Winter Flowers

St. Catharines participated in the Women's March on Washington yesterday. The question I searched on today was: how big was this march?  There were estimates of 2 million world-wide. It turns out that the question itself has an interesting story. The estimating of numbers turns out to be contentious: "The National Park Service stopped giving official estimates ever since a dispute about how many attended a Million Man March in 1995. The Park Service was threatened with a lawsuit when they estimated 400,000 showed up to the Million Man March, while organizers believed that one million were there. After that, they stopped publicly releasing estimates. Now, estimates are given by law enforcement officials or federal officials, or organizers." Our weather dominated yesterday. We don't get fog that often so I spent some time driving around and took a few pictures.  It looks like today provides the opportunity as well. I found a picture of a tower in San Francisco where there is a 3-dimensional fog shadow.  "The thin fog was just dense enough to be illuminated by the light that passed through the gaps in a structure or in a tree. As a result, the path of an object shadow through the "fog" appears darkened. In a sense, these shadow lanes are similar to crepuscular rays, which are caused by cloud shadows, but here, they're caused by an object shadows.(The description was provided by Dr. Andy Young.)" Our fog images were taken at Prudhomme's Landing yesterday.  The first looks towards the Lake - the fog obscures everything, giving a bleak sensibility. The second picture looks towards the west. The QEW is on the left and the hotel complex would have been on the right of the picture.  Again, the lights rising above a barren landscape speak of destruction and desolation.  The floral picture is our Winter flower, kale, found yesterday in downtown St. Catharines and elevated to the starry night.

Frosty Red Maples

There was a lot of frost early yesterday morning so I was able to get some Japanese Maple leaves in the grass.  They look like they are coated with sugar and could decorate a cake. Today is roast turkey, candied yams, giant balloons and American football.

Garden Edits on a Theme

Hostas multiply.  The front garden was too full of plants so had some editing and a 'truck load' went away last week. They took a stylish trip to their new home in Grimsby. On to Kale - the magic vegetable in the second picture.  This one is at the Celtic Garden in Vinemount - a garden of natural willow sculptures and hostas. Did you know that kale is called 'the new beef'. There's a variety of Kale named Black Magic - sounds like  something for my front garden as its theme is Magic and Mystery.  The theme got started with: - Arisaema (tropical Jack in the Pulpits) - both Green Godess and Corbra (that's the stinky one) - my version of a Fairy Garden - toad and mushrooms sculptures. - Chocolate-coloured plants contrasting with Chartreuse Any ideas you have for creating magic and mystery - send them along!