Thunderstorms 101

Winter thunderstorms do happen, but they are rare because the air is more stable. Strong updrafts cannot form because the surface temperatures during the winter are colder.  Did you know that a winter thunderstorm is called a thundersnow? That's my Severe Weather 101 learning for today.  Or is it?  What about summer thunderstorms? There is a lot to learn there. We had rain last night with lightning and a little thunder, and it has started again just now.  That signals summer for me - that's when we get our thunderstorms.  Lightning is generated in clouds with strong vertical updrafts. Thunder is the acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere.  Thunderstorms can line up in a series and become what's known as a trainband or squall line.  Where would we live in the world to experience the most thunder? Venezuela, Zulia is the world leader in thunderstorms; "The most persistent and most spectacular thunderstorm in the world is Catatumbo Lightning. This is nearly continuous thunderstorm with up to 20,000 flashes of lightning per night, seen 140 - 160 nights per year and lasting approximately 10 hours long. It produces approximately 10% of tropospheric ozone in the world." Located along the Andes Mountains, it is the largest lake in South America and is situated in such a way that mountain breezes tangle with warm lake air. treehugger.com lists the top ten hotspots ranked and listed by average lightning flashes per square kilometre per year.  It looks like the Republic of Congo is the dominant location for this weather phenomenon: 1. Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela: 232.52 2. Kabare, Democratic Republic of Congo: 205.31 3. Kampene, Democratic Republic of Congo: 176.71 4. Caceres, Colombia: 172.29 5. Sake, Democratic Republic of Congo: 143.21 6. Dagar, Pakistan: 143.11 7. El Tarra, Colombia: 138.61 8. Nguti, Cameroon: 129.58 9. Butembo, Democratic Republic of Congo: 129.50 10. Boende, Democratic Republic of Congo: 127.52 Our weather highlights say that showers and thunderstorms are skimming through southern Ontario Monday night and Tuesday.  Then we're on to a warm weekend. Our Niagara orchards on on display today.

What Every Mother Wants

I often find funny jokes in Boys' Life Magazine.  They seem to get all the jokes.  Girls' Life Magazine is an American teen magazine similar to other magazines directed to women - advice about friends and familiars, stories on popular culture, fashion, and celebrities.  Boys' Life is the monthly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America for boys from 7 - 17. It began in 1911 and when it started was edited by 18-year-old Joe Lane.  Fast forward to today and Boys' Life is targeted towards older boys and features buying guides, video games, things to do, sports,  and still features scouting activities.  It still contains jokes in every issue.  I looked through the Boys' Life Mother's Day jokes.  And then I found this one - it is NOT in the Boys' Life Compendium of Mother's Day Jokes. Boys' Life Magazine remains a general interest and wholesome magazine - it describes its style as crisp, punchy writing in relatively short, straight-forward sentences.  So as you read this joke, it would clearly not appear in Boys' Life Magazine. Three sons left home, went out on their own and prospered. Getting back together, they discussed the gifts they were able to give their elderly mother.  The first said, "I built a big house for our mother."  The second said," I sent her a Mercedes with a driver."  The third smiled and said, "I've got you, both beat. You know how Mom enjoys the Bible, and you know she can't see very well. I sent her a brown parrot that can recite the entire Bible. It took 20 monks in a monastery 12 years to teach him. I had to pledge to contribute $100,000.00 a year for 10 years, but it was worth it. Mom just has to name the chapter and verse, and the parrot will recite it."  Soon thereafter, Mom sent out her letters of thanks: "Milton," she wrote the first son, "The house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house."  "Marvin," she wrote to another, "I am too old to travel. I stay home all the time, so I never use the Mercedes. And the driver is so rude!"  "Dearest Melvin," she wrote to her third son, "You were the only son to have the good sense to know what your mother likes. That chicken was delicious." I stopped at Sunnybrook Winery on the Lakeshore in NOTL, and took this picture of the orchard on Lake Ontario. Our second picture is the Weeping Cherry tree on Niagara Street.

Phenology Not Phrenology

I was at the Niagara Rhododendron Society Meeting and learned about phenology yesterday.  This is the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life.  How is climate changing and what is its impact on plants? (This is not the study of the human skull size - phrenology). Dr. Robbie Hart's interest is rhododendrons in the mountains of south China - Mt. Yulong.  He tracked the temperatures and the blooming times over two years. He told us that one of the studies that has been done in relation to climate change has used historical records of various kinds.  The Japanese have recorded Sakura blooming times over centuries - as part of novels, historical records, personal diaries, and more.  Robbie showed a chart of the increase in temperature from around 700 to present day. You can see the article and chart HERE. It was published in the International Journal of Climatology, in 2008. Japan is obsessed with cherry blossoms - and wonderfully so.  There are so many everywhere that  there is a cherry blossom forecast by region for 2018.  Blooming starts as early as March 21st in some areas.  A tour of the parks is shown in this article HERE  Our images today come from Hagley Museum - the Dupont's original powder works.  It is in Delaware close-by to Longwood Gardens.

Who is the Wisest?

Albert Einstein Quotes come under wisdom quotes. He is synonymous with wisdom.  Here is a sampling from wisdomquotes.com True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness. When I examine myself and my methods of thought I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge. A scientist is a mimosa when he himself has made a mistake, and a roaring lion when he discovers a mistake of others. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy? If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Is there an answer to who is the wisest person?   Here is Quora's answer- a list which starts with Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Pearl S Buck, Maya Angelou, and Steve Jobs.

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Blossoming!

The news last week said that the asteroid that is coming 1.1 million miles distance from Earth is 'a reminder that somewhere out there an asteroid may have our name on it'.  It made me think of silly expressions, such as: "Don't worry if plan A fails, there are 25 more letters in the alphabet." We have arrived at Spring in Niagara.  We had warm weather on Sunday and Monday and the earliest blossoms opened.  Grapes, on the other hand, open with the lengthening days, so won't bloom for a few weeks yet. Our first picture of the blossom trail is shows migrant workers pruning the orchards.  "Migrant Dreams" is a documentary that profiles their plight - wages lower than our minimum wage, lack of health care, and living conditions that can be unsafe.  The circumstances are described in this article. I became aware of this because of the tireless work by Michael Hahn for the migrant workers.  Centred in Beamsville, he started out providing bicycles for transportation and now has expanded to clothing, a doctor's clinic, and other services they have difficulty accessing. A few weeks ago, I was part of the Grimsby Rotary Club's dinner for Niagara area migrants.  They come to Mike Hahn's home base - St. Albans church - on Sunday each week for a church service in Spanish, to visit the doctor in the one-room clinic, and to have a home-cooked meal.  It is very rewarding to be of service for an evening.  It goes a step towards awareness of the issues.  So now everywhere I go, I am so aware of our migrant workers and how many there are. our last two pictures show the row of corkscrew willows in spring sunshine vs fog - what a great demonstration of light creating emotion and story.

Bees Come Down

I spotted the first blossom trees in Niagara.  But I have to admit I don't know what kind of blossoms they are.  I am thinking apricots.  I remember in 2012 when we had the mildest of winters, Ii saw apricots blossoms in March, and then there was cold weather so the crop didn't develop. I saw these trees across from the United Mennonite Home in Vineland. I went to Cherry Lane on Victoria Street, to see if there was anything blooming there.  Cherry Lane has quite a distinction.  This is a family where the tenth generation is farming.  But that isn't their fame.  What distinguishes their family is the development of the first red peach - Red Haven.  It's the best known one now. They also have a major processing and cherry brining facility. There's an overview of Niagara fruit growers here. Vineyards are showing the pink but at the ground level - this second picture is at Jordan Station. I think the flowers are a wild/weedy form of lamium.  I have a bit in my garden too. And I checked out my favourite weeping cherry tree on Niagara Street (across from Laura Secord High School) in St. Catharines, and the blossoms are showing pink. Have a Happy Easter and Passover Celebration.

What's in a Name?

Elisabeth, Isabel, Izabel, Ebbie, Irene Isabella, Isabelle, Lyzbeth, Lisbeth, Eliza, Lisa, Lissa, Liza, Liz, Lizzie, Els, Elsa, Elza, Elisa, Belle, Bella, Betta, Beth, Betty, Bettie, Beetle, Bethany, Bess, Besse, Betsy, Buffy, Lily, Lilibeth, Bessie, Elisla, Liesl, Libby, Libbi, Lilla, Elspeth, Billie, Tizzy, Zabby, ... This is just a subset of the name variations for Elizabeth.  Perhaps because it is derived from Ancient Greek that it has so many variations in all major countries and languages. Its meaning in Hebrew  is "My God is an oath" or "My God is abundance".  The wikipedia section on statistics and name variants in use across the world tells us it has been among the 25 most popular names for the past 100 years. The name variant entries in Wikipedia are organized by full name, clipped forms, first half, middle, and second half.  And there is a separate section on nicknames. I wondered about the names with the most variants.  However, the search results were ask/answer websites. Many are targeted to naming babies with spelling variations to achieve a differentiated name.  I did find out that Shakespeare's name varied and there are six surviving signatures written by Shakespeare himself.  Most are abbreviated versions and it was a common practice then to use 'breviographic' conventions, or scribble abbreviations. Other examples given:  the name of Sir Walter Raleigh was written by his contemporaries either Raleigh, Raliegh, Ralegh, Raghley, Rawley, Rawly, Rawlie, Rawleigh, Raulighe, Raughlie, or Rayly. The name of Thomas Dekker was written either Dekker, Decker, Deckar, Deckers, Dicker, Dickers, Dyckers, or (interestingly enough) Dickens. So we dip into Spring today with our image of tree blossoms and the colour palette of spring on a heart of gold.

Which Weather Will It Be?

What about some icebreaker games?  One game is a series of questions and answers and one person picks up a question card and the next person an answer card.  Read aloud.  You can find them at icebreakerideas.com. Here are a few samples: Would you like to be a millionaire? No, once I tried, but it ended up a disaster. Would you like to find yourself in a harem? Being on the verge of despair only. Do you like music? Once, but only in a weak moment. Do you love children? I will answer you in private. Do you often have appointments? Only in the bathroom. Do you smoke? I dream about it after dinner. Here is a sample of the have you ever questions: Have you ever met a celebrity? Have you ever planted a vegetable garden? Have you ever been a car salesperson? Have you ever planned a wedding? Have you ever driven a riding lawn mower? Have you ever participated in a marathon? Have you ever gone mountain climbing? Have you ever had a dog compete in a dog show? Have you ever been somewhere while an earthquake occurred? Have you ever been somewhere while a hurricane occurred? Have you ever been on a college sports team? Have you ever played an instrument? Then there are the would you rather...questions Visit the doctor or the dentist? Eat broccoli or carrots? Be a giant rodent or a tiny elephant? Watch TV or listen to music? Have a beach holiday or a mountain holiday? Be an apple or a banana? Be invisible or be able to read minds? Make headlines for saving somebody’s life or winning a Nobel Prize? Always be cold or always be hot? Not hear or not see? Eliminate hunger and disease or be able to bring lasting world peace? Be stranded on a deserted island alone or with someone you don’t like? See the future or change the past? Our pictures today show what we will see in May in the Niagara orchards.

Snow that weighs too much

On the second day of winter snow, the phrase is 'snow that weighs too much.' Wikipedia has the many varieties from a to z - artificial snow through to zastrugi (snow surface features sculpted by wind into ridges and grooves).  There is even watermelon snow - a reddish/pink coloured snow that smells like watermelons, and is caused by a red-coloured green algae called Chlamydomonas nivalis.  These types of snow are mostly related to skiing. For urban snow, the Boston Globe has defined the types of snow removal personalities.  This seems to make sense with types like the mediocre shoveler, the incrementalist, the libertarian, angry snow plower, perfectionist, child labourer, anti-shoveler,  procrastinator, the t-taking pedestrian (t being an abbreviation for transportation), the snow angel, and more. Yesterday's snow quickly became slush.  How much does regular vs wet snow weigh?  For wet snow Monroe calculates: "Let's say wet snow would be equivalent to 1" of rain or 5" of snow, you would get a resulting 12.5 pounds per cubic foot, compared to light, fluffy snow at 5.2 pounds and a cubic foot of water at 62.4 pounds.  So I guess we would avoid a comparison with a cubic foot of Magnolia blossoms - our picture of the day.

Niagara Spring

The Niagara orchards are in blossom.  Just last week only a few pink flowers were showing - a little pink glow on the trees.  Fruit tree blossoms open with the warm temperatures and yesterday had both warm and cold.  As our temperatures rise, our spirits soar with the beautiful colours and fragrance this time of year.

Niagara Spring

Gardens and Orchards are awakening with the blossoms of spring.  This Niagara-on-the Lake heritage home is showing its best in spring with its Magnolia blossoms.  And of course, the orchards have started to blossom.  I notice this year that there are light pink, dark pink, bright white, yellowy white all blooming at the same time. There are orchards showing no colour too. I can identify pear trees as they are vertical in growth - pointing straight up.  But other trees seem more difficult to identify.  I wonder if there are any experts in the photo of the day who know the trees well.

The Pink Haze of Spring

Once Spring starts to bloom, we are aware of how lovely it is but often miss individual flowers and plants, as there is so much in bloom.  These are Azalea flowers - close-up and in the garden in waves of pink. These bloom mid to end of May. The first to bloom are the early cherries and the Magnolias.  My Star Magnolia opened yesterday.  The pink Saucer Magnolias are showing colour on their buds.  Perhaps later this week we'll se them blooming.