Horseshoe Falls at Table Rock

All this rain has made a big difference at Niagara ~ both falls are at a very high stage.

Eden is a garden

Gardens are everywhere . . . even in water. Here the water lily on Braddock Bay, also known as the American White Water Lily or Fragrant Water Lily, nymphaea ororata, rivals the lotus of the east.

waterfall

A garden waterfall this summer . . . .

American Cranberry

An explosion this year of high bush cranberries, viburnum trilobum, it is actually a viburnum and a noted woodland garden planting.

World Butterfly Conservation

The Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, sometimes called the "milkweek butterfly," is an amazing looking caterpiller. Will these butterflies overwinter at the Mariposa Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in the cloud-forested mountains of central Mexico? If so, they prefer to gather around a certain fir tree . . . Abies religiosa . . . .

Aaron's Beard or Creeping St. John's Wort

On the Rochester Civic Garden Center's summer tour of gardens . . . .

Hypericum calycinum is an evergreen ground cover with a startlingly yellow flower. Related to St. John's Wort ~ Hypericum perforatum. St. John's Wort was gathered and burned to ward off evil spirits on the eve of St. John's Day, mid-summer or summer solstice feast, usually around June 24. The term 'wort' refers to the 'plant' or 'herb' aspect. Traced before 1000 to Middle English and Old English wyrt --descended from the German, würze or spice.

Gardens are coming into bloom

Butterflies love Liatris spicata, gayfeather, denizen of the prairies which blooms from top down . . . Also known as marsh blazing star, a member of the aster family.

The lake

We call L. Ontario 'the lake' because of its powerful pull and presence.

Spring!

Eco is from the Greek meaning 'house'

"Eco' ~ where does this prefix come from? Oh, from the Greek, οἶκος, meaning "house" where assemblages of plants and animals form a society of interdependent systems within a particular habitat . . . . or . . . . house. Yes. Music for the Earth House . . . . Metamorphosis from Philip Glass

passing through

You can feel the excitement of migrating birds now. Here are two Canadian Geese coming in at twilight across Braddock Bay, L. Ontario in early April. Hawks, raptors, songbirds, owls, ducks, swans . . . . April is their month. For more: Braddock Bay Raptor Research/Rochester, NY.

Highland, Genesee Valley and Seneca parks

Soon the snow will be gone and we can visit our favorite parks without boots just as spring rounds the corner. According to Rochester's Landmark Society, Rochester is one of just four cities nationwide with an entire park system designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of the landscape architecture: Highland, Genesee Valley and Seneca.

Talk about foresight, in 1888 Rochester's Board of Park Commissioners created open space for the first parks according to the Landmark Society.

Olmsted's three major parks in Rochester each represented different landscape styles: Highland Park, created on land donated to the city by horticulturists George Ellwanger and Patrick Barry, is an arboretum of plants and shrubs emphasizing vistas both internally and for a hundred miles to the Finger Lakes. Genesee Valley Park was designed in classic pastoral style along the Genesee River. Seneca Park's rugged terrain north of the falls inspires. Thanks for the history, LS.

ten reasons for winter in march blizzard

March 6, 2011 Blizzard in New York

1. "Snow Falling on Cedars" because it's the perfect image
2. anticipatory spring fever ~ crocus, daffodil have already poked out
3. the coffee smells intoxicating
   
4. rhododendrons, cedar, hemlock are green against the white
   
5. the silhouette of maple, oak, ash branches on a blue-gray sky is for watercolorists
6. reruns of film noir are on TCM
7. you can see the wind in snowspouts
   
8. it's not Siberia
   
9. there's nothing like a group of people pushing someone out of a snowbank for happy comradarie
   
10. it gives you time to think . . . think about spring.
    

April 22 2011 ~ Earth Day

Coming up is Earth Day, quite a big deal these days, but in 1970 [April 22, 1970 to be exact], it was virtually ignored. It was an environmental teach-in sponsored by then Wisconsin Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson who died in 2005. Not only did he launch the first Earth Day, but he was the first senator to call for hearings in Congress on the safety of birth control pills which eventually led to the presence of side-effect inserts in packaging.

Earth Day falls in the Spring welcoming longer and longer days.