Summer School

Summer school used to mean failing a course and having to take it in the summer so one could get to the next grade. Now one can take regular credit courses (new credit, re-take a course to upgrade mark) and remedial credit courses (earned a final mark of at least 35% but below 50%).  I would have been happy to go to summer school - school was fun for me.  So it seems ironic that those who went to summer school in decades past were those who didn't like school.   Summer school for the Toronto District School Board ends today with report card pick-up.  So now what to do with August? There's the Helsinki summer school from August 4th to August 20th.  One can go to Shanghai China, the Imperial College in London, or Berkeley.  So many options to choose from.

Catalogue Countdown

The Eaton's catalogue was a mail-order catalogue published from 1884 to 1976.  Each summer, sometime in August the catalogues would arrive from Simpson's-Sears and Eaton's and my friend Janet and I would go through every page, deciding which items we liked best.  So our August was a very busy month of decision-making.  By the 50's and 60's they weren't selling houses and barns in the catalogue - that was earlier decades.   The Travelchannel.com site says that there is no shortage of fun things to do in August - fro the PGA Championship and US Open to the world's biggest food fight, and the world's longest yard sale.  I forgot that this is the month for the Burning Man Festival in Black Rock Desert, NV.  As the site says:  "Aug 28 - Sept 5 The Man burns in 38 days!" What will you do in August in the Golden Horseshoe area?

Spring and Summer

I was at the Lincoln Rotary WingDing Festival on Friday evening.  It is a chicken wing festival, with live music, lots of food trucks and a view of Lake Ontario at sunset, as it takes place at Charles Daley Park in St. Catharines.  This is one of the beautiful parks with a natural lagoon where the big brown trout go to spawn.  It also has an endless sandy beach.   So someone at the festival told me there were water restrictions in the town of Grimsby.  This morning I looked it up and find that the Town of Lincoln has water practices every summer with the odd and even days of water for the home address that matches.  I've been told this is the worst drought year since the 1980's.  Today's pictures show the difference between the RBG Conservatory spring garden in April and in July.  Which do you like the most?

How Many Bees Are There?

As the hostas bloom, I start to look at the bees that are collecting nectar.  I want to cut the hosta flowers because they don't match my colour scheme.  However, there are so many bees that I give in and only cut the most straggly flowers. These bees are on wisteria - if only a hosta could be this beautiful.  These look like bumble bees to me - I don't really know how to identify bees.  Like most people I take them for granted.  I find out there are fifty species of bumble bees in North America.  They live in colonies, headed by a queen who is the main egg-layer.  I found a site where a bee had been identified - pink 38 - and her movements tracked for a summer. Solitary bees make up the largest percent of the bee population.  I have a solitary bee house that needs to get up - their nests are in hollow reeds or twigs, so it is an easy nest to make.   There are 20,000 different species of bees in the world, and there are 6.5 billion bees - I guess we will have to share as there are over 7 billion people - so less than a bee for every person.  Plant some hostas and you will get more than your fair share.

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.

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?

Roses and Roses and Roses near Lilycrest!

What a crop!  We think of wheat, corn, and soy beans.  We don't think of roses.  Here they are on the same road as Brian's Lilycrest gardens hybridizing field.  This is 5th Street Louth in St. Catharines, close to the QEW.  There is perfume in the air. It is that time of year when  the seasonal fungus commonly called Dog Barf Fungus or Dog Vomit Fungus sprouts to life.  Here is more about the fungus.

Gnome Again

This plant is Globe Thistle, with silver foliage and a purple flower. The top picture shows how silvery the plant is and the second showcases the purple stem. It will match the vibrance of the purple flower when it blooms.  The purple flowers in the background emphasize the stem, and draw attention to its details.   Our Grimsby Gnome story continued with a Town of Grimsby Facebook posting.  It is included at the bottom. Owner Laurie-Anne replies on the post with JR's new home layout and decorations.

Gnome Story Now Known

The Gnome Garden across the street made the front page of the Grimsby NewsNow newspaper yesterday, with Laurie-Ann pictured next to her gnome, named JR.  The headline is "A home 'gnome' more". This is complemented by an Editorial on the last page.  Laurie-Ann's story book-ended the newspaper.  The editor, Mike Williscroft wrote a great editorial with a message delivered with fun and humour.  He titled the editorial  'Say "no" to gnome profiling".  It starts with:  "OK, let's get right into this gnome thing..."   Here's the online edition for you to look at. Our picture today shows another whimsical garden story, from last year's Hamilton Spectator Open Garden Week.   I hope this homeless gnome story continues - it has whistle-blowing and entertaining  - a great combination in news.

Bugs and Insects

There don't seem to be many insects in my photos.  I find them a lot of work - they move so fast that it is hard to get a clear shot, and often the poses that are captured are not attractive.    People seem to love or hate insects.  I thought of the expression 'Don't bug me' and got to thinking about bugs.  It turns out that: "true bugs are within the order called Hemiptera.  Insects in this order are different from other insect orders such as Hymenoptera (ants and bees), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) or Diptera (flies and mosquitoes)." How bugs and insects got associated with bothering and annoying is likely obvious if one has a fly in the house.  It becomes a 'best friend' always there in the kitchen involved in your every activity. I scrolled through the definitions in Merriam-Webster's dictionary site and after the regular definition there are distinctions between medical, law, student, and geographical.  And it turns out that it isn't a popular word - Mirriam-Webster ranks in the bottom 50% of words. Here's May's Betterphoto contest finalist.