Statistical Thinking in Niagara

I've been gathering statistics to see how successful the website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages are for our upcoming fundraise The Fantasy of Trees. I was lucky to get statistical training as part of an MBA. Statistical thinking has become the interpretive technology of choice in dozens of fields: economics, psychology, education, medicine, and the sciences.  The internet headlines tell us there are 5 important website statistics, the most important economic statistic, the best offensive statistic in sports, customer experience statistics, Black Friday's most important statistic.   I wonder about the critical thinking skills of people in general and this is a question that's been analyzed a lot.  Paul Barsch's article on Eight Things You Should Know About Statistics says this: "In May 2010’s issue of Wired Magazine, author Clive Thompson laments the poor mathematical literacy of his fellow citizens. For example, he cites people laughing at the concept of global warming as they face some of the harsher winters on record, or the extra-vocal debate on vaccines and possible links to autism. Mr. Thompson would tell us that it’s the trend lines that matter, and we too often look at the trees and miss the forest. The problem, he says, is that “statistics is hard” and an overall understanding of this important discipline is severely lacking. He says, “If you don’t understand statistics, you don’t know what’s going on, and you can’t tell when you’re being lied to.” Quora/Wikipedia say: Therefore, as the infusion of mass media information into a social system increases, segments of the population with higher socioeconomic status tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than the lower status segments so that the gap in knowledge between these segments tends to increase rather than decrease.

The Winter Garden I wonder what percentage of Canadians have a snow winter?  I guess it is over 95%.  The Winter Garden as portrayed in garden landscape books doesn't look like this.  There are hellebores, cyclamen, the pretty stems of yellow and red dogwood, and various winter-blooming plants.  Heather blooms in abundance in February on the west coast.  Not here - the ground is hard and unforgiving.  There is a  simplicity in the winter landscape.  Trees become the major feature with their trunks and branches.  Our snow-filled winter means a significant contrast between the winter and summer garden.  You can see it with the last photo.

Dewdrops in the Garden

I popped out to the garden early yesterday morning and found these wonderful dewdrops in the garden on one of the roses.  Just one. Other roses didn't have them even though they have the saw tooth leaves.  It seems like one of those mysteries.  So I went to Wikipedia, and perhaps the explanation is clear - the leaves are thinner than other roses.

"Dew is water in the form of droplets that appears on thin, exposed objects in the morning or evening due to condensation."

I also found many entries for Dewdrops in the Garden.  It was released 2 Aug 1994 by Deee-Lite.  The entries for Deee-Lite go on for pages...

Niagara-on-the-Lake Garden Tour

Yes, the N-O-T-L Shaw Tour was a great success.  There was a variety of gardens - from large to small - but all shared the beautiful treed setting on the lake that this pretty town offers. Here's our first house on Queen Street (that's the main street) on a corner lot.  It featured a beautiful perennial border against the street side facing the house.