A Note from Einstein

It was JazzFM that brought this story to my attention - a note written on a Tokyo hotel official paper in 1922 by Albert Einstein sold at an auction in Jerusalem, October 24, 2017 for $1.5 million. The headline of this interesting story:  Einstein's Note on Happiness Sells for... "While in Japan, Einstein stayed at Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel. During his stay, a hotel worker came to Einstein’s room to make a delivery. Einstein found himself without any money to give the man as a tip for his services. So, instead of money, the famous scientist handed the hotel worker a signed note with a sentence he wrote in German. It read: “A calm and humble life will bring more happiness than the pursuit of success and the constant restlessness that comes with it.” He gave him another note that read: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” He advised the bellboy to keep these notes as they would become more valuable than a tip.  We look at two elements in the garden today - a birch tree creatively displays bird houses in a Grimsby garden and bamboo leaves seen through the conservatory plexiglass window at the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Polka Dots and Moonbeams

Polka dot is a pattern consisting of an array of large filled circles. Wikipedia says: "It is likely that the term originated in popularity of polka dance at the time the pattern became fashionable, just as many other products and fashions of the era also adopted the polka name." This is around 1834 and was a dance craze until the 1890's. Polka dot patterns got their name capitalizing on the polka craze - polka was added to the names of a wide variety of products. Polka dots today find themselves on informal sorts of things - cup cakes and candy, children's clothing and toys, and fanciful house ware and women's clothing.  Definitely cakes and dresses lead the way for polka dot expressions. And then there is the Polka Dot Queen - this is a different realm of polka dot expression.  The Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is known as the Polka Dot Queen because of her repetitive dot patterns in all her work.  Her museum in Tokyo was recently opened, and included large polka dots on the exterior.  Inside are her works with their polka dots on canvases, sculptures, and more. She has  mirrored installations where visitors are immersed for 20 to 30 seconds to "replicate the sense of infinity".  This is astonishing and creative work.  Her room of polka dot pumpkins is mesmerizing. Our picture today uses the Topaz Glow software on the fanciful Fusion lily.

Statistical Thinking in Niagara

I've been gathering statistics to see how successful the website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages are for our upcoming fundraise The Fantasy of Trees. I was lucky to get statistical training as part of an MBA. Statistical thinking has become the interpretive technology of choice in dozens of fields: economics, psychology, education, medicine, and the sciences.  The internet headlines tell us there are 5 important website statistics, the most important economic statistic, the best offensive statistic in sports, customer experience statistics, Black Friday's most important statistic.   I wonder about the critical thinking skills of people in general and this is a question that's been analyzed a lot.  Paul Barsch's article on Eight Things You Should Know About Statistics says this: "In May 2010’s issue of Wired Magazine, author Clive Thompson laments the poor mathematical literacy of his fellow citizens. For example, he cites people laughing at the concept of global warming as they face some of the harsher winters on record, or the extra-vocal debate on vaccines and possible links to autism. Mr. Thompson would tell us that it’s the trend lines that matter, and we too often look at the trees and miss the forest. The problem, he says, is that “statistics is hard” and an overall understanding of this important discipline is severely lacking. He says, “If you don’t understand statistics, you don’t know what’s going on, and you can’t tell when you’re being lied to.” Quora/Wikipedia say: Therefore, as the infusion of mass media information into a social system increases, segments of the population with higher socioeconomic status tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than the lower status segments so that the gap in knowledge between these segments tends to increase rather than decrease.

Poinsettias in Niagara

Justin Trudeau's eulogy to Castro as a 'remarkable leader' has given rise to responses that raise our national reputation for satire to new heights.  Here are two replies: 'Though not universally liked by his compatriots, Mr. Ceausescu was a leader in urban design and affordable housing' 'Today we mourn the loss of Norman Bates, a family man who was truly defined by his devotion to his mother. ' Read more responses "here" at #TrudeauEulogies. Today we have a few more close-ups of the wonderful Poinsettia.

Benchscape Tour Today

Gardens On Tour  It is a garden tour today for Benchscape, the Beamsville Bench house and garden that Lex Parker designed. I plant and maintain the raised beds of herbs and flowers and the pots located around the house.  The pictures today show just this area. This is the house with the lovely meadow garden this year. I posted pictures of it a week ago or so.

Niagara Gardens - Beth Powell in Canfield

Garden art is a wide-open topic.  There are many styles of garden and possibilities for art in the garden.  Bracebridge's Artful Garden is a showcase of what's possible.  They feature more than 40 artists' work at the end of July.  This is where I first saw Floyd Elzinga's Pinecones. These pictures today are of Beth Powell's Canfield, ON garden.  Canfield is south of Grimsby on the escarpment, about 30 minutes away. There is everything from red wagons to dog houses, groupings of doors, a floating canoe garden and a Florida flamingo-inspired gazebo. And of course, there is much more than what you see here, as this is a large rural property and Beth is an ambitious garden artist. Repurposing is popular garden art style in the rural garden with the the open spaces and more relaxed settings. Beth takes familiar objects and gives them new definition through groupings and plantings. They delight and fascinate, inspire and motivate.  These are views of Beth's garden last year during the Hamilton Open Garden Week.  Beth's private garden is open to the public by appointment - one of those great public gardens in your own back yard.

Join me April 10, 2:00pm!

Join Me! Next Sunday I will be the speaker at the annual meeting of the Lily Society.  This is a free event open to the public.  And this is one of my favourite topics and activities - finding 'public' gardens within easy reach.  I would be so pleased if you can be there. April 10, 2016 2:00pm - Ontario Regional Lily Society (at the Royal Botanical Gardens, 680 Plains Road West. Burlington, Rooms 1 & 2)  Great Public Gardens in Your Own Backyard If you live within the Golden Horseshoe and surrounding Toronto area, you can visit more than 30 public gardens within easy driving distance. Some will be new to you and others will be familiar.  You'll see them all at their best.   Get your schedules out because you'll want to get to these glorious gardens so close to home and easy to visit.

Return with a Shrubbery

Ladew, in Maryland,  is considered the 'most outstanding' topiary garden in North America, and one of 10 incredible topiary gardens around the world.   I think the (Monty Python) Knight would have definitely passed if he'd returned with this one - all those peaks and rows in formation. The picture below was a topiary found in Niagara-on-the-Lake at the beginning of August - a delight of whimsy.

The Shipping News

Do you expect to see ships when you visit gardens?  Particularly ships with sails made out of the leaves of the plant 'Lamb's Ears'?  Here's one of the sculptures in a country garden in Canfield that is on the Hamilton Spectator's Open Garden Week.

Private Open to the Public

I made a special trip to Toronto yesterday to see the well-known garden of Marion Jarvie.  She describes herself as a 'Plantswoman'.  When you walk through the garden of thousands of plants you experience a connoisseur of plants.  She travels to England and Europe regularly for visits to hybridizers and growers and to make plant selections. Marion has Open Days throughout the garden season, and this past weekend was her first opening. Her garden a private garden open to the public by permission.  This is one of those surprise gardens for those who aren't avid gardeners.  I will be including this garden in 'Great Public Gardens in Your Own Backyard.' It is a presentation that covers public and private gardens open to the public within 150 km of the GTA. This garden is a special one though - it is richly planted with only the most interesting and often rare plants.  It is a botanical garden experience of distinction. Her website is marionjarvie.ca  and she offers workshops and presentations.  Plants are for sale during the open garden days, and I was able to purchase a few bulbs of the red flower you see below - a corydalis.  The little purple flowering plant below the corydalis is hepatica, and the final border plants are early crocus.

Squirrel House Visit

I visited some of the Squirrel House Gardens images from this past summer, enjoying Elisabeth Hilton's beautiful garden compositions, including this wonderful statue in the garden and the winding path leading the eye out to more garden treasures.

I hope Elisabeth is enjoying warm weather compared to us here in snowy Niagara.

Word of the Year 2014 and Jordan Wisteria

What does this Jordan Wisteria have to do with Word of the Year 2014?

I've shown pictures of this wisteria before - it is located on the Main Street in Jordan, the historic village that is home to Cave Springs Winery and the sister hotel and restaurant On the Twenty.  I was preparing some images for a contest where the theme is pergolas and arbours, and this one came to mind.  What is an arbour compared to a pergola?   My google search reveals that an arbour (also arbor) is a "shelter of vines or branches or of latticework covered with climbing shrubs or vines" whereas a pergola is "1: arbor, trellis 2: a structure usually consisting of parallel colonnades supporting an open roof of girders and cross rafters".

Sometimes the answers aren't as straight-forward as we expect.  Whichever way we call this, it is one of the most beautiful sights and smells in Niagara in mid-May.



Which picture do you like best?  Which one to enter in the contest?  Give me your advice.

Now on to the Word of the Year 2014.  As I searched for definitions, the Word of the Year for 2014 popped up a few times. Wikipedia gives me guidance on what this is about at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_the_year

Here are three for 2014:
Oxford Dictionary:  Vape.   It is an abbreviation of vapour or vaporize and it was added to Oxford's Dictionary in August 2014.  It is a verb and means 'to inhale and exhale the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device'.

Merriam-Wesbster: Culture.  Merriam-Webster chooses the most popular word experienced by the biggest spike in lookups in a year, as in celebrity culture, company culture, pop culture, culture shocks, media culture, etc.

Dictionary.com: Exposure.  This word was chosen in reference to the Ebola virus, widespread theft of personal information, and shocking acts of violence and brutality that dominated the news.  Encapsulating those themes, Dictionary.com chose exposure.

There are so many interesting things to find out every day.  

The Last Leaves are Lasting

I am so impressed with the colours of the Japanese Maples this year.  My own mature tree is a Versicolour, and the leaves range from intense orange-red to yellow to green.

Here are a few shots from this week:

Our Fruit and Vegetable Stands in Grimsby

We are very lucky in Niagara - there are fruit and vegetable stands everywhere.  Owners sell their produce out front, with an honesty box for payment.

Hildreth's, though, is on a much larger scale - take a look at the autumn show they had for the harvest month of October.

What Makes Pretty Gardens in Niagara - sometimes it's the Small Stuff

There are so many pretty elements in the garden - from structures such as pergolas, gates, fences, and sheds, to smaller items like statues and ornaments.  These little mushrooms are beautifully placed at the base of a tree at 1 Baker Road, in Grimsby Ontario.  What a beautiful, delicate vignette to capture.  This is easy to see from the sidewalk.  Anyone can enjoy this pretty scene.

Bicycles in the Garden

Redbubble is an art site that provides printing and shipping of art work.  It 's an Australian company so has a most interesting personality and attracts artists from all over the world to sell their work here.  It started as a fine art site, but has shifted to a graphic art site, and there are many more young people who sell t-shirts, stickers, etc.  Recently they have added tote bags, pillows and duvet covers for sale.  

The site provides community functions in the form of creating Groups based on themes and interests.  I host two groups - All Glorious Gardens and All Glorious Lilies.  This picture today is from the latest All Glorious Gardens challenge.  The Group features images on the home page and offers challenges to submit entries and vote for their favourite image.

I ran the bicycle challenge recently as there are many uses of bicycles in garden decoration all over the world.  You can see here for the top ten that the gardens range from Niagara, to France, England and Australia.  

I enter the challenge to keep track of the time - there's a little clock on one's entry when voting starts - it shows the number of votes and the relative amount of time left on the clock.  There's no alert for the host, and I've found that I've run challenges and then forgotten about them until days later.  

You can see the challenge by going here:

http://www.redbubble.com/groups/all-glorious-gardens/challenges/60824-all-glorious-gardens-bicycles-in-the-garden

My image, The Bike Stops Here - Niagara, was the winning image.  It was taken 2 years ago while on the St. Catharines Garden Tour.  

Sunshine Gardens and the Chrysanthemums

Hi everyone,
It's the time of year when the Chrysanthemums have been set out at Sunshine Nurseries.  They are located on Carlton Street just over the canal on the Niagara-on-the-Lake side.  We usually are looking for our particular colour or something that appeals to us.

If one looks up and around, though, there is a sea of green - and the panorama below shows part of it.  You won't see them all in bloom like tulips in Holland.  They get sold before there's too much colour showing.  Each pot has a drip hose to ensure perfect amounts of water and fertilizer.  The trimming and pruning follow the traditional sphere shape so when they are blooming there's a solid mass of colour.

Another Gorgeous Grimsby Garden

A corner garden has advantages for someone like me who enjoys gardens and particularly likes a corner garden that displays more garden than a front garden alone can. Here's Zoi Ouzas' garden on Deer Park in Grimsby.  The variations of green in ground cover and grass give a sense of lushness here.  The red flowers draw the eye along the curving line and focus the attention on the pretty curved arbour over the garden gate.  A beautiful work of garden art.

It makes sense that Zoi is in real estate - with a house and garden of such note. Here's her real estate website: http://www.zoiouzas.com

Grimsby Gardens

I have been enjoying the Grimsby Garden Tour gardens after the fact.  With my own garden on the tour on July 5th, I've been visiting the gardens in the weeks following the tour.

Here are two great examples.  This first garden is on Elderberry - you can see the escarpment views that are so pretty.

This next one is on Burgess with its pretty tool shed and pool house.