Squirrel House Visit

I visited some of the Squirrel House Gardens images from this past summer, enjoying Elisabeth Hilton's beautiful garden compositions, including this wonderful statue in the garden and the winding path leading the eye out to more garden treasures.

I hope Elisabeth is enjoying warm weather compared to us here in snowy Niagara.

Orchids in Niagara

Niagara's Winter Crop

Niagara's Crops There are acres of greenhouses in Niagara.  Some stretch as far as you can see as you drive along the QEW or the Niagara Stone Road into Niagara-on-the-Lake.   We're looking at the orchid 'crop' growing in the Cosmic Greenhouses, in Beamsville.  I stopped in last week to see if they would allow photography and got a quick tour.  Plant production is efficient and scientific:  The orchids we see for sale in the grocery stores and florists take 19 months to grow from tissue culture sprouts to blooming plants. They start in warm greenhouses below, where they receive water and nutrients on a rigorous schedule.  When large enough, they are moved to the next greenhouse where it is cool.  Cool temperatures are needed to make phalaenopsis (what you see here) spike and bloom. And then they are off to our houses.  While it is great to see in winter, this isn't just a winter crop.  These orchids are grown year round, with the greenhouses heated and cooled to match the growing conditions needed.   Our third picture is at Niagara College in the learning greenhouses of the horticultural program. The usage instructions to students include 'maintaining a clean environment and no food or drink in the greenhouse'.  It looked like a cucumber crop in this special greenhouse, and in the larger greenhouse where we are allowed to walk around, begonia seeds will sprout for this summer's gardens.

Force a Smile

Tulip Time - Force A Smile

I hope today's tulip pictures give you a little cheer and a smile in the Winter. I expect they are forced into bloom in greenhouses rather than grown in fields. It would seem more efficient. But are the greenhouses here in Niagara or are they in Holland? I realized that I know where the vegetables are grown, but I don't know where all the flowers are grown.  Alstromeria, Gerberas and Orchids are grown here in Niagara. These tulips were in a bouquet I received last week. Is it possible that my complete bouquet (tulips, chrysanthemums, alstromeria and ferns) has come from a source such as Westbrook? Westbrook is a familiar name in Niagara with over 1.5 million square feet of greenhouse space in Grimsby (and Dorval, Quebec). I guess it is time to check out our floral trade in Niagara.

Romantic Flair in the Pleasure Garden - At Chanticleer

Romantic Flair in a Pleasure Garden

Chanticleer is a garden near Philadelphia.  It is in Wayne, PA.  It describes itself as "the most romantic,  imaginative, and exciting public garden in America."   That's quite the claim given there are Romantic gardens such as Filoli on the West coast.  Its claim for imagination is well-founded.  The plantings are inspired and creative, always changing each year by seven Horticulturalists responsible for garden areas.

The two pictures today can verify that this is a Romantic garden.  The first is in the Ruin Garden.  This is a perfect Romantic Rendezvous.  It provides the shade and enclosure for intimacy and closeness, along with the sound of water and the reflection in the black water pool for soothing sounds and sights. The second is at the Teacup Garden, and shows the wonderful use of Bronze Fennel with Verbena Bonariensis.  The house in the background provides a graceful setting.  

It was at Chanticleer that I realized a Romantic garden doesn't go by the rules of 3's and 5's for plantings.  It has all the truly Romantic trees such as weeping cherries planted in 2's. 

It is a treasure to have such an amazing garden within a day's drive of Niagara. 

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?

Colour in Summer

COLOUR


It seems so far away that there could be this much colour all around us every day.  This is the Grimsby Market and the Wendalane Flower Farm stall.  I am enthralled by Jen's combination of floral materials - creative and inventive.  I've seen people point at a flower like the Queen Anne's Lace and say - 'that's a weed'.  And then they buy a posie or bouquet with it.  It is one of those graceful, delicate flowers with a vintage sense to it.  Jen is choosing her flowers for 2015 and will be starting seeds soon.  I hope she grows the Walking Gourds again.  They were fun in the garden urns in Autumn.

Here's their Facebook and website to take a look:
https://www.facebook.com/wendalanefarms
http://www.wendalane.com

Word of the Year 2014 and Jordan Wisteria

What does this Jordan Wisteria have to do with Word of the Year 2014?

I've shown pictures of this wisteria before - it is located on the Main Street in Jordan, the historic village that is home to Cave Springs Winery and the sister hotel and restaurant On the Twenty.  I was preparing some images for a contest where the theme is pergolas and arbours, and this one came to mind.  What is an arbour compared to a pergola?   My google search reveals that an arbour (also arbor) is a "shelter of vines or branches or of latticework covered with climbing shrubs or vines" whereas a pergola is "1: arbor, trellis 2: a structure usually consisting of parallel colonnades supporting an open roof of girders and cross rafters".

Sometimes the answers aren't as straight-forward as we expect.  Whichever way we call this, it is one of the most beautiful sights and smells in Niagara in mid-May.



Which picture do you like best?  Which one to enter in the contest?  Give me your advice.

Now on to the Word of the Year 2014.  As I searched for definitions, the Word of the Year for 2014 popped up a few times. Wikipedia gives me guidance on what this is about at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_the_year

Here are three for 2014:
Oxford Dictionary:  Vape.   It is an abbreviation of vapour or vaporize and it was added to Oxford's Dictionary in August 2014.  It is a verb and means 'to inhale and exhale the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device'.

Merriam-Wesbster: Culture.  Merriam-Webster chooses the most popular word experienced by the biggest spike in lookups in a year, as in celebrity culture, company culture, pop culture, culture shocks, media culture, etc.

Dictionary.com: Exposure.  This word was chosen in reference to the Ebola virus, widespread theft of personal information, and shocking acts of violence and brutality that dominated the news.  Encapsulating those themes, Dictionary.com chose exposure.

There are so many interesting things to find out every day.  

Niagara Scenes

This is Southbrook Vineyards on the Niagara Stone Road.  As it faces south in an open expanse, it has reflections of the sky all through the day.  This is the reflecting sky at sunset.  It is an imposing  structure - the wall stretches 200 metres long and is periwinkle blue in colour.  It changes in the day's light from the deep blue we see here to a dove grey in bright light.  In front of the building there usually are ponds reflecting the wall and building.  

Jack Diamond is the architect and the building won the 2009 International Architecture Award.  Looking out from the winery, one sees the Skyway that stretches over the Welland Canal. The picture shown here was taken in the spring of 2012 and the flowers in the field are dandelions.  

The Lotus

I was lucky to find a few lotuses over the last year that were close enough and in good light so that I was able to photograph the details of the flower petals and stamens inside.

It is a distinctive plant:  the flowers, seeds, young leaves and roots are all edible, and we can get canned pods to use in salads.  I didn't realize that lotus plant fibres are also used to make fabric.   

The lotus has been recognized as a religious and cultural flower of significance by the Egyptians and in the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism.  It is the growth of its pure beauty from the mud of the pond that captivates:  "I love the lotus because while growing from mud, it is unstained." (Chinese Confucian scholar Zhou Dunyi).

Today's images show why cultures associate it with elegance, purity and grace. 

Inspirations from Getty - Society Garlic

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has wonderful gardens.  The first picture below shows the splendid and creative structures for growing bougainvillea.  

The plant that caught my attention is the one below - Society Garlic.  Its latin name is Tulbaghia violaceae and I recently found it at Humber Nurseries in the herb section.  It's now in the conservatory greenhouse, looking quite good.  It isn't in the Allium family - even though it looks and smells like onions and garlic.  It is in the Amaryllis family.  It was quite entertaining to be in the sunken garden at the Getty Museum.  The smell of garlic was everywhere in the air, as the hillside is lined with the plants as a ground cover. 

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.

New Year's Drop Off

Drop Off

This is the day after all the celebrations that started well before Christmas in November and end on New Year's Day  We might be looking ahead to Twelfth Night (Jan 5) and Epiphany (Jan 6) in some cultures with a strong religious orientation.  Here in North America, it all goes quiet.

It turns out that Costa Rica is full of early January celebrations.  The Palmares Fiestas starts the first week of January and is "two weeks of concerts, bullfighting, folklore dancing and general debauchery".  The first week also has the Coffee Cup:  "a much-anticipated, week-long juniour tennis tournament.  And there's the Alajuelita Fiestas - "an oxcart parade and party to honour the Black Christ of Esquipulas, Alajuela." So there's no end of fun in Costa Rica, no cliff after January 1st.

Perhaps it is time to schedule for next year's after-Christmas holiday in Costa Rica.

The two images today were taken in St. Augustine Florida, a lovely historic town.  The oldest house museum complex has historical houses surrounded with courtyards, gardens, and statues. St. Augustine gardens have clear Spanish influences in architecture and design.