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.

Lilycrest Lilies in Review 2016

Christmas isn't finished till its over for the Orthodox Christians.  How do they live the rest of the year if they use the Julian calendar and not the Gregorian calendar?  There are 13 days difference. Many Soviet Union and Middle Eastern churches tend towards the "Old Calendar" while most of those in the United States have made the switch.  It appears more of a country-wide choice rather than a church choice as the public holiday falls on the chosen date for Christmas. It seems interesting that Easter isn't impacted but celebrated on the same day by everyone. This is the week that we look back at the closing year and decide on the top news, events, photos, etc. What area do you look for highlights?  I went to the Oxford Dictionary for the Word of the Year.   "After much discussion, debate, and research, the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016 is post-truth – an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’." Wikipedia has the words of the year from 1990 - 2015 listed.  The source is the American Dialect Society.  They are so slow in deciding for 2016 that they are still in the process of accepting nominations.  Their meeting is January 5 - 8 2017 if they announce it then, it would be in time for Orthodox Christians to celebrate the birth of Christ and the birth of a new word. Our 2016 review starts with Lilycrest Gardens.

Lilies in the Field

It is considered unlikely that the Lilies of the Field reference in the Bible refers to Lilium lilies.  This is contrary to the beautiful Tiffany Stuido stained glass showing white lilies - looking like white Madonna lilies. From Wikipedia: Many varieties of flowers grow wildly and abundantly in Galilee. The translation of lilies is traditional, but far from certain. Modern scholars have proposed a number of different flowers that Jesus could be here referring to, according to Fowler these include the autumn crocus, scarlet poppy, Turk's cap lily, Anemone coronaria, the narcissus, the gladiolus, and the iris. France notes that flowers were less specifically defined in that era, and lily could be a word referring to any showy variety. The verse could also just mean flowers in general, rather than a specific variety. "In the field" implies that these are the wildflowers growing in the fields, rather than the cultivated ones growing in gardens. Harrington notes that some have read this verse as originally referring to beasts rather than flowers.  Some of these flowers have lily in the common name such as gladiolus - sword lily, iris - flag lily.  But it remains as indistinct today as in the past. We revel in the lilies of Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field from this past summer.

Show Lilies

Yesterday was Brian's second favourite day of the year - it was the Ontario Regional Lily Society Flower Show and Competition. It is held at the Royal Botanical Gardens.  He had picked a few stems in my garden, especially a gigantic pink Amarossi which was taller than 7 feet with many flower buds.  It opened perfectly for the show so became one of the Award winners.  A flaw on a petal made it lose the Best in Show award. You can see one of Brian's hybrids in the garden in Grimsby and how tall it is - I claim the Grimsby soil is extraordinary, and these lilies are good proof. Another surprise at the Show was the handbook on growing lilies - Let's Grow Lilies!   I'd forgotten the cover has my photograph on it - taken in Brian's Lilycrest Garden hybridizing field. And finally, the show has beautiful floral design competitions.  Here's a favourite - the handbag/purse competition.  Everything is made of  floral and leaf material.

Lilycrest Gardens Begin

Lilycrest Gardens, Brian Bergman's lily hybridizing field is full of hope and potential.  The lilies have arisen from their winter dormancy and there are a few early bloomers - martagons and species.   Our first picture is the noteworthy plant this year - it seems to glow with its brown foliage and green markings.  Brian is checking it regularly to see if it maintains  the foliage colour.  It stands out in the field of thousands of lilies, so this would be a hybridizing achievement. Our collage together shows  our first blooms, along with the many variations in foliage.

Send in the Clowns

It is time to send in the clowns, and I found this one in a pot of Oxalis (clover looking leaves) in the Sarasota garden we stayed at last winter.  Sarasota is the winter home of the Ringling Circus, so this would be a great garden theme for ornaments.  Niagara is known for vineyards, orchards and Niagara Falls - what would my garden have as 'regional' ornaments?  Perhaps plastic grape clusters hanging from trees.  There are those bottle trees, although they aren't my favourite.  A common sight is dead fruit trees in front gardens as 'testaments to the past' sculptures.  There is one around the corner from me.  These aren't the sort of ornament to cheer one up, though.   Our brains process between 50,000 to 60,000 thoughts a day, according to wikiHow.  So there's lots of opportunity to be grumpy and happy.  Especially in Winter... Last week on JazzFM, Brad Barker gave the advice of hopping up and down for a few minutes as a technique for cheering up. That seems doable and simple.  Let me know how it goes for you.

Winter Retreat to Lilycrest Gardens

Winter's cold winds are gusting across the Grimsby landscape so it is a good time to retreat to the landscape of summer's beautiful Lilies.  These are in Brian's Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field, in St. Catharines on Fifth Street, close to the QEW.

From September to December

Wikipedia tells me that September begins on the same day of the week as December each year as there are 91 days between them, which is a multiple of seven. Events to consider this month include International Bacon Day - coming this Saturday - we can have our brunch in style. Today's images come from Brian's Lilycrest Garden hybridizing field, with the delicate shades of trumpet lilies that bloom mid to late July.

Lilycrest Gardens - The Hybridizer's Harvest

Lilycrest Gardens is my brother, Brian Bergman's lily hybridizing field on 5th Street near the QEW in St. Catharines. It is transitioning from its glorious floral display into its crop of hybridized lily seeds.  Here is one of the pretty crosses from previous years.

Lilycrest In Bloom

Brian's Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field is showing great colour and beautiful blossoms.  But yesterday I was there to pick  beans.  Brian had a little extra space and planted potatoes, beans, tomatoes and zucchini. Just like the lilies blooming profusely, the beans are producing profusely.  Zucchini seem to be like balloons and just expand.  The area's soil is very fertile with Bakker's nursery stock fields all around.  This year's crop is small trees rather than roses - I wonder where the blooming roses are this year.

Blue Lilies - Can there ever be?

I gather the genes aren't in a Lilium lily for there to be blue flowers.  I did this one in Photoshop to see what a blue lily might be like.  This lily was at Lilycrest Gardens, my brother, Brian Bergman's hybridizing field in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Lilycrest Gardens - Highlights from Summer

There are hundreds of thousands of flowers in the Lilycrest Hyrbridizing field.  Here are two of the lilies from this past summer of 2014.

Lilycrest Gardens - Lilies and Lilies

There's such a variety of lilies - size, colour, form, texture and shape.  My brother's lily hybridizing field, Lilycrest Gardens, is in St. Catharines Ontario.  He has more than 100,000 plants, so I can see all the varieties in profusion, which this first image illustrates - masses and masses of flowers.  By using textures I can disguise the paths and soil that would be distracting from the flowers.  When we're in the field, we really don't see the backgrounds as we are so drawn to the flowers and their intense colours.