break time

Tea Party at Natalie's Farm

Once again, my first and last projects at MU converged last weekend. Edwina and Carrie of CCUA were the "featured guests" at Natalie's tea party on Sunday.

Carrie and Edwina cut strawberries in Natalie's living room.

Natalie adds Lebanese date syrup with rose oil to homegrown strawberries and bananas.

The girls enjoy the garden setting.

Natalie shows off one of her favorite trees. "It's such a goddess," she said.

Edwina and Carrie sample herbs from Natalie's garden.

State Track and Field

I got a freelance gig from my future employer, the St. Joseph News Press, photographing the Missouri State Track and Field Championships in Jefferson City this weekend and next. I was kind of nervous, as sports are not my strong suit, but I think I held my own, especially considering I had never been to--let alone photographed--a track meet before. This weekend was Class 1 and 2 schools. Next weekend I'll be back for the class 3 and 4 schools and I hope to be able to catch more featurey, joy-of-victory/agony-of-defeat type stuff. This time around I was just happy to get some decent action shots of the right people. (No small thanks to Assistant Sports Editor, Ross Martin, for clueing me in.)

Lindsay Vollmer, Hamilton junior, clears 5 feet, 5 inches during Friday's class 2 high jump competition. Vollmer won the high jump with a winning height of 5 feet, 6 inches. This girl was a rock star. She won 4 individual gold medals in the same meet, becoming only the 14h girl in state history to do so.

Taylor Miles, Mound City sophomore, competes in the class 1 Triple Jump event on Saturday. Miles won the event and earned 3 other gold medals in group events.

Lindsay Vollmer, Hamilton junior, clears the last hurdle in the class 2 100-meter hurdle event on Saturday. Vollmer's winning time was 14.16 seconds.

Alexa Taff, St. Joseph Christian freshman, crosses the finish line in the class 1 100-meter dash on Saturday. Taff won the event in 12.57 seconds, earning 1 of 4 gold medals of the weekend.

Stephen's School garden and lettuce sale

Left to right, Billy Polansky, Daniel Soetaert, Carrie Hargrove, and Adam Saunders wait for the Stephen's College Children's School kids to arrive.


Dan, Adam and Billy supervise the kids as they plant seeds.


Carrie and Billy cut lettuce at the demonstration garden.


Billy weighs a bag of lettuce.


Carrie and Billy deliver 10 pounds of lettuce, CCUA's first produce sale, to Uprise Bakery.

CCUA kids tour

The Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture gave a tour of their garden and chickens to students from Stephens Lab School on Friday.

Bobby cuts some lettuce for ham sandwiches.

Billy eats kimchi.


Dan teaches kids from Stephens Lab School about compost.





Left to right, Daniel Soetaert, Billy Polansky, Carrie Hargrove, Mitch Tucker, Billy Froeschner, Edwina King and Bobby Johnson compare notes after the tour.

Peonies!

people being normal

I hung out at the CCUA house for an evening last week.

Carrie makes pizza crust and Dan pours a beer.

Dan and Billy hang out on the porch.

Loki is probably the nicest giant dog I've ever met, despite the time he tried to fling a piece of deer carcass at me.