Christmas traditions

Yesterday's newspaper had a front page picture of the rowing Santas of Venice - a yearly tradition.  Would it be considered bizarre?  Nothing as bizarre as these traditions: My brother Brian, might not be pleased to find out that the Emperor Moth is the subject of a Christmas treat in South Africa.  It is a deep-fried delicacy on Christmas Day.  That might be more a matter of cultural norms.  Catalonia seems to achieve true weirdness:  In Catalonia they include the figure of the Cagier in their nativity scenes - a small figure of a defecating man.  They also have the pooping log.  It is decorated with a face and blanket, and on Christmas Eve the log is placed halfway into a fire and beaten with sticks.   I remember the Venezuelan tradition of roller-skating to Mass from last year.  And Italy, the heart of Roman Catholicism doesn't have Santa - it has Befana (a kind old witch) on the Fifth of January.  No confusing what Christmas is about there. In Guatemala they sweep out their houses, create a huge pile of dirt, put an effigy of the devil on top, and then burn it. In Slovakia, the most senior man of the house takes a spoonful of looks pudding and throws it at the ceiling - the more that sticks, the better. Read all 35 at foxnews.com  The lists of weird traditions ranges from 7 to 35 in the internet retrieval list. I am sure there are more than 35. The foxnews article excluded the world's oldest Christmas Tree - it is at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire, planted in 1856.  It was planted outside and then potted up each year to be in the house.  It is permanently outside now because of its size: a truly weird choice for a Christmas tree - a giant redwood. There's a competing oldest Christmas tree with there world's record.  Janet Parker of Chippenham Wiltshire, UK puts up the same artificial tiny pine tree each year, purchased in 1886 - possibly from Woolworths.  It fits in a teacup sized pot. And what about the tradition of Christmas cards?  What makes it weird? The first Christmas card depicted a small child drinking wine.  It was sent in 1843. We know about the New Year's plunge in icy water, but there's swimming in Hyde Park's Serpentine Lake on Christmas morning.  Playwright J.M. Barrie donated a prize cup to the tradition in the early 1900's, solidifying its place in tradition. In contrast to all this seemingly crazed behaviour we depict the beautiful Lotus flower today.  These pictures were taken in the botanic garden Lotusland, in Santa Barbara, CA.

Celebrating Pomegranates

Now that Remembrance Day is completed, what is left for  Canadians to commemorate or celebrate in November?  We have used up our turkey Thanksgiving leftovers long ago in October.   For those born in November, Wikipedia says that Scientific studies have found empirical evidence suggesting that November-born children are more likely to become overachievers in their own fields.  Examples include: scientist Madame Curie; writers/philosophers Dostoevsky, Albert Camus, Voltaire and Mark Twain; artists Monet and Rodin; policy maker Winston Churchill; and legendary baseball player Joe DiMaggio. For something light-hearted we can celebrate National Pomegranate Month. I created these images using the watercolours from Shadowhouse - http://shadowhousecreations.blogspot.ca. They are eye-popping and beautiful in their own right.  Here they showcase the graceful petal shapes.

Canada's Star Aligns

CBC is having fun today reporting that Justin Trudeau has taken over the first spot as the sexiest politician in the world according to the UK Mirror newspaper.  It picked up these quotes from well-known national reporters in other countries: "In Canada Justin Trudeau's Liberals elected on a platform of sorry I lost my train of thought he's just so handsome." "For real though, congrats Canada on your hot grown-up-Howarts-student Prime Minister." In the Daily Mail article, they include a Youtube video of the 'time Justin Trudeau stripped for charity". And this quote from Richard Nixon in 1972: 'Tonight we'll dispense with the formalities. I'd like to toast the future prime minister of Canada: to Justin Pierre Trudeau,' said Nixon during a state dinner in Ottawa hosted by Pierre Trudeau. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3280490/Justin-Trudeau-named-Canada-s-new-prime-minister.html#ixzz3pCTMtgTq With the pictures in the article of him with his father in world-famous places with world-famous people, it is pretty impressive.  So I guess with star power like that, some starry flowers are matching pictures for the day.

Lotus in Grimsby

Lotus are blooming at the Cole's Pond store.  This lotus was captured over the span of two days and you can see the spots on the flower petals in the third photo.  I drove by yesterday and a second lotus is blooming - it looks like a darker pink.  However, Coles isn't open on Sundays so it'll be today that I get to find out.    The Lotus is a revered flower and plant from ancient times.  Its meaning was creation and rebirth and "was a symbol of the sun because at night it closes up and goes beneath the water and at dawn it climbs up above the water..." How about this 'fun fact':  the lotus flower is a very popular tattoo.

BetterPhoto - My Blue Flash Places 2nd in January contest

BetterPhoto Winners

2nd Place Digital Darkroom

Staff Favourite

Finalist in Flowers

BetterPhoto Winners    One of my favourite pictures won second place in the BetterPhoto January contest.  It's 'My Blue Flash' - I turned one of the lilies from Brian's Lilycrest Gardens Field into a blue lily, using software filters.  It placed second in the digital darkroom category.  Two more images placed in the contest - the pink dahlia placed as a staff favourite, and the Lotus image placed as a Finalist. I keep thinking the dahlia should place higher in the contest, and every month, I do some work on it and resubmit it.  It has to be that the judges don't like it as much as I do.  Never mind.

The Lotus - Deep Inside

The Lotus

The Lotus Today's images are close-ups of the inside of lotus flowers. "The Pink lotus is considered the supreme lotus, generally reserved for the highest deity, sometimes confused with the white lotus it is the lotus of the historical Buddha."  The colours that are distinguished in symbolism are the white, red, blue, pink and purple.  I would like to photography the blue lotus this coming summer.  What would be interesting is the contrast of the yellow interior with the blue petals.

Humber Nurseries...Winter Garden

Humber Nurseries is one of the largest perennial nurseries in Canada.  It's vast in size and selection. I like to go in winter when things are dormant and silent.  


I was there yesterday and found these Lotus Leaves in the water section - delicate beauties like Ballerinas and Debutantes in their pretty dresses.