Garden Parties

Last week was a little busy, from a social standpoint. On the 17th we attended Chefs in a Garden, an annual fundraiser that supports Gateway Greening. Chefs from numerous venues in the area are charged with preparing a dish utilizing locally grown produce. The offerings are always unique, to say the least. The Four Seasons Hotel does a great job of hosting the event. Plus we all got designer water on our way out.

Chefs in a Garden

Tuesday was the SWT Design Garden party to show off the completed renovation of our third building. Though it was over 90 degrees outside, the shade and a slight breeze made it bearable. There was a nice turnout, though I had to leave around 6:00 to get back to our house as I had 15 women coming over at 7:00.

The gal who started the Women in Focus photography group in St. Louis is moving to Las Vegas, so instead of our normal monthly meeting at the library, I had suggested having a going away party at our place. I had pretty much everything ready ahead of time. I just need to throw together the sangria I was making. I had just tied the balloons out front when the first guests arrived. Several people brought drinks or appetizers to share, so we had plenty of food and beverages. I had a cake made at Schnucks, and it turned out so cute! It was a bittersweet night as we will miss Tiffany very much. But we are excited to see what life brings her way in Nevada.

Women in Focus

Thursday I played pickleball in the morning, and then that evening I went to Forest Park for some pickleball drills. That was a lot of pickleball in one day, but I know I need to practice if I want to improve my game.

cover as approved

Sunday I had breakfast with a friend to first of all catch up, but also to review the galleys of her new book. I provided the photographs for it, including a design for the front cover. The publishing company made a minor modification to the cover, and we both thought it looked great. Diane approved the cover weeks ago, so imagine our surprise and disappointment when the galley had the wrong cover on it! We also have some concerns about how the designer laid out some pages in terms of how the text interacts with the photos, but they may or may not take our critique under advisement. They are the publisher, after all. Hopefully they will at least address a couple of the bigger issues. I am eager to see the book in print, although it will be in black and white so the photos don't shine as much. The ebook version will be in color though, so that's cool. It is a pretty big thrill to see my name listed on the cover!

Clean Up Crew

tree crew

We were fortunate to be able to find a tree service who could come on Saturday and remove the fallen oak. It was an added bonus that he was a couple hundred dollars less expensive than the next higher bid. He came recommended by a neighbor, and his company is insured so we felt comfortable accepting the bid. Our neighbor was having concrete poured for his new walkway and steps on Monday, so it was imperative that the tree be removed before then.

the aftermath

The tree crew made short work of getting the limbs off the car so that it could be moved out of the way. Unfortunately the large limb somewhat crushed the roof of the car. I am not sure it will be feasible for it to be repaired. Speaking from experience, if the insurance company decides to total the car, no one wins. I hope they can fix it. You can see from the top picture that the excitement in the neighborhood drew quite a crowd. I'm sure these guys aren't used to having so many people watch them work. They finished up by mid-afternoon, and nothing was left but all the gouges in the grass.

Mirassou Moscato

It was nice for us, too, that the work was done on Saturday. We had nine people over Sunday afternoon for Easter dinner. It was such a beautiful day that we were able to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. I mixed up a batch of Moscato Limeade Punch from a recipe that I found on Real Housemoms. It is really good, but I felt like it was a little heavy on the limeade flavor. So I added an additional half bottle of moscato to the pitcher. It went from good to great! In my estimation, Mirassou makes the best moscato, so I always have a couple of bottles in the wine rack. This was a tasty punch recipe that I will be making again.

My niece brought a layered taco dip appetizer, and my nephew brought deer sausage and cheese. I balanced that with a veggie tray. I prepared a ham, scalloped potatoes and rolls, and my sister brought baked beans and deviled eggs. She also made an adorable cake for dessert. I am not a personal fan of peeps, but the cake was really good underneath all the peeping. It was a Hoppy Easter, for sure.

Easter Cake

The Unveiling that Wasn't

Kim Wolterman

At the October meeting of the Webster Groves/Shrewsbury/Rock Hill Chamber of Commerce meeting, I was asked to talk about my experience of finding all 250+ cakes placed by the STL250 organization. Joining me on the program was Erin Budde, formerly the Executive Director of STL250. After our presentations there was to be an unveiling of a rogue cake, meaning one that is not officially sanctioned by the organization. The cake was commissioned by the Webster Groves Historical Society to be placed in front of the historic Hawken House, built in 1857 and certainly much older than many official cake locations.

I arrived early to the meeting as I was bringing the computer and projector for the presentations. I like to have extra time because technology is not always my friend. When I pulled into the parking lot, I saw the artist, Henryk Ptasiewicz but no cake. I have met him at a caker's picnic, so I went over to talk to him. He told me that he simply had run out of time and the cake was not complete. The unveiling had been all over social media, and a local reporter was coming to cover the story. We immediately got on Twitter and Facebook to let folks know that the cake was not in place.

Erin Budde

Despite that setback, the meeting went well. I ran a slide show of all of my cake photos (well, two of each cake anyway) in the background during the preliminary meet and greet and lunch. Erin was first on the program, and her talk was quite interesting as she filled us in on some of the behind the scenes activities that led to the formation of the volunteer STL250 group back in 2009. The very first cake to be placed was St. Louis City Hall in February of 2014.

For my portion of the program I talked about what the cake hunt had meant to me, the things I learned about the metropolitan area, and the wonderful people I have become acquainted with along the way, including the 1,800 plus member Facebook group. To bring things back to the audience, as business owners in the area, I discussed the benefits of this caking adventure such as high visibility for the businesses and organizations lucky enough to have a cake. It also helped other businesses in the area as the cakers stopped for meals, drinks and shopping along the way. I really enjoyed the opportunity to share my experience of learning more about the history of the area.

As it ended up, the Hawken House cake had a very quiet unveiling on the following Wednesday, and I took photos of it on Thursday morning. If I didn't know the cake was made out of wood and not fiberglass like the official cakes, I would have no idea that it was a rogue cake. It is that good!

Hawken House cake

High School Reunion Two

The down side of my husband and me graduating from high school the same year (but not the same place) is that we have to juggle two class reunions in the same summer. While I am fortunate in that Jim knows some people from my class either through marriage or college, I do not have the same luck with his classmates. I met a couple of the guys back in 1976 or so, and perhaps a couple came to our wedding. Nothing to carry on more than a few sentences worth of conversation, for sure. But one classmate was a fraternity brother of Jim, and we went to his wedding. His wife and I are friends on Facebook, and thank goodness they came to the reunion this year. Alicia and I were able to entertain each other for two nights.

My in-laws still live in the town where Jim grew up, so it was wonderful to be able to stay with them and have a nice visit. As usual, we ate way too much. Homemade cinnamon rolls and brownies - oh my! It was hard to climb back in the saddle with my personal trainer this week for sure.

As luck would have it, two of the St. Louis birthday cakes were on our way up to Iowa. We were able to get the brand new cake at the August Busch Conservation Area as well as the one at Woods Fort in Troy, Missouri. They are both really nice, and located in interesting settings.

August Busch Conservation Area

Woods Fort

The night before we left for Charles City, I went to a Wine and Canvas party that was put on by Genevieve Esson, the artist for 4 of the cakes. She provided the paint and the canvases, and we were each to bring a photo of our favorite cake to paint. In my case, I had to narrow it down to my favorite cake that I thought would be possible to paint. Nine cakers showed up for the party, and did we ever have fun! It was not easy, but Genevieve and another artist helped with any questions we had. I was able to finish my cake in the time allowed, except that I did not have time to add the stl250. That is something I might try to put on, as it is a big part of what this is all about, in my estimation.

My inspiration cake at the Alton Visitors Center, and the finished product

This Sunday a group of us from the Cakeway to the West Facebook page are gathering at the Malcolm Martin Park across the river for a photo shoot and light breakfast. After that, my friend Caren and I will head to Alton and north to get my remaining five cakes. The end is in sight - except rumor has it that more cakes are being added. It ain't over until the last cake is placed!

Cakeway to the West

Sappington House Cake

In St. Louis we are busy celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of our town. Many events are taking place throughout the year, not the least of which is the Cakeway to the West. Playing off the slogan of St. Louis being the Gateway to the West, 250 fiberglass cakes are being installed throughout the metropolitan area. Each of them is four feet tall and identical in form, but each is being uniquely decorated by area artists. The stl250 organization determined where 200 of the cakes would be located. Landmarks, historic sites, the great outdoors and areas of innovation were selected by the organization. The other 50 cakes would go to local favorites as nominated and voted upon by the public.

To date 202 of the cakes have been installed. I know I am not alone in questioning the placement of some of the cakes. If the idea is to celebrate the founding of St. Louis, why is there a cake in Pacific? Or Kimmswick? Or Belleville, IL? In fact, the cakes are so spread out that it is highly unlikely that very many people will ever get to experience all of them. Unlike the butterfly sculptures that were here a few years ago, this sculpture hunt seems too large for most people to attempt. But I am having fun checking to see if any are nearby when I am out and about, so that is something I suppose. They have a phone app you can use, which I have downloaded. I have yet to be successful in using it to find the cake I am looking for, and then checking in to show that I have found it. It is probably me and not the app, however. In the meantime, let them eat cake!

Laumeier Park Cake

Repertory Theatre Cake

Blueberry Hill Cake

Wedding Bells

Rox & Dan

This past weekend we went up to Minneapolis to attend the wedding of the daughter of our good friends, Kathy and Paul. Kathy and I went to high school together, then on to Iowa State. Paul and Jim were fraternity brothers at Iowa State. Kathy and Paul sang at our wedding, and went with us on a cruise when we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. we have traveled together multiple times in the four years since then. They are the first of our friends to have a child get married, and considering our connection it was great fun to be there for their daughter's wedding. We did not know anyone else at the wedding, so that was a little strange but we met some interesting people at our table and had fun dancing at the reception.

the wedding cake

The wedding cake was amazing. Rox and Dan both enjoy outdoor activities, so the cake was designed to represent the things that they like to do. Absolutely everything you see in the picture (poor quality but I did not bring my good camera up to Minneapolis unfortunately) is edible, including the baseball. The cake decorator must have had a ball, pardon the pun, designing this cake.

The next morning Kathy and Paul had their family members and the out of town guests over to their house to watch the "kids" open their presents. We actually had a little more time to talk to the two of them at that point, so I am glad we went. We also met another couple who live in Iowa and graduated from Iowa State. Interestingly the husband graduated with a degree in horticulture, so he and Jim got to chatting about that and landscape architecture. The wife said that she started out in one major but changed her sophomore year. So did I. She graduated with a degree in Family Environment. So did I. 1978? Yep. Her area of concentration was Family Services. So was mine. We had to have taken a class or two together somewhere along the line. What a small world! I wish we had sat with them Saturday night so that we could have talked more.

All the driving for this particular wedding left a bit to be desired though. We left St. Louis on Friday and stopped in Charles City to spend the night with Jim's mom and dad. They had agreed to keep the dog for us. I think they were more excited about having Kirby stay with them than seeing us! Not really, but they do enjoy him. Saturday morning we headed back up the interstate for an additional three hour drive. We were able to check into our room early, which was nice so that we could freshen up before the wedding. On Sunday we headed back to Charles City and stayed the night again there. Then Monday morning it was back on the road to St. Louis.

Wickiup Hills wetlands area

On the way home we stopped at Wickiup Hill Outdoor Learning Center, which was a good spot to walk the dog. They have multiple trails you can walk on, but it was pretty hot so we took the path to the wetlands. It has a really cool wooden plank walkway out over what normally is the wetland area. It should be renamed Drylands as there was not a drop of water to be found. It made me wonder what happened to all the wildlife that normally lives in the area. So sad. Unfortunately we all picked up a few ticks in the park. Yuck!

This has been a pretty busy summer for us, and there is no end in sight. Three of the four weekends in July we have full schedules. So far only one weekend in August is taken, so that is kind of a relief.