chrysanthemummies

The annual Mum Show has a different theme each year

this year it's 

there are over 200 varieties of mums on display

an old hearse from a local funeral home

music anyone? we may need a new pianist

boiling up trouble ... or making pumpkin soup?

which is scarier ... the mummies, or the spiders?

tiny town on Hallowe'en night

mummies identifying some of the varieties of mums

for OurWorldTuesday

pink

Even in a flower, pink is not my favourite colour. Thankfully, pink is usually replaced by oranges, reds and yellows by October. But these are the flowers I found. Pink.

a pink lotus from China

and a pink powderpuff from Taiwan

 and some more pink flowers from China with an almost orange lily for fall colour

find more colourful flowers at Sunday Stamps II
I will be around to visit after I get back home from our family Thanksgiving dinner. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers.

vanishing

Yesterday was the last day for the Vanishing Ice exhibit at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg, so three of us made the excursion for a day's outing. You couldn't take photos of the exhibit - which really was a blessing - and anyway, there are examples of the pictures on their website which you can see here

Since it was a sunny and warm afternoon we thought about wandering through the woods after the gallery closed, but really it all still looked so brown and dull, that we just walked into the village for some coffee and dessert. That other walk could wait until there was more green on the trees.

That quaint village feel of Kleinburg also seems like it is vanishing with all the new construction going on. Even with new condos going up right at the entrance to the gallery.

It was dismaying to see this huge crane, but a little consoling to see this sign which shows that the two older buildings are to be incorporated into the development design.

I suppose it is a compromise for the necessary need for 'intensification' (as mandated by the government)

As we walk further into the village, there are still some of the old storefronts. Sadly, these particular ones are currently empty.

But,  there is the cutest Starbucks, ever...

that is so popular there is outdoor seating all the way around the free-standing building (of course no-one wanted to sit in the shade, though eventually some did)

and .......... flowers!

the Sugar Plum Children's Boutique always puts a nice display in their pram!

another Monday Walk for Restless Jo

with a few signs for Lesley

the sport of mums

A highlight of the fall season around here is the annual Mum Show (officially the Hamilton Fall Garden and Mum Show) 

with this year's theme being, appropriately, the Pan Am Games. The games are coming to Toronto in July 2015. There was great excitement when the bid was won. Then things went quickly downhill. Among them were the years of wrangling about what to do with Ivor Wynne Stadium and a long drawn out period of months (literally six or eight months) when every day, the front page of the newspaper (remember, I deliver the thing, I saw it even if I gave up reading about it) carried stories of the ups and downs and to-ing and fro-ing and reversals and back to the future stories of the fate of the stadium that would hold the soccer matches. Homes were expropriated, sites were challenged. It literally went up the mountain and back down again (yes, Hamilton has a Mountain though it is really a part of the Niagara Escarpment that divides the city). In the end, the old stadium was knocked down and a new one with a different configuration built on the same land. It was also renamed after a well-known coffee and donut chain (started by Tim Horton - who was a hockey player, not a football player, but that's beside the point) for a lot of money, though for the duration of the games will be called the Pan Am Soccer Stadium

Anyway, this post and walk for Restless Jo's Monday Walk takes place at the Gage Park Greenhouse

as you walk through the greenhouse, you'll find  some of the participating sports displayed 

with equipment to admire and explanations  to read

the most interesting of which I found on the table tennis sign. we all know it is also called ping pong, but who knew about 'whiff waff' and 'flim flam'?? or that originally it was played using books as net and paddles hitting golf balls?

and of course, the centrepiece is the giant soccer ball

and hiding in the foliage was the pretending-to-be-shy mascot Pachi

previous walks through the mum show can be seen here  and here 

floral clock

I was a little disappointed in the Floral Clock at Niagara this year. 

It has a different design every year and this time it's not nearly as colourful as some years past. Although, it is nice to see the Niagara Parks in flowers.

see how good I was at getting photos without random tourists posing in front of it. wasn't easy, let me tell you!












an earlier post on the floral clock in postcards can be found here







a little something for signs, signs

roses

Roses from Algeria

rosa odorata designed by Sid Ahmed Bentounes

These rose trees, bushes or small climbers most often have a single flower at the end of a long stem.  The elegance of the flowers and the pointed buttons, as well as the large variety of colours and scents, have meant that the tea hybrids are mainly grown for the florist.
This rose is a cross between Rosa chinensis and Rosa gigantea, grown in China for a long, long time.  Its double flowers are white, pale pink or yellowish.  It is grown in Algeria in private gardens and in a few fields. Its flowering takes place from December to June and fills the environment with its intense tea scent.
(info from Algeria Philately)

and for the 100th Anniversary of the Rose Garden, Forst (Lausitz)

designed by Thomas Serres


The town has officially been known as the Rosenstadt since 2004, and the most beautiful location has been reserved for the flower-queen in the “East-German Rose-Garden”. Ten thousands of roses of well over 900 varieties have the honour of welcome you at the 17 hectares park area, and bordered with pieces of sculpture, amphora, pergola courts and romantic waterworks. The annual “Special Days at the Rose-Garden” with the “Cut-Roses-Show” and the “Night of the 1,000 Lights” as well as the romantic guided park-tours by night with a Rose-dinner are only a few highlights in front of the enchanting park scenery. In 2009 the historic park area became awarded “Germany’s most beautiful park”, in 2013 it will celebrate its 100th anniversary!
“100 years rose-dreams close to the river Neisse” 
(from the Forst (Lausitz) website - google translation kept intact for your amusement and because I'm too tired to re-write it)

SundayStamps

flowers

as the snow softly falls (again!), let us turn our minds to spring and flowers. I chose some samples of Slovenian stamps with delicate flowers, all designed by Julija Zornik as part of the 2007 series of Flowers of Slovenija

pasque flower (pulsatilla grandis)

Adriatic Lizard orchid  (himantoglossum adriaticum) on the left 

and a Bertoloni columbine (aquilegia bertolonii)

there are more flowers on stamps to be found here

meat eating plants

There is a new exhibit at the Royal Botanical Gardens and I wandered in this afternoon to have a quick peak. It felt a little odd, and lonely,  to be the only person there, but then it was after 4pm on a weekday. A bitterly cold, bone-chilling day. I will have to go back when there are kids around as these events are aimed at families with lots of interactive, hands on activities and it is fun to watch the children with their reactions. Some staff were on hand, checking the glassed enclosures and the animals inside before leaving for the day. One part of the exhibit involves a dizzying array of animals with unique mechanisms for defending themselves while the other part involves carnivorous plants with real examples next to gigantic mechanized versions that are meant to make you feel like you are bug sized.

the real and imaginary world of carnivorous plants

Two signs hanging from the rafters with "monumental sculptures that render viewers bug-sized, while interactive and interpretive elements educate and entertain"

The trumpet pitcher plant lures its prey - ants, flies, wasps, bees, beetles, slugs and snails -  into a tubular leaf by scent, nectar and colour. Once the insect lands on the slippery edge, it falls down the tube to seal its fate.



































The sundew thrives in swamps and bogs. Their prey amounts to around one creature per month, usually mosquitoes or smaller insects, but occasionally dragonflies or butterflies can fall victim to the sticky residue on the leaves.


signs, signs