March 15 2020 - Blossom Festivals

Cherry Blossoms...in Japan.  The start times are expected to be: Tokyo on March 19 through to Sendai March 25th.  The peak day is predicted to be March 27th.  This is an early year - last year the blossom period was in April. But this year is different: Japan cherry blossom festivals cancelled Vancouver cherry blossom festival cancelled California cherry blossom festival cancelled What about California's Almond Blossom festival?  It is finished - February 20th - 23rd is typical - that was in Ripon, south of Sacramento, inland from San Francisco.  The Fresno bloom period has finished. It is more like Niagara - a blossom trail that you drive.  Here's the overview from Fresno: "How to recognize the Blossoms you see... Almond Blossoms have white petals. Two or more varieties may be planted in the same orchard for cross pollination by bees. Harvesting, usually done mechanically, runs from late Aug. to early Oct. Plum Blossoms are white. At least two varieties will be planted in an orchard for cross pollination. Over 200 varieties are grown commercially. Harvested in June to late September. Apricot Blossoms have pink petals. Fewer than 12 varieties are grown commercially. Harvest season lasts two to three weeks during mid to late May. Peach and Nectarine Blossoms feature pink to red petals and bloom at the same time. Over 100 varieties are grown commercially. Harvest runs mid-May to October. Apple Blossoms have white petals. Up to six varieties are grown commercially in Fresno County. Harvest is Aug. to Nov. Citrus Blossoms are white with a most aromatic fragrance. Navel and Valencia oranges, Mandarins, and lemons, are the most common citrus grown locally. Mandarin trees are frequently covered with a fine mesh to prevent bees from pollinating the flowers, which would cause the fruit to form seeds." Scrolling through pictures of almond orchards in California shows all of the above - white and pink.  And lots of "Almond Orchard Engagement Session" results.  That would be the engagement pictures to cherish. It is a more than a few weeks before our blossom trail is ready.  Here's a collage of what to expect in Niagara.

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The Restless Sun

The sun comes up every day - something  ordinary we don't think about much.  In the top stories today is a picture of the sun's surface - it looks like gold crackle paint.  Like something I'd find on an old rail car.   "The Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope on Hawaii has released pictures that show features as small as 30km across. This is remarkable when set against the scale of our star, which has a diameter of about 1.4 million km (870,000 miles) and is 149 million km from Earth. The cell-like structures are roughly the size of the US state of Texas. They are convecting masses of hot, excited gas, or plasma. The bright centres are where this solar material is rising; the surrounding dark lanes are where plasma is cooling and sinking." See the convulsing sun picture HERE.  It made me think of California - land of sunshine inside the mountains on the coast. My father told me that you can plan a picnic for any day in the summer months in Fresno far in advance and always know it would be a sunny day.  He experienced the summer sun as unrelenting and he was happy to come back to Niagara. This is Filoli, south of San Francisco just inside the mountain range at Half Moon Bay.

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Earthquake in Ontario

Earthquake in Ajax, Ontario May 9th.  At 2.4, it only made a few lines of news, but has the ability to get one's action.  That's because the most famous earthquakes are covered widely in the news and the images and stories tell of hundreds of thousands of people dead and total destruction of landscapes.  Time Magazine calls them unforgiving.  I would guess that we remember the after-Christmas Tsunami of 2004, particularly the pictures that hit the paper immediately and then were withdrawn. California had an earthquake in Banning California on May 8th, at 4.5 magnitude.  This carried a red banner. They've had 5 temblors in 18 hours.  This is one of many - California's earthquakes are tracked on earthquaketrack.com.  Here's California's summary:  38 earthquakes in the past 24 hours 169 earthquakes in the past 7 days 639 earthquakes int he past 30 days 7,968 earthquakes in the past 365 days Ouch!  That's a lot to deal with. That would make the score California 7,968, Ontario 1. The referenced source for dealing with earthquakes is Robert S. Yeats' Living with Earthquakes in California, published in 2001.  It is subtitled A Survivor's Guide.  It covers what citizens can do to protect their families and homes.  Other earthquake-preparation checklists are available - here's one in a Los Angeles Times article HERE.  The expert, Trent Sanders, has a storage bin in the back yard.  He says to be prepared that the house and garage will be damaged or on fire.  We live a safe and calm existence here in Ontario. Yesterday's excitement was visiting Freeman Herbs and Gaeta Bougainvilleas to pick up donations for the plant sale on Saturday.  I got to see thousands of bougainvilleas in the greenhouses.  One has to appreciate the sight of the blossoms strewn on the ground.  They are moving out to the garden centres this and next week.  I recognized many of the place names.  Some lovely bougainvillea trees were going to Plant World.  That was my local and fabulous garden centre in Toronto.

Escape the Cold with the Ocean View

The Ocean View The great blue expanse of both ocean and sky seems to be the appeal of the ocean view to me.  This view is on the Pacific coast, south of San Francisco. National Geographic identifies the top ocean views as the high points where land and sea meet to provide dramatic vistas of craggy shorelines and pounding oceans. Then there are the top ten beach cities, and the top 10 U.S. family beaches...All are welcome distractions during our coldest days in February.

California Dreaming

It starts in January and radio stations play various versions of the 1960's pop hit by the Mommas and the Poppas 'California Dreaming'.  It seems a bit unkind to remind us of the contrast between our Northern winter experience when compared to theirs.  Our latitude in the North is around 44 degrees. Toronto has a restaurant named in honour of its latitude - North 44.  Toronto is actually 43.7 and Grimsby is 43.2.  Compare that to Los Angeles at 34 degrees.

So the image of Santa Barbara's beach at sunset is very appealing for us right now.  Next to the palm trees are train tracks which are right along the beach there.  What a ride along the coast:  the routes have names such as the California Zephyr, Capitol Corridor, Coast Starlight, Pacific Surfliner and Sunset Limited.  These are the evocative names that make us in the north have 'California Dreaming' ideas.

In contrast, this weekend kicks off the January Ice Wine Festival in Niagara.  We've got cold weather for the ice sculptors to do their magic. The wineries have food and wine pairings.  Niagara-on-the-Lake turns its main street, Queen Street, into the Icewine Village.  The Twenty Valley Winter Festival does the same in Jordan Village, where it has continuous music, food and wine events throughout the day and evening. 

California Contrast

Our trip to Pasadena last year was a delight - such contrast in the growing materials between our northern climate and California's dry desert.  While it was extremely hot - well over 100 degrees every day, the gardens were beautiful - particularly the desert garden at Huntington.   Here are a few of the interesting plants.

California Poppy:

Palm outside the Walt Disney Concert Hall:

Society Garlic:

Pacific Coast Gardens

Such a different landscape on the California Pacific Coast.  The cascading Rosemary is in full bloom covering walls, along with Mexican Sage, and New Guinea Impatiens turned into shrubs.  At Half Moon Bay, I walked down a wonderful little street with original seaside homes and lovely gardens. There were great ideas for the xeriscape garden with lots of pebbles small stones as cover.