Weather Relief, Please

Relief from the muggy conditions...that was our weather headline this week.  It is only 18 degrees outside compared to earlier in the week when it felt like 40 degrees.  The greenhouse temperature was the same as outside yesterday.   I notice that we have a 'love it' and 'hate it' relationship with summer heat.  People either love it or hate it.  It is my sense that we don't have this contrast with winter.  My theory for winter is that there is a graduated scale of 'hate it'. August itself is not hated, though.  The 2005 Gallop poll and a current ranking site identify October as the favourite month, with December the second most popular.  June is third. Where is August?  It is eighth and ahead of March, April, January and February.  I did find two August jokes: Knock, knock?… Who is there?… August… August Who?… A gust of wind over 74 MPH could be the start of a hurricane!  Knock, knock?… Who is there?… August… August Who?… A gust of wind knocked me over!  Oh well, they were pretty meagre jokes.  However, we are heading into some favourite months and weather, so I expect better jokes ahead. Remember our boat from yesterday?  I found a more complicated boat-themed tree house in Toronto  - the article is HERE.  It has a price tag of $30,000.  I don't think Grimsby's has a price tag like that.  It likely isn't in violation of any building and zoning bylaws either. We're off to the Narrow Gauge Convention next week.  It is in Minneapolis - the home of Mall of America.  Here are a few pictures from last year at the same time.

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.

Wintermission Soon

Remember the Portmanteau?  What is Wintermission?  The Weather Network says it is coming to us shortly.  What are we getting?  We are getting an unseasonably low-temeratured day or days, sandwiched by two days of milder temperatures. So I guessed it is a combination of winter and intermission.  Although it could also be a combination of winter and remission. Wintermission shows up in google searches back to 2007 - with the headline name that season. (see below). There are now numerous winter festivals using the name - in St. Paul, MN there are shows, signature winter drink competitions, outdoor movies, and snowy fun runs. Promotional lines for vacationing in Orlando abound: Break the ice with a #wintermission in the park - that is, an Orlando park.  So now it typically has become an expression for taking a vacation - from a winter climate to a warm climate. What about this term - Wintermittent?  The Toronto Star had a story in February 2007 ' Name that season. They challenged readers to come up with a new name for winter.  Wintermission was the winner.  The close second was Wintermittent - "It also contains the words mitten and tent.  Wintermittent may entice you to go camping, or, on the other hand, you may need your mittens!" Are there Wintermittent and Wintermission jokes?  No, none found.  More interesting is that the google search comes up with weekly diet menus for weight loss - "best vegetarian diet next to how to gain wintermittent fast on low-fat" - nonsense sentences inserting one's search term as an expression. Here are a few winter weather jokes: We had to chop up the piano for firewood - but we only got two chords.  The snowstorm arrived at a fortuitous moment. It was white on time. If you are going to play cards in a snowstorm, shovel your deck. We pulled everything out of the freezer and huddled inside it to warm up!

Finding Good News

There's lots of bad news that's easy to find.  What about looking for good news?  I found some right away at Lifevestinside.com.  They have an impressive set of projects and ways to get involved in spreading kindness and hope.  They are action-oriented with clear initiatives.  For example, you can open a Life Vest Inside branch in your town. To bring kindness to children, their LVI Kindness Curriculum "provides a framework for scaffolding immersive experiences using critical thinking skills focused on kindness with the goal of benefiting not only the student and teacher, but also the community."  They reference Bloom's Taxonomy for 'growing skills.'  I checked it out.  The Vanderbilt University Centre for Teaching provides an overview: "In 1956, Benjamin Bloom with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl published a framework for categorizing educational goals: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Familiarly known as Bloom’s Taxonomy, this framework has been applied by generations of K-12 teachers and college instructors in their teaching. The framework elaborated by Bloom and his collaborators consisted of six major categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation." I worked at Ryerson from 1985 - 1995 and went to many teaching seminars and workshops. Somehow the Bloom's Taxonomy got missed out in all this education about education. I've reproduced it below for you - a great pyramid of learning, and one we will apply right away. That's because here in Niagara, there is a big shift in the weather - a little dusting of snow on the ground.  The weather report says it is -5 and feels like -13 Celsius. The 3 day severe weather outlook says no severe weather expected.  This means we 'understand' in the Bloom's Taxonomy - we 'recognize' this is normal weather.  We next 'analyze' by looking at the historical record low -8.8 in 1991 and the record high 20.5 in 1999.  So we are experiencing normal weather. Finally with today's picture we 'blur out' on the weather and end our trip through the hierarchy at 'evaluate' - justifying, arguing, and defending 'blurring out' as a valid approach to the weather.

Niagara and the Lake Effects

"The Lake Effects" - that's the phenomenon that gave Buffalo the terrible snow storm last year.  The one with the snow that came up to house roofs. In Niagara, the Lake Effects are/is credited with 'giving rise to remarkable flavour distinctions between grapes of leakier sub-appellations and those from further inland. " Here's the link that describes more about this: http://www.vqaontario.ca/Library/Appellations/NiagaraPeninsula_Maps.pdf We've been experiencing Lake Effects with the recent rain.  These pictures show the fog effects at Vineland Estates winery.  Fog can role in before or after a rain.  The third picture is Moyer Road - the road that leads to Vineland Estates.  Isn't this a beautiful country road!

Niagara's Weather

How fast things changed.  One week it is beautiful late fall with the autumn leaves in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and within days we are in blowing snow and frost. I could see the clouds changing from the outlook and gazebo at Niagara-on-the-Lake to Southbrook Winery on the Stone Road out of Niagara-on-the-Lake.