A Truth Table Day

I find out that Einstein created a series of riddles.  What is interesting is that in Einstein's time he considered only 2% would solve the riddle below.  In our time the creation of a logic grid (like a truth table) to manage boolean logic is common. Basic boolean logic dominated computer and information management disciplines by the 1970's.  Computer spreadsheets in the 1980's made possible the analysis and display of row and column data. It made complicated oral descriptions simple.  In fact, it seems to me that we completed the move from the oral tradition to the visual tradition with computer spreadsheets.   The Einstein riddle comes from brainden.com.  "It is said that this quiz was made up by the famous physicist and according to him 98% will not solve it. There is a row of five different color houses. Each house is occupied by a man of different nationality. Each man has a different pet, prefers a different drink, and smokes different brand of cigarettes. The Brit lives in the Red house. The Swede keeps dogs as pets. The Dane drinks tea. The Green house is next to the White house, on the left. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds. The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill. The man living in the centre house drinks milk. The Norwegian lives in the first house. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer. The German smokes Prince. The Norwegian lives next to the Blue house. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbour who drinks water. Who has fish at home? Are you one of the 2%? Further Discussion" Let's complete our 'truth table' with its metadata row along the top:  Occupant nationality, House colour, Cigarette brand, Drink type, Pet type. Our garden pictures today come from the Denver Botanical Garden, so I guess our first picture would be titled Botanical Bunny.

The Feelings of Flowers

"Perfumes are the feelings of flowers."  -  Heinrich Heine September is when my garden is filled with Sweet Autumn Clematis - little white stars climbing up trees and bushes.  It is a haven for pollinators so there is a buzz of sound.  The scent is sweet and citrusy and is everywhere.   It reminds one of May and the scent of apple blossoms and hyacinths.  And then we see a red leaf and know this is the finale I saw red leaves yesterday climbing up poles and tree trunks.  I am curious whether they are poison ivy or virginnia creeper.  My own garden vriginnia creeper is not turning red yet.  So it might be the abundant poison ivy of Niagara that is the first to turn colour.   How to know which it is?  The expression to remember is: Leaves of three?  Let them be!  I didn't stop to check, but kept thinking of the expression. There are more rhyming expressions to help with the identification of poison ivy:  "Longer middle stem; stay away from them." -- the middle leaflet has a long stem while the two side leaflets attach almost directly. "Ragged rope, don't be a dope!" Poison ivy vines on trees have a furry, "raggy" or ragged appearance. "Berries white, run in fright" and "Berries white, danger in sight." "Red leaflets in the spring, it's a dangerous thing." -- new leaflets sometimes are red in the spring. Later, in the summer, the leaflets are green -- while in autumn they can be reddish-orange. "Side leaflets like mittens, will itch like the dickens." This refers to the shape of some poison ivy leaves, where each of the two side leaflets has a notch that makes the leaflet look like a mitten with a "thumb." (Caution:all parts of the plant can cause itching, not just these leaves.) The latest iPhone was announced - at a notable price.  My own iPhone came in handy on the trip.  It was used for these panorama pictures - the iPhone does it all.  Here are two from the Denver Botanical Garden.  This Victorian conservatory had bird cages hanging inside, each with airplanes in each.

Water Wisdom

The Autumn colours in Grimsby don't seem to be that bright.  I made a trip to Toronto yesterday and the colours at the Toronto Botanical Garden were splendid.  Beautiful orange and yellow maples reflected in the water of Wilket Creek. The highlight of the trip wasn't the opportunity to catch some Fall colour, but the opportunity to hear Doug Tallamy speak at the  Carolinian Canada CoalitionConference.    "Doug Tallamy is  professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored eighty research articles and has taught Insect Taxonomy, Behavioral Ecology, Humans and Nature, and other courses for thirty-two years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. His book Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens was published by Timber Press in 2007 and was awarded the 2008 silver medal by the Garden Writer’s Association. Tallamy was awarded the Garden Club of America Margaret Douglas Medal for Conservation and the Tom Dodd Jr. Award of Excellence in 2013." A persuasive speaker gives us motivation through facts and data.  The most compelling statistic was that Oak trees supports 534 species of moths and butterflies.  And that their caterpillars are a mandatory food source for nesting birds.  This connection gives us the understanding of why we need to plant insect-friendly species in order to maintain our bird, butterfly and bee populations. And his most important point?  It is up to homeowners to make their gardens welcome to birds and insects.

Conservatory Water Gardens

I'm preparing an article for water gardens in conservatories. s Both Longwood and the Missouri Botanical Garden have extensive water gardens in their conservatories.  Here is a sampling…the first is in St. Louis, and Longwood images are the next three.