After attending three months of excellent lectures and coaching, sending in assignments, and taking a final open-book test, I have passed the Vancouver Master Gardener Basic Training, making me a “Student MG – First Year.” All I have to do now is 65 hours of volunteer work and I will be a “real” Master Gardener.
I plan to do some of my volunteer hours writing copy. Wish me luck.
I was truly grateful to have two of the ten photographs I submitted to Nature Vancouver’s 2021 Photography Content win second prizes. Well, I don’t think there’s an actual prize–it’s just the honour of the whole thing.
This one of a fly on a toadstool took second place in the Entomology and Spiders category. Ron Long, judge, described the photo as “visually very appealing,” which I certainly find encouraging.
I took this image on the one day of snow we had
The beautiful cherry blossom season of 2020 is winding down, to be followed by the later parade of magnolias, camellias, rhododendrons, and azaleas.
The ‘Takasago’ north of Rose Garden Lane continues to be outstanding, whereas I went passed two ‘Rancho’ trees growing south of the Stanley Park Pavilion, and realized I had missed their blooming entirely.
I have enjoyed photographing, smelling, and learning about four more Prunus cultivars over the last ten days: ‘Kanzan’, ‘Gyoiko’,
Third Report, Nina Shoroplova, Cherry Scout for Stanley Park
So many cultivars of flowering cherries reached peak beauty this past week that it’s hard to know where to begin. Though I have never before concentrated on so few tree species at a time, I now understand the fascination with the transcendent and fragile beauty of cherry blossoms.
This third report about the blossoming cherry trees in Stanley Park for the week April 10 to 16 reveals that there are cherry trees along every walk, beside
Second Report, Nina Shoroplova, Cherry Scout for Stanley Park
So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet an union in partition;
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem.
Shakespeare, A Midsummer-Night’s Dream III, ii, 208–211
In Stanley Park this week, the first full week of the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, double and single cherry blossoms abound—cherry trees of various species and cultivars are in prebloom, first bloom, and full bloom stages.
There are now three groves of ‘Akebono’ moving through full bloom.
The grove of ‘Akebono’ on Chilco at Alberni, near the Welcome to Vancouver sign on Highway 99 is now at peak glory. What were once pale
First Report, Nina Shoroplova, Cherry Scout for Stanley Park
Tuesday, April 2, 2020, is the first day of the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival. The pale pink of ‘Akebono’, the brighter pink of ‘Accolade’, and the white of ‘Snow Goose’ provide the colours of the day, as every cherry scout knows full well. Keeping their physical distance from others, cherry scouts armed with their cameras are venturing out on their daily walks into their neighbourhoods, along their boulevards, and through
It’s hot. Humid. My face was bright red and beaded with sweat when I came back from my errand at the edge of town. I had to walk further than I had planned because the first bridge across the canal was closed at both entrances—I had to take the second bridge and walk back to the stationery store via the tourist stalls.
I’ve cooled off now. And the Frappe Nutella will cool me even more. I’m in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero State, Mexico.
Café Caracol has three small tables, each with two ladder