Did You Go A-Mothering?

We haven't left Mother's Day yet.  We found out about Mother's Day in the US. It is very different from Mothering Day in England.  In England it is celebrated far earlier in the year.  From Wikipedia: Mothering Sunday is a holiday celebrated by Catholic and Protestant Christians in some parts of Europe. It falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent (For Orthodox Christians in Europe and elsewhere, the fourth Sunday in Lent remembers St. John of the Ladder). Secularly, it became an occasion for honouring the mothers of children and giving them presents.  During the sixteenth century, people returned to their mother church, the main church or cathedral of the area, for a service to be held on Laetare Sunday. This was either a large local church, or more often the nearest cathedral. Anyone who did this was commonly said to have gone "a-mothering", although whether this term preceded the observance of Mothering Sunday is unclear. In later times, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother church, usually with their own mothers and other family members. It was often the only time that whole families could gather together, since on other days they were prevented by conflicting working hours, and servants were not given free days on other occasions. By the 1920s the custom of keeping Mothering Sunday had tended to lapse in Ireland and in continental Europe. In 1914, inspired by Anne Jarvis's efforts in the United States, Constance Penswick-Smith created the Mothering Sunday Movement, and in 1921 she wrote a book asking for the revival of the festival; Its widescale revival was through the influence of American and Canadian soldiers serving abroad during World War II ; the traditions of Mothering Sunday, still practised by the Church of England and Church of Ireland were merged with the newly imported traditions and celebrated in the wider Catholic and secular society. UK-based merchants saw the commercial opportunity in the holiday and relentlessly promoted it in the UK; by the 1950s, it was celebrated across all the UK. The Wisteria are showing colour on Yates Street in St. Catharines so will be blooming in the 2 weeks.

What About Our Christmas Traditions!

Our Christmas Traditions
Today we celebrate Christmas traditions - not our own, but those we might not know about.

In Japan, the vast majority is not Christian, yet there is a celebrated Christmas tradition - a trip to KFC and the greeting "Kentucky for Christmas".

In the Ukraine, they will sometimes decorate their trees with spider webs. This is based on a Ukrainian folk tale of a widow's family so poor they had no money to decorate their tree.  A spider took pity on them and spun a web in gold and silver around the tree.

In Iceland it is "Beware the Yule Cat" - a Christmas fiend that terrorizes the countryside targeting those who didn't receive new clothes for Christmas.

In the Czech Republic, carp is the celebrated Christmas dinner. This is followed by the saving of a dried (cleaned) scale from the Christmas fish which is kept in one's wallets for luck over the coming year.

Have a great Christmas Day today.

The Forest Landscape

Hi everyone,

Motion blur that's done with the camera is a lot of fun.  The first is at Balls Falls last month just as we transitioned from fall into winter.  The fallen leaves are on the ground with a little snow, but there's no leaves left on the trees.  The colours are muted and for me, speak clearly ofo the Canadian landscape.

Our second image is a winter image from last November.  It has the added effects of colour through Topaz Lens Effects.  

Poinsettia Trials - Pick your favourite!

December 5th was a great day for both the gardener and photographer in me.  Grimsby is very close to the Vineland Research Station and it had its Poinsettia evaluation open house yesterday.  They grow poinsettias for evaluation by the commercial trade to find new and better poinsettias for market.  There are only a few places where the poinsettia trials take place, so it great to be invited to vote on our favourites so that they get a sense of what is popular with the public.

What would make a better poinsettia?  It would be things like: One that grows straight up so that the branches don't break off when you take it out of the plastic sleeve.  One that has lots of coloured petals to make a big show.  One that grows quickly to come to market sooner.  

So there I was with Brian, my brother, who is the lily hybridizer, going from plant to plant looking at the differences and improvements.  I saw so many fellow gardeners too - it was a wonderful event.  

Check out Vineland Research at: 

http://www.vinelandresearch.com

There's a cogeco video at:

http://www.vinelandresearch.com/news/poinsettias-research

Here are some of the highlights: