What I know about scurvy

What do we know about vitamins? What grade in school would we learn about them? Mission Nutrition has lesson plans for grades 4-5. Other sites have plans for grade 9 to 12.  The lesson plans identify the 13 essential vitamins, what their purpose is, and what foods contain them. I can imagine today that there might be common vitamin deficiencies if people eat processed rather than fresh foods and vegetables. The vitamin I am most acquainted with is Vitamin C. We  learned about scurvy in history class.  It was a problem throughout the period of exploration and settlement in Canada.   I remember the cure was drinking coniferous needles boiled in water.  The explorers didn't stay with the cure, and significant numbers of scurvy deaths continued throughout the period. In the 1950s, mass production and marketing of vitamin supplements made them readily available.  Governments mandated supplementary vitamins in staple foods - flour and milk were the two common ones. So Vitamin C came into our houses in pill bottles. Our lesson plan today is to learn about Vitamin C. You will need: 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch 1 cup water iodine More water Eye dropper Medium sized bowl Several smaller bowls Crushed vitamin C tablet dissolved in 1 cup water Various beverages orange juice, orange soda, cranberry juice, grapefruit juice, punch, etc. Mix 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch into 1 cup cold water; dissolve mixture by heating. Measure 1 cup water into a bowl add 1 teaspoon of the cornstarch mixture. Using an eye dropper add 4 drops of iodine and stir. The mixture should be a pale blue. Put 2 Tablespoons of the mixture into several small bowls. Using a clean eye dropper add the vitamin C solution to one of the blue mixtures. In another bowl add orange juice, another orange soda, etc. Make note of how many drops it takes before the blue color disappears. Discussion: Only foods with vitamin C will make the blue color disappear. The punch and orange soda do not have vitamin C.  If a food does not have vitamin C the solution will not change color. And today's picture makes me think of England with the beautiful setting of the Conservatory in Minneapolis.

Up on the Roof

The contents of my conservatory greenhouse are still in the garden.   Compared to yesterday morning, it is very clean outside and in. How does one clean the outside of a greenhouse?  From the roof!  The little yellow chord in the picture is the water supply. What is the difference between a conservatory and a greenhouse?  Wikipedia gives us three options: Conservatory (greenhouse), a substantial building or room where plants are cultivated, including medicinal ones and including attached residential solariums Music school, or a school devoted to other arts such as dance Sunroom, a smaller glass enclosure or garden shed attached to a house, also called a conservatory So greenhouse and conservatory are interchangeable.   Along the way, I saw that a conservatory and musikgymnasium appear similar.  Musikgymnasiums are in Germany.  In Germany, this term describes one of three types of the most advanced types of German secondary schools.  It sounds similar to the Royal Conservatory of Music - musical education for youth.  The Royal Conservatory is outside the regulated education system in Ontario. Its is an independent institution, although it used to be governed by the University of Toronto.  Its royal charter came from King George VI in 1947.   Who would be considered its most famous pupil?  Would it be Glenn Gould or Oscar Peterson?  There's a very long list of graduates HERE.  They include Gordon Lightfoot, Diana Krall, Gordon Pinsent, Norman Jewish, and Randy Bachman.  Jeff Healey is listed, but I heard him on his JazzFM show say that he was disgusted by their lack of interest in early Jazz (his specialty), and he left in the first semester.  In his biography it says he received an Honorary Licentiate from the Royal Conservatory of Music.

April Coldest Month

We're past the last day of April and major Canadian cities are "on track for historic April cold."  April has been about 5 degrees below seasonal temperatures in Toronto.  In addition, there has yet to be a day above 20 degrees.  That last happened in 1999. And the prediction is that "persistent warmth will be a struggle into May".   If we wanted to find out about the most extreme weather, the list of weather records is in wikipedia.  What goes into a weather record?  The top two are highest and lowest temperatures ever recorded. And then there are records for rain, snow, wind speed, tornadoes, cyclones, hail, lightning, ultraviolet index, and air pressure.  What a lot of things for the weather to be extreme at! It is all HERE.   I thought the antidote to this difficult spring might be a revisit to the Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls.

Hamlet's Lament

Consider Hamlet.  His existential angst has become is a crossword puzzle question and answer in the world of Google.  Pages of crossword puzzle hits come up for the search for Hamlet.  Question: Hamlet's lament Answer: Alas Ophelia fares no better.  She comes up as a song by the Lumineers. It's on top of the list as it as gotten 221 million streams on Spotify. Compared to this King Lear is "King Lear" and Othello is "Othello".  They are characters in Shakespeare plays - no more than that. What about Romeo?  He lives on, having become synonymous with the 'lover'. The urban dictionary defines romeo as an attractive, passionate male seducer or lover.  I found a context we wouldn't think of:  in the world of espionage, the romeo is a male who is carefully placed within a high level of government agency to seduce lonely females placed high in the government.  Females used in this capacity during the cold war were called romiettes. Is the Alfa Romeo named after Romeo?  No it isn't.  Instead, it is the combination of the original name of the company and the last name of entrepreneur Nicola Romeo, who took control of the company in 1915:  "A.L.F.A." ("Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobile") Romeo. Our diverse exploration of Shakespearean character names can only be done now with our tools like google. There's the much longer-lived academic investigation of Shakespeare as the authentic playwright of his works.  Here is a recent update:  a most interesting article from the New York Times, February 7, 2018. "Plagiarism Software Unveils a New Source for 11 of Shakespeare's Plays" The findings were made by Dennis McCarthy and June Schlueter, who describe them in a book to be published next week by the academic press D. S. Brewer and the British Library. The authors are not suggesting that Shakespeare plagiarized but rather that he read and was inspired by a manuscript titled “A Brief Discourse of Rebellion and Rebels,” written in the late 1500s by George North, a minor figure in the court of Queen Elizabeth, who served as an ambassador to Sweden. The article is HERE.  Our picture shows the greenhouse at the beginning of May 2017.  Only a few weeks away and this will be our landscape.

Canada's Prettiest Town...

Niagara Falls is a tourist destination, so Family weekend is busy. The Butterfly Conservatory started its day with mostly young families out to see the butterflies.  It is a beautiful tropical garden setting, and like a trip to the Caribbean for a few hours. Huge blue morphos flutter past your head in pairs and swirl away.  Often a butterfly will land on the ground.  Oh no! Don't walk there!.  Someone always reaches out with a finger for them to perch on so they can get back up to a plant.  It is a universal gesture of kindness. There are those who turn out to be afraid of insects - whether they are bearing beautiful wings or not.  From adults to small children, there are a few cringing or crying visitors amongst the laughing and smiling groups.  It is funny to see parents with fearful children - mostly they look puzzled and confused.  They seem to wonder how this is happening to them.  I imagine their thoughts:  "Is this the child I brought with me, or did someone switch it on me?" We took a quick look at the Prairie Meadow garden in the winter - it is beautiful with tall grasses, asters, and ironweed stalks. Then down the River Road to to Niagara-on-the-Lake.  There were boats on the River, and it looked like people fishing.  There are interesting fish species in the Niagara River, including sturgeon. Niagara-on-the-Lake was busy - there's never a down time anymore.  Now there are  all sorts of high-end wineries to visit, and the Oscar Peterson Jazz Festival got its inaugural start this past weekend.  Even in the middle of winter, Niagara-on-the-Lake is the prettiest town in Canada.

Repeat Again

This is Groundhog Week!  The Groundhog Day movie is a movie on the theme of repetition.  What about unnecessary repetition?  Wouldn't that be what redundancy is?  Do you think Bill Murray's character felt the repetitions were redundant? Here are expressions that could be termed 'groundhog moments' in celebration of the movie.  Redundant is what they are: a moment in time – A moment is essentially a period of time. ATM machine – ATM already stands for “Automated Teller Machine” true fact – By definition, facts are true. join together – How else would something join? free gift – Because when’s the last time you had to pay for a gift? added bonus – The word bonus indicates something outside of what’s expected, so of course it’s added. end result – Results always come at the end. final outcome – Related to the above, an outcome signifies the end, or finality. plan ahead – Planning always refers to the future, or what’s ahead. repeat again – Ah, the irony here! close proximity – To be close to something is to be in proximity. past experience – Experience refers to what has happened in the past. most unique – Unique implies there’s nothing like it, so one cannot compare it to something else. rise up – When rising, there’s no other way to go but up. the reason why – A reason explains the why. new innovations – An innovation is something that did not exist before, i.e., it is new in and of itself. unexpected surprise – If you were expecting it, it wouldn’t be a surprise. advance notice – When giving someone notice, you’re always doing so in advance. What redundant phrase do you find yourself using most often? Are you having Groundhog moments? This wonderful list is courtesy of proofreadnow.com  The orchid arch at Longwood is twelve feet high and contains more than 600 orchids. The reconstruction of the Longwood Main Found Garden is shown in this youtube video time-lapse :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjuioDG74Jk

Get into the Christmas Spirit

There is an enduring sense of appreciating Christmas, even with the many debates on Christmas as a religious holiday that has gone 'secular.' In spite of this, there still is the sense that Christmas comes but 'once a year'.  What are the emotions that are associated with this sense of Christmas Spirit?    There is an easy answer.  It is about sharing, caring and love - the great fellowship of humanity. So it seems to make sense to  get into the Christmas spirit.  WikiHow comes to the rescue with advice that appeals to the secularists.  As we are at the Christmas moment, check out the list and catch up on a few easy items: 1. Watch some great classic Christmas movies that play during Christmas time 2. Get in touch with your family and friends 3. Read Christmas themed books like "The Night Before Christmas", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "The Polar Express" and Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" 4. Decorate as much as you can 5. Make a to do list of things to accomplish before December 25 6. Send out Christmas cards 7.  Make a Christmas list 8.  Make sure everything is clean and uncluttered 9. Make a countdown to Christmas that everyone can see 10. Get an advent calendar And More... I add this experience to the list - Visit a Conservatory. The Allan Garden Christmas is remarkable this year - there's the Christmas train, the Christmas jazz trio with a spanish moss piano, and the Christmas lady and swan - made of traditional boughs, Magnolia leaves, and moss.

Guelph Arboretum

Yesterday's snowstorm over the lake didn't land in Grimsby.  It did land in Guelph.  I was there yesterday for Baxter's dental experience - he broke the canine tooth that had been repaired in 2014 at the same clinic.  This time it had to be removed. Guelph is a centre of veterinary specialists associated with the University veterinary programs. My interest was the Arboretum and the range of yesterday's landscapes was remarkable in the snow.  New-fallen snow outlined the trees and defined the curves of the landscape.  There was perfect light - the sun was shining through a misty haze in the sky - just the faintest of shadows.  Guelph is home to the University of Guelph.  It has an exceptional program in veterinary medicine which is ranked fourth in the world. I drove through that section of the campus - with barns, horse crossings, and horses outside in the paddock. I stopped at the beat-up recycle bins for some abstracts.  One bin was for manure.   Guelph has large agricultural, horticultural and environmental programs. The pretty Victorian conservatory is the icon that testifies to the beginnings of the programs in the late 1800's. The Arboretum, started in 1971,  is surprisingly large.  With the amount of snow -  two feet - it kept filling my boots when I walked through it.  So I toured it mostly in the car.  You can tour it on youtube here and see how remarkable it is.

What is in a Boat's Name?

It is always a great trip to Niagara Falls to see the Showcase Greenhouse Christmas display.  The drive back along the Lakeshore means one can stop at Sunshine Express to see their grand display and then cross the canal at Carlton Street.  But we didn't immediately cross the canal - we watched a boat come through into the lock. Isn't this quite the sign on the boat?  Look over there - it is NO SMOKING making its way through the Welland Canal at Lock 2.  I wondered what the name of the ship is. I  went looking for the schedule - but didn't find an online schedule.  I remember there was a posted schedule at the Visitor Centre last summer, so one could time one's visits for the ships coming through.  Having lived next to the Welland Canal near the Lock 2 bridge on Carlton as a child, one could look down Scott Street and pretty well spot a boat any time.  It was constant, and the bridges when up and down all the time. Of course, there's less traffic now as we're at the end of the season.  The canal is open late due to the good weather.  When the weather gets cold, the locks will be emptied, and one will be able to see how deep they are.  I'll take some photos so you can really see the engineering feat that was accomplished in the 1930's. And then back to the Niagara Falls Showcase Greenhouses, there were some lovely mourning doves  flitting about and cooing.  There was even a small group of sparrows in the tropical house.

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.

Koi, The Living Art

I posted the images of Koi on the Marilyn Cornwell blog, and they seem a match for Open Gardens Niagara, too.  Koi often are residents of botanic gardens where they create magic for children in the garden.  These Koi are residents of the Royal Botanical Garden in Burlington Ontario.  They live in the greenhouse conservatory so are used to people every day.  They swim to people rather than away from them.

Here are more pictures from the Series: Koi, The Living Art, available on Redbubble and Fine Art America

Grand Christmases

Longwood Gardens puts on the biggest Christmas show on the east coast, that I know of.  Here are some of the images from a few years ago, inside the conservatory.

Sunnylea Garden's 2014 Milestone

Hi everyone,
The Sunnylea Garden was ready for the July 5th Grimsby Garden Club Garden Tour.  It took a lot of work over the last 2 months to get the back yard into tour-ready shape.  It was only last October that the hardscaping was installed, and the end of May this year that the garden carpentry was completed.  The original concept ideas were done by Frank Kershaw.  Christopher Campbell, who designed my back garden at 46 Orchard Crescent in Toronto, did the design.  I particularly appreciated his design of the Rendezvous with its trellis work and seating area.

Here are a few images of the garden on the morning of the tour:

This is a significant change from 2011, where the back garden featured a large deck, seating area, hot tub and ponds.   With the move of the Conservatory from Toronto, the raised deck, hot tub and bedroom wall were in for major changes.   The front garden was renovated to include a parking area for a second car, and a seating area under the mature red maple tree.