Marilyn's Photos - May 23 2026 - The 72 Microseasons

 

The New York Times message on a Saturday morning is about personal pursuits rather than global news and American politics.  This morning the author writes about "the traditional Japanese calendar's 72 microseasons, each about five days in duration, each charting a tiny event in the natural world. (May 21 - 25:  "Silkworms start feasting on mulberry leaves.)" The article about the 72 microseasons that is referenced by the New York Times author is HERE.  It provides a great insight into the seasons compared to ours. I notice right away how short a Japanese winter is.  That's because their spring begins in February.  So the calendar starts with the Beginning of spring. February 4-8 East wind melts the ice.  February 9-13 Bush warblers start singing in the mountains. Their cherry blossoms bloom March 26 - 30.  And who would guess there is such a thing as April 15-19 First rainbows. It seems to magical.  Wondering when winter might arrive.  First in November 22-26 Rainbows hide.  Then December 7-11 Cold sets in, winter begins.   Doesn't that seem so calming compared to the Globe and Mail headline that a prestigious short-story contest winner has been accused of using AI writing.  If we were to divide our AI future into 72 microseasons, there will be one with the title: The Shakespearean Monkeys arrive. Another would be The Shakespearean Monkeys get to work.    This is a Longwood Azalea.  I am astounded by the "trunk."

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Marilyn's Photos - May 22 2026 - In Search of a Search Engine

 

I've been using online search engines since the 1975 - when I took a Master's Degree in Library and Information Science. Today my search is to remove AI functionality and not gain more functionality.  In the 1970s search engines were equipped with boolean operators and nested searches, making sophisticated searches possible.  I worked for the Globe and Mail's Online Division when full-text searching became functional - enlarging the retrieval capabilities significantly.  These were exciting times. We've drifted backwards, though. One dilemma now is that retrieval happens within the context of shopping, sponsored content, and advertising.  AI seems to take centre-stage, eliminating retrievals based on keywords and charging ahead with some strange references for its answers.  And one day this week, I put in a search term and Google's AI thought I was having a conversation with it.  I couldn't shake it off.   So today I switched to DuckDuckGo and turned off AI. Then I went looking for jokes about AI's faulty instructions.  Examples are how to use gasoline in a spaghetti recipe, how to glue your cheese to the pizza, how many rocks to eat a day show up.  It gave advice on how a person can reach 500 words per minute typing. The Guinness Record for fastest typing speed is 305 words per minute achieved by MythicalRocket in 2024 so it is ironic at best that AI would give advice.  Here's how it starts: "While reaching 500 words per minute (WPM) is incredibly challenging and surpasses the capabilities of most professional typists... As I take a look at the results, i realize that the "Search Assist" had popped back on in DuckDuckGo. Is this what we can expect in the future?  To be over-ruled by the AI overlords. I guess I will have to try out a few more search engines that promise no AI.   This is the Wisteria at the corner house - this picture is from 2022 when it was an amazing show.

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Marilyn's Photos - May 21 2026 - Children Gardening

 

From garden tours yesterday to pre-school children gardening today.  There is a school in Grimsby that is a certified outdoor school.  "Through nature immersion, children develop environmental literacy which encourages them to grow to be humans who are authentically connected to the world around them and are more likely to care for and advocate for the future of our planet and their communities."   Today the topic is compost. They will likely find this immense fun.  Last year we smelled leaves and herbs and the most common reaction was "Stinky!" So they should have similar fun this year with a little bit of vegetable scraps, herbs, leaves and egg shell bits.  They have already had a Green Bin day with Phil the Green Bin.  Here are some of the Waste Management Day pictures.  Pretty impressive to me. We'll be outside - which is where they spend most of their day.  It is an outdoor school.  So we'll spend our short time this morning digging, weeding and planting, and then watering.  That part will be the most fun if it is like last year, where they finished planting and started to make mud messes.    Here's a nice Orchard Grove.

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Marilyn's Photos - May 19 2026 - From Feckless to Feckful

 

Feckless seems to me to be a term more common in Britain than in North America. And That would be because it originated in Scotland and is a combination of feck - for effect and the suffix less.  So it means effectless - lacking vigour, purpose and responsibility.  Because it is the more common word, one wouldn't today say that someone was feckful.  It sounds like it would be undermining the person. Feck alone seems to have a sense of being without any effect.  And then it is an alternate version of the F-word - so feck off would be a snobbish insult at best.   In fact, that poor word has come to mean poo, damn, bollocks, dammit, drat, heck, hell, blast, botheration, damnation and more.  In fact, many more. These come from the dictionary wordhippo.com.   I guess that leads to "frick."  This is a 20th century word meaning a "minced oath" and is also a substitute for the F-word.  It has similar phonetics and rhythmic cadence, like "feck."  And what about "frick?" That seems to fit in as well - it used to mean lively, brisk or vigorous. Gone are those good thoughts.  The lineage of "minced oaths" seems quite substantial.

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Marilyn's Photos - May 18 2026 - Eurovision Come and Gone

 

Eurovision seemed like a flash.  Poof!  Someone won.  Single name singer Dara from Bulgaria says her international career has begun.  She's probably right, given the history of stars churned out of the competition since it started 70 years ago.  The decision is made by a combination of national juries in participating countries and viewers around the world.   It has given the award to what are now famous musicians/acts - Cirque du Soleil, Madonna, Justine Timberlake and the first performance of Riverdance.  ABBA and Celine Dion won.Lots of people have paraded through in those 70 years.  The participants are countries, Euroopean countries, and Canada isn't a "member" and has never formally competed.  When Celine Dion won she represented Switzerland.  This is a complicated set-up - it is run by the European Broadcasting Union so would require an arrangement with the CBC for Canada to participate.  CBC would broadcast Eurovision similar to the Olympics.  And it is a similar to the Olympics in approach with countries competing and lots of friction over political matters.  Countries withdrew this year because of Israel's participation.   One article says that we can watch Eurovision acts on YouTube, and goes on to outline some of its strange participants. In 2014 the victor was an Austrian bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst.  In 2006, Lordi a group of heavy metal monsters dressed in movie-quality alien/demon prosthetics won.  Dustin the Turkey won in 2008 - it was a  glove puppet of a turkey who rapped and danced.  And there was Buranovskiye Babushiki in 2012 - a troupe of traditional Russian grandmothers who baked bread on a spinning stage while singing their folk-pop song.  I can't decide if I am compelled to go look or repelled to not look.  Maybe now I know why it came and went.  With Canada's interest in closer European ties, this seems to be in the loop for discussion.  Something entertaining may come of this. Isn't that such a pretty Koi moment.  It seems serene.

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