Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Summer is Here

Our first day of Summer stretched across time zones this year.  For the Arctic Circle the sunlight lasts for 24 hours - and is known as the midnight sun.  This is the astrological summer rather than the meteorological summer which started June 1st and ends August 31st.  I think of September as the start to Autumn, so I guess I have my two seasons mixed at various points. I blame the start of the school year on that confusion. 

You might reply with this silly solstice joke:
"Thanks for making the longest day of the year longer by explaining why it's the longest day of the year".

Or head over to the Huffington Post article on Manhattanhenge.  On July 12th the setting sun will be fully visible between skyscrapers lining the major east-west streets - 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42, and 57th Streets. The phenomenon is named after  Stonehenge.  Stonehenge 2017 has just been celebrated by 13,000 people. 


Our picture shows a family of geese crossing the road and heading down a laneway, a moment of pause for the Porsches. 

Monday, June 12, 2017

Both Sides Now

The Niagara-on-the-Lake Shaw Guild Tour is very popular every year.  There are always a few historically significant properties or grand properties that make the $25.00 price worthwhile.  Of course, there's Niagara-on-the-Lake itself, a gorgeous summer destination.  

The tour included Queenston this year, and the showpiece property was the Bright Riverside Mansion.  This is not Willowdale, which is perched on the hill overlooking this house.  You can see from the pictures it is on the river bank with extensive views of the Niagara River.  We are able to see the river-facing exterior, with its ornate trellis work, glorious windows and lovely gardens.  The bottom picture shows the street view in April 2017.  So now we've seen both sides.

This house was built in the 1920's.  I haven't found a description or history so far, so can't tell you any more about it for now. i do know that the building is constructed from Queenston limestone.  You can read about the Niagara quarries 
here.  The article says that Queenston quarries produced the best building stone in Ontario.  This article shows scanned pictures of the area.  The last picture is a Muskie chart for fishermen at the Queenston Docks from 2004.  

Friday, June 9, 2017

Come Clean

Do we have a cleanliness fixation?   "Are Americans Too Obsessed with Cleanliness?"

"Compared with the rest of the world, Americans take personal hygiene and general disinfection to another level. From our appreciation of white teeth and the daily shower, to our manicured lawns and store aisles full of bleach products, most of us cherish our unsoiled, unstained existence
."

We all think of progress as good, but the days of simple soap and water hygiene significantly reducing mortality are clearly long gone. I experienced lawns so perfect this week, that I thought I could roll them up like carpets and take them home, or sit down and eat from them - there seemed to be no soil or dirt in sight. It looked wonderful. But then...

when we combine that with neatness, we might have an obsessive social mentality.  The gardens on the St. Catharines tour coming up this weekend had living rooms - we've taken our cleanliness and neatness outdoors and seem to be eliminating nature and its life forms from the sitting areas.  This trend is so very popular.  

My driveway and walkways and patios were power-washed yesterday, and look wonderful today.  Have I joined the neat brigade on a wave of tidiness that seems to have reached a peak?

Here's an analogy from Sarah Hampson of the Globe and Mail in her article on neatness:

"But it may be that what’s at play in the culture is far more profound. As Grant McCracken sees it, “Contemporary culture used to look a little bit like a French garden. It was all symmetrical and ordered. And now it looks a lot like an English garden with things busting out all over. It’s hard to see the pattern of an English garden, if you can at all,” observes the Canadian-born culture guru, who was founder and director of the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and is now a consultant, author and speaker, affiliated with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard."