This Old House

We return to the scene of the sagging barn/shed.  I thought I'd show you the story from all of its angles.  The road view is what you see in the first two pictures. The surprise back is the third picture.  Then we met the second urprise of the old car.  Every old car has a story, so there's an abstract grunge photo to complete our trip around this old house. Today is the last day we can declare  "Until the end of August".  Other than that there doesn't seem to be a lot of significance to the last day of August.  It is tomorrow that has significance!

Grimsby's Burial of the Dead

Grimsby had a roller coaster at one time. While it started out as a rural village, it moved on to become a centre for manufacturing farm machinery, hospital furniture and furnaces.  Then it seemed to go back to fruit growing and fishing.  This is the history after the Loyalists came and settled.  What about before that?  I have wondered what the "Neutral Indian Burial Ground" sign meant at Centennial Park.  Dezi and I go there to chase squirrels. I find out there is an interesting story about the earliest known residents - the Neutral Indians.  They were a confederacy of Iroquoian tribes that occupied the area around western Lake Ontario before 1655.   The burial ground is a significant heritage site - here's the site that describes their burial rites below: "The Neutral Indian burial ground in Grimsby was probably in use from c. 1640-50, and provides a rich source of information regarding the social organization and material culture of the confederacy. The Neutrals had great reverence for the dead, and burials were generally conducted in two stages. In the first stage, the deceased were put on a scaffold, and remained there until their flesh decayed. The bones were then brought back into the houses to await the second stage of burial. The secondary burial stage coincided with the Feast of the Dead. This was an elaborate, multi-day ceremony that was apparently conducted annually by the Neutral Indians. During the Feast, many of the deceased were collected and put into communal burial pits. The Neutral Indian burial ground in Grimsby provides a wealth of information about this little-known confederacy. Since the Neutrals disappeared prior to extensive exploration and settlement in the area, only a sporadic record exists concerning their culture. The Grimsby burial ground has contributed greatly in providing a better understanding of these largely unknown people."

Five Things Day

It is a 5 things day today - our pictures are abstractions from some metal pieces found a few weeks ago at a metal shop in St. Catharines.  At the time I seemed to have organized the image into a focus on fives as much as possible. Today's headline says that there are five events to watch today at the Rio Olympics.  So I guess there is a natural orientation to things that come in fives. We seem to relate to things that come in fives -  here are examples: "Some things that come in groups of five are basketball positions, fingers and toes, food groups, the Great Lakes, oceans, senses, U.S. military branches and vowels in English. People that come in groups of five include the Marx brothers and the Spice Girls." Another site: "A perfect fifth in music, the five Olympic rings and the five elements are all things that come in fives. In mathematics, things are often counted in ones or fives because of the ease of multiplying, dividing, subtracting or adding within ones or fives (5, 10, 15, 20, 25)." You might want to see the ranking of  'things that come in fives'.  This is a big list and covers people like quintuplets and famous quintets.

A Toad Who Likes to Sit

There's a toad who likes to sit on the back porch steps.  I see it regularly and think it is the same one each time.  There are rock gardens on either side of the steps and I wonder if it lives in both gardens or if there are two toads each with their own garden space. What is the territory of an individual toad?  Wikipedia tells me: "These toads are 'creatures of habit' once they have a certain area they prefer to live within... an acre of wooded forest with water in proximity for soaking, a home with cool ledges and window wells; they commonly seek cover in burrows, under boardwalks, flat stones, boards, logs, wood piles, or other cover. When cold weather comes, these toads dig backwards and bury themselves in the dirt of their summer homes, or they may choose another site in which to hibernate." I can't imagine toads need an acre in this garden. So however many there are in the front and back gardens, they have perfect homes - the little ponds, the leaf cover of all those hostas and bushes to snuggle under to stay cool in the hot weather.   Today's picture is another version of our wild flowers - in the style of Georgia O'Keefe.

Back in Business

There weren't many birds flying in the last few weeks.  After the rain, yesterday, there were flocks flying about.  I found this out when I processed the bottom picture, and had to remove dozens of little black spots on the horizon.  They looked like dust not birds flying.  So in the matter of days, the wild field grasses and the domestic grass across the street are back to green.  I am hoping our environment is back in business. Our pictures today are looking west from the Martin Road greenhouses, near the Lake.  It looks like a pastoral scene that could be anywhere in Ontario.

Bee Friendly

The bugs were out yesterday after the rain.  With the recent lack of water and the heat there weren't many bees or bugs flying about.   It was a quick change yesterday.  The double rainfall brought a sprouting of seeds too - and aren't they mostly our most robust weeds - so quick to spread and sprout.  As I research 'the ethical gardener' theme, I find that bees love dandelions, plantain and clover - so not mowing the lawn until after they bloom is kind to bees.  How does an urbanite balance between the perfect, manicured lawn and the environmentally friendly environment? Perhaps we can take an alternative path - planting bee-friendly trees. I find out that there are varieties of trees that are bee friendly.   I've never had these delicacies: black locust makes a honey that is almost water-white.  Tulip poplar nectar is reddish and highly prized, and linden makes a pale, delicately flavoured floral honey. So planting nectar-rich trees is another way of supporting our pollinators.  In my own garden is a prized pollinator tree.  It is the Heptacodium miconidoides - Seven Son Flower tree.  It is full of bees at the end of the summer when it has dense white clusters of flowers.  It is one of Paul Zammit's picks at the Toronto Botanical Gardens for the pollinator garden.  Find out more about the TBG pollinator garden.

Find Local Flowers

The Bakker's rose fields are still a sea of colours and scent, and these plants will likely be harvested in the fall for processing as dry root plants, and then will get to garden centres and nurseries for potting up in the early spring.  I wonder if they ship all over North America or if they are more locally based. The roses that are purchased at florists are typically from South America.  The Pick Ontario site has products grown in Ontario by season. Tea Roses are listed on their website, but how do I the consumer make sure I am buying local flowers? Pick Ontario says I should go in and ask for Ontario grown product.  So I guess that's my task today - to find out what Cole's has that is Ontario grown now in August.

My Local Red Hot Poker

Summer's hot colours match the temperatures in August.  This is known as Red Hot Poker. I was at Cole's the local garden centre, taking pictures.  I did drop into the grocery store and I was a bit shocked to see the mushrooms on the shelf from Korea - we grow these mushrooms here, so it seemed unusual.  It was more unusual that the broccoli and beans were from the U.S., given they are in season now here. I found this introduction to the environmental cost of shipping groceries around the world: "Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Citrus Coast of Spain, as local lemons rot on the ground. Half of Europe’s peas are grown and packaged in Kenya." I've just started the investigation stage for a new garden presentation on the Ethical Gardener. 'Local' is a significant topic now in relation to food and plants - and we're returning to the notion of the gardener growing vegetables for their own table.  It isn't just because they taste better or cost less, it is more friendly to the environment and reduces the carbon footprint.  I wonder what my own gardening carbon footprint is, and will start to figure some way of assessing this. As for the beautiful Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia), it is native to Africa - discovered in the 18th century when plant exploration around the world was the rage and local was considered boring.

Fire and Brimstones

Grimsby is a divided town - the Queen Elizabeth Way Highway (QEW) goes right through the middle of the town.  The town is also contained by geography  - on one side is the Lake and on the other is the escarpment.  It is a narrow strip that is Grimsby. I experienced the constraints of Grimsby's geography last week.  Two transport trucks and a pick up truck crashed and then caught on fire on the Toronto-bound QEW just west of us.  The town was a sea of vehicles inching along the three roads available as alternatives.  I was part of the inchworm movement. Not realizing the calamity, I hopped into my car for the 5 minute drive to the Rotary meeting, and experienced a Toronto gridlock drive of 35 minutes.  My pictures today relate to activities in Canada's prettiest town - Niagara-on-the-Lake - looking at gardens.  I made a stop at the St. Mark's Church graveyard, as I hadn't checked it out before.  I met a young woman with an interesting summer job.  What is she doing?  She's cleaning the lichen and moss from historic gravestones, typically relating to the war of 1812.  Who would guess  such a summer job might exist. Yesterday's Roundhouse Park link didn't work.  Here's the correct link from Russ Milland.

Next Up - An Olympic 2 weeks

Here we are with the famous sports event.  What is Olympic? "of or relating to the ancient city of Olympia or the Olympic Games." "an Olympic champion" I was just reading about "Olympic Sponsors" and the Rule 40: "For the money these brands pay, they are allowed to use trademarked Olympic terms, phrases, and images in their advertising. But for companies that are not official Olympic partners, certain phrases are banned, like “Olympic,” “Rio,” “Gold,” or “Games,” for example. During a blackout period between July 27 and August 24, these non-Olympic sponsors, some of which may support athletes at the Games, also may not wish these individuals luck or congratulations on social media or in other marketing collateral." So let's see what happens with Rule 40 and social media this time around. Are there any plants in the salt water tanks below?  No - these are all animals. This hammerhead coral would have thousands of tiny animals (polyps).

Whey Good Yogurt

White Cow Dairy was the highlight of the Buffalo Garden Walk.  The store sells yogurt products and other drinks that use the milk that is normally discarded in whey when factories make greek-style yogurt.  The owner is Patrick Lango and was in the store (on Fridays and Saturdays), so was there to tell me about his farm and products. Here's the Facebook page and information about the farm on the website. He thought I should highlight the entertaining light fixtures, so here they are.