The change starts when daylight is reduced and the weather gets colder. From the Algonquin Provincial Park website on fall colours; "As the daylight length shortens, and temperatures grow cooler in autumn, trees slow and eventually halt their sugar making process of photosynthesis and begin to prepare for the dormant winter period. During this preparation for winter, trees extract the valued chemical components within their leaves, including the green chlorophyll, for re-use again next growing season (the following spring/summer). As these valued chemical components break down and get extracted from the leaf, underlying pigments get revealed. These now visible pigments (that were in the leaves all along, but hidden by the green chlorophyll) include the orange and yellow colours of pigments such as carotenes and xanthophylls. Red pigments, or anthocyanins, are believed to be specially formed late in the summer and protect sensitive leaves from bright sunlight during the chemical extraction process." We go from a peak of 15 hours, 27 minutes of summer sunlight to 12 hours, 11 minutes at the Autumn Equinox.
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
Fall 2023 is coming fast
The change starts when daylight is reduced and the weather gets colder. From the Algonquin Provincial Park website on fall colours; "As the daylight length shortens, and temperatures grow cooler in autumn, trees slow and eventually halt their sugar making process of photosynthesis and begin to prepare for the dormant winter period. During this preparation for winter, trees extract the valued chemical components within their leaves, including the green chlorophyll, for re-use again next growing season (the following spring/summer). As these valued chemical components break down and get extracted from the leaf, underlying pigments get revealed. These now visible pigments (that were in the leaves all along, but hidden by the green chlorophyll) include the orange and yellow colours of pigments such as carotenes and xanthophylls. Red pigments, or anthocyanins, are believed to be specially formed late in the summer and protect sensitive leaves from bright sunlight during the chemical extraction process." We go from a peak of 15 hours, 27 minutes of summer sunlight to 12 hours, 11 minutes at the Autumn Equinox.
Friday, August 18, 2023
Canadian International Air Show CIAS 2023 coming soon
The show will include the following aircraft; U.S. Navy Blue Angels, Canadian Forces Snowbirds, U.S.A.F. F-16 Demonstration Team, P-51 Mustang Heritage Flight and the Canadian Forces CF-18 Demonstration Team. Additional aircraft can be found on the airshow website with more performers to be announced in the coming weeks.
Watching warplanes fly in Hamilton
Many Torontonians have see the famous Lancaster bomber flying over the city and back to Hamilton. Currently the bomber is going through some maintenance work and the museum is looking for donations towards the half a million dollar cost of the engine upgrades. From the museum's website, "Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum intends to fly the Lancaster well into the future and carry on with this important mission, but we need you to help us accomplish our worthy task. As we approach our 25th year of flight operations in 2013, we are at a point where the four mighty Packard Merlin 224 engines are nearing the end of their operating life and will need to be overhauled in a planned sequence. The Museum already has all the professional contacts in place with the two engine overhaul facilities that have the capability to overhaul these V12 engines. We will be able to operate the Lancaster throughout the planned overhaul sequence, but the costs of these engine overhauls and specialty work is significant."
Most flights are from Thursday to Sunday and can feature the following aircraft; Beechcraft Expeditor, Noorduyn Norseman, Fairchild Cornell, de Havilland Tiger Moth, de Havilland Canada Chipmunk, Douglas C-47 Dakota, Boeing Stearman, North American Harvard, Consolidated Canso, North American B-25 Mitchell and the Avro Lancaster. You can watch the planes start and take off from the observation deck of the museum or from the deck of the plane parking area, both are exciting to watch. Most planes also fly over the museum after takeoff. Hamilton is a working airfield and has a number of domestic and international flights that you can see from the observation deck.
The static displays, both inside and out on the outdoor parking area are worth checking out as well.Floating MAiZE art in Brookfield Place Toronto
From Brookfield's website, "Using cast-off or donated materials, I create large-scale sculptures that draw attention to everyday objects, often underscoring their circulation and cumulative effect upon our live environment. In the case of Floating MAiZE, the repurposed single-use plastic Mountain Dew bottles, once filled with soda containing corn syrup, illustrate the issues of corporate extraction and overconsumption, and the harmful effects of highly processed foods on our health. The sheer mass of plastic in Floating MAiZE encourages visitors to consider the failure of the beverage industry to take responsibility for the scale of plastic waste it generates, less than 9% of which is recycled, and this waste’s detrimental effects on the environment and our collective well-being."