the wall covered with visitors' comments about the role chess has played in their lives, and visit Q Boutique, voted Best Gift Shop 2012 by the Riverfront Times!

World Chess Hall of Fame, 4652 Maryland Avenue, Mon. Tues. Weds. 10 to 5, Thurs.- Sat. 10 to 6, Sun. Noon to 5, Closed Monday, (314) 367-9243.

Let it rain, who cares?

Photo courtesy of Heather Navarro

The forecast called for the possibility of rain the day before Easter, but the Easter bunny took a chance anyway and got to work in Kennedy Park (east of Euclid at Olive & Washington) hiding 245 eggs filled with candy and coins. For who would want to disappoint 50 to 75 CWE children who typically turn out for the annual Easter egg hunt sponsored by CWE Friends & Families?

At the appointed hour--4 o'clock--the rain began, and only 14 children and their parents showed up. The lucky children included:

Photo courtesy of Heather Navarro

Tain, above

Photo courtesy of Heather Navarro

Lucas, above

Photo courtesy of Heather Navarro

Lilah, above

Photo courtesy of Heather Navarro
Lilah and her sister Cali (who always seems to be in motion),

Photo courtesy of Heather Navarro

And finally Autumn, left, and Margie (shown with Autumn's grandmother) who couldn't stand still for a photograph. Who can blame them?  245 eggs divided by 14!

CWEnder Amanda Kracen, who is active in the CWE Friends and Family group, sent the following note:

"We enjoyed ourselves for about an hour in the rain! Adults chatted and mingled while kids played and shared treats! The rain didn't dampen our fun."

Pasta Making 101

My thirteen-year-old neighbor Sara Sowins, above, moved to the neighborhood from Los Angeles with her parents toward the end of last summer. Her father James is the Creative Director of the Dr. Scholl's brand, a division of Brown Shoe in Clayton. Though their real estate agent tried to steer them toward the county, apparently believing a young person would have a tough time in the city, James and his wife Rita thought that living in the CWE was a no-brainer. We quickly became good friends as the young family asked for advice about where things are around town, and Sara settled into her new school, Villa Duchesne.

When we were invited to join them for dinner, it was apparent that both Sara and Rita not only enjoyed cooking together but that Sara had learned a lot from her mother, who is a fabulous cook. She had also taken classes at The Cooking Camp in Pasadena. She remembered a particular class when she was 8 years old where the children made chocolate egg shells that were filled with pastry cream. I was pretty impressed.

Rita Sowins is a well-respected book designer who works from home. When deadlines loom, it's Sara who starts the family dinner after school on those days when she's not headed off for horseback riding lessons. Homemade pasta happens to be one of her specialties. Though I have made pasta many times, I thought this might be an opportunity to learn something new, and besides, who wouldn't want to have fun with such a charming young instructor?  And so, we met in our kitchen one late afternoon last fall for what I dubbed "Pasta Making 101." 

Sara, who was 12 at the time, arrived with a hand-written recipe and a pasta-making attachment for an electric mixer, which didn't fit my brand. I have an Atlas, a traditional pasta-making machine which Sara had never used before, so as it turned out, we each had something to learn.

Here then is Sara's Pasta:

Ingredients for 2 people, can be doubled or tripled:

        1 cup flour (1/2 cup per person)

        1 egg per cup of flour

        Water

        Flavoring if desired (basil, sundried tomato, spinach, mushroom)

        Extra flour

1. Beat egg with a whisk in a bowl until foamy.

2. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle place flour, optional flavoring, and beaten egg. Mix at medium speed for 7-10 minutes, or until mixture clumps together and you can form it into a ball with your hands. You may need to add an additional tablespoon or two of water to the bowl. Don't add additional egg unless you want egg noodles.

We added thin shreds of fresh basil to the flour in Step 2.

3. Turn dough out and knead for a minute or so (it will be quite firm as you can see in the photo above). Cover dough with a towel and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

4. Depending on how much dough you made, cut it into pieces (at least two), and stretch them out into narrow rectangles that will fit the width of your pasta machine. Roll each sheet of dough through the machine, changing the setting each time until you get to #5 or 6. (If the dough seems dry while you do this, cover with a slightly damp paper towel between settings). If it is too sticky, dust the sheets with a little flour.
5. When the pasta sheets have passed through the #5 or #6 setting, cut the sheets in half, or you'll have mile-long pasta. Pass the sheets through the machine until the #7 setting. This is where we stopped, though if you want thinner pasta, keep going.

6. Switch to the spaghetti or fettuccine side of the machine and cut the sheets into the desired shape, again dusting them with a little flour if the sheets are sticky.

7. Place the cut pasta on floured sheet pans and toss with more flour to keep the pasta from sticking together, see below. The flour will fall off when it is cooked.  Let the pasta rest on the floured pans while you make the sauce (see Rita Sowins recipe below).

7. Whatever you don't cook can be frozen when it is completely dry (let it sit out overnight) in freezer bags. Fresh pasta takes only a few minutes to cook in boiling salted water.

Sara took half the pasta home for her family dinner, and Rita brought us half of her fabulous spicy tomato sauce to enjoy with our spaghetti, see below. When Sara left, there was flour everywhere--I mean everywhere. She told her mother that I didn't make her help clean up, which never would have happened in her own house. Sara thought was the best thing ever. It was worth the mess. I have made the pasta since and am really surprised at how delicate it is. I hope you have the same experience if you decide to give this recipe a try.

Rita Sowins' Spicy Tomato Sauce

Makes enough for at least 4-6, so plan to freeze any extra

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

Olive oil

3/4 to 1 pounds hot Italian sausage, casings removed

1 teaspoon dried oregano, or 1 tablespoon fresh herbs (basil, oregano, parsley)

1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes

Salt & pepper to taste 

Creme fraiche or plain yogurt (optional)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Cook chopped onion, garlic, and celery together in olive oil until the vegetables soften. Add sausage, breaking it apart as it cooks and saute until browned. Add herbs and tomatoes with their juices. Simmer for about 1/2 hour. Season to taste. Rita adds a little creme fraiche to smooth out the flavor, I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons plain yogurt. This is definitely optional.

For a smooth sauce, place sauce in food processor fitted with steel blade and process until smooth. Return to pan, add drained pasta, two tablespoons butter and heat on stove top over very low heat until butter melts and flavors saturate the pasta. Serve.

Thank you Sara for letting me share our cooking class with readers of this blog. Maybe someday we should try making that chocolate egg!

Duncan Wall, "The Ordinary Acrobat"

Duncan Wall, son of CWEA Board Member Mark Wall and his wife Claudia will be in town tomorrow evening to introduce his new book, The Ordinary Acrobat, shown prominently displayed at Left Bank Books, above. The anything-but-ordinary book signing (see why below) will take place at the Mad Art Gallery in Soulard starting at 7 p.m.

Claudia Wall said Duncan attended Iowa University and spent his junior year abroad at the Center for Critical Studies in Paris. That's when his interest in the circus (which bored him as a child) began. Duncan currently lives in Montreal where he teaches circus history at The National Circus School of Montreal. He's primarily a writer and also an actor who has performed with the Candidatos, a modern clown-theater company he founded. His play "I'm Sorry and I'm Sorry" was performed at the Minneapolis Fringe Festival in 2005, the Dublin Film Festival in 2006 and, closer to home, at the Clayton Black Box theater in 2007. 

Later, Duncan lived in Europe for about a year and eventually won a Fullbright grant to study the circus. He enrolled at the National School for the Circus Arts in France, where he learned about the "nouveau cirque," or contemporary circus," a genre of performing art developed in the later 20th century in which a story or a theme is conveyed through traditional circus skills." The school offers classes in circus skills as an art-form that involve creative play and athleticism.

Published by Knopf and edited by Jonathan Segal, "The Ordinary Acrobat is a magical, funny, sometimes scary story of what happens when one average American joins a host of gifted (and flexible) international students in a rigorous regimen of tumbling, trapeze, juggling, and clowning."

In Nick Otten's interview with Duncan published in Friday's StLBeacon (read interview here), the author said that the circus arts have moved into the mainstream and become more familiar. He knows "dozens, if not hundreds, of 'ordinary acrobats' right now, people who work at a desk job as an architect or a school teacher and fly on a trapeze at night."

The book signing, a Circus Now event which promotes the circus as art will include performances by artists from our town's Circus Flora, Circus Harmony, and Bumbleshoots Aerial Arts, located on Gravois.

Meet the author Duncan Wall as he reads from The Ordinary Acrobat, Tuesday, March 19, at Mad Art Gallery, 2727 S. 12th. Doors open at 7, the performance begins at 7:30. $5 cover goes towards the purchase of the book, $26.95. Books provided by Left Bank Books.

Small world footnote: As is often the case when you are thinking of something, or in this case writing about someone, a related story shows up elsewhere. As I finally caught up on Sunday's NY Times last evening, there was the following opinion piece written by Duncan Wall in the Sunday Review section: "Moving Beyond The Big Tent."

Forest Park's Top Model

Noppadol Paothang Photography

Mark Glenshaw, the Owlman of Forest Park, recently posted news that a photograph of Sarah and one of her 2012 offspring, Christopher or Velvet above, made the February 2013 issue of Missouri Conservationist. I have copied some of what the proud Owlman said about this honor and about Nop Paothang's stunning photography below. Be sure to visit Mark's website as he tracks Charles and Sarah, the Great Horned Owls he has been following since December 2005.

Sarah continues to nest and although she is all but impossible to see in the high steep nest except when she takes short breaks out of the nest, she has recently been seen by thousands of people in Missouri and even beyond.  There is a gorgeous photo of Sarah and one of the 2012 owlets (Christopher or Velvet) in the new (February 2013) of Missouri Conservationist, the superb monthly magazine of the Missouri Department of Conservation.  The picture of Sarah is in an article on Short-Eared Owls written by and with accompanying photographs by Noppadol  "Nop" Paothang, one of the magazine's superb photographer.  You can see the article here and at the top of the article are nine separate photos.  The photo of Sarah is fifth of the nine photos. Check out her talons!  When people see with my camera equipment they often ask if I am a photographer.  I respond that I am a naturalist who takes photos.  Furthermore, I have friends and acquaintances who are professional or semi-professional photographer and to call me a photographer is to insult them!  Photos like these by Nop are abundant proof of the difference.

If you are not already a subscriber to Missouri Conservationist, I highly recommend that you subscribe to it immediately.  I look forward to its informative articles and superb photography every month.   A subscription to it is free to all Missouri households.  I am embarrassed to say that I have only been a subscriber for a few years but it is never to late. This link provides subscription information.

P.S. - On the subject of birds, the National Backyard Bird Count effort starts today through February 18th. On the website there is a printable list of the types of birds that inhabit our area. Here is the link (www.birdcount.org), in case you want to take part. There is no way to even begin counting the gazillion crows that seem to love the CWE. Will post that photo tomorrow. 

Looking for love in all the right places

Photo courtesy of Suzanne Miller
Three-year-old Margot, with her signature bow, was photographed on her way home from the International School Playhouse with a bag full of Valentines.

Katharine Walker, age 4 1/2, made Valentines in her mother's jewelry studio at 449 N. Euclid, while
her mother, Jennifer Walker, made these lovely gold-filled heart-shaped earrings, $32 and $39 for the larger pair.

Thanks to Kelly Reding for sharing a photo of her son Will's Valentine cards he brought home from New City School this noon. I love looking at the pre-school printing and the paper bag Will decorated for the occasion.

Cassie has several heart-shaped wreaths in the window at 316 N. Euclid, $54 to $59.

And Bissinger's has a special on large milk or dark chocolate hearts, left (buy one for $10, get one free). The shop at 32 Maryland Plaza is open until 10 p.m. tonight.

I started the morning with a feeble attempt at making heart-shaped pancakes, above. 
And to end this February 14th post, here is a collection of some of my favorite Valentines.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our first art exhibition

For the past five years Yvette Woods, above, whom you've met on these pages in previous posts here and here, has been teaching drawing classes in a third floor studio space at 4814 Washington Avenue. Yvette retired from Meramec Community College where she taught art for thirty years. When she found an opportunity to open her own studio within walking distance of her CWE home, she took the plunge and has been teaching both children and adult classes there ever since.

For the past three years I have been taking a drawing class with a group of six to eight women on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. We each started at different times and with varying degrees of drawing experience--from absolutely none in my case, to an innate ability and/or previous art classes on the part of others. Cindy Miller was introduced to Yvette (both shown above) through a college-level class offered by Forest Park Community College held at Studio W, and has remained with Yvette ever since. I signed up with the hope that I could eventually communicate what I envisioned for our garden for instance, without someone wondering what in the world I had sketched. 

             

Each of us works at our own pace and on our own subject matter in pastel, prisma color pencils (see Connie McPheeters pastel drawing above), and watercolor.

Yvette had been telling us all along that we were eventually going to have an exhibition of our work and the public would be invited. We brushed off our teacher's suggestion (which you can do when you are older and taking a class just for fun), as no one in our daytime class was enthused about it at all. The adult evening class was more than willing to set a date however, and we, the reluctant exhibitionistas, eventually ran out of excuses.

On a Sunday evening just before Thanksgiving, the families of both adult sessions came to see samples of our work. On one wall there were drawings of a simple ball, which is what everyone, no matter how much experience, starts Yvette's classes learning to draw.

This wall shows some of Cindy Miller's fabulous work.

My photograph doesn't capture the detail on Joseph Randolph's amazingly life-like drawing, above.

I am bowled over that I have the chutzpah to even post my work, above, which shows a preliminary, right, and the finished drawing drawn in both prisma color pencils and pastels. I had as much fun styling the subject matter as I did drawing it, and it took me forever and a day to complete.

I just love fellow classmate Linn Wells cloud drawing, above.

And Connie McPheeters drew this charming piece in pastel using a 4" tall "poupee" as her model. 

After the exhibition ended we all concluded that it was actually exciting to show our work. There was no one judging it and the audience was complimentary. The key we decided, to putting your drawings out there for people to see, is a confidence imparted by our excellent teacher, Yvette, and frankly, just doing it.

Yvette also teaches children's classes twice a week. Her young students have learned so much from her that they have exhibited at The Sheldon Art Galleries for each of the past two years. She has classes starting now for ages 8 to 16 on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4 to 6 p.m.  For more information about both the children's and adult classes, call Yvette Woods, (314) 324-5847, or email: studiow.woods@gmail.com. And to learn more about her life as an artist, visit this website.

Yvette Woods, Studio W, 4814 Washington Ave., (314) 324-5847.

Celebrating a 7th Owliversary with a nesting

You've met Mark Glenshaw, the Owlman of Forest Park, on these blog pages many times over the past couple of years. Several neighbors went on an owl prowl with Mark in January 2011 and have followed Charles and Sarah, the Great Horned Owls and their offspring (see link here) on Mark's blog ever since. It was on Mark's 7th "Owliversary" (as he cleverly calls it), which happened to coincide with the end of 2012, that the Owlman discovered Charles and Sarah are nesting once again.

It is with Mark's permission and a toast to new life that I bring this sweet post from the Owlman's blog at the beginning of 2013. As you read it you'll notice that, in order to track flight patterns, nesting locations, etc., Mark has given names to each of the trees the owls frequent: Fleur de lis, Eastern Branch Tree, etc.

In Mark's words:

January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!  I hope 2013 proves to be a great one for you all!

Last night was one of those evenings with so much happening that if just one of the highlights had occurred, it would have been a great night.  Having seen Sarah check out some possible nest spots on December 30, I knew that I had to return the last  night to see if she had made her nest selection.  I arrived at the park later than I had wanted but I was armed with some vital information.  My friend and owl mentee, Brenda Hentee, had been to the park earlier that day.  She texted me that she had found Charles in The Fleur-de-lis Tree and despite a thorough search, she could not find Sarah.  As we texted back and forth, we agreed that Sarah might be nesting in The 2011 Nest Hollow and thus be out of sight. 

When I got to the park Charles was still in The Fleur-de-lis Tree.  I began to check a few spots for her not far from Charles in case she had relocated since Brenda's visit.  Charles began to blast out booming hoots.  To my delight I heard Sarah respond The 2011 Nest Hollow.  This hollow was high on my list of possible nest spots for 2013 as both owls, especially Charles, checked it out more than any other spot this fall and early winter.  They began to duet in earnest.  Here's Charles in The Fleur-de-lis Tree.

Sarah emerged from the hollow and flew to The Fleur-de-lis Tree.  I hoped that they might mate early but instead and true to form as of late, Charles flew into the hollow.  Here's Sarah in The Fleur-de-lis Tree. 

Thankfully, Charles did not remain long in the hollow, as he had often done so lately.  He flew and landed high in The First of The Three Trees, a spot that Sarah has frequented this breeding season.  They continued to duet and Sarah flew and joined Charles in the same tree albeit many feet lower.  I patiently filmed the duet and waited for it to go up that gear or two that usually occurs before mating.  The duet gradually intensified and Charles flew down to Sarah and they mated. After mating, Charles blasted off southeast.  Watch the palpable impact that Charles makes when he lands on Sarah before they mate.  

They mated at 4:59 pm just ten minutes after sunset.  I waited eagerly to see what would happen next.  Just shy of fifteen minutes later, Sarah made a slow, graceful descent at a sharp angle towards the bank of the river way.  Two possibilities leapt to mind: predatory attempt or time for a drink and/or bath.  The latter was the winner.  Sarah walked into the river way and began to drink.  It was too dark for video but bright enough to get a few poor but discernible photos of her drinking and looking vigilantly around between sips.

  

She drank for five minutes before making a short flight into The Eastern Branch Tree a mere 30-50 feet away from me.  Not for the last time, I was grateful that I was well concealed and behaving in an appropriately stealthy manner.  It was amazing to see her drink again so close to nesting.  She did this last year and you can read about it in this post on my blog.  Like last year, the needs of the growing eggs may demand more water/liquid consumption than other times of the year.  Owls get most of their liquid needs from the prey they consume.  In seven years, I have seen them drink and/or bathe fewer than ten times.

I was keen to see if/when Charles would return and if he would have prey for Sarah.  Charles did not disappoint. A mere twenty-five minutes after they had mated I began to hear Charles hoot from the southeast.  He moved closer and eventually flew to the 06/09 Nest Hollow.  His hoots were slightly muted as he had a small prey item in his bill!  Sarah flew to The Middle Tree and he joined her and gave her the prey.  I think the prey was a small bird or mammal.  From what I could tell, Sarah made quick work of the prey and they hooted gently as they perched next to each other.  I thrilled to see Charles return with prey as it demonstrates that he understands that Sarah is nesting and that he is now hunting for the both of them and if all goes well, the owlets too.  I have seen this behavior by Charles before on the first night of Sarah nesting and it always amazes.  It is as if a hormonal/behavioral switch is thrown and he goes out to grab prey as fast as he can.  I remember a similar occasion when he went blasting out to hunt on the first night of Sarah's nesting.  I saw him land in the distance and went to follow him.  I was less than halfway to where he had landed when the next thing I knew he was flying past me in the opposite direction with prey in bill on his way to give the food to Sarah.  

Charles flew off to another Cottonwood and began to hoot loudly and regularly, perhaps proud in the fact that he had done his duty and in fine fashion.  Sarah began to reply to him, flew to a neighborhood Cottonwood.  I wondered if a second mating might take place.  I did not have to wonder long.  Sarah flew to Charles' spot, landed right next to them and they mated for the second time in under forty minutes.

Heading northwest, Charles hooted in flight and even hooted for a bit after landing.  I hoped to see Sarah fly back to the now renamed 2011/13 Nest Hollow.  I watched patiently in the icy temperatures but she did not fly to the hollow or any other spot before departed fifty minutes later.  Interestingly she finally began to groom, something she had not done even after leaving the nest hollow.  It was tough to go but not-so-toasty toes and New Year's plans both at friends' and at home directed me away from the park.  An amazing evening with these amazing owls and a great way to end the year.  Thanks for reading!

And thanks for sharing this post Mark. Contact Mark to arrange an owl prowl or a talk at mglenshaw@gmail.com.