Mar 13 2024 - Eleven Hours left to count flowers

 

This is the 49th annual Victoria Flower Count Festival.  Only 10 hours left to get that flower count in.  The count concludes at 4:00pm Pacific time today.   How did it go in 2023 - how many blossoms did people count in one week? 2023 “Bloomingest Community”: Sidney: 7,580,503,851 2023 Community Runner Up:  North Saanich: 7,558,368,163 2023 Winning School: Hillcrest Elementary 2023 Total Municipal Blooms Counted: 33,386,900,082 There's a running count on Facebook with wonderful spring pictures - https://www.facebook.com/FlowerCount Victoria is ahead of Sydney so far with 8,153,733,174 - that's well ahead of last year.   We seem to trying to catch up to Victoria time - there are daffodils blooming in the garden.   Here are some Paperwhite Narcissus.

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Mar 9 2020 - Counting Flower

That's right, Victoria is in the middle of its annual light-hearted promotion of counting flowers.   While it is light-hearted, I would expect there is great determination to beat last year's count.  I went over to the twitter feed and the total was almost 45,000,000,000 on Friday.  You can check out the twitter feed with beautiful blooming landscapes here: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23flowercount&src=typed_query The hashtag is #flowercount to see all the posts of trees, shrubs and flowers in bloom. There is a great display at Instagram demonstrating to all non-Victorians what makes Victoria so wonderful.  Could we predict that there is the possibility in the future that we would look at the latest update on Coronavirus before going out to count flowers? There are now before and after photos of famous tourist attractions in Europe. The article showing the photos is HERE. And that made me think of the immediate vacation plans for March Break to popular U.S. destinations like Disney World in Orlando?  The Washington Post had an article about children making a cancer charity visit to Orlando with this statement: "the virus wasn't anyone's top concern".  Following that statement, the article goes on to outline the declared state of emergency on Sunday, the death of two patients in Florida, and that 278 people being monitored. I wonder what the tipping point is?  What would it take for you to not travel or cancel travel? Which locations would you worry about?  How many cases would concern you?  These are questions that will be with us for a while now. Our picture today celebrates Spring in Victoria.

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News of the Weird

There is a News of The Weird.  Here are two recent stories:  You’re Screwed If you’ve experienced one (or more) flat tires in Sherburne County, Minn., over the last few weeks, News of the Weird is now able to tell you why. Jeffrey Caouette, 63, of Elk River admitted to authorities in late August that he had purchased 55 pounds of sheetrock screws (that’s more than 12,000 screws) and scattered them on local roads to “slow down” a person he believed was in a relationship with his ex-girlfriend. Specifically, KSTP reported, he put the screws on the road where he believed the man lived and on the roads between that house and the ex-girlfriend’s house, among others. The arrest complaint notes that Big Lake police have received more than 100 reports of damage from the screws, including to three of their own vehicles. Caouette was charged with first-degree property damage.  Eye of the Beholder In downtown Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, someone left a plate of macaroni and cheese, complete with fork, sitting atop a steel road barrier on Tuesday, Aug. 27, which caught the interest of a Reddit poster. No one knew where it came from or if someone would be back to retrieve it, but a day later, an anonymous citizen made it into an art installation, reported CTV News, by adding a museum-like tag beside it: Abandoned Snack (2019)—macaroni and sundried tomato on ceramic—Unknown Artist, reads the placard. Today we get a mid-shot of the Arbutus tree and its peeling bark.

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Autumn Surges Ahead

Can Autumn surge?  We don't think of this season as arriving in flows, waves or billows.  We don't think of Autumn as arising either.  A poetry website summarizes how Autumn has been portrayed in poems: "Autumn is the time of ripening. All hopes of spring and all actions of summer are finished with autumn. Nature in its adult state inspires for solitude and thinking. Carpet of orange, yellow and brown leafs is the best field for long walks. After gathering all harvest autumn offers time to think about all that had happened in two past seasons. Poetry about autumn is mostly sad and nostalgic. Those poems are filled with memories of past. Creators of those pieces recall their past times and share them to all readers. And in many ways this type of read is pleasant." What are the great Autumn poems?  Well, there is one that shines above all overs.  It is John Keats' poem "To Autumn." This poem is universally considered one of the most perfect short poems in the English language. The work marks the end of his very short poetic career, and life.  A little over a year following the publication of "To Autumn", Keats died in Rome of tuberculosis. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells. The full poem is here.  Our picture today denies that Autumn has arrived.  These are pictures of Victoria's Butchart Garden gelato cafe, and then the enclosed restaurant garden.  These are the Autumn gardens that lull us into thinking "warm days will never cease".

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The 4 Billion Blooms of March

How do we know if we are more "weatherfull" this winter than in past years.  We've just finished the high winds warning of the weekend, and we've now received a snowfall warning. Compare that to Victoria, which starts its flower count in 7 days.  The 44th annual event is sponsored and organized by The Butchart Gardens.  it is termed a 'light hearted promotion'.  Each municipality across Greater Victoria is encouraged to take up the challenge to be the "Bloomingest Community".   This from the website: For one week in early spring the citizens of Greater Victoria count all the blossoms they can see. The results are then reported to Flower Count Headquarters.  As the numbers come in, announcements are sent to local media to inform everyone of the growing count. So we thought we’d help make it easier and give you a guide and a counting sheet.. Brief how to count guide Small tree full of blossoms =  250,000 blossoms Medium tree full of blossoms =  500,000 blossoms Large tree full of blossoms = 750,000 blossoms Small Heather bush = 500 blossoms Medium Heather bush = 1,000 blossoms Large Heather bush = 2,000 blossoms "In 1976, over 130 million blooms were counted. By 1996, with a growing population and more community participation, that figure rose to over 4 billion blooms. 2010 we broke new records with 21 billion flowers counted, however 2016 we reached just over 25 billion blooms to set a whole new record." The results for 2018 are HERE. Our blossom count in Niagara would be in May.  Consider Victoria being able to count them in March.

Romantic Gardens - Hatley House

Hatley House is at Royal Roads University, in Victoria B.C.  It is both a magnificent garden estate and apicturesque National Historic Site covering 650 acres. This magnificent 1908 Edwardian estate began as the home of industrialist James Dunsmuir and later the site of a military college until 1995 when it became Royal Roads University. The massive Scottish inspired castle is the centre piece of an estate that contains a series of beautiful formal gardens, lush old growth forests and ocean vistas.

I vote for a visit to these gorgeous Romantic Edwardian gardens...

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