From 2 billion to 7 billion and then...

In 1951, the year of my birth, there were 2,58 billion people.  Today it is 7.6 billion.  No wonder everything is crowded and resources are being used up.  I had wondered if I should have a more positive view towards the future, but this seems to say it all.  This many people today are not doing a good job of living 'with' the planet.  Can you imagine how much better or worse it will go with more people? The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released their Climate Change report yesterday. It is what brought my attention to the population plight. That report gave 2030 as the defining year by which action must be taken. The well-used number for the maximum population that the earth can sustain is said to be 10 billion people.  It is based on food resources.  The common statement is that 2050 is the year that will happen. The statement goes:  "By 2050, the world’s population is expected to reach 9.1 billion, and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts that at that point, the world would need to produce 70% more food than today to feed all those people." This is considered contentious by the American Council on Science and Health.  They are pro-industry, but fact-based, and they think the 70% increase is an inflated number, along with the prediction discounting the advances in technology, and that it disregards the drops in population that are happening. The Economist says it is not time to panic yet - that the number of hungry people has fallen, that eliminating waste will raise food production by 60% or more, and so on. So the pros and cons for the maximum population are debated. Yet isn't that date looming near for those who will be alive in 2050? Anyone 18 years old today will be 50 years old then - perhaps just over half way through a typical lifespan.  And think of 2030 - those born in 2000 will only be 30 years old.  I wonder what our young people think of these urgent messages and concerns and how they will deal with them as the urgency grows. We are looking at the Sunnylea garden in an August rain.

Origami in the Garden

Origami in the garden was the theme of the artwork at the Minneapolis Arboretum Garden.  This was the most beautiful of the sculptures.  Set in a pond, it was isolatable so can be admired with the hint of the garden that surrounds it.  Buddhist monks carried paper to Japan during the 6th century.  Japanese origami dates from this period and was used for religious ceremonial purposes. Origami butterflies were used during Shinto weddings to represent the bride and groom in the 1600's. Our picture today shows cranes in flight.  Cranes are the best known design.  The crane is auspicious in Japanese culture.  Legend says that anyone who folds one thousand paper cranes will have their heart's desire come true. The thousand cranes is a poignant story of the 20th century.  A young Japanese girl, Sadako Sasaki was exposed to radiation of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.  By the time she was twelve in 1955, she was dying of leukemia.  She decided to fold one thousand origami cranes so that she could live.  She saw that other children in her ward were dying, and she realized that would not survive. She wished instead for world peace and an end to suffering.  Her thousand cranes are said to have been completed after her death. There is a statue of Sadako in the Hiroshima Peace Park:  a girl standing with her hands outstretched, a paper crane flying from her fingertips.  Every year the statue is adorned with thousands of wreaths of a thousand origami cranes.

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.

Taking Things for Granted

I looked up the expression to take things for granted. "There are things we consider to be true, to exist, to be present.  We take them for granted. By doing so we underestimate its value and don't give recognition or thanks".   Then there's surmise - to suppose that something is true without having evidence to confirm it. What about assumptions? This is a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof. And presumption?  This is an idea that is taken to be true, and often used as the basis for other ideas, although it is not known for certain. It can also indicate behaviour perceived as arrogant, disrespectful, and transgressing the limits of what is permitted or appropriate. Comparing presumption and assumption I found this: A presumption is something you think is true before you know any facts about the matter. An assumption is something you think is true when you miss information, but you think you have it. The difference can be subtle. When you have certain set ideas about some things, they are also presumptions. Women can not drive cars is a presumption. Based on the presumption, I can assume that you can not drive, because you are a woman. Isn't that so interesting in its subtlety. We might even move on to inferences.  However, I say lets stop - this involves too much logic and philosophy.  So to conclude here are a few assumption jokes: Q. Is there a Fourth of July in England? A. Yes, it comes after the third of July! Q. How many birthdays does the average man have? A. Just one! Q. Some months have 31 days; how many have 28? A. All of them! Here's a picture of our front garden taken last week.

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.

Incoming Epiphany

Today's the day:  Epiphany!  Here are 3 famous Epiphanies we learned in school: Ancient Greek mathematician and physicist Archimedes famously cried out "Eureka" ' "I have found it!" from the bathtub where he realized that his volume displaced the same amount of water in the tub and he could calculate the volume of gold in a crown. Isaac Newton was sitting below an apple tree when an apple fell on his head, which caused him to develop his Universal Law of Gravitation. Albert Einstein developed his Special Theory of Relativity after arriving home one night feeling defeated. He imagined having arrived home at the speed of light, and how the light from the town’s clock tower would not have reached him in his car, even though the clock inside the car would be ticking normally. This would make the time outside the car and inside the car just different enough to be striking. We can look up epiphany on google and immediately discover the seven ways to help you have an epiphany. It starts with: Be observant.  Look around you.  But there's more. Next article is The Atlantic.  It starts with: Go for a hike or a drive.  Walk around the city.  Psychology Today tells us: When one of these amazing gifts comes to us, the way to honour it is to put it to use".  The next is another Psychology Today article that questions what is an epiphany: "By epiphanies I mean the major, life-changing revelations that have the greatest impact on our lives."  Huffington Post says there are 8 Epiphanies everyone should have.  Others have different numbers -  18, 12, 9, 8, 17, or 10 epiphanies? We can take the easy route and google images of epiphany quotes. That is where I found the one that seems to apply to today given this is the Day of Epiphany.  Epiphany Day should be everyday.

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.

Almost Here

pring begins tomorrow at 6:29am.   Our weather yesterday was a fluffy snow fall, and with the ground soft, one could smell all the moisture.  That made it quite cold, too.  How does Accuweather.com predict daily weather into the beginning of May?  It gives the sense of a predictable weather pattern, although we experience otherwise. When I look out my office corner window, (not my corner office window) I can see the Niagara escarpment.  It is one of thirteen UNESCO World Biosphere Reserves in Canada.  The trail along it starts in Queenston. The cairn marking the trail's terminus is in a parking lot, about 160 metres (520 ft) from General Brock's Monument on the easterly side of the monument's park grounds. The trail concludes in Tobermory.  It is 850 kms long, with 400 km of side trails. The idea to create it came about in 1959, and the trail was set in motion in 1960, with regional clubs established along the length of the Trail.  Each club was responsible for obtaining landowner approvals, organizing trail construction, and maintenance efforts within their region of the trail.  The cairn at the northern terminus of the Bruce trail in Tobermory was unveiled in 1967 - Canada's Centennial Year.  It is the oldest and longest marked hiking trail in Canada. When Dezi and I go to Grimsby Beach, we walk one of the spur trails - a side trail from the escarpment to the Lake. We in Canada have the distinction of having the longest hiking trail in the world - the Trans Canada Trail.  It is 24,000 km. It is an astonishing length - the next longest trail in Italy is 5,954 kms long.  Today we say farewell to winter in pictures from yesterday's snowfall.

When will there be a blue lily?

In the late 80's, we worked on the information technology strategic planning methodology.   We distinguished between data, information, knowledge and wisdom, showing the logical relationship between them.  Wikipedia has these graphical representations - often we did it as a pyramid with wisdom the peak - a pinnacle of thinking processes.  If we achieved wisdom with technology, we would achieve the ultimate.  The components are described here. The Wikipedia article continues with a section on criticisms:  Rafael Capurro, a philosopher based in Germany, argues that ... any impression of a logical hierarchy between these concepts "is a fairytale". What do others say in this discussion?  In my search,  I found this very fun and quotable assertion.  It was my "morning smile". "Owning a state-of-the-art CD player is pointless if you use it only to listen to polkas played by a kazoo ensemble." - T.H. Davenport and L.Prusak in "What do we talk about when we talk about knowledge?" Our picture today brings together the bizarre and the beautiful.  The bizarre is that this is a fasciated lily in the Lilycrest hybridizing field this year.  It is a mutation caused by growing conditions that cause a flattened stem which produces dozens of flowers crowded together in a 'bouquet'.  The beautiful is the blue lily - it's been given a blue wash in one of my photography filter programs. A blue lily isn't achievable with its normal dna. Likely a Delphinium will need to get spliced into it to get this colour range.

Toronto's Skyline Garden

I participate in an artists website, Redbubble.  I have an artist portfolio where my work can be purchased in many formats in addition to traditional posters, canvases, photographic and art prints.  Examples include iPhone and iPad cases, graphic t-shirts, pencil skirts, throw pillows, duvet covers, mugs, and tote bags.  I am a host on the site, hosting several groups where we feature images regularly and launch contest challenges.  My co-host, Carol, decided on a challenge in All Glorious Gardens that would feature gardens that show a city setting.   I scrolled through my portfolio and rejected images that lacked the sense of the 'city' in the setting.  Then I remembered last summer's Garden Fling with all the garden bloggers. We went to Ward's Island, one of the Toronto Islands, and took our group photo there.  I shared this view of Toronto at the time.  I don't think there are many cities that can boast this combination.  Toronto always amazes!

In the Land of Cotton

I went to the East Georgia Botanical Garden in Savannah, Georgia on the trip down to Florida.  I was startled by a crop in the vegetable garden.  Clearly it was cotton.  I'd never seen a cotton plant.  My picture has captured cotton that has been left on the plant over the winter, so we don't see the fluffy cellulose at its best.  It remains a major crop world-wide.  I can't think of any crop here in Niagara that has such a pretty winter show.  For me, it is pussy willows in the spring that give this sense of delicate fluffiness.   Our next picture is one that we associate with Florida.  It is a cypress tree reflecting in the water - a wonderful natural landscape within the botanical garden.  We can grow cypress here in Niagara and many parts of warmer Ontario.  Like the Dawn Redwood, it is a striking structure in the landscape - vertical, fanning out towards the bottom. No garden is complete without a reference to the human element of structures and buildings. The warm colour of the wall gives us a sense of the backdrop we can expect in tropical gardens. Our northern backdrops are most often grey, blue, white, red brick, taupe stucco - all quiet colours in the winter that blend in with a white winter setting.

Pacific Rim Bonsai Museum

The art of Bonsai is the subject of our image today.  This was taken on a visit to the Pacific Rim Bonsai Museum near Seattle in February 2006, and it looks like a plum in bloom.  I've been back a few times and have a portfolio of images named "A Garden in the Palm of My Hand" showcasing bonsai. There is a showcase story on the website and the showcase tree is the large Trident Maple that is in the collection.     Domoto Trident Maple On February 20, 1915, the world celebrated the opening of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, a year-long fair showcasing new technology, fine art and wonders from around the world. The Pacific Bonsai Museum is fortunate enough to have one of these wonders here at the museum. This trident maple originally came to the United States from Japan as part of a pair of bonsai. One tree went to San Diego for the Panama-California Exposition while this tree went to the fair in San Francisco. Already a large bonsai, it sat proudly on the verandah of the Formosa Tea House in the Japanese Garden and unsurprisingly caught the eye of many at the exposition as it earned both a gold medal and a first place certificate for specimen trees. At the conclusion of the fair Kanetaro Domoto, owner of the local Domoto Brothers Nursery and lover of bonsai, bought it. Kanetaro and his brothers had immigrated to the United States from Japan in the mid 1880s and established one of the first commercial nurseries in northern California. They imported plants, including bonsai, directly from Japan and trained so many Japanese immigrants in the nursery business that they became known as the “Domoto College.” As interest in exotic plants grew so did the Domoto Brothers Nursery. By 1902 the Domotos were running a 35 acre nursery in Oakland, California, the first large scale nursery in the United States. Toichi Domoto and the trident maple Kanetaro continued to care for his trident maple for many years until, in the late 1920s, the nursery encountered financial troubles and the property was foreclosed. However, the receiver for the bank recognized how important the tree was to Kanetaro and allowed him to keep it. It was then moved to Hayward, California where his son, Toichi, had started his own nursery. Toichi showed the tree at flower shows around the area throughout the 1930s until he and his family were forced into internment camps during World War II. While interned he relied on friends to water the maple. Upon returning home after the war he found that the tree had sent roots through the bottom of its planter and had grown immensely. Over the next four decades Toichi refined and cared for the tree until he could no longer climb a ladder to prune it. Finally in 1990 after watching the leaves change color one last time he decided the tree should be loaned to the newly established Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection. 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and still, the Domoto Trident Maple sits proudly for all to admire. The tree, like the Domoto family, has persevered and despite the hardships of the Great Depression and World War II, both have recovered. Thanks to the family’s generous donation of the tree to the museum the Domoto legacy is ensured for future generations. View this email in your browser

Garden Tripod Features December 2015

I contribute to an e-zine on a regular basis and this month's issue has a feature article and one of my images on the cover. You can find the article in the December 2015 Issue of Garden Tripod Art.  I hop you will hope over and take a look.

Seasons' Jump

The mums are now blooming at the garden centres.  The pop-up stand at 3rd Street and the QEW has  discount mums on the flatbed truck - a welcome transition from the kalanchoes that have been there all summer long.  So now,  the bright orange-red geraniums at my front kitchen window are now replaced with red-rust mums.  They signal the change of colours in the landscape as we move from the the lush green with fiery reds of summer to the autumn tones that are more integrated. Our photos today were taken in Marion Jarvie's garden.  The first two show the entrance in April and then in early June.  For me, it demonstrates the transition from the browns of spring to the lush greens of summer.  Isn't it interesting how the white trellis picks up the greens  around it in the second photo. I didn't notice it at the time, yet now it seems striking. The visit in Spring was April 28, a time when people are starting to garden.  So it was easy to take pictures without people.  The visit in June was with the Garden Bloggers Association, and the garden was full of people and plants.    Marion is a collector of the distinctive and the unusual so the garden writers were abuzz with discussions on everything around them.