May 23 2024 - Accordion vs Ukulele?

 

Google has decided it is accordion day.  It was National Buy an Instrument Day on May 22nd, so this seems to be sort-of related.  Accordions have their own day - it is May 6th - the day it was first patented in 1829 in Vienna.  Accordions also have their own month - National Accordion Awareness Month is June.   In comparison to other instruments, accordions don't show up as easy at anything. Ukuleles are the easiest overall instrument to learn - I've heard that's not the case for tuning them.  Next comes the harmonica as easy to learn. Piano/keyboard is considered the easiest instrument to scale.  And drums are the easiest instrument for beat masters.  I wonder what "beat master" means. One answer: "Defeat enemies by tapping to the beat."  There are a lot of video games.   Burt probably it is referring to the app where you can create your own beats and samples.    Maybe accordions are celebrated today because they have so many Guinness records - someone played accordion for over 75 hours. There's the largest accordion - eight feet tall.    And a thought - what about accordion and ukulele duets?  You can listen to a few on youtube. We're far ahead of the normal blooms this time of year.  I saw daisies in a field last week.

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June 4 2021 - Trufficulture

 

Trufficulture: What does this word signify?   Growers in Ontario will be producing Burgundy truffles, a rare variety that matures in the fall, compared to other truffles that mature in the winter or in the summer.  There are some native truffles in Ontario, and when found in the wild, are very valuable.   Adam Koziol is the owner of EarthGen, a propagation nursery company located in Dunnville/Wainfleet. It uses unique methods to speed the development of trees. They have been able to inoculate hazelnut and oak tree roots with Burgundy truffle spore from Spain.  This is the nursery that supplied the native trees for our Garden Club Earth Day sale.  Truffles grow in several places in Europe, but mainly France, Italy and Spain. France and Italy closely guard their truffle spores and won’t allow their export. Spain, however has allowed some export. It is expected that Niagara is a viable region for truffle production. It can take 6 to 10 years until both the hazelnut trees and the truffles mature.  Hazelnut trees can earn up to $3,000 per acre.  And then there are the truffles.  There are a few years to go yet, as the original coverage of the topic was in 2018. But on the West Coast, truffles have been growing longer.  There, Grant and Betty Duckett have been growing truffles since the 2000s and even have Lagotto Romagnolo dogs for truffle hunting.  They are focused on growing black Periogord truffles.  While their website is a bit out of date, they do say that they have passed the operation on to their family.  Let's hope this endeavour continues. Here in Niagara, Earthgen's website - says they are scheduling tours for interested hazelnut and truffle growers.   Could you have guessed there would be hazelnuts and truffles in Niagara? This picture was taken on a ride on the Strasburg Railway almost 10 years ago - what a field of flowers!

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Meadow Made

From the cultivated wisteria of yesterday, we move to the cultivation of a wildflower meadow at Benchscape.  What a delightful vista of wild flowers at the lower portion of the property.  The flowers seemed to float above the vertical stems of green - annual bachelor buttons in blues, pinks, and whites, punctuated by the occasional red poppy.   A great success for our friend, the designer, Lex Parker!

RBG - Solitary Glow

At RBG last week, this crab apple glowed above the meadow grasses.