Rocket Launch

It is today - rockets are launching into space! "Early Wednesday morning, rocket enthusiasts will have the lucky experience of being able to watch two launches at roughly the same time. Around 7:30AM ET, SpaceX is slated to launch one of its Falcon 9 rockets from the California coast, while European launch provider Arianespace will send up its Ariane 5 rocket from its South American spaceport in French Guiana. If all goes according to plan, the vehicles will launch around 15 minutes apart. The SpaceX launch will be the seventh mission the company does for long-standing customer Iridium. SpaceX has a contract with Iridium to launch 75 satellites for the company’s Iridium NEXT constellation, which provides global telecommunications coverage. SpaceX has been launching these probes in batches of 10 (except for the sixth mission, which sent up five satellites). After this seventh flight, SpaceX only has one more group of satellites to launch, and then its job for Iridium will be complete. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is slated to take off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Southern California at 7:39AM ET. Following launch, SpaceX hopes to recover as much of the rocket as it possibly can right now. The rocket booster will attempt one of the company’s signature landings on a SpaceX drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. And a little while afterward, SpaceX will also try to catch the Falcon 9’s nose cone, or payload fairing, the bulbous structure that surrounds the satellites at the top of the rocket".   This is quoted from theverge.com - there is more at Spaceflightnow.com with live coverage. I wondered how many people watched the last one?  Over 3 million. This seems like great news to know there are scientists and astronomers out there.  Last week I visited Brian's Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field, and as I drove along 3rd Avenue Louth I found myself in the midst of hundreds of thousands of roses.  It is the Bakker's rose growing field between 5th and 7th Street.  Here's a partial view of it - this is 8 photos together in a panorama. It only covers a portion.

How Old is Kirk Douglas?

Have you ever wondered about your favourite celebrities from past decades?  At NEWS 1130, they list the celebrity birthdays for the following week in order of oldest to youngest.  Here are today's celebrity birthdays: July 22: Actor Orson Bean (“Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”) is 90. Actress Louise Fletcher is 84. Actor Terence Stamp is 80. Game-show host Alex Trebek is 78. Singer George Clinton is 77. Singer-actor Bobby Sherman is 75. Actor Danny Glover is 72. Writer-director Paul Schrader is 72. Singer Don Henley is 71. Actor-comedian-director Albert Brooks is 71. Composer Alan Menken (“Little Mermaid,” ”Little Shop of Horrors”) is 69. Actor Willem Dafoe is 63. Singer Keith Sweat is 57. Singer Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls is 55. Actor-comedian David Spade is 54. Actor John Leguizamo is 54. Bassist Pat Badger of Extreme is 51. Actress Irene Bedard (“Pocahontas”) is 51. Actor Rhys Ifans (“Elementary,” ”Notting Hill”) is 51. Actor-singer Jaime Camil (“Jane the Virgin”) is 45. Musician Daniel Jones (Savage Garden) is 45. Singer Rufus Wainwright is 45. Actress Franka Potente (“The Bourne Identity”) is 44. Actress A.J. Cook (“Criminal Minds”) is 40. Actor Keegan Allen (“Pretty Little Liars”) is 31. Singer-actress Selena Gomez is 26. It seems so fascinating.  I would not have realized Louise Fletcher or Terence Stamp were over 80.  What about Kirk Douglas?  He's age 101, born in 1917.  (His son Michael Douglas is 73 years old).  Olivia de Havilland is age 102, born 1916. There's a wikipedia list of actors, entertainers, celebrities who are centurions (living and deceased).  I found this person in the list:  Ruthie Thompson, born 1910, age 107, American animator.  (Maybe she's 108 by now). This seems really old.  In comparison the oldest verified living person is 117 years old - Chiyo Miyako, born May 2nd, 1901.  And the oldest person who has ever lived and whose age has been verified is Jeanne Calmest at age 122 years, 1875-1997.  She has a fascinating story HERE. We look at the delicate shapes and textures in  carnation flowers today.

Richest Person Ever

The Globe and Mail reported this week that the richest man in the world has $150 billion.  He's Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.  He's the richest person in history. This is more wealth than anyone since Forbes started its rich list in 1982.  Bill Gates had a net worth around $149 billion in 1999, and has since given away billions to charity so has 'lost ground'. The Independent UK article says that the nine richest men in the world have more combined wealth than the poorest 4 billion people.  In another article by author Tim Worstall in Forbes, he says that the average American today is 90 times richer than the average person in Central Africa.  And richer than the historical human being.  He proposes that outside addiction or mental health problems, there is no one in the U.S. today who suffers from the usual human description of poverty.  Real poverty is defined as $600 a year.  Brad Delong pointed out that historical living standards never fell very far below $600 for long, because if they do then they become dying standards. Tim Worstall, the author, makes a poignant observation: "...we sure do have a lot of people still talking about poverty so what are they on about? The truth is they're not talking about poverty at all. They're talking about how some have more than others: inequality." Which is where we started: wondering over the wealth of the richest person ever.

No Exit for Marilyn on Marilyn Street

Dezi and I walk around the neighbourhood each morning for her exercise chasing bunnies.  There are many so she is well exercised.   Marilyn Street is one of the streets we walk on and it is a No Exit street.  In other municipalities I've seen No Outlet.  I wonder what the difference is.  Isn't outlet a bit complicated for something as simple as "not a through street", or "no way out"? Here's outlet: A vent or similar passage to allow the escape of something.  Something which allows for the release of one's desires.  A river that runs out of a lake.  A shop that sells the products of a particular manufacturer or supplier.  A wall-mounted device such as a socket or receptacle connected to an electrical system at which current is taken to supply utilization equipment or appliances. Here's exit: A way out.  He was looking for the exit and got lost .  A passage or gate from inside someplace to the outside, outgang.  She stood at the exit of the house looking back and waving at those inside .  The action of leaving.  He made his exit at the opportune time.  Death.  The untimely exit of a consummate politician. Synonyms for exit are:  (a way out) egress, outgang, outway * (the action of leaving) egress, outgoing, departure Outlet seems a bit extreme - to imply that a car or person at the end of the street needs escape. Seems a bit existential to me.  If we take the last definition of Exit, though, we're at the extreme aspect of living.  It too has an existential quality.  Perhaps I shouldn't think of this in the context of Marilyn Street. Our pictures look at the Lily Show today.  The bottom one has David Maltby and Brian Bergman overseeing the show stems in the wonderful RBG atrium.

Lilies and Lilies...and Roses

It is the Ontario Regional Lily Society show this weekend at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington.  I got a chance to visit the newly renovated and redesigned Rose Garden, and the pictures today show the views through the garden. The garden opened at the end of June after a two plus year renovation.  The roses are now combined with companion plants, so create a healthier eco-system garden which will be more interesting throughout the summer.  Rose gardens in the past have required a lot of management for watering, diseases and pests - think of the rose garden as a monoculture.  This is not a very healthy system.  RBG is leading the way with a holistic approach for us to learn from.   I'll be back there today to check out the other gardens such as the renovated Rock Garden.  And of course, take more pictures of lilies.

Hooyah! Mission accomplished

Yesterday we looked at the Guinness records about roofs.  Today, in celebration of the rescue of the cave-bound Thailand boys, we look at underground records.   We were there for that record too. It was August 2010 and 33 miners were trapped underground in Chile for 69 days.   But how about this record?  It would be on a lighter note (!): The deepest concert underground was at 1271 m (4,169 ft 11 in) below sea level at Pyhäsalmi Mine Oy, Pyhäjärvi, Finland and was performed by Agonizer (Finland) on 4 August 2007. My Google search goes off-course with a fascinating title: 20 Guinness World Record-breaking destinations to visit around the world.  1.  The largest railway station by number of platforms is New York City's Grand Central Terminal. 2. World's narrowest Street - Germany's Spreuerhofstrasse street. Located in Reutlingen, the thin street is only a foot wide at its narrowest point. ... World's Oldest Restaurant:  You can still dine at the world's oldest restaurant - Restaurante Botín - located in Madrid, Spain. Created in 1725, it still maintains its original 18th-century interiors and firewood oven today. Then Google results return to the topic in a bizarre headline:  "A man who has been buried alive in a pub garden for more than three months has broken the record for the length of time spent in a wooden box underground". Geoff Smith, 37, beat the European record of 101 days - set by his mother - at midnight on Monday. Could you make these stories up?  His mother did it when he was seven years old. "He did it at 37, and it has been his ambition to go and bury himself in a box". Back above ground, it is Lilycrest blooming time.

Who is that Mansard of the Roof?

How is it that the Mansard roof is named after Francois Mansard.  The word mansard has the French origin of mansard  and the English origin of "Mansard, Francois".  The earliest known example is credited to Pierre Lescot on part of the Louvre, built around 1550.  It was named after the person who popularized it in the early 17th century. A search on roof shapes will retrieve dozens of different ones.  And then there are ones that have no name to describe their unusual shape.  Here's the Lighter Side of Real Estate's 12 most unique roofs.  In comparison, the BBC article is about the world's most unusual rooftops - typically with gardens.  It is HERE.   I thought that perhaps the Guinness Book of Records might give us insight into roofs.  Here are a few records involving roofs: Longest cantilever roof Largest reinforced concrete cement flat roof span Longest roof span covered by a single metal corrugated sheet ... and then it moves on to other roof-related items: Most consecutive donut spins while standing on the roof of a car Fastest time to flip 10 cars on the roof Fastest time to break 1,000 roof tiles (male) (female) And then an array of records involving centipedes, slime, the loudest drummer... these might really be advertisements/news items. I refrained from reading the centipede one. Here's our pretty roof from the Niagara-on-the-Lake garden tour over the weekend. The house is located on the most prestigious place on the street facing the Lake with the view of the American historic fort.  However this gazebo seems like an unlikely lover's rendezvous:  it sits under a chestnut tree and it faces away from the lake.  Perhaps there is a story in this.

Niagara's String of Pearls

I visited two of Niagara's Pearls yesterday.  The first was Niagara-on-the-Lake with its garden tour.  This year's garden tour was a walking tour through what is now named "Old Town".   But you know about Niagara-on-the-Lake as the prettiest town in Canada.  Let's go to the second pearl. The second pearl is the winery in Jordan - Pearl Morissette. The pictures below show the modern black barn on the horizon.  The window reveals two diners in the restaurant. There is nothing ordinary here - even the website - it has an Ethos tab rather than About us.   "François Morissette doesn’t make wine for Ontario. He makes wine for the world, especially for those who appreciate his approach of minimal-intervention, purity, and low sulphur. He is classically trained, having worked on the Grand Cru terroirs of Frédéric Mugnier of Chambolle Musigny, Christian Gouges of Domaine Henri Gouges, and Jean-Marc of Domaine Roulot. Further oenological training was also undertaken at L’Université de Dijon. He attempts to uncover the inherent nature of each and every vintage. The result of this focused dedication is a selection of wines that speak for themselves. At Pearl Morissette, no two wines are ever the same." The restaurant offers a blind tasting menu only.  The approach seemed to be French - where the components of a meal are separated into very small dishes.  I later discovered the chefs have trained and worked in France. Our meal was flavoured with whey and vinegars.  There were herbs and flowers from the field below us.  Included was everyone's favourite little garden weed - oxalis.   We enter a new realm with Pearl Morissette.  Like Stadtlander (Eigensinn Farm) and Susur Lee, the tastes and textures are original, and of course, delicious. Here's a Globe and Mail article about the Chefs. And here's a Hamilton Press article on therestaurant.  Here's the article from the New York Times on the wines.

Aromatherapy with Old Books

We attend very little to smell.  Common wisdom holds that smell is the least important sense for our species. On the other hand, smell is the only sense that affects the memory and emotion part of the brain. Each morning when I walk into our little office, I smell paper.  I would like to have the adjectives to describe the odour.   I will have to be satisfied with the comparison of old and new books.  An Old Book Odour wheel has been developed. What is said about new book paper is this:  "There are certain chemicals, such as sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), that are added to the paper to diminish its acidity and swelling of the fibres of the wood pulp used in the paper." And about old books:  "Old books have a sweet smell with notes of vanilla flowers and almonds, which is caused by the breakdown of chemical compounds in the paper, while new books smell like they do because of the carious chemicals used when they are manufactured". The Old Book Smell project is described in the smithsonianmag.com:  "With the help of visitors to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in England and a panel of library smellers at the historic Wren Library at St. Paul’s Cathedral, the team conducted a sensory analysis. They presented museumgoers with eight smells—one of which was an (unlabeled) historic book scent and seven were decidedly non-bookish, such as eau de fish market and coffee. The researchers then had participants answer a questionnaire, including a question asking descriptors of of the historic book smell. When museum sniffers described the book smell, they most frequently used words like “chocolate,” “coffee,” and “old.” Library smellers, however, selected words like “woody,” “smoky” and “earthy” from the list, and described the smell’s intensity and perceived pleasantness. Next, the team used all of the information they collected to create the Historic Book Odour Wheel, a descriptive wheel kind of like tools used to characterize the flavors of coffee or wine". The Grimsby Farmers' Market takes place on the Main Street of town - its name is Main Street.  This week's delights included the last of the strawberries and the first of the raspberries.  And the green and yellow beans are here.

Shrouded in Mystery

What about the world news headlines today - so many aimed at pulling you in.  They certainly get my attention: Cheetah Approaches Man Sleeping New Zealand PM has beef with the Impossible Burger Hunted for their body parts and stigmatized:  Malawi's... After Man Saves Bear's Drowning Cub... A piece of chewing gum, a bottle of water and new... Of course there are more lurid ones and more urgent headlines - particularly about the Thailand boys trapped in the cave. I had found was an article about Scotland's 5,000-year-old carved stone balls shrouded in mystery on the CNN site. CNN's articles are 'sensational' - like the headlines above.  It is as though the stones were found yesterday.  Their articles typically are missing in background and context.  And then there are other aspects that fall short, but not to worry as there are reputable sources to go to.  I credit CNN with alerting me to this most interesting mystery. So off I went to Wikipedia to read an organized article on them.  It is HERE. These stones have been found over time.  By the late 1970's a total of 387 had been recorded.  The majority were found in the north-east in Aberdeenshire. By 2015 a total of over 425 were recorded.  There's a collection of 30 carved balls in the British Museum's collection.  They are generally the size of tennis balls or oranges. They have knobs in varying numbers and ornamentation.   The mystery of their function is what drew me in.  Could they be used as weapons, with fishing nets, as oracles, working on hides, megalith construction aids, or evidence of the knowledge of the five Platonic solids.  The most elaborate one is from Towie in Aberdeenshire, likely 3200 - 2500BC.  It is typically in the pictures that accompany their story.  There is no conclusion to what their purpose is.  Just the wonderful mystery... We visit the Grimsby Market today and pictured here is John, of Park Road Bread. He is among the artisan bread makers specializing in sourdough.  John makes a chocolate sourdough bread and a chocolate sourdough cake.  Sourdough remains magical and mysterious.   We know its function, unlike our Scottish Stones.  And we know that scientists have tried to 'solve the mystery of San Francisco sourdough.'  Two scientists are known for their landmark exploration of this wonderful living organism.  If you love sourdough, read the discovermagazine article HERE.

THE FOURTH of JULY

No one in North America would consider the fourth day of the month of July as anything but: The Fourth of July.   For us, it is a formal name, paired with Independence Day in the United States. The tradition of Independence Day goes back to the 18th century with the American Revolution.  It was made a federal holiday in 1870, and finally a paid holiday to all federal employees in 1941. There had been debate on which day should be the celebrated day.  John Adams considered July 2nd the correct date to celebrate American independence. It was on July 2nd that the Continental Congress voted in favour of Lee's resolution for independence. The Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, and this is the date that became cemented in American tradition. The famous name of John Hancock:  he is the only one who actually signed the Declaration on July 4, 1776.  The others signed it later.  It was first read in public on July 8th, 1776 and the first celebration took place then. Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on July 4th 1826, the 50th anniversary of the the Declaration's adoption.   On Saturday, there were 40 open gardens in Watertown, a beautiful town on the escarpment.  Here's a beautiful espalier.

After the Last One

Is there a term for the one after the last one?  

How could there be?  It is the 'last one'. 

The following are the words for Nth last:

1. ultimate — last
2. penultimate — next to last
3. antepenultimate — next to next to last
4. preantepenultimate — next to next to next to last
5. propreantepenultimate — next to next to next to next to last

Now the final one is of dubious pedigree. Another “word” for the fifth from last (also dubious, but older) is suprapreantepenultimate.

So we aren't going to have celebration day after July 1st.  Or we won't consider it an 'ultimate'.  That doesn't stop there being titles such as:  "The Day After the End of the World".  

Our picture of the day comes from Ruth Moffatt - Rick Blechta leading us in the singing "Oh Canada"

Randomly Canadian on July 1st

Happy Canada Day! Huffington Post has an article titled "20 Random Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Canada."  I declare on July 1st that these could only be random to citizens of the United States.  Here are Four:   Queen Elizabeth II is Canada’s official Head of State.  The Canadian government has declared Santa as a Canadian citizen. In fact, you can mail your letter to the North Pole in any language (including Braille), and his trusted elves will answer them all. Yes, all 1.5 million of them. Hockey and lacrosse are Canada’s national sports. There are more donut shops per capita in Canada than any other country in the world. But who’s saying that’s a bad thing? You can read the others HERE.  These four topiaries are in a garden in St. Catharines.  Three sisters and a presiding grandmother. We can't miss out on a Maple Leaf today - here it is  - this photo in Winnipeg last year by Dan Harper at danharper.com