Apr 16 2021 - The Moors

 

For me the Moors means Sherlock Holmes. We watched the Hound of the Baskervilles last evening, and the Moors played heavily in the plot.  Low-growing vegetation on acidic soils - temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, and of course heath and heather. There are moorland habitats in tropical Africa, norther and western Europe and South America.  We in Canada have tundra where the subsoil is permafrost and these two are closely related. The Moors have inspired many artists and writers - even Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - they played their fictional 1994 Quidditch World Cup final was hosted on the moor. But I would think the most famous is The Hound of the Baskervilles. It is the third of Doyle's four crime novels, voted one of the most popular books ever written, and is the most popular of the Sherlock stories.  It is set on Dartmoor in Devon.  This is the first appearance since his apparent death in The Final Problem.  The book incorporates five plots and was serialized so that every chapter ended in a cliffhanger.  The inspirations are themselves stories of mystery and murder.  The legend of Squire Richard Cabell of Brook Hall was the fundamental inspiration of a hellish hound and cursed country squire.  He was described as a monstrously evil man who had sold his soul to the Devil, rumoured to have murdered his wife, and when he died, a phantom pack of hounds came across the moor to howl at the tomb.  The myths and legends of Dartmoor include pixies, a headless horseman, the 'spectral hounds' and a large black dog. There is a supposed big cat known as the Beast of Dartmoor. There is even the notion that during the Great Thunderstorm of 1638, the village of Wildecombe-in-the-Moor was visited by the Devil.   How could Dartmoor's moors have so much  mythology and legendary?  It is an ancient place with a long history of inhabitants.  Even the moors have a long vegetation history: Some of the moors were naturally occurring and others were forests in Mesolithic times. It is proposed that humans began to clear it by 10,000 B.C. and efforts intensified after that.  Human settlements have occurred over thousands of years archaeological findings have been studied in many places on the Moor. Acidic soil would destroy organic remains, but the granite that was used for buildings has been studied at length. There are surviving farms in operation today from the Medieval period.  There is the well-known camping joke about Holmes and Watson.  So I went in search of something else and found this: Tesla, Oscar Wilde, and Sherlock Holmes walk into a bar. The punchline of this joke was patented and then hidden by Thomas Edison.    The blossoms have begun - here we are yesterday on John Street between Vineland and Beamsville.  With the Multiple exposures, the sense of blossoms is present, but it takes a clear image for them to really show.  There's that dark April sky - it needs some cloudy interest. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Blossoming in Progress

I saw some signs outside businesses on May the 4th - May the Force be with you.  So a belated May the Fourth be with you greeting.  May 4th is the official Star Wars Day celebrating the Star Wars franchise.  There were quizzes, great deals online, and a CBC article on people who admitted publicly that they were not fans and didn't care about THE FORCE. Our first blossoms opened this week.  I made the rounds to some favourite locations and was happy to capture these yesterday.  The first two pictures are at Scott Street and Stewart Road on the NOTL-side of the canal.  The last one is at John Street at Maple Grove where John does the jog.

The Blossom Trail

Niagara has been in bloom for about 2 weeks.  It seems shorter, and it is coming to an end.  Most orchards  are close to the Lake (on both sides of the QEW) and below the escarpment.  There are orchards from Grimsby right through to Niagara-on-the-Lake. These two orchards are in Vineland.  There are a lot of good orchards there - along John Street and Green Lane.  These are rural roads, and I am able to stop the car and take pictures from the car if I want.  This is drive-by photography at its best. I was lucky to catch some peach trees with their trimmed branches on the ground before they withered.  The peach trees are trimmed just at blooming, so the carpet of pink on the ground is a gorgeous display.

The Blossom Trail

Here are some of the flowering trees in the Niagara region this week!

Royal Botanical Garden Arboretum:

Lakeshore Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake:

 Royal Botanical Garden Arboretum: