Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Our November Festival - Chrysanthemums!

Chrysanthemum Festivals are coming to North American botanical gardens.  At Centennial Gardens in the back growing greenhouses, the Chrysanthemums are trained into shapes.  This is a double hanging heart.  The show will be at its peak in November and for Remembrance Day a giant poppy made of Chrysanthemum flowers will be on display.  

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Fire in the Night

We are very lucky here in Niagara.  This is where well-renowned metal sculpture artist Floyd Elzinga has his home and studio.

Last night was Floyd Elzgina's Night Open House.  This was a  popular event with many people arriving with us.  I came for the pine cone fire.  He has a fire pit with one of his pine cone sculptures and the flames sprout out of the metal sculpture.  It was all great fun!

You can check out Floyd's work and upcoming events at his website:

http://www.floydelzinga.com


Monday, September 21, 2015

How Long is A Day?

The Autumn Equinox this year is Wednesday September 23rd.  This is the day when the night and day are nearly exactly the same length - 12 hours - all over the world.  Equinox comes from Latin, meaning 'equal night'. 

The equinoxes marks the exact moment twice a year when the Earth's axis is not tilted toward or away from the Sun at all. However, the axis tilt of around 23.4 degrees toward the celestial pole, remains the same.

On the equator, the day and night stay approximately the same length all year round, but the day will always appear a little longer than 12 hours, due to the reasons below.
On the equinoxes, the geometric center of the sun is above the horizon for 12 hours, and you might think that the length of the day (hours of daylight) would be 12 hours too.
However, ‘sunrise’ is defined as the moment the upper edge of the sun's disk becomes visible above the horizon – not when the center of the sun is visible. In the same sense, ‘sunset’ refers to the moment the Sun's upper edge, not the center, disappears below the horizon. The time it takes for the sun to fully rise and set, which is several minutes, is added to the day and subtracted from the night, and therefore the equinox day lasts a little longer than 12 hours.

Another reason why the day is longer than 12 hours on an equinox is that the Earth's atmosphere refracts sunlight.
This refraction, or bending of the light, causes the Sun’s upper edge to be visible from Earth several minutes before the edge actually reaches the horizon. The same thing happens at sunset, when you can see the sun for several minutes after it has actually dipped under the horizon. This causes every day on Earth – including the days of the equinoxes – to be at least 6 minutes longer than it would have been without this refraction.

I took this picture last week and can see Autumn starting. It is Moyer Road, where Vineland Estates Winery is located, and there's a yellowness to the leaves.  

I'll keep this picture going as the leaves turn, and in the winter. It is at its best in the winter, as one can see the road stretch out to the sky.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Searching for Facts...

From Kickassfacts.com I found these items:

If we lose 10 kg (22 lbs) of fat, 8.4 kg (18.5 lbs) turns into carbon dioxide which is exhaled when we breathe out, while 1.6 kg (3.5lbs) turns into water that is excreted through urine, tears and sweat. – Source

There is a 30-foot tree trunk known as the “Old Man of the Lake” that has been floating vertically in Oregon’s Crater Lake for nearly 120 years. In 1938, they tracked the tree trunk’s movement and discovered that it had traveled a total distance of over 60 miles in just under 3 months. – Source

In MAY 1997, an IBM supercomputer known as Deep Blue beat then chess world champion Garry Kasparov, who had once bragged he would never lose to a machine. After 15 years, it was discovered that the critical move made by Deep Blue was due to a bug in its software. – Source

There are some strange and weird facts there, and I guess that's what makes them popular.

http://www.kickassfacts.com/



 



 

Monday, September 14, 2015

Tunnel Vision

This is one of the Bakker's growing fields of nursery stock. This one is near Brian's Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field. As far as you can see little trees on white stakes.  What is most enjoyable is their 150 varieties of roses blooming in the summer.  According to their web site, they have 450 acres of soil in parcels of land of 6 to 58 acres all within 3 miles of the home yard. Interesting that in their introduction to the company, they indicate that land costs are $35,000 per acre.  Here's their 2016 catalogue:

http://www.jcbakker.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/ReferenceGuide_2016_Web.pdf

 

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Is the Ocean shore different from the Lake shore?

We're looking at the things that wash up on the ocean shore.  These don't wash up on the Lake Ontario shores.    However, there are places where you can stand on the Lake Ontario shore and it seems endless like the ocean.  So what is the difference? Here's one eloquent answer:

"It feels different.  It smells different. There is a general loudness and foaminess of the ocean that the Great Lakes (inland seas, actually) don't match.  You can sense the deep, powerful rumble of the ocean, but the lakes don't carry that vibe.  The smell of the ocean is, of course, salty.  There's a scent to the lakes as well, and it is watery/freshness, somewhat reminiscent of what is called petrichor (negative ions caused by the rain, but in this case, clearly the friction around the water surface).  No salt.  The waves in the smaller lakes are typically choppy without the rolling crests that flow in as one would expect in the ocean..."

I conclude with some Sarasota beach art.

 

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Sunset Sunrise

As the sun sets on summer our question of the day is:  Do Sunrises look different from sunsets?  Today we'll see fireworks as the sun sets on summer.  What about tomorrow?

Natalie Wolchover writes:
"You've woken up out of a coma. You yank the IV from your arm and stumble out of the hospital. The sun is perched on the horizon. Can you tell whether it's rising or setting?
Contemplating this scenario while gazing sunward at dusk or dawn, we might feel as if we could sense the difference between the two times of day. But in real life, it's impossible to completely divorce our perceptions of the scene from our awareness of the hour. So, is there any objective way to distinguish an upward-trending sun from a downward one?
According to atmospheric physicists David Lynch and William Livingston, the answer is "yes, and no."

The first is in our heads. "At sunset, our eyes are daylight adapted and may even be a bit weary from the day's toil," Lynch and Livingston write. "As the light fades, we cannot adapt as fast as the sky darkens. Some hues may be lost or perceived in a manner peculiar to sunset. At sunrise, however, the night's darkness has left us with very acute night vision and every faint, minor change in the sky's color is evident." In short, you may perceive more colors at dawn than at dusk. [Red-Green & Blue-Yellow: The Stunning Colors You Can't See]"

To read on see: http://www.livescience.com/34065-sunrise-sunset.html

 

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Burning Water

Today's image celebrates great sunsets over water.  It is amazing how the sunset colours look like fire dancing on the waves.

Here we are in the Labour Day weekend, and we can enjoy a few of the facts about September.

- Shakespeare did not mention September in any of his plays.

- In 1752 in Britain, September had only 19 days as we changed from Julian to Gregorian calendar.

- "My favourite poem is the one that starts 'Thirty days hath September' because it actually tells you something' - Groucho Marx.
 

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Sinister Presence

Today's image comes from the Palm Beach Four Arts Garden and It’s a bronze robed figure donning a gold mask.  It is called  ”Sior Maschera,” by sculptor, artist Philip Jackson.  It took a little searching to find something on Jackson.  Here's his words describing his art:

"My sculptures are essentially an impressionistic rendering of the figure. Where you see the figure seemingly grow out of the ground, the texture resembles tree bark, rock, or lava flow. As the eye moves up the sculpture, the finish becomes gentler & more delicately worked, culminating in the hands and the mask, both of which are precisely observed & modeled."
This is a garden with many romantic elements - the pathways, the abundant bougainvillea and jasmine, the enclosed spaces for a rendezvous.  I found this statue a sinister and foreboding presence on an otherwise idyllic landscape.

Here's Philip Jackson's site - the home page image is a different interpretation of this figure.  Take a look:

http://www.philipjacksonsculptures.co.uk/index.htm


 

Thursday, September 3, 2015

From September to December

Wikipedia tells me that September begins on the same day of the week as December each year as there are 91 days between them, which is a multiple of seven.

Events to consider this month include International Bacon Day - coming this Saturday - we can have our brunch in style.

Today's images come from Brian's Lilycrest Garden hybridizing field, with the delicate shades of trumpet lilies that bloom mid to late July.