Russia - a Nation of Humour!

Did you know there is a very long tradition of Russian Political jokes?  I find this out from Wikipedia.  The jokes start with Imperial Russia and conclude with Post-soviet Russia.  They are HERE.  A Bloomberg article with the best jokes is HERE. Bloomberg's article, as with Wikipedia, demonstrates that Russian humour about the way the country is run is an unbroken tradition from the czarist era to the present day.  The article's author, like me, finds that many of them aren't funny.  But there are some great jokes in the article.  Here is Reagan's joke. "The CIA-Reagan Soviet joke pipeline was no secret at the time. One from a list declassified in 2013 was a particular favorite — Reagan told it repeatedly, once adding he’d shared it with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and gotten a laugh from him. The CIA version goes like this: An American tells a Russian that the United States is so free he can stand in front of the White House and yell, “To hell with Ronald Reagan.” The Russian replies: “That’s nothing. I can stand in front of the Kremlin and yell, ‘To hell with Ronald Reagan,” too. Two more from Wikipedia: A Gulag joke: Three men are sitting in a cell in the (KGB headquarters) Dzerzhinsky Square. The first asks the second why he has been imprisoned, who replies, "Because I criticized Karl Radek." The first man responds, "But I am here because I spoke out in favor of Radek!" They turn to the third man who has been sitting quietly in the back, and ask him why he is in jail. He answers, "I'm Karl Radek." A Stalin joke: Stalin reads his report to the Party Congress. Suddenly someone sneezes. "Who sneezed?" Silence. "First row! On your feet! Shoot them!" They are shot, and he asks again, "Who sneezed, Comrades?" No answer. "Second row! On your feet! Shoot them!" They are shot too. "Well, who sneezed?" At last a sobbing cry resounds in the Congress Hall, "It was me! Me!" Stalin says, "Bless you, Comrade!" and resumes his speech. Our pictures today come from Moyer Road - this is the road that Vineland Estates Winery is located on.  This silver barked bush along the side of the road is very photogenic as it is.  It becomes the texture for an abstract pattern created in photoshop.

Dogs and Children

I got to wondering how dogs compare to children in size and weight.  I guess there are dogs that compare to adults as well - think of a male Bullmastiff at a 110 to 130 pounds.  That weight would be a female human adult at five feet four inches.  Chihuahuas weigh around 6 pounds, so that would be a newborn baby girl (of low weight as newborn weight starts at 7 lbs) and almost 20 inches tall. The average Golden Retriever is 70 lbs so that translates to a 10 year old boy.   Whatever a dog's size, they are willing partners for an outdoor walk in the woods.  We can't be sure what a 10 year old boy would want to do this Saturday. Where will we go to get the best Fall colour experience? The ontarioparks.com website has a Fall Colour Map HERE.  You can go to Algonquin Park right now and see good colour due to cool temperatures over the last few days.  The information includes the report date, dominant colour, colour change and best viewing.  Colour change looks like a percentage colour and percentage leaf fall.  So in Algonquin right now the colour change is 50% and leaf fall 10%. There were no Niagara parks included in the report. So I checked out the Fall Colour Progression Report from this SITE.  The colour change in Niagara is 0%.  Included is Beamer Conservation Area - that's Grimsby's park on the escarpment.  Also covered are Brock's Monument, Ball's Falls and Niagara Falls.  Burlington's Royal Botanical Gardens has its own entry with 0% change.  So we're not yet into the Fall colours here in Niagara. So we'll use the colours of pumpkins for our Fall image today.  This is Hildreth's on Greenlane, a fruit and vegetable stand.

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!"

On Golden Pond

I know this isn't Niagara - instead it is Toronto Botanical Gardens.  Today's pictures again showcase TBG's Wilket Creek.  I was at Grimsby Beach yesterday, and wished for the golds and oranges to reflect in Forty Creek.  But alas, there aren't any Autumn colour reflections so far.  Maybe this weekend!

Benjamin Franklin's Frugal Talk

Frugality has a great history in the United States.  Both Benjamin Franklin and Ralph Waldo Emerson extolled and promoted the 'simple life.' Quotes from Benjamin Franklin: 1. “A penny saved is a penny earned.” 2. “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” 3. “Having been poor is no shame, being ashamed of it is.” 4. “He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.” 5. “Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt.” - Benjamin Franklin Today's pictures are the sort of 'castle ruin' we have in Ontario - a barn silo standing alone in an abandoned field. This one is up on the escarpment.

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.

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.

Farewell to Summer Flowers

We experience shorter days in October - with the sun getting up later and setting all too early.  Yet the days themselves are brilliant with vivid colours in the leaves.  Already the Sumac and the Virginia Creeper are orange and red along the roads. Fall bulbs are ready for planting.  I visited the new Van Noort location to pick up my Spring order.  They've moved to a few streets from Brian's Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field.  What a facility it is.  There are rows and rows of polyhouses that they are going to use to grow roses in the spring.  In the shared production facility, the last of the Gladiolus were being packaged for shipment.  Industrial plant production is very similar to industrial food or material production.  Things moving along conveyer belts with people doing small tasks along the way.  So today's images acknowledge the last of the Gladiolus and the end of our great summer flowering season.

Countdown to Christmas - the Landscape in December

It is the countdown to Christmas and everyone is busy shopping, going to concerts, baking, and going to special events.  These activities seem to be excellent distractions from the loss of our beautiful fall colours and glowing landscapes.  

These two pictures show the entrance to one of the Royal Botanical Gardens hiking trails.  They were taken just over a month apart, and with similar light in the sky.  But how the autumn colours make everything glow and how the winter sky and sombre reduced colour palatte makes for a stark comparison.

Of course, we will next experience Winter in Niagara.  The colour palette will reduce to the point where the images are black and white naturally.  It is a significant contrast to the many colours and hues of summer and autumn.  Of course, we then experience the cycle anew and our glorious spring returns.

Leaves into November

Most of our native trees lose their leaves by mid-November.  However, there are trees that keep their autumn colours long into November.  I was reminded of this when I visited RBG last week,  and spotted the Japanese Maple Osakazuki tree in the courtyard garden at the Main Building.  It is next to the Mediterranean Greenhouse.  It is a mature specimen so about 15 feet tall and holding its leaves extremely well.  The show was extraordinary.  I visited my great nursery, Cole's, on Saturday.  And now I have one of these beauties of my own.

As the Landscape Changes

I was at RBG earlier this week to check out the autumn colours in the arboretum.  I stood at the same place in early October 2012 at the arboretum.  What different landscapes and colours then and now.  Here is the first.

2014:

 2012:

Here is the second - 2014:

 2012:

Niagara Roads

It's autumn - October - in Niagara.  We've got some perfect colours, and I found these in the Fonthill area.  I went in search of autumn trees and road scenery and found it.

Ontario's Autumn - Brock Road Nursery in Guleph

Hi everyone,

We get beautiful Autumn colours in northern Ontario. With Niagara being more temperate, there isn't always a brilliant show.  Yesterday, I noticed that the Virginia Creeper along Highway 8 just below the escarpment is a brilliant red.  The Virginia Creeper along the QEW, which is closer to the lake is a dull red.  This small temperature difference has a significant effect in Autumn colours. 

Guelph's colours had started earlier in the week, and Brock Road Nursery had some pretty maple trees turning brilliant orange.  Along with their rustic building and chrysanthemum show, the scene seemed to be an idyllic Ontario Autumn day.  It was a wonderful nursery - perennial plants are available for the garden.  It had personal touches everywhere, and all the people there were friendly, knowledgeable gardeners.  It was a treat to experience a garden centre with a heart.  I happily took away some viola pansies in soft blue for the Autumn containers.

My own garden centre in Grimsby, Cole's, is this kind of nursery too.  It has lots of perennials available for planting with discounts to motivate us to finally purchase the things we've wanted but seemed too expensive.  

If you live in Guelph or are planning to visit, here's the website:

www.brockroadnursery.com/