Koi, The Living Art

Koi, The Living Art  The Marie Selby Botanical Garden is located in Sarasota.  The Selby fortune was made in oil, and became part of Texaco.  This garden is located overlooking the water, so has extensive water views and is a wonderful walking garden.  It is well-known for its significant collections of gesnariads, cycads, and orchids.  It is a research facility and has preserved plants in its collections as well. My interest during this trip is to gather as many Koi images as I can. I've been to the garden each day, and am lucky to be able to sit on a bench at the water pond and pool to take pictures.  This is a large collection of Koi and they are large in size - about a foot long each of them.  There is a waterfall that flows into the pool.  The Chinese tradition says that if a Koi can make the final leap up the waterfall, it will be transformed into a Dragon. It is likely that you can see the fascination with Koi.  Their movements in the water make beautiful displays of their tails and fins and are ever-changing.

Escape the Cold of February

Escape the Cold

Canadian Winter Escape Thank you for the Birthday Wishes for Gerry!  We go to Florida on the weekend and will escape the Canadian winter cold for two weeks. How many Canadians take a winter trip to the sun?  I saw an article that said 45% expected to take a winter vacation in the sun (the article was in 2000).  That seemed high, so 'expecting'  might be based on the desire, rather than what people do. I take mini-breaks in the winter by going into the conservatories in the GTA and surrounding area.  I can go to the Niagara Falls Floral Showcase, the Royal Botanical Gardens Mediterranean Greenhouse, Toronto's west-end Centennial Greenhouse, and Allan Gardens in downtown Toronto.  And for pure delight, consider the Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory. You'll see scenes like these - little versions of Florida botanical gardens. You'll get the benefit of the smells of the tropics too. It is such a contrast with our austere winter landscape and lack of scents in the cold air. So consider a trip to a conservatory - there are two tropical beauties in these pictures - the first is Dutch Man's Pipe - a climbing vine that has these big brim flower at the front and a 'pipe' shape at the back.  And the next flower is an orchid cactus like the Night-blooming Cereus - high white flowers with a lush tropical scent.

Painting with Tulips

Spring Tulips

Royal Botanical Gardens Rock Garden These pictures are from 2013 and are taken in the RBG rock garden. The rock garden was closed in spring 2014 for the big renovation. I looked in before Christmas and there was still a lot of heavy work in progress.  The opening is planned for this spring, but doesn't have a date yet. One can look at the RBG Site and see a map with the major features highlighted. The RBG rock garden has always showcased Tulips. Tulips are one of the great spring flowers for us - their colours range from soft and delicate to fiery and intense.  The shiny petals seem to make the colours stand out even more.  They are a perfect flower for the landscape painter.  The RBG mastery of colour combinations is enchanting.  But the result is so fleeting. In only a short time and the canvas changes and the artist starts anew.

Friday the 13th and now Valentine's Day

Friday the 13th and then Valentine's Day

Friday the 13th Then Valentine's Day I don't have any 'scary' images like the conceptual artists that bring together stock figures, etc and make brooding and dark images reflecting the human 'condition'.  So I turned to the Lily on Fire image and to my HeartsFelt Portfolio on Redbubble for the Valentine's Day hearts. So here we are with a Friday the 13th followed by Valentine's Day. I went to the internet for a bit of entertainment, and of course found it right away.  Here it is from:  http://www.syracuse.com/living/index.ssf/2015/02/friday_the_13th_phobias_friggatriskaidekaphobia_7_valentines_day_fears.html There are going to be three instances of Friday the 13th this year. If you've got friggatriskaidekaphobia—literally the irrational fear of Friday the 13th—you should probably just go hibernate for the rest of 2015. If three instances of Friday the 13th isn't enough to get you suspicious, EarthSky is ready to make you a believer: "February 13, 2015 is a Friday. And that's just the beginning of this year's epic Friday the 13th trilogy. We'll have a Friday the 13th in March, too - exactly four weeks after February's Friday the 13th! Then we'll have a Friday the 13th in November - exactly 39 weeks (3 x 13 weeks) after February's Friday the 13th!" Don't forget that two days after the Friday the 13th in March is the Ides of March. So game over, we are all clearly doomed. Actually, it's not an uncommon occurrence at all. In fact, according to EarthSky, any non-leap year beginning on a Thursday will include the same Friday the 13th sequence. The last year was 2009. Including that year and this year, there are a total of 11 years in the 21st century that will have Friday the 13th three times. We don't want to jinx anything, but tomorrow's Friday the 13th unfortunately leads into Valentine's Day 2015. It's also looking very cold and possibly snowy all weekend. Having any of these 7 phobias would put a real crimp in your weekend plans: Triskaidekaphobia - Friggatriskaidekaphobia's less specific cousin is a fear of the number 13. Experts have debated whether it counts as a legitimate phobia, or more of a superstition. Fear of the number 13 is rooted in both Christian tradition and Norse Mythology. Philophobia - The fear of falling in love definitely does not go well with Valentine's Day. This phobia usually comes from a traumatic experience, sometimes involving past relationships, and those who suffer from may avoid attachment, and recoil from starting new, loving relationships. Anthophobia - You'll need to get a little creative with a gift if your date has this fear of flowers, a Valentine's Day staple. Stems, petals and leaves can all trigger this phobia. Maybe try a box of chocolate, unless they also have... Xocolatophobia - An irrational fear of eating chocolate. Yeah it's a real, and unfortunate, thing. But there are plenty of other delicious Valentine's Day treats you can work with. Erythrophobia - Fear of blushing could definitely be an issue on Valentine's Day, but this can also refer to a general fear of the color red. Sufferers might want to just spend Valentine's Day at home, since colorful red hearts will be everywhere. Rosy red cheeks might also be a side effect of cold weather... Frigophobia - In CNY, it could get down to -3 degrees on Friday, 0 on Saturday, and -11 on Sunday. On top of that, the wind chill could make it feel like 20 to 30 degrees below zero. It would not be a good weekend to have this fear of cold. Chionophobia - This fear of snow often goes hand in hand with other phobias, including hydrophobia (water), hypochondriasis (illness), and Cleithrophobia (being trapped). Watch out for 2 inches on Saturday.

Charles Daley Park in Autumn

In the Air - Our Favourite Smells

In the Air I came across these Autumn images of Charles Daley Park's weeping willow that sits over the natural lagoon pond.  I realized that Winter doesn't have much mist or fog in the air.  There aren't the smells and scents that there are the rest of the year. Looking at these images I can smell that Autumn air - moist, peaty, full of fallen leaves. What are your favourite smells?  What are the nostalgic scents that make us the happiest?  It turns out to be the smells that remind us of home that bring us the most happiness. These are things like freshly washed sheets, cut grass and home baking. Bacon is a high-scorer too. What about melted chocolate, warm cookies, coffee, lavender, early misty morning, the sea, freshly baked pie, vanilla, rainy day, old books, burning wood, fruity shampoo, new car?  These are some of the top twenty. Now it is your turn to name your favourite smells.

The Artist's Vision

Floyd Elzinga's Vision Floyd Elzinga is a sculptor in metal. He lives in Beamsville with his studio on Mountain Street. The natural world is his subject. Here's his Artist Statement from his website  http://www.floydelzinga.com "Rotten stumps, broken branches, invasive species, ravaged trees as well as polar opposites and dysfunctional objects; these are the things that excite Floyd Elzinga. He has made a career out of highlighting and glorifying these through three dimensional sculpture, relief work and environmental installations for over 15 years. Current themes in his work focus on broken landscapes, portraits of trees and the aggressive nature of seeds." I asked Floyd's permission to photograph his work and to be able to publish my images. He is very receptive to this as his work is three dimensional sculpture, so the original work cannot be replaced or reproduced.  This allows me to to pursue my interest in pattern, line, texture and saturated colour with extraordinary subject matter - subjects of the artist's eye that incorporate the natural world and urban materials.

Look Down and See the Abstracts

Look Down What do you see in Asphalt?  Do you see a parking place that you are not allowed to park in or has preference for someone else? This is a lucky find in Burlington.  It is a 'family parking' spot with the usual pink and orange/yellow and the white stroller.  This one is layered with a previous life as a wheelchair space and has blue is showing through. Asphalt is like mosaic with its textured pieces fitting together.  There's a lot of room to create abstracts. I found these files yesterday on a camera memory disk that is corrupted so it was run through a recovery program.

The Winter Garden I wonder what percentage of Canadians have a snow winter?  I guess it is over 95%.  The Winter Garden as portrayed in garden landscape books doesn't look like this.  There are hellebores, cyclamen, the pretty stems of yellow and red dogwood, and various winter-blooming plants.  Heather blooms in abundance in February on the west coast.  Not here - the ground is hard and unforgiving.  There is a  simplicity in the winter landscape.  Trees become the major feature with their trunks and branches.  Our snow-filled winter means a significant contrast between the winter and summer garden.  You can see it with the last photo.

Niagara Water Is Green

Niagara's Winter Scenes

What the Lake Views are Like There's nothing like winter water and particularly Niagara water, full of those minerals so that it is very green.  Port Dalhousie recognized this and painted the walk way bridge a matching green.  This is the scene of our first picture.  From inside Pier 61, our favourite restaurant in Port Dalhousie that sits on the bank of the old Welland Canal entrance (I think). The water is Twelve Mile Creek flowing into the Lake. The second picture shows the bridge that crosses over the small, almost frozen falls.  This is the one road into Port Dalhousie, and there's one road out. Perhaps that is what makes it such a quaint little seaside town still.  We were lucky yesterday as there was a pair of swans that came through for a while.   Our third picture shows at all the people fishing on the other side of the water. We haven't seen this many people since before Christmas.  I wondered if there was a fishing contest or festival. Our final picture today is what I think of as the backside of Jordan Harbour Bridge. The frontside view is from the QEW.  It is such a scenic view with the massive Jordan Valley in the foreground. I haven't been able to get to the eastern side to take photos.  Houses line both sides and the roads in are private - all the way from the main north/south road.  I did find this empty lot with a for sale sign.  What a view this monster house will have as it joins its fellows on the east bank of the Jordan Valley.