Day Two Hundred and One - Fall Mums

Dear all

One thing I find fascinating about living in Canada is come The Fall, not a day goes by without someone revealig their chagrin at the fact that there are 'mums are on sale', (ie bring on the snow, ho ho ho!)

Chrysanthemums, often called mums or chrysanths, consist of about 30 species of perennial flowering plants and are native to Asia and Europe.

Chrysanthemums are among the top five most cultivated flowers in the world. In Japan, Britain and the United States, more chrysanthemums are sold than any other cut flower. Funnily enough, they rank very low when people are asked what their favorite cut flower would be, strange in that they can be found almost everywhere in the stops and garden centres alike.

Interestingly, Chrysanthemums can be used as an insect repent if the flowers are crushed and the compound found in the seed casing is extracted and sold in the form of 'Oleoresin'. This substance attacks the nervous system of the insects and although also harmful to fish 'careful all fish owners) do not appear to harm mammals and are certainly less toxic than some of the pesticides on sale.

They flower for weeks and can withstand the cruel autumn winds, night frost and decreasing sunlight: some might say 'perfect' for the fall.

Anyway, en route to another fabulous evening at Vince and Kerry's, I popped into Metro and picked up a gorgeous pot of maroon 'Mums' for Kerry's kitchen. It is the first pot of 'mums' I have ever bought and I felt a deeply satisfying wave of Canada filtering through to my inner cortex. The mums are here on show with Kerry's fabulous Fall decorations.

We had a fabulous evening of home made vindaloo, it was amazing. One of the highlights was Kerry bringing out a rogue Halloween mask that she had managed to give Vince the fright-of-his life after she had approached him from behind whilst wearing it. Check out the zombie pony tail!

And in other news:

1. It was -5 this morning. I had to SCRAPE THE ICE OFF MY CAR. grrrrrrrrrrrrr.