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.

From Soup to Nuts

"From Soup to Nuts" came into my mind.  Maybe someone said it last night at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Horticultural Society meeting.  These are great garden meetings - many people, many projects, much discussion.  It is as though I've been transported decades back in a time machine when gardens were vital to the social fabric of a town.  An example is their multi-year project is to plant daffodils for cancer in special gardens in town.  There are 100,000 daffodils ready to bloom.  The ceremony is this Sunday at 1:00pm. Back to "Soup to Nuts": This phrase stuck in my mind and I started to ponder it.  I know it is a metaphor for 'from beginning to end'.  We still serve soup as a first course.  But nuts?  The latter part of the 20th century did not have nuts as a dessert course.  What cookbooks have anything on the "nuts" course? Some of the references say 'desserts with nuts in them'.  If something is to have such a clear meaning, it should be universally understood.  I was still questioning desserts of nuts from the descriptions I read. I decided the plausible answer is at the site straightdope.com: Origin: For centuries, any foods served at the beginning or end of a meal stood for the entire thing: the start and finish and everything in between. This expression was “from eggs to apples” and “from pottage to cheese.” In the United States in the middle of the 20th century, the expression developed into “from soup to nuts.” At many meals, soup is often the first course and a dessert with nuts is sometimes the last. The expression does not have to refer to only to meals, however. It could be the selection of goods for sale or classes offered. ... According to most of the British authors I read, the last course of a meal is port and nuts. But only for the men, I believe. I think the women had to go sequester themselves elsewhere and drink coffee or something until the men got tired of drinking port and joined them. Which of course begs the question, how did *that* get started? At any rate this is a British custom, and “from soup to nuts” is an American idiom. But still it seems clear that in some form or another nuts were considered the last course in a good meal, while soup was the first. And I think that covers this one from soup to nuts. This is their warning at the bottom of the column.  It is a delight in itself: "STAFF REPORTS ARE WRITTEN BY THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD, CECIL'S ONLINE AUXILIARY. THOUGH THE SDSAB DOES ITS BEST, THESE COLUMNS ARE EDITED BY ED ZOTTI, NOT CECIL, SO ACCURACYWISE YOU'D BETTER KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED." Today's picture is Wisteria.  I checked this one around the corner from me.  Many wisteria in Niagara are grown as small shrubs, like this one.  It is a mystery flower - there are no flower buds as though no wisteria will bloom.  And then - POP - plump little buds will appear.  We're in such a late spring, it may be a few weeks away.

Life Experiences with Elvis

If I were a younger person, would I use this service?  Lifexperiences.ca will help me find an 'experience' and send it as a gift.  If we look at the Lifestyle section, there are experiences such as: Axe Throwing in Saint Anns 30 Day Yoga Adventure - For Two Learn to Shop like a Pro Home-staging to sell OR Home-staging to stay My own idea is the following:  Did you know that there is a Niagara Falls Elvis Festival from April 20 - 22?  This is its second year.  There are gala shows, an Elvis Competition, delicious food, fun times and cool surprises, according to the website.  And then there is the Niagara Falls, with its thunderous water, flowers, and attractions. How many Elvis Festivals are there?  There's the Official Elvis Festival, at Lake George, New York.  There's one in Collingwood, Las Vegas, Texas, Georgia, and more.  Did you know that the largest festival is in Collingwood, Ontario?  It's in July.  If we were visiting Australia, the festival is January 9 - 13th next year.    There is an Elvis Week in Memphis in August.  It includes a candlelight vigil celebration.  Or watch the coverage here and see Elvis' comeback performance.  There's so much Elvis to go around that there is Elvis Radio - it is a station that plays Elvis 24/7.  That's a lot of Elvis music having been recorded.  Quora lists 523 albums and approximately 784 songs.   Some pretty pink lilies today.

From Kitchen Garden to Keukenhof

How many bulbs will bloom at Keukenhof this year?  Over 7 million bulbs in 32 hectares (79 acres) of flowers.  This is the largest flower garden on the planet - a festival that has been expanding since 1949 as a promotion for tulip growers.  In the 15th century it was used for hunting and gathering herbs for the castle's kitchen.  Keukenhof means Kitchen Garden. Today there are 30 full-time gardeners who work year-round.  Can you imagine what needs to happen in the autumn?  It takes 3 months to plant it. What do they do with the flowers that have bloomed?  They dig out the bulbs and most are used as food for livestock, a reminder that tulips are edible. This year's theme is Romance in Flowers.  The rose show - and the red rose - will be showcased in a grand style.  How do you make 32 hectares of flowers interesting?  The park is divided into theme gardens -  Historical Garden, Inspirational Garden, Cupid's Garden, Holiday Romance Garden, Rob's Oriental Romance, Rebel Garden, Delft Blue Garden, Hipster Garden, Tea Garden and Health Garden.  There are flower shows inside pavilions throughout the Festival (March 22 - May 13).  Each one is based on a specific flower -  Anthurium, Orchid, Lisianthus, Freesia, Gerbera...and on. What about the sightseeing flight over Keukenhof and neighbouring flower bulb growing fields?  Flying at 300 meters, it would be a wonderful view of the Dutch landscape and those abstract squares of floral colour.  With all the canals, one can travel through the bulb fields around Keukenhof in an electrically-propelled whisper boat.  The Facebook Page has photographs - a mini-vacation for us.  I really enjoyed the cheeseweb.eu site coverage. It showed coverage over the years. Here's one of my favourite tulip images.

Cats at Work

There were a few cats out and about at Longwood.  All the cats at Longwood have names, and the docents assured me that they are well cared for. This one was mousing amongst the ferns.  Look at the tail - its position tells the story.  She was very friendly, even though she thought she shouldn't be disturbed from her work.  This would be important work - orchids are edible. I've had a few flowers disappear in my own greenhouse.  I was sure a while ago that there was a lady slipper in bud, and the next time I looked there was a stump of a stem.  Maybe Baxter should work harder in the greenhouse. I found a blog that covers the Longwood cats completely.    My pictures today show Persimmon. Take a browse through chatsworthlady's Longwood story of cats HERE

Taking Christmas to the Max

Yesterday we found out about the oldest Christmas trees.  The Guinness Book of Records bears witness to the striving nature of humanity on the delivery of results with creativity and inventiveness. Here are examples for the Christmas tree: The most expensive decorated Christmas tree remains a holiday tree from 2010 - decorated with $11,026,900 worth of jewellery - 181 items in all. The largest artificial Christmas tree was 180.4 feet tall and created in China in 2015.  It was covered in green synthetic foliage and decorated with ornaments and lamps. The largest human Christmas tree was done in Chengannur, India in December 2015.  There were 4,030 people involved in that tree.  This is a record that continues to grow. The largest display of illuminated Christmas Trees was accomplished by Hallmark, USA in Heralds Square, NY, NY where 449 trees were on parade. The most lights on an artificial Christmas tree is a regular record at Universal Studios in Japan in Osaka.  They do this every year, and have beaten their records over six times in the past.   I hadn't thought about other Christmas traditions.  The largest gingerbread house for charity has a new record.  While the size of the structure is the measure, but they also reported the calorie count at 35,823,400 calories. The array of Christmas records can be found here at the Guinness site. Our flower of the day is the Amaryllis - this name comes from the legend of a shy, timid nymph. Amaryllis fell deeply in love with Alteo, a shepherd with Hercules' strength and Apollo's beauty, but her affections were unrequited.

Fall's Last Flowers

Yesterday was a bird day in the garden.  Little birds were flitting about and a flock of Robins was eating these berries on my Beautyberry bush.  This is its moment in the sun - these gorgeous purple berries on red stems with yellow-green leaves.  Its latin name is Callicarpa.  Mine seems to be the largest I've ever seen.  The variety is Callicarpa dichotoma Early Amethyst.    With this year's rain, it is over four feet tall and five feet wide.  Obviously the Robins could spot the many berries very easily.  So I don't know if I will get to see the yellow foliage with the contrasting Amethyst flowers. We're at the very end of the Morning Glories.  Even though the weather isn't cold, the leaves are dropping and that makes the beautiful blue flowers stand out. We'll keep the roses until the hard frost comes. They've bloomed until Christmas in my Toronto garden. And if you have Victoria Salvia, Snapdragons, and Alyssum, these will bloom past the first frosts.

Thanks Giving

Our Thanksgiving holiday weekend celebration completes, and next is Halloween and its traditions.  Our Thanksgiving tradition came about in 1957 with the declaration of a holiday.  The date varied before then. Unlike the Americans, there isn't a "First Thanksgiving".  But it seems to me theirs varies too.  The "First" is said to be October 1621 and lasted three days - and is about the Pilgrims (who were not Puritans).  However, there is a Shrine of the First Thanksgiving at Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia.  The date of that Shrine is 1619.   Our pictures today show our current decorative traditions - a 'country' scene displaying the pumpkin and squash harvest, corn stalks, and chrysanthemums in harvest colours. These were taken at Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) in Burlington. The last picture is in Hendrie Park across the road from the greenhouse display. The entrance gates are beautiful and the plaque beside indicates the dedication to the Hendrie Brothers.  William Hendrie, a Scottish immigrant, purchased the land in the 1870s for his racehorse farm. In 1931 his son George donated the property to Hamilton Parks Board as a memorial to William and his brothers. Ten years later the property became part of RBG. I await the light this morning to 'see' the fog - there's a fog advisory that says visibility may be near zero in some places.

Who's Seen You!

On the Owl Tour we all wanted to see the owls - we saw some and didn't see every single one in their homes.  They all saw us, though.  Our guide told us that we've each been seen by hundreds of owls in the wild.   I got to wondering about cars.  Where are cars going?  We're told to follow Tesla, Google, Apple and Amazon rather than GM, Ford or Toyota on the future of cars. We know about driverless cars, as they are being tested now. So there won't likely be 'tests' for driving skill.  Could we have 3D printed cars? The prediction is that this is possible and in 20 years will be used at F1 races for replacement parts. A big question is fuel - the best possibility is the electric powered car. Car connectivity will happen with 'vehicle -to-vehicle' and vehicle-to-infrastructre' communication providing real-time vehicle data. Car ownership is expected to diminish and car access to become the normal approach. And there we have it.  All those driveways in front of residential homes will be rendered obsolete.  More room for gardens!

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.

Lilies and Microwaves

September 5th is  the anniversary of the microwave oven  and it is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.  Its history is outlined here.  It was called the "radarange" and the person who made the discovery was Percy Spencer, an engineer with Raytheon.  He was using a magnetron, and melted the candy bar in his front pocket.  Then he pointed it at a raw egg and exploded it.  Then he went for popcorn kernels and popped them up.  Microwaves heat up the water molecules in food.  The article concludes: "But you can't call yourself a real cook unless you've ruined a meal or two in the microwave. As they saying goes, there's no such thing as a mistake in the kitchen, just a new recipe waiting to be born. Think of it as your chance to add a page to the now 50-year-old history of the little electromagnetic box that could." We look at a lovely combination - a Ranunculus and Water Lily at the Denver Botanical Gardens.

Stupid House, Smart House

Last week's Globe and Mail had an article about the stupid home vs. the smart home.  The writer was pleased his home was still stupid. I have a 'stupid' stove  it only has knobs.  It is without a digital clock, timer, read-out of oven temperatures, etc.  It had some catastrophic failures - there still are electronic components. So I was most intrigued with a smart house, and how that might be going. How do we know a smart home? It has a Nest Thermostat.  What a wonderful name for a company that makes smart home products.  What about a Wink home automation hub?  That's also a catchy device name. And then there is the Amazon Echo that controls other devices. Don't leave out the If This Then That Rules - another control device. The headlines that appear from a google search are also an entertainment: Don't bother trying to make your dumb house smart What smart homes are still so dumb Are smart homes just stupid? Will smart homes make us stupid lazy? The dumb state of the smart home My vote is cast without any experience whatsoever - smart homes are about witty names and clever ideas. I found a patch of mascari (grape hyacinth) on Ninth Street on Saturday.  And the second collage is last year and this year's Niagara Street cherry tree. What a contrast of blue sky vs gray sky.

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.

Happiness

There are a lot of jokes about happiness vs. money.  I wondered if there are lots of 'recipes' for happiness.  So I went looking to see who has asked about happiness this way.  I found this article at http://jaredakers.com/recipe-for-happiness/ with its excellent introduction.  "The term “recipe for happiness” is interesting… as if you can put in certain ingredients; throw it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and out pops happiness. Sort of like those cooking shows we’ve all seen where they put the dish in the oven and pull the finished product out of the one below it. Could finding happiness really be that easy?" 1 cup Inner Peace 1 Cup of Spirituality 1 Cup of a realistic Perspective of Yourself 1 Cup of Gratitude A Sprinkle of Service Work Another Recipe for Happiness 2 heaping cups of patience 1 heart, full of love 2 handfuls of generosity plenty of faith 1 handful of understanding dash of laughter  generous sprinkle of kindness Combine patience, love and generosity with understanding. Add a dash of laughter and sprinkle generously with kindness. Add plenty of faith and mix well. Spread over a period of a lifetime. Serve everyone you meet. Another Recipe for Happiness Simply begin with one large scoop of love for yourself, add in a good measure of acceptance and goodwill, then sprinkle generously with equanimity. Combine all the ingredients and place in your heart until all the ingredients have been completely absorbed, then allow to permanently rest in each breath. The cooking/baking analogy seems to bring light-heartedness to the topic that makes it fun.  Today we see a beautiful bougainvillea arch at Hearst Castle in California.