What's in a number?

What is in a number - any number.  I happened to see the number 752.  What can I learn about this number?   Properties of the Number 752 Because 752 is divisible by 2 ... 752 is an even number 752 has parity 0 752 is not an odd number Because 752 can be factored as 2 x 376 ... 752 is a composite number 752 is not a prime number The most fascinating is the website www2.stetson.edu's What's Special About This Number?  I scrolled to the bottom and found out that 8208 is a narcissistic number.  I guess I am fascinated by the abundance of complicated words in a sentence about something seemingly simple like a number:  "752 is the number of conjugacy classes in the automorphism group of the 11 dimensional hypercube." The internet has resources from so many sources, so I also found entries that go in a very different direction from the above: Angel Number 752: 752 is your number of reference this month. You have seen it very many times. You have come across this repeating number so much that you have lost count. The divine angels are talking to you. From sunsigns.org The Number 752 is the holy name of Jesus of Nazareth - from Historical Archive of the Bible Wheel Site - biblewheel.com

I'll Take Mine Fried

I made it in time to capture the fiery foliage of the Cemetery Japanese Maple.  It is entwined around a headstone, which is not visible in these photos.  November is their month for vivid colour - as long as it doesn't get too windy.  That's always a dilemma here in Grimsby with the wind off the escarpment or the Lake. I planned to capture the large tree in front of one of our heritage homes and the leaves are gone - they dropped in one day.    And around the corner from me is the largest Japanese Maple I've seen in Niagara, with the glorious red colour on the tree and in the driveway. From the den garden website: "In Japan, maple trees are known as kaede (楓/"frog's hands"), as well as momiji (紅葉), which means both "become crimson leaves" and "baby's hands". Momiji is commonly used as the term for autumn foliage in general in Japanese, but it is also used as a term for maple trees. These names come from the appearance of the leaves, which resemble the hands of a baby or a frog. The scientific term for Japanese maples is Acer palmatum."   "In Japan's Osaka prefecture, the red and orange maple leaves are a sight to see during the fall. As is the case in the rest of Japan, people go out in droves to see the beautiful fall scenery. However, in Osaka, locals also go out in droves to collect the leaves and turn them into a deep-fried delicacy! Fried maple leaves are a very popular snack in Osaka, and apparently have been for at least a thousand years. The city of Minoh, located in the north part of the prefecture, is particularly famous for their fried leaves. The maple leaves are dipped and fried in tempura butter, which give them their unique taste. The secret of Minoh's success with fried leaves really isn't much of a secret at all. Chefs there usually store their leaves in barrels of salt for one year, which makes their leaves particularly tasty!"

November is Chrysanthemum Month

We don't usually think of November as a 'highlights in the garden' month.  And yet this is the start of Autumn colours for Japanese Maples, Dawn Redwoods, Cypress,  and Weeping Willows.  Our pictures show the turning colours of Hosta leaves in my garden.   The Chrysanthemum is the 'birth flower' of November.  Longwood announced its Thousand Bloom Chrysanthemum Tree has more than a thousand blossoms again this year - 1,523 flowers on a single stem. The link takes you to a youtube video showing the growing technique over its 18 month life.  Close by to me are the Chrysanthemum Festivals of Gage Park in Hamilton (finished October 30th), the Niagara Falls Showcase Greenhouses (all of November),  and then Allan Gardens and Centennial Greenhouses in Toronto. Their growers have been to Longwood for training and expert guidance, and the results are displays of beautiful, large blossoms standing tall on single stems in many colours and shapes.

Will We have Autumn Leaves?

In only 2 days we can start humming autumn songs like 'The Autumn Leaves'.   But what will the leaves look like after this summer drought?  I passed a favourite sumac stand along the South Service Road in St. Catharines and they are curling brown.  They aren't likely to turn to  glorious red, gold and yellow.  It seems that while many trees'  leaves stayed green during the drought, they are going brown and crispy now even though we're getting enough rain.   How about this headline on the Almanac site to join a live show of the season 'turning': Fall begins this Thursday September 22 with the autumnal equinox! Join us for a live show as we welcome in the new seasons – and learn all about the movement of the Sun.  Get details. There are still lots of flowers in the gardens - here's a pretty sunflower bud.

Lilycrest Gardens Begin

Lilycrest Gardens, Brian Bergman's lily hybridizing field is full of hope and potential.  The lilies have arisen from their winter dormancy and there are a few early bloomers - martagons and species.   Our first picture is the noteworthy plant this year - it seems to glow with its brown foliage and green markings.  Brian is checking it regularly to see if it maintains  the foliage colour.  It stands out in the field of thousands of lilies, so this would be a hybridizing achievement. Our collage together shows  our first blooms, along with the many variations in foliage.

Justin Trudeau and the Queen

Isn't it so great to have a Prime Minister who makes headlines for saying funny, witty things.  Justin Trudeau's toast to Queen Elizabeth told her he was the 12th Canadian prime minister to serve during her reign and his father, Pierre Trudeau was the fourth.  Her Twitter response was: "Thank you for making me feel so old",  It isn't every day that the news headline is a light-hearted remark. I took these pictures last Saturday - the last of the grape leaves on the vines.  These had red, orange and yellow in such intense tones.  I drove by later in the week on Thursday and everything was gone - the leaves and the colours.  It is so remarkable how quickly the colours can disappear.

Boston Ivy Days are Finishing

I have the leaf-retaining Red Maple out front.  It will be the last tree to lose its leaves and is still holding on to them. Last week I saw the last of the boston ivy.  I was fascinated by the wall at Vineland Research Station with the long leafless stems about 8 inches long.  They must have adapted to the light conditions and are able to reach out beyond the shade to catch the sun.  The more typical boston ivy habit is shown in the bottom two pictures with the brilliant golds and reds..

Lifehacker Thursday

The Cannas have finished blooming for the year, and the tubers are tucked away till next spring.  The leaves are a significant size.  That  means light in combination with the lines on the leaves make for wonderful abstracts. And I found this with the news today: There's a Top 10 website called Lifehacker.  In April, it celebrated its 10th anniversary and posted its most popular top ten lists of everything.  Take a look HERE.  With the website's success, Thursdays are known as "Lifehack Thursday".

Wind Storm Warning

What makes a wind storm warning more significant in the late fall than in the spring? The Tree Expert told me last year.  He said that it is the trees who have suffered some decay or stress during the summer that are the ones prone to problems.  Heavier winds start to occur in the fall, and that's what causes limb failure. Of course there's the possibility of trees uprooting.  How many inches of rain make the soil wet enough that the roots come undone? The experts say that drainage is the major concern rather than rain fall.  Did you know that roughly 90% of a tree's roots are in the upper 18" - 24" of soil? How do you know if a tree in your yard is at high risk for falling?  The expert says:  look at the tree and its environment.  Is the tree leaning? Has the leaning increased in recent years? Is the crown healthy - root problems are often reflected in crown condition.  Are there noticeable cracks in the trunk? These are all signs of weakness and stress. We'll see what today's high wind warning produces.  Today's photos of fall colours in Charles Daley Park are filtered through rain patterns on the car windshield that we experienced yesterday.

View From Above

I went out to see the Autumn colours yesterday.  I started at Beamer Park up on the escarpment.  The park is an example of a preserved Carolinian forest here in Ontario, and has excellent views out across the region.  The view in this picture is towards Niagara Falls, and one can see its high rises. The winds have been blowing the colours off the trees so there isn't the show that one might like for photographs.  And as the winds blew and blew, a storm blew in. The last picture is at Locust Lane, where the Hidden Bench barn is located, and looks out over the Lake. While the Lake is in this picture, there's no Toronto floating on the horizon today. Dezi and I arrived home just in time for the rain to start.

When Autumn Met Winter

We had snow, cold and winds 2 weeks ago.  Last week, I stopped at the beautiful Bloodgood Japanese Maple around the corner.  It's the largest that I've seen in Niagara.  The red leaves carpet the driveway when they fall.  Here they are with snow and grass below the trunk.

Dewdrops in the Garden

I popped out to the garden early yesterday morning and found these wonderful dewdrops in the garden on one of the roses.  Just one. Other roses didn't have them even though they have the saw tooth leaves.  It seems like one of those mysteries.  So I went to Wikipedia, and perhaps the explanation is clear - the leaves are thinner than other roses.

"Dew is water in the form of droplets that appears on thin, exposed objects in the morning or evening due to condensation."

I also found many entries for Dewdrops in the Garden.  It was released 2 Aug 1994 by Deee-Lite.  The entries for Deee-Lite go on for pages...