We were delighted to receive the 2013 Website of the Year Award. It was one of the Canadian and International Awards handed out during the Garden Tourism Conference in Toronto, Canada. The Garden Tourism Awards are presented to organizations and individuals who have “distinguished themselves in the development and promotion of the garden experience as a tourism attraction. Recipients travelled from across North America and as far away as Japan, France, Portugal, Italy, and Australia”.
“It is an honor to be part of the international community that has established an awards program to recognize the invaluable contribution the world’s outstanding garden experiences make, not only in terms of environmentally friendly and sustainable tourism, but also in terms of the equally important intangible benefits that nature brings to the soul,” said Alexander Reford, Chair of the Canadian Garden Tourism Council as he handed out the Awards. Michel Gauthier, Conference Chair, closed the event by saying, “According to Richard Benfield, authorof ‘Garden Tourism’, more people visit gardens annually in the US than visit Disneyland and Disneyworld combined, and more than visit Las Vegas in any given year. Given those impressive statistics, we’re certainly on the right track as we recognize the country and the world’s finest garden experiences in this vibrant, thriving and rapidly growing segment of the international tourism market.” The inaugural Garden Tourism Awards were presented at the 2011 Garden Tourism Conference held in Toronto. To view past winners, visit: www.gardentourismconference.com and click on the ‘media’ tab. In the spirit of highlighting Canada and the world’s most dynamic garden experiences and GardenTourism’s limitless potential, the Canadian Garden Tourism Council, in consultation with a Canadian and international jury network, proudly announce the 2013 recipients of the Garden Tourism Awards.
Congratulations! ^.^ Geek!
Well done Tom ! A well deserved award.
Thank you both.
You are welcome!^.^
Well done! I hope you are celebrating the award in style?
Yes – we are doing it by trying to keep warm!
Congratulations, as an avid reader of the site I can say its well deserved.
Oh, we’ll done! Wish I could send you some So Cal sunshine for your celebrations!
Thank you. We would love some of Southern California’s sunshine – or Australia’s or anywhere’s. The UK Met Office has been publishing notes on climate change predictions for these countries and for the UK. Here is what the UK is in for:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-change/policy-relevant/obs-projections-impacts
Climate change projections for the UK
For the A1B emissions scenario the UK is projected to experience temperature
increases of up to around 3°C in the south and 2.5°C further north. The agreement
between models is moderate in the south of the UK and low further north.
Europe shows a strong contrast in projected precipitation changes, with large
decreases in the south and large increases in the north. The UK falls towards the
northern region with generally increasing precipitation, with projected increases of up
to 10%, though some southern parts of the UK may experience decreases of up to
5%. There is generally good agreement between ensemble members over the north
of UK, but moderate agreement further south, indicating uncertainty in the position of
the transition zone between increasing and decreasing precipitation over Europe.
HOWEVER though the Met Office is pretty good at predicting the next 5 days, they are weak over 10 days and hopeless for longer periods. This time last year they were predicting a drought, which was quickly followed by the longest wettest period on record. We can’t regard this as relevant evidence re long term climate change but it does make one think. I have stopped spraying CFCs into the air to warm things up!
Climate change projections for Australia
•
For the A1B emissions scenario projected temperatu
re increases are larger over
central and western regions of Australia, with chan
ges of up to around 4°C. Along
most of the coastal regions, changes of around 2.5°
C are more typical. There is good
agreement between the CMIP3 models over all of Aust
ralia.
•
For precipitation changes, there is moderate to lo
w agreement amongst the CMIP3
ensemble of models. Decreases of around 20% or mor
e are projected over some
parts of the far west, but moderate decreases of ar
ound 5% are more typical over
most of Western Australia, as well as eastern Queen
sland, Victoria, and southern
South Australia. Much of the Northern Territory, Q
ueensland, and parts of New
South Wales are projected to experience increases o
f up to 5%, with increases of up to 10% in the far north.
Congratulations! Yours is the first site I go to when planning a trip that I always hope will include some great gardens. Fantastic recognition of so much hard work and research.
There has been much comment about the obvious impacts of climate change on Australian weather patterns, noting that the climate has shifted significantly and that extreme weather events and extremes of weather (hot and cold) are both more likely and becoming more frequent and more intense.
Unfortunately there is no differentiation between natural and anthropogenic causes, and the extent of each of these factors, on these phenomenon to make any real sense of what is occurring.
So for the tourist, planning a holiday to destinations with predictable weather and no impending natural disasters is going to become more difficult!
Catherine, we need more research!
Darlings we have been diverted from applauding Tom and his gong to discussing our dicky weather patterns ! Lets return to more delightful topics !