Weather Relief, Please

Relief from the muggy conditions...that was our weather headline this week.  It is only 18 degrees outside compared to earlier in the week when it felt like 40 degrees.  The greenhouse temperature was the same as outside yesterday.   I notice that we have a 'love it' and 'hate it' relationship with summer heat.  People either love it or hate it.  It is my sense that we don't have this contrast with winter.  My theory for winter is that there is a graduated scale of 'hate it'. August itself is not hated, though.  The 2005 Gallop poll and a current ranking site identify October as the favourite month, with December the second most popular.  June is third. Where is August?  It is eighth and ahead of March, April, January and February.  I did find two August jokes: Knock, knock?… Who is there?… August… August Who?… A gust of wind over 74 MPH could be the start of a hurricane!  Knock, knock?… Who is there?… August… August Who?… A gust of wind knocked me over!  Oh well, they were pretty meagre jokes.  However, we are heading into some favourite months and weather, so I expect better jokes ahead. Remember our boat from yesterday?  I found a more complicated boat-themed tree house in Toronto  - the article is HERE.  It has a price tag of $30,000.  I don't think Grimsby's has a price tag like that.  It likely isn't in violation of any building and zoning bylaws either. We're off to the Narrow Gauge Convention next week.  It is in Minneapolis - the home of Mall of America.  Here are a few pictures from last year at the same time.

From Far and Looking Across

How far can the human eye see?  I looked across the lake yesterday and saw sky rather than Toronto.  Is the following true? "The Earth's surface curves out of sight at a distance of 3.1 miles, or 5 kilometers. But our visual acuity extends far beyond the horizon. If Earth were flat, or if you were standing atop a mountain surveying a larger-than-usual patch of the planet, you could perceive bright lights hundreds of miles distant. On a dark night, you could even see a candle flame flickering up to 30 mi. (48 km) away". It comes from livescience.com     CLEVELAND – Scientists say it's a mirage, but others swear that when the weather is right, Clevelanders can see across Lake Erie and spot Canadian trees and buildings 50 miles away. Eyewitness accounts have long been part of the city's history. Jul 31, 2006.  This article is HERE.  I find out that you can see the Toronto Skyline from the Lake Ontario Shoreline in New York. I found a YouTube video of the Toronto skyline from New York State -  it was great as the lake waves were large and turbulent, so it looked like Toronto was sinking below the furious waves.  The distance is 30 miles. The distance from Niagara-on-the-Lake is 32 miles or 51 kilometres, so Toronto is often visible. And it is just a little farther to Grimsby at 55 kilometres or 34 miles.  Can we see Buffalo from Toronto?  I read that the answer is no - seems to me that is quite the distance.  Buffalo is 95 kilometres - 59 miles, so is much farther. Niagara Falls is visible from the CN Tower at 68 kilometres.  Of course, we've got the advantage of the height. Here's a post that shows Toronto from various locations across the lake.    My view across the lake yesterday at Flat Rock Cellars showed nothing at all - if one is looking for Toronto.  It shows the wonderful vineyards and the rusty shed down below.  So I've included a wonderful scene from the Watering Can in Vineland.

The King's Highway and Main Street

Main Street Grimsby is an east-west street that runs just under the Escarpment.  It started out as a regional highway - King's Highway 8, one of the oldest provincial highways in Ontario.  The King's Highway covered quite a bit of Southern Ontario, not just Niagara.  The Niagara section is the oldest, though, and came about in 1918.   Because it connected to the road system of New York State at the Queenston Heights Suspension Bridge, it was the first international highway link designated in Ontario.  Things have changed since then - what passes through Grimsby now is Niagara Regional Road 81, and The King's Highway 8 ends where Hamilton and Grimsby meet.   We call it Main Street, and it is an enjoyable drive along Highway 8 through towns, orchards and vineyards.    I thought I would investigate Highway jokes.  There are very amusing road signs, but they are visual, so not easily includes.  Here's a story, though, that goes well with the highway theme: A guy was driving when a policeman pulled him over. He rolled down his window and said to the officer, "Is there a problem, Officer?" "No problem at all. I just observed your safe driving and am pleased to award you a $5,000 Safe Driver Award. Congratulations. What do you think you're going to do with the money?" He thought for a minute and said, "Well, I guess I'll go get that driver's license." The lady sitting in the passenger seat said to the policeman, "Oh, don't pay attention to him - he's a smartass when he's drunk and stoned." The guy from the back seat said, "I TOLD you guys we wouldn't get far in a stolen car!" At that moment, there was a knock from the trunk and a muffled voice said, "Are we over the border yet?" I got to thinking about Main Street and Highway 8 yesterday as I was walking along it.  I took a few pictures -  the first is our always-pretty porch, and the second shows one of the barns that is beside the house. It reminds us of the not-so-long-ago times when horses were part of transportation.

Taking for Granted - Labels

Here's our website:  tedium.co - it answers my question about putting our clothes on front-ways is easy because of the labels on the back.   The answer is unusual:  the roots of modern clothing labels start with unions.  At the turn of the 20th century, union labels were used by a variety of labor groups, both inside and outside of garments. In fact, the first example of such labels came from cigar-makers in 1874, who used it as a way to highlight the higher product quality compared with products made elsewhere. But the most famous use of this tactic came from clothing-makers, particularly the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU), which used the tags almost as a branding strategy for the union. In fact, the union became noted in the ’70s and early ’80s for its television commercials, in which members of the union sing a ditty called “Look for the Union Label.” Now labels convey many things - place or origin, materials, warnings for hazardous materials.  And there are labels on everything - remember when bananas didn't need to have a label on them?  Labels are now regulated requirements.   The internet covers labels today in various ways:  Ways to remove clothing labels, get custom clothing labels made, get name stickers for your kids, how to sew a label into a garment, and so on.  Tomorrow we'll explore more things we take for granted - things that make our everyday activities easy and efficient. Our pictures today are the front garden - taken yesterday.  I am always amused to see vertical perennials in the front garden tilting - they do whatever the wind tells them.  There is definitely a southern wind here on Sunnylea Crescent.

Retrievers Celebrate 150 with Pawty Time

Wake Up on the Bright Side  Yes - It's Pawty Time! More than 300 golden retrievers met together on July 19th in Scotland to celebrate the 150th year of the breed.   This was the biggest mass gathering of retrievers - it is in the Guinness Book of Records with videos.  (There's also the largest dog photo shoot (108 dogs) and the largest gathering of people dressed as dogs (439) as records).   The original pups were born after estate landowner Dudley Majoribanks crossed a wavy-coated retriever called Nous with Belle, a tweed water spaniel.  Majoribanks, also known as Lord Tweedmouth, had wanted a dog that was capable of swimming significant distances to retrieve wildfowl that had been shot, BBC reported.  Of the originators of the Retrieer breed, the Tweed water spaniel has been extinct since the 19th century.  These were generally brown athletic dogs in a small area in Scotland. There are many extinct breeds.  They include names like:  St. John's water dog, Talbot hound, Paisley Terrier, Old English Bulldog, Cordoba Fighting Dog, Turnspit dog, Molossus, Hare Indian dog.  There's a list in Wikipedia HERE.   An article from Priceonomics:  Endangered Dog Breeds and the Market Forces Behind Them says the Skye terrier was one of the most common breeds and is now one of the rarest in the world.   We don't expect the Golden Retriever to go extinct.  It is one of the most popular breeds in the world.  There are three subtypes - British, American and Canadian.  Little did we realize this:  the Canadian type has a thinner and darker coat and stands taller than the other types. Did you know there are people who like to pretend they are dogs?  The article begins:  "Human pups, or people who enjoy acting like playful puppies, are rapidly growing in number and confidence, spreading from the underground world of gay leather bars and bondage into a new and more mainstream “pup community”.  Lots of leather seems to be involved in this one. This is our farmland rolling hills scenery on the way to Acton.

And after Thrice...

What comes after once, twice, thrice?  Nothing.  These three are the only words of their type and no further terms in the series have ever existed. There are many researchers out there and the anitmoon.com forum had a post on this, claiming there is a series from Wiktionary.  It turned out to be unverifiable.  However, the entertainment is excellent: ... Wiktionary's list of protologisms as terms coming after "once" for "one time", "twice" for "two times" and "thrice" for "three times".  quarce: Four times  quince: Five times  sess: Six times  sepce: Seven times  okce: Eight times  nince: Nine times  dekce: Ten times  elfce: Eleven times  duss: Twelve times  baikce: Thirteen times" Thrice has fallen out of favour and common usage. Its usage has fallen steadily since 1810, so we can conclude it is no longer in common usage.  I found a reference to this in another response in an English language forum.  It claims that the last straw for the expression thrice occurred in It Happened on the Way to the Forum.  The blame is put Zero Mostel with his witty line "He raped Thrace thrice". A comeback may be on the way:  when William and Kate had their third baby, William was buckling his new son's car seat into the car. He had a short interaction with the adoring media and crowd outside of the hospital, where he held up three fingers and joked, "Thrice the worry now!" There are at least 2 thrice jokes: Jarul goes to church and he decided to get baptized. The pastor dipped him thrice in the baptizimal pool and said, "You are baptized in the name of the father, and of the son and of the holy spirit. From now on you are no longer to be called Jarul but Joseph, and you should never drink beer again." Jarul went home and took a cold pint of beer, recalling what the pastor said he headed for the kitchen and dipped the pint of beer in a bowl of water thrice saying from now on you are nolonger to be called Budweiser but orange juice.  And another: Q. What happens when a lion roars thrice? A. Tom & Jerry cartoon begins. I drove to Acton yesterday to see Lost Horizons - a garden nursery with beautiful display gardens  It was definitely worth the drive to Acton.

More on Sleeveless and Shirtless

Our Sleeveless post yesterday has an update. Deb responded to yesterday's story with her own experience in the media.   Many women in media work have spent a lot of time in the gym to achieve their "Michelle Obama' sculpted arms.  They insist to the producers to show off their physique with sleeveless apparel.  And male actors in movies and TV also ask if a scene can be played shirtless to show off their muscles, even though it isn't related to the story line.  Her verdict:  Guilty, both genders. There must be many of these as mtv.co.uk has an article with 50 of the best shirtless movie performances of all time!  You can find it HERE.  The article's introduction:   "From Chris Evans in Captain America to Hugh Jackman in all of the X-Men films, from teen dreams like Taylor Lautner in the Twilight Saga to older action stars who are totally our guilty pleasures, no performance captures our attention more on the big screen than a shirtless one". In the search for famous sleeveless scenes, I retrieved a Breakfast Television interview in which former PM Kim Campbell says sleeveless dresses are 'demeaning'.  Find it HERE. That was in February of this year. And of course, I retrieved some famous sleeveless dresses - Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, there is Marilyn Monroe's flying halter dress and her Happy Birthday Dress for John F. Kennedy. That dress had numerous distinctions - transparency being the most notable. I found out at Palantine that the cut roses they sell are not long single stem tea roses, but clusters.  The picture I took doesn't do justice, so I found a few on their website.  You can't buy the rose bushes, just the cut flowers.

The Polish Pope and the N.Y. Ballerina

Ballerina rose has very small single blossoms in large sprays that are reminiscent of hydrangeas.  David Austin dates it to 1937, by Bentall.  It is a hybrid musk rose and considered wonderful in the garden border.  Our story on Saturday is that this rose got its name when a young women in the U.S. moved to New York in 1932 to become a ballerina.  She brought two of these rose plants with her. And what she did was take each tiny flower and freeze it in an ice cube.  Then she sold them to the New York bars for fancy drinks.  She made her fortune this way, and named the rose "Ballerina". The documented hybridizing story is that the rose was  hybridized by Joseph Pemberton in London between 1912 and 1926. He hybridized 35 varieties and 20 are available in the nursery trade today.  Pemberton is well covered as a rosarian and nursery owner and when he died, he bequeathed the roses to their gardeners and that's how Jack and Ann Bentall became associated with the rose.  The famous rose Iceberg of 1958 was bred from one of Pemberton's.  Iceberg is one of the all-time popular white roses and still grown widely today. So how is  the Polish Pope related to roses?  John Paul II has a beautiful white rose named for him.  It was hybridized at Jackson and Perkins, and Vatican representatives travelled to the hybridizing field before the Pope's death from Parkinson's.  A group of Cardinals picked out this exceptional pure white rose to be the commemorative rose after his death. Jackson and Perkins went out of business, though the name is still used for the current selling. Our grower at Palantine has this rose in the field, and was contacted by the company that bought Jackson and Perkins, and threatened with a law suit over licensing.  What he knew though, was that the Vatican had paid outright for the rose - he said $150,000 - and owned it without any patent or licensing rights attached to it.  So he is able to continue to grow and sell this exceptional rose. Unless the Vatican decides otherwise. We see the Ballerina rose in the field - you can see the tiny flowers in big hydrangea clusters.

Sleeping which way in Niagara

Is there a 'best' sleeping position?  It is something we do a lot of, so it would be good to do it well.  And interestingly, we're not taught how to sleep well.   There are dozens of articles with title like "This is why you should sleep on your left side".  They talk about left-side sleeping as the best position. Sleeping on the right side can worsen heartburn.  Another article says that sleeping on the left side can put a strain on internal organs like liver, lungs and stomach, but also reduces acid reflux. Pregnant women?  They are advised to sleep on their left side for optimal blood flow. Sleep on your stomach?  It is considered bad for the neck and is considered the worst position. Ever slept on your side and woken up with a numb arm? That pins and needles feeling comes from "capillary crush," when the weight you're putting on your arm, or another numb body part, is putting intense pressure on your blood vessels. There can be so much crushing pressure that you lose blood circulation. You can even find articles that describe sleeping positions as having a meaning in terms of personality. Of course I had to ask about world records for sleeping.  I am always stunned by other people's crazy creativity.  I found the longest sleep time, the longest time without sleep, the largest sleepover, and loudest snoring.  The most fascinating is likely the sleep deprivation record holder is Randy Gardner.  It was just over 11 days.  Guinness won't certify sleep deprivation anymore, as people have died from the activity. Today's the parking lot sale at Cole's Garden Centre.  I got there before 7:00am to snap this picture of Harry and his two sons. We don't have to worry about line-ups here at sales.  At PlantWorld in Toronto, one had to line up on the roadside in the car on busy Eglinton, and then they opened the parking lot a half hour before the sale, and we lined up for a half hour.  Then it was mayhem.  If you hadn't figured out what you wanted ahead of time...oh well.  But it was great fun.  This sale was fun too.

Up in the Air and Up for Grabs

There are hundreds of prizes up for grabs.  What an interesting expression this is, so I looked it up and here's the origin.   UP FOR GRABS Origin: Mid - 20th Century, American English –  The word “grab” itself is quite old, going back to the 16th Century with roots in Old Dutch and German. But the idiom is much more recent. The online Etymology dictionary attributes it to “Jive Talk” which was slang used by beatniks, hipsters and jazz musicians of the era. Usage: Informal spoken American English.  Idiomatic Meaning: available to whoever first expends the necessary energy, money, or ingenuity, and is willing to compete; obtainable (previously difficult to get, have or obtain); not yet claimed total chaos (alternate meaning) Literal Meaning: Something or someone that is possible to take hold of, seize or grab physically. Is the expression up in the air similarly interesting to you? According to theidioms.com this phrase refers to unsettled particles or matter as something that is floating in the air. “In the air” has been used with a similar meaning since the mid 1700s, and this exact phrase has been in use since the first half of 1900s. There are more air idioms at dictionary.com HERE. Our pictures today demonstrate another idiom that relates to air and gravity.  What goes up, must come down.  We sighted this flying umbrella last month while in Stoney Creek.   I 'almost got the picture' of the hard landing and subsequent disintegration in the school yard right next door.

Carrots and Carots

Five interesting facts today include the following:  before the 17th century almost all cultivated carrots were purple.   This turns out to be a tremendous year for Queen Anne's Lace - a wild carrot - Daucus carot   Growing along road sides and in unused fields, there are clouds of white everywhere. This is considered a companion plant to crops, and was introduced to North America, as it attractive wasps to its small flowers in its native land.  It is documented to boost tomato plant production, and can provide a microclimate of cooler, moister air for lettuce. Other times it is considered a noxious weed:  It likely is a noxious weed here, given the volume of it. The story of its common name in North America is that both Anne, Queen of Great Britain, and her great grandmother, Anne of Denmark, are taken to be the Queen Anne for which the plant is named. It is so called because the flower resembles lace, prominent in fine clothing of the day; the red flower in the center is thought to represent a blood droplet where Queen Anne pricked herself with a needle when she was making the lace. I didn't remember that is is an edible plant - and that the flowers are sometimes battered and fried.  And people ask if Queen Anne's Lace is hogweed and is poisonous.  They bloom at the same time, but hogweed is cow parsnip - Heracleum maximum.  And Queen Anne's Lace also looks similar to Angelica - which is Wild Celery. I recall one of our summer activities as children was to put the flower stalks in jars of coloured water and the white flowers would turn colour.