Vineland Research Station

I checked out the Vineland Research Station  last week.  There's a nice collection of flowering spring trees, including Paulownia, a warmer climate tree also known as the princess tree and empress tree.  It doesn't look like it will blossom this year, even though it is in the most protected location.  It has huge blossom heads with big flowers so is quite the show in spring.   There are some nice magnolias there, and you can see in the first picture's background the state-of-the-art greenhouses being constructed.  Vineland Research is a research and innovation centre and one of its latest projects is greenhouse technology.  With the construction, there were also some good abstracts on the metal bins and trailers. The same tree from the other direction shows a grove of cherry trees that should be in bloom this week.  More on Vineland Research Station here: http://vinelandresearch.com

Who's the Fairest Barn of All?

We drove down Locust Lane yesterday.  This is such a beautiful country road - it has three wineries on it - Fielding, Mike Weir, then Hidden Bench.  It winds up and down, and the locust trees in the Fall are a beautiful colour. I was looking for the Hidden Bench barn.  I've photographed this many times and had thought it must be the most photographed winery barn in Niagara.  The Flat Rock Cellars winery considers their Rusty Shed to be the most photographed. The internet answers the question of which barn in Niagara to have a wedding at, but nothing on historic barns in Niagara or winery historic barns, other than Hernder Winery's grand barn. The question of the most photographed barn in America seems clear enough:  it is considered to be Moulton Barn - located in the Grand Tenton National Park in Wyoming. Here's a link to see this famous barn: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/moultonbarn/interesting/ Back to Niagara, Locust Lane is a scenic spot. You can see the Lake from Fielding and Mike Weir wineries.  The third picture is at the Hidden Bench intersection at Locust Lane.  It has the remnants of an abandoned orchard overlooking Beamsville with the Lake in the distance.