Jan 23 2024 - Ukulele Bands

 

Ukulele bands are popular.  Why would that be?  They are considered one of the easiest instruments to learn.  They are inexpensive and portable, and come in cute colours.   It is easy because it has only four strings, has frets so easier to play in tune, has soft nylon strings, and only a few chords can get you playing. The small size of the instrument reduces wrist tension making the notes reachable without stretching.    One advertisement says:  Toss it in the back of your car.  Take it to be beach. Bring it on a plane.  Drummers and tuba players should be so lucky! It is described as having a happy, joyful tone, so is also considered a social instrument.   Niagara-on-the-Lake's Ukesters have a Facebook page full of videos of members playing.  That facebook page has 1,300 followers.  They meet for a weekly jam.   Supposedly Canada had a wave of ukulele education in the 1960s with J.Chalmers Doane using ukuleles as a practical teaching instrument.  At its peak, 50,000 school children learned the ukulele through the Doane Program.  I don't remember this at all.  Too bad.

I am sticking with the spring flower theme this winter.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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Great Gardens Near Niagara

Hi everyone,

This image makes me wonder what is in bloom in the Winterthur Garden.  It is North America's greatest naturalistic garden.  That means that everything appears to have happened by nature, and in fact is planted and cared for.  

I went to the website as they have a very active blog and the garden is awash in daffodils.  I would guess that 'awash' there means up to millions of daffodils.  There were hillsides with the leaves showing in early April.  In my garden 'awash' would be hundreds...

Here's the plant list from last week:

 http://www.winterthur.org/pdfs/April 24 2013 bloom list 15.pdf

Also, if you go to the website, you will see a most impressive list of what's in bloom where.  It's a list of everything desirable to the spring gardener:

http://gardenblog.winterthur.org

I had the good fortune to hop on the trolley when I was there and the driver was a knowledgeable gardener and historian.  A highlight of her tidbits of knowledge is about he cow barn floor - it is made of chestnut.  It became available when the chestnut trees on the property died.  

Another bit of information is that Dupont was good friends with hybridizers and growers, so much of the extensive azalea and rhododendron garden is unnamed hybrids from well-known hybridizers.  There is a propagation program to make them available and better known.

So today's post shows the wonderful Swathmore College with its 'idyllic' grounds and Scott Arboretum so that we have the benefit of being awash in daffodills.  

This is the beautiful March Bank, early April 2013 at Winterthur: