A Cup to Measure By

Pyrex came along in 1908.  Corning introduced it for a line of clear, low-thermal-expansion borosilicate glass used for laboratory glassware and kitchenware.  Pyrex is a purely arbitrary word, devised as a trade-mark. This glass is used in astronomy applications.  Corning cast the mirror for the California  Institute of Technology's Palomar Observatory project during the same time period.  It took a year of cooling after it was cast.    It was the the shape of the measuring cup that my attention was focused on.  It has remained the same for a long time.  I have a measuring cup that is more than 50 years old.  It looks like new, yet it seems that there would be better designs that are more accurate.  It is hard to measure small amounts of liquid. You can see one here at kickstarter.com.  The design has 2,748 backers and has reached $129,159 of its $30,000 goal.  The estimated delivery is May 2018.  The product information says:  "We're tech nerds with a passion for cooking, and we've created a better measuring up.  Euclid's patented shape delivers a level of accuracy that no traditional measuring cup can match."   What is that shape? It made me think of the pretty Calla lilies in today's pictures.

Longwood Heating

Longwood's nine production greenhouses are 378' x 80'. I met the supervisor of heating and mechanical while visiting earlier in the week.  He was walking through the greenhouses and checking in corners, so I thought he must be in charge of something.  He briefly outlined the two heating systems - one for the show greenhouses and the second for the production greenhouses.  He said that it takes a lot of manual monitoring in addition to the automation. Longwood's main boiler plant has three boilers fuelled by oil or gas to produce steam for heating.  That's how we heat our greenhouse here, too.  In addition, they have a 10-acre solar field across the road from the garden entrance.  It produces 2 million kilowatt hours per year and accounts for 30% of energy consumption.  Within the greenhouses, their computerized system controls temperature, bench and perimeter heat, snow melters, and cooling and shading devices.   Do you check out the news around the world?  Whenever I do, I am surprised by the North American names for newspapers in other cultures.  For example, you can't be sure where the "Star" headline might come from.  Here's a great example today: ‘Titis Sakti’: Grand marriage of comedic Shakespeare and dramatic Mak Yong At first glance, the Malay theatre production Mak Yong Titis Sakti seems to be made up of two completely disparate elements. Talk about chalk and cheese. Mak Yong Titis Sakti is one part A Midsummer’s Night Dream – one of the most famous romantic comedies ever written by the English playwright William Shakespeare. The other part is Mak Yong, a traditional form of dance-drama from the northern states of Malaysia. You wouldn’t think they could blend so well. Yet for director/actress Norzizi Zulkifli, who first presented Titis Sakti (Magic Drops) in 2009, these two art forms have a lot more in common than most people think. “Every time I read Shakespeare’s plays, they give me visuals which I realised, ‘Oh, this is very similar to my culture!’ Like Mak Yong, or Bangsawan theatre,” says Norzizi, 41, in a recent interview at KLPAC. Mak Yong Titis Sakti is on at Pentas 1, KLPac, Sentul Park,in Kuala Lumpur from Jan 27 to Feb 4.  Look at the google map,  and you'll see place names that are definitely not in North American. It would be interesting to see this show - maybe it will travel some day. Read more about the show. Our "flowers" today are illuminated by a little afternoon light in the Longwood Conservatory.  They are Anthurium - known as Flamingo Lilies.

Polka Dots and Moonbeams

Polka dot is a pattern consisting of an array of large filled circles. Wikipedia says: "It is likely that the term originated in popularity of polka dance at the time the pattern became fashionable, just as many other products and fashions of the era also adopted the polka name." This is around 1834 and was a dance craze until the 1890's. Polka dot patterns got their name capitalizing on the polka craze - polka was added to the names of a wide variety of products. Polka dots today find themselves on informal sorts of things - cup cakes and candy, children's clothing and toys, and fanciful house ware and women's clothing.  Definitely cakes and dresses lead the way for polka dot expressions. And then there is the Polka Dot Queen - this is a different realm of polka dot expression.  The Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is known as the Polka Dot Queen because of her repetitive dot patterns in all her work.  Her museum in Tokyo was recently opened, and included large polka dots on the exterior.  Inside are her works with their polka dots on canvases, sculptures, and more. She has  mirrored installations where visitors are immersed for 20 to 30 seconds to "replicate the sense of infinity".  This is astonishing and creative work.  Her room of polka dot pumpkins is mesmerizing. Our picture today uses the Topaz Glow software on the fanciful Fusion lily.

Waifs and Strays Society

I saw a shadow on the wall and the shape made me think of a 'waif' - a child with dishevelled hair, big wide-open eyes and a heart-shaped chin. In the 1800's, homeless people and children were known as 'waifs and strays' - the definition has a few possibilities: 1. a person, especially a child, who has no home or friends. 2. something found, especially a stray animal, whose owner is not known. 3. a very thin, often small person, usually a young woman. 4. a stray item or article: to gather waifs of gossip. 5. Nautical. waft. It likely is the Miserables poster that made the look so familiar.  And also Annie.  The start of waif look in modelling can be attributed to Twiggy in the 1960's. "Twiggy’s large doe eyes, long mascara-coated lashes and waif-like frame defined the era.  Her leggy androgynous look became the ideal mannequin for mod fashion and is still referenced today on the runway and in editorials." So one might expect to see techniques for creating 'those huge eyes'.  Of course, Google has an answer for that question.  There are a few answers - varying between 8 and 11 ways to make your eyes look bigger. Here's how. Define your brows. ...  Add dimension to your crease. ...  Add shimmer at the inner corner of the eye. ...  Use light, neutral colors on the lid. ...  Line the inner rim of the lower lid with a flesh-toned pencil. ...  Apply mascara to lower lashes. ...  Curl your eyelashes. ...  Apply mascara to top lashes. Apply false eyelashes

The Best of the Best

What is this website Best of the Best? I was looking for the top number 1 'things' and I found this British site,  It is a lottery for winning cars on a weekly basis.  The caption is:  Choose your dream car tickets.  This was started by William Hindmarsh in 1999, who says he loves cars. He grew up around his father's cars - Lotus Elite, Frog Eye Sprite and even an E-Type. There's a dream car winner every week so here's the latest winner story.  "THE STORY As a centre-forward for FC Le Mont in the Swiss football second division, Jorge Reixa knows a thing or two about challenging defenders for headers – which comes in handy when looking at the Dream Car Comp Spot the Ball photos! Jorge has been entering online for a while after seeing BOTB in Gatwick and last week he played for the half-price Ford Mustang GT. Christian was waiting for Jorge in the arrivals hall of Schipol airport earlier this morning with the incredible news that he was the 356th winner, taking him straight down the local Ford dealer to show him his new pride and joy. Jorge was ecstatic, particularly after getting the double delight of £10,000 in cash too - congratulations Jorge!" This is the way one wins: One has to identify the x y coordinates of a ball in a picture.  There is a panel of judges who are experienced football referees and ex-international players who use their expertise to decide where the centre of the ball is.  Game Credit is awarded for doing well in Dream Car Competitions, depending on how close you are to the winning position. It seems complicated, but extremely successful. The site says that  20 million pounds worth of cars have been won since it started.  There's an extensive array of all kinds of cars to be won.  I noticed a McLaren, a Maserati, and an Aston Marton as I scrolled down.   And there are cars with exotic names - a Vuhl, Caterham, and a Radical.  So in my search for the best of the best I seem to have found an example of that very thing. There are amazing things happening around us that are a testament to creativity in action.

How Big is Rain?

The Lily field is waiting for rain. It is experiencing drought conditions this week.  Farmers are watering their tender fruit trees, we're watering our lawns and gardens,  what might there be that's of interest today on the rain topic? I went to Today I Found Out to 'feed my brain'.  The first question is about raindrops.  A thunderstorm is forecast, so what might I learn? Harry K asks the question 'Why are raindrops always so small?  Would it be possible to have a single raindrop that contains gallons of water?'  That is an interesting question with an even more interesting answer:  raindrops are more than water.  The vapour in a cloud has to have something to condense around such as dust, smoke, salt, etc.  These are called condensation nuclei.  Rain is usually 1 - 2 mm in size when it reaches us. There had been a consensus in the past that raindrops wouldn't get bigger than 2.5 mms, but Hawaii recorded 8.8 mm in 1986, and scientists have found 5 mm drops buffeting about in the clouds rather than falling to the earth.  The record is 1 cm in the clouds over Brazil - they were the products of large ash particles from burning fires. Who would have expected there to be such interesting information about the ubiquitous raindrop?

Orange Around

Santa Fe has the most remarkable architecture with adobe walls and courtyards.  This soft coral orange colour seems perfect in the desert landscape.  Below it is a lily from Ontario with its own orange colour that makes sense in the lush Ontario summer landscape.

Congratulations to 'They'!

We're still on the theme of headlines, and the word of the year has been announced with a delightful headline from Voice of America: 'They' Wins as Linguists' Word of the Year  "Its usage has been a source of contention since the times of Shakespeare and Chaucer — both of whom, for your Grade 3 teacher’s information, used “they” to refer to a single person on occasion. Puritanical grammar nerds have been sticklers, however, for pairing singular subjects (for example, “the suspect”) with singular pronouns (“he” or “she”) — even when the person’s gender is not known. The rationale is that “they” should only refer to multiple persons, not just one. So traditionalists would rather see this: “Everyone took his or her chances on the roads that day.” Than this: “Everyone took their chances on the roads that day.” That’s started to change, slowly: The Washington Post, for example, changed its style guide last year to accept a singular “they.” But this kind of “they” got a thumbs up from some of the nerdiest word nerds Friday evening, when an overwhelming majority of the American Dialect Society cast their annual words of the year ballots for:  “they: gender-neutral singular pronoun for a known person, particularly as a nonbinary identifier.” Congratulations to "They"! On to our pictures of the day:  The Ontario Regional Lily Society has its flower show at the Royal Botanical Gardens atrium each year.  The natural light in the atrium and the tall open space showcase the flower colours and forms beautifully.  I stopped in the perennial gardens and the conservatory, and found a cornucopia of flowers and model trains. They seem to be together a lot.

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.

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.

Christmas Greetings Countdown

Hi everyone,
It's the countdown to Christmas with 10 days to go.  I thought I'd start the countdown with a season's greeting card.  It's one of the species likes with a twist to give it the traditional Christmas colours.  It is one of my favourite lilies.

This is the same image that asked whether there might be a blue lily, which we know is highly unlikely with our current knowledge and techniques.   This one has more Topaz filter effects, which I enjoy using.

All my best to everyone during this memorable season.

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 - Hybridizing Success

This is one of Brian Bergman's new hybrids.  Seeing as he's my brother, I am lucky to visit the field all the time, and see what's up.  The labels tell the story of what to keep and what will be deleted from the field.  A small group of seedlings will result in beautiful and blah.  One needs to label the beautiful to keep and get rid of the ones that didn't turn out. This is a small flower and plant with a big decorative impact.  It's my kind of garden lily.   

Trout Lily Spring

We are lucky in Niagara to have maple forests.  Where there are maple forests there are trilliums - sometimes they carpet a mature wood.  So many beautiful little ephemerals bloom in spring and then disappear until the next year.  

This is one of the early spring bloomers - Trout Lily.  It is Erythronium americanum.  It's also known as Dogtooth Violet and Yellow Adder's Tongue.  It is in the Liliaceae family.  I didn't realize that it is an edible plant.  At the same time, it seems to be an emetic (makes you throw up), so it is not recommended that one eat a lot of it.  I guess I wouldn't add this one to the menu with guests coming.