Apr 5 2020 - Sportscasters Triumph

Sportscasters are doing all kinds of interesting things to keep themselves busy. This article has Nick Heath's everyday play-by-plays.  They have titles such as "International's 4x4 Pushchair Formation Final. Live." and "After the lunch break now..."  His Twitter Account is HERE.  I scrolled down to a retweet in which Michael Spicer is interacting with a President Trump announcement.  HERE. While Sports is all quiet, there still is a sport that is proceeding - wrestling. The top google search is WrestleMania 36 with over 1 million searches.  Its distinction is that it went ahead without an audience.  I gather in wrestling, the audience has a significant role, and wrestlers wrestle/play to the audience.  I learned all this from the CBC in an interview with a wrestling news journalist.  It turns out that the owner of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is famously eccentric Vince McMahon.  He is now 'treating COVID like it's a sneeze'.  Part of his eccentricity is his phobia/bias against sneezing which is well documented. What else did I learn about wrestling?  I learned it may be included in 'sports', but it is more in the range of circus/fantasy action character events.  Here's how I got to this conclusion:  "In a recent segment, crossover star John Cena confronted Bray Wyatt, a children's puppet show host who wrestles as a killer clown alter-ego called The Fiend." "Pro wrestling fans never know which version of Reagan Belan they're going to get when she first steps into the ring on any given night:  My last show, I was a unicorn. I've been Mrs. Potato Head. I've been a senior citizen. I have a tag team called The Monarchy, where I am Queen Elizabeth and my tag-team partner is Queen Victoria," said Belan, a.k.a. Glory S. Gamms, when performing for Vancouver's Glam Slam Wrestling league." Our picture today is a garden in Niagara-on-the-Lake with a nice arbour and garden gate.  Rather than a driveway it now has a fountain.

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St. Catharines Garden Tour July 2013

It was a privilege to photograph the gardens on the St. Catharines Garden Tour.  What a great horticultural society - many members actively involved in gardens and in their community.  

I had a surprise as a result of this tour.  My brother's Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field is on Fifth Street, in St. Catharines Ontario.  It is in the western part of the city and near the QEW.  One of the gardens on the tour is located on the same street - just south of his field.  It's a house I've admired for its yellow Victorian gingerbread trim.  This year I was able to see behind the hedges and experience a large 17 acre garden with historical buildings and botanical plantings in a traditional and elegant design.

First, a quick peek at what was in the Lilycrest Gardens field a little more than a week ago - it was the delicate and beautiful Lilium Pardalinum. 

And just down the street of this rural road with nursery growing fields, is the beautiful Squirrel House. 

Bracebridge Gardens

Frank Kershaw, well-known horticulturalist and garden expert, organizes and hosts day tours to gardens in Toronto and to areas a comfortable bus-ride away from Toronto.  He has extensive knowledge of gardeners and gardens all over Ontario, and the trip yesterday demonstrated this expertise.  The day tour went to the Bracebridge area where we saw 4 gardens.  Two of these - Rocksborough Flower Farm and Artful Garden are both open to the public.  We were lucky, though, as Frank also took us to 2 private gardens that were amazing for their design and their choice of plants.  All of the gardens were at their peak (perhaps they always are) - beautiful perennials, lots of water features, interesting garden sheds, and arbours, benches and chairs both whimsical and practical.   I was particularly impressed with the architecture of the homes and buildings.  Each was beautifully integrated with the landscape.  

Be sure to look up Rocksborough and Artful Garden and even get in a visit this year.  The Artful Garden is the main feature article in this summer's Harrowsmith magazine - it is an open air display of art in their gardens and grounds featuring over 40 artists.  Rocksborough is close-by and sells interesting and unusual plants which are grown on the property.  Both of them are enchanting and delightful.

If it's sounding like you might  want to go on one of Frank Kershaw's tours, they at published on the Mary Morton Tours website.

TBG Garden Tour June 25th

I can report that the June 25th TBG fundraiser garden tour was outstanding. It was hosted by Frank Kershaw and sponsored by the Toronto Botanical Gardens.  My friend, Sue and I got on the big bus and were happily transported from garden to garden.  Frank had hand-chosen the gardens for variety and breadth of landscape design, plantings, plantsmanship and general style.  There were private gardens that have not been accessible to the public or part of other garden events.  There was so much to take in that day.  One of the highlights was the one-of-a-kind collection at the end.  A marvel of knowledge and skill!  

We started in the west end of Toronto in my neighbourhood and made our way through towards the Old Mill, where we had lunch.  The afternoon was spent in the central/east part of the city, with a return top TBG at the end of the day.  TBG's gardens are a delight to see right now as well.