Pretty Florida Architecture

As I finished taking pictures of the sunrise, I heard a yell from the beach and the two very hardy and hearty young surfers had just jumped into the water.  The waves today are great long, rolling waves. They must be perfect for surfing even though the temperatures are cold this early in the morning.  A walk along the beach yesterday revealed where the dead tree had been moved to. l wonder where it is today.   View this email in your browser

Is the Ocean shore different from the Lake shore?

We're looking at the things that wash up on the ocean shore.  These don't wash up on the Lake Ontario shores.    However, there are places where you can stand on the Lake Ontario shore and it seems endless like the ocean.  So what is the difference? Here's one eloquent answer: "It feels different.  It smells different. There is a general loudness and foaminess of the ocean that the Great Lakes (inland seas, actually) don't match.  You can sense the deep, powerful rumble of the ocean, but the lakes don't carry that vibe.  The smell of the ocean is, of course, salty.  There's a scent to the lakes as well, and it is watery/freshness, somewhat reminiscent of what is called petrichor (negative ions caused by the rain, but in this case, clearly the friction around the water surface).  No salt.  The waves in the smaller lakes are typically choppy without the rolling crests that flow in as one would expect in the ocean..." I conclude with some Sarasota beach art.

Sunset Sunrise

As the sun sets on summer our question of the day is:  Do Sunrises look different from sunsets?  Today we'll see fireworks as the sun sets on summer.  What about tomorrow? Natalie Wolchover writes: "You've woken up out of a coma. You yank the IV from your arm and stumble out of the hospital. The sun is perched on the horizon. Can you tell whether it's rising or setting? Contemplating this scenario while gazing sunward at dusk or dawn, we might feel as if we could sense the difference between the two times of day. But in real life, it's impossible to completely divorce our perceptions of the scene from our awareness of the hour. So, is there any objective way to distinguish an upward-trending sun from a downward one? According to atmospheric physicists David Lynch and William Livingston, the answer is "yes, and no." The first is in our heads. "At sunset, our eyes are daylight adapted and may even be a bit weary from the day's toil," Lynch and Livingston write. "As the light fades, we cannot adapt as fast as the sky darkens. Some hues may be lost or perceived in a manner peculiar to sunset. At sunrise, however, the night's darkness has left us with very acute night vision and every faint, minor change in the sky's color is evident." In short, you may perceive more colors at dawn than at dusk. [Red-Green & Blue-Yellow: The Stunning Colors You Can't See]" To read on see: http://www.livescience.com/34065-sunrise-sunset.html

What is Cyanotype?

At this time of year, the Lake is a muddy brown, almost  black and white naturally. The filter that's been applied is Cyanotype, and it intensifies the contrast so that the lines dominate the picture.  Cyanotype is actually a printing process that is used for blueprints.   Here's the Wikipedia definition of Cyanotype:

1. "Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses two chemicals: ammonium iron(III) citrate and potassium ferricyanide."
   
   
   
   
   

The Nerine Bowdenii flower (with the common names Spider Lily, Guernsey Lily, Cornish Lily and more) is naturally pink.  With the same process applied, it has the sense of being a blue lily.   There must be 7 or 8 common names for this flower - that's why it is good to know the latin name.  It seems so much more elegant an image with the monochrome colouring of the cyanotype.  What do you think?

Lake Ontario South Shoreline Views

You saw the beautiful stretch of sandy beach at Port Dalhousie yesterday. Today we see the shoreline just west of Jordan.  We're facing west in these pictures - you can see the Hamilton escarpment in the background.  It's an expansive view that showcases the Lake and the shoreline.

The shoreline is very similar all along this area - from Martin Road to Tufford Road - the corresponding numbers on yesterday's map would be in the 10 to 14 range.  It is called low shoreline.  The road is right against the shoreline with houses scattered along the north side.  Some of the houses are old cottages from days gone by, and others are modern houses with the lake view, but not the shoreline mansions further west.  The road starts and stops.  It is not continuous along the lake.  I expect this is due to erosion and property ownership. There are small stretches of private lanes and roads and property that doesn't have public access of any kind.   

I've explored this area in the past - looking for orchards overlooking the water.  However, that's not the normal situation - the winds are too strong at the water's edge.  It will be blustery out there today.

Where's the Beach?

Lake Ontario South Shore Beaches

A few weeks ago I was looking for more information on the Charles Daley Park dynamic lagoon.  I came upon the 2009 study of south shore beaches.  I had no idea that there were 58 distinct shoreline areas.  The formal definition is 'reaches'.  These are "a length of shoreline having common physiographic characteristics, shore dynamics, environmental elements and land use."

Our pictures today include Port Dalhousie's lighthouses from the west side - from Lakeside Park.  It is 28 on the map.  At the shore is what remains of the amusement park at Lakeside Park.  All that's left is the antique Carousel which has been beautifully preserved.  One can still ride for 5 cents in the summer.  Lakeside Park has a long, long sandy beach with great views of the sky in both directions.  It seems particularly exposed here.  The day of these pictures there were huge waves beating a frozen shoreline.  In Grimsby there was no ice on the shore yet.

We'll be visiting many of these points on the south shore and see what these different reaches have to offer.