Mairlyn's PHotos - Nov 24 2025 - Rocket Launching

 

Is rocket building still popular?  I don’t remember building rockets in science class, but maybe rocket clubs came along after public school.  They would have been available to boys in the 1960s.   Today there are lots of toy rockets by Estes.  Beginner rockets are ones you easily assemble, they are colourful and ready-to-fly. They cost under $20 to over $150 for a Blast-Off Birthday party pack.  I guess there are 12 packs because once you start, you probably want to launch a few. The age group for stomp rockets is 6 and older.  The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory has an instruction set for rocket launching.  The paper rocket instructions, the Stomp rocket launcher (a PVC-pipe launcher which is teacher-built), altitude tracker, and data sheets, clipboards, a long measuring tape, and so on. Are you interested in the stomp rocket launcher?  It includes 2-litre soda bottles and duct tape. As the name suggests, students stomp on the body of the bottle to launch the rocket.  The NASA instructions include placing a basketball in the landing zone and have the students imagine that the ball is Mars.  Here’s the full set of instructions HERE.  It says that stomp rockets can launch quite high, up to 200 feet.  It seems to me that the altitude tracking methods are the most complicated part of the activity, having to use a protractor for the manual calculations. This is the simplest form of amateur rocketry. One can move on rocket motors and fuels, and on to significant sizes.  We’re coming up to Christmas train season.  This one is at Allan Gardens in Toronto.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Marilyn's Photos - Nov 23 2025 - Sunrise Glow

 

There was a pale orange glow in the sky before sunrise this morning.  It is light pollution from the greenhouses. As there is low cloud cover this morning along with moisture from slight rain, that is the simple story.  Being just before sunrise, I assume the Rayleigh Scattering occurs as the sun is "low on the horizon making its light travel through a thicker layer of atmosphere allowing longer wavelengths (red and orange) to dominate.” The best sunrises and sunsets over Niagara Falls have passed - they happen from late August to October - crisp air, changing leaves and the angle of the sun.  As Niagara Falls has a tourist orientation, the lights to see at this time of year come from the Winter Festival of Lights. There’s a new laser show, and the Power Station has a pulsing lights and soundscape experience called “Radiant”. As usual, the Falls are illuminated at dusk and night. The Fireworks schedule is Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00pm.  For Christmas the show goes from Thursday December 25th through to January 4th.  And don’t forget the double fireworks on December 31st - both sides of the Falls erupt in brilliant displays. Niagara-on-the-Lake has a winter wonderland garden stroll - it is the Monet-styled garden across from the Pillar and Post illuminated for Christmas.  “Enjoy whimsical holiday installations that make every corner a photo-worthy moment.”  Could be a little Longwood Gardens moment, so worth a look this year.  Hoping it adds to the  display outside the Niagara Falls Greenhouse (below). And I have to take a look at what Royal Botanical Gardens is offering.  They have switched over to a destination experience garden (think of something along the lines of Disney) rather than just a botanical garden, so they have greatly expanded the family-oriented theme displays and experiences.  Particularly charming is their use of the phrase “Breezeway” - that’s the space between the Centre and the Mediterranean Greenhouse Garden. It has a train display at Christmas.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Marilyn's Photos - Nov 22 2025 - Untold Stories

 

In this age of Social Media, can we really have any “Untold Stories” in the first world?  Because anyone can tell their story today.  There are so many opportunities available.   What makes the title “Untold Stories” compelling?  It seems to point to cover-ups, silenced and suppressed voices and perspectives.  There do seem to be many Untold Stories in our current environment. I am thinking of Jeffrey Epstein and how many untold stories there will be. Or will they be told? Netflix thinks this is a worthwhile area to investigate - it has a series of the same name.  Here is a compelling episode title.  “Untold:  “The Liver King” about Brian Michael Johnson an American health and fitness social media influencer and businessman. The untold part is the revelation of his public persona for selling supplements. The expose is the use of performance-enhancing drugs rather than “devouring raw meat” on social media making him so muscular. Untold Stories might be the original clickbait headlines - it draws us in. So while it seems the phrase has moved on to being about Exposes, these jokes are from a more innocent time for the phrase: You don't want to leave a good joke untold. I'm reading a book about untold stories. It's a real page-turner, but I can't tell you the plot— it's a secret. A writer was working on a historical book, and his friend asked how it was going. The writer replied, "It's about the 'untold' stories of ancient civilizations." "Oh, so it's a history book?" asked the friend. "No," said the writer, "it's a very un-told story!" Why did the librarian refuse to tell the story? Because she said the book contained untold secrets! I can say that when I took photos at the Vineland Car Wreckers, there seemed to be a lot of untold stories - stories without answers and conclusions.  What made me think this was seeing all the things that were left behind in the cars - hanging from the rear-view mirror, in the back seat, and so on. Here is a collage from the visit.  Doesn’t that also speak to a time when cars came in more than 3 colours.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Marilyn's Photos - Nov 21 2025 - Play with your Feet

 

We play sports with our feet directly involved - kicking the ball in soccer, rugby and football.  These are dominant sports in terms of our world interest.  What about volleyball - yes when you play kick volleyball.  And don’t forget kickboxing.   There are a few instruments that use the feet to play.  I immediately think of the drums and the organ.  These instruments make extensive use of the feet in the instrument.  The piano uses the feet in the pedals to vary the sound.  The guitar can have pedals as well. I see an advertisement for a foot tambourine.   If we think more broadly, dances can be considered foot percussionists - Irish step dancing, clogging and flamenco are examples. Think tap dancing which was popular in the twentieth century.  I expect there are some foot exercises for drummer - it says general conditioning like jumping rope, practicing heel positions and doing what’s called foot ostinatos - repeating rhythms played with the feet while hands perform different patterns.  In comparison, soccer players do toe raises and toe taps, along with cone dribbling using booth feet, tapping the ball back and forth between the soles of the feet and many more.  There’s a lot of foot work to being a soccer player.  I see something called Toe Yoga: White keeping your heel on the ground, lift just your big toe, they try lifting the other four toes.  There are more toe yoga exercise besides the big toe lift - four-toe lift and spread your toes.  Did you know about toe yoga?  I am sure someone has.  It turns out that it is quite relevant. Toe yoga is recommended for people with foot pain, tight muscles, or conditions like bunions, plantar fasciitis, or hammer toes.  It can help prevent injuries and improve posture and circulation.  As we age, balance is an issue, and it is a benefit there.   There’s lots more in this article HERE. For those of us who are older, something to start doing regularly.  Isn’t the exercise game below fun!

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Marilyn's Photos - NBov 20 2025 - Black Keys and White Keys

 

Looking at the accordion keyboard I noticed the white and black keys and how they create an efficient space for the fingers to reach across them.  Yamaha tells us that the colours were the opposite when Mozart was alive in the 18th century. How the colours got reversed isn’t documented but by the 19th century they were switched.  As the colour white stands out while black recedes, it is thought that as pianos became more widely used, a brighter keyboard was preferred.  The origin of piano keys goes way back to Greece to the third century B.C.E. with the water organ - the hydraulis.  It used the power of water to blow air through the pipes of a pan flute. It had the seven white piano keys - A,B,C,D,E,F,G with no semitones.   Our piano keyboard with the black keys making a chromatic scale was created in the 14th century.  I wonder how those five new keys came about. It seems to me there would have been a distinctive difference in the music being sung and played.  What I find on the internet is that ancient musical systems with fewer notes and no semitones are said to sound stable and agreeable - a pleasant sound.  There’s a lack of tension with no strong dissonance. The diatonic scale introduces tension and suspense with a stronger sense of direction and resolution.  I was thinking about the greater harmonic complexity and how it has evolved. In our choir, we are singing Vince Guaraldi’s best known song from Charlie Brown’s Christmas “Christmas Time is Here” -  it has a pleasant rhythm and is repetitively calming.  At the same time, it has many occurrences of dissonant harmonies.  It makes me think of our current times and how anxious we are. Maybe music made us this way. Christmas Time is Here always “resolves” to a satisfying chord ending.  Wouldn’t it be great if that’s how things turn out in our social times. It is time to show you silly presents to buy for Christmas.  Here are the silly socks.   Give these with a silly sweater.  And the picture below that is part of the Painters’ Palette Series - photos of the watercolour palettes each week turned into abstracts.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca