Mairlyn's Photos - Sep 4 2026 - Lone Trees Look Out

 

I've been depicting trees in my watercolour/digital drawing work.  This picture came up with this story.   "For 300 years, a single tree stood alone in the heart of the Sahara. The most isolated tree on earth. The only tree for 250 miles in any direction. In 1973, a truck driver hit it. The Tree of Ténéré was so significant that it was one of the only trees ever marked on a map drawn at a scale of 1:4,000,000. In a desert the size of a continent, cartographers felt it was too important to leave off. Caravans navigated by it. Tuareg nomads considered it sacred. The Tuareg people who passed it on their journeys never used it for firewood or allowed their camels to graze on it. In a desert where survival demanded using everything available, this single tree was left completely untouched out of reverence. During a dig near the tree in 1938, researchers found that its roots had reached the water table 33 to 36 metres below the surface. In 1973, a Libyan truck driver, reportedly drunk, followed the old caravan route and drove directly into the trunk. His name was never released. The impact shattered the acacia beyond recovery. The remains were taken to the National Museum of Niger in Niamey, where they are still kept today." Reading the story, it comes across as a promotion for something or other product.  It is that dramatic tone of voice.  So I researched this to find out if it is a true story, and it is. This picture was taken in 1961 and is in the Wikipedia entry.  Its name is the Tree of Ténéré.   It has been memorialized since its destruction, and there are reproductions of it in bronze in various places. And it joins a long list of famous trees that have been destroyed.  The 200-ear-old Sycamore Gap Tree in Northumberland, England was chainsawed in 2023.  The Golden Spruce, a rare genetic mutation,  in Haida Gwaii, B.C. was destroyed in 1997 by a disgruntled forest worker.  The Mark Twain Tree was a massive, 1,300 giant sequois in California's Sierra Nevada mountains.  It was deliberately felled to send plants to museums to prove how big and old it was.  The oldest felled tree was Prometheus a britstlecone pine, cut down in 1964.  It was thought to have been the oldest known organism on the planet - somewhere between 4800 and 5000 years old.  This was in the U.S. where a student was studying trees in North Carolina and found a very old specimen  He couldn't optain a sample core, so got permission to cut the tree down in order to count its rings.   There are more stories like these - covered HERE.  Doesn't this history lesson have a moral meaning.  I had no idea our species is so consistent in its destruction of special things.  And look out if you are a lone tree.   Here is the symbol of the Royal Horticultural Society in the U.K.  A massive single tree. I took this picture many years ago.  Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Sep 3 2026 - On the Other Side of the Earth

 

That might be a fun game.  What is on the other side of the earth from [somewhere].  This is known as an antipode - a point that is on the exact opposite side of the earth from a given location.  I've not heard of this before.  So choosing Grimsby, the answer is: "On the exact opposite side of the Earth (the antipode) from Grimsby, Ontario, Canada, you will find open ocean.  If you were to dig a tunnel straight down through the center of the planet, you would emerge in the southern Indian Ocean. The precise geographical coordinates for this opposite point are approximately 43.19° S, 100.44° E.  This point is highly isolated, but here is what is closest to it: Nearest Land: The isolated Heard Island and McDonald Islands (an Australian territory) lie roughly 2,000 kilometers to the southwest, and the southwestern coast of Australia (near Perth) is about 1,600 kilometers to the northeast. Because water covers over 70% of the planet's surface, most places in North America similarly line up with the vast waters of the Indian Ocean rather than solid land." It turns out that New Zealand is pretty popular as an antipode location. It even has the Antipodes Islands, southeast of New Zealand. Wikipedia has a ranking by population of antipodal pairs.  This history is interesting with the first Roman geographer asserting that the Earth had two habitable zones but that the unbearable heat at the Equator meant we would never meet. A zoom through the Earth to the other side land only to find water. Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Sep 2 2026 - Turtle Tears

 

I saw a picture on the Fine Art America site and thought it was AI-created.  It was a butterfly on the nose of a turtle.  So i screenprinted it and ran it through HIVE, and it was not AI-generated.  So let's go see about butterflies on turtle noses.  In summary, butterflies land on turtle noses to drink their tears for vital salt and minerals. It happens in rainforests as rainforest soil and flower nectar lack enough sodium and amino acids.  The behaviour is called "tear feeding."  Sometimes there are a lot of butterflies around a turtle, and so when they become too bothersome, turtles slide back into the water.  This is specific to the western Amazon basin in Peru and Ecuador.  Our North American turtles?  They don't eat butterflies - they are omnivores or carnivores.  Butterflies are pretty fast-flying to be regular food for them. And our butterflies in our conservatories are well-nourished, so no need to visit the turtles there.   Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Sep 1 2026 - And then there's Messi Tattoos

 

Maybe this recent investigation of tattoos comes from a few sources.  One is the continuing pictures of Lionel Messi.  The photographers seem to go for the tattooed arm waving in the air.   I am well rewarded in looking up his tattoos. This is a long story with Messi having many tattoos.  I found a site that provided a detailed tour of Messi Tattoos - it has its own table of contents as there are 18 of them - they are HERE.  Here's an excerpt for the first six.   1. MOTHER’S PORTRAIT (FIRST EVER TATTOO) Location: Left shoulder blade Meaning: A tribute to Celia Messi, his biggest supporter and foundation runner Story: This was Messi’s very first tattoo, showing where his heart has always been—with family. His mother runs the Leo Messi Foundation, helping underprivileged children worldwide. 2. THIAGO’S HANDPRINTS Location: Left leg Meaning: Actual handprints of his firstborn son Story: Added on November 2, 2012, the day Thiago was born. Initially mistaken for Maradona’s “Hand of God,” Messi clarified by adding his son’s name inside the prints. 3. “THIAGO” NAME TATTOO Location: Within the handprints on left leg Meaning: His eldest son’s name Story: Added to clarify that the handprints belonged to his son, not a football reference, showing his priorities as a father first. 4. ANTONELLA’S EYE Location: Right bicep Meaning: Portrait of his wife’s eye Story: A romantic tribute to Antonella Roccuzzo, his childhood friend turned soulmate, whom he’s known since age five. 5. KISSING LIPS Location: Arm Meaning: Antonella’s lips Story: Another romantic gesture honoring his wife, added after years of dating before their 2017 wedding. 6. FAMILY BIRTHDATES Location: Left leg (within Thiago’s handprints) Meaning: Birth dates of Antonella and all three sons Story: November 2, 2012 (Thiago), September 11, 2015 (Mateo), March 10, 2018 (Ciro), and February 26, 1988 (Antonella). and a bunch more to get to that total of 18.  Here's a picture reference.  It is a visual storybook, don't you think?   Here's a pretty garden scene - one of the Grimsby gardens on the garden tour. Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Mairlyn's Photos - Aug 31 2026 - Tiny Tattoos

 

As we move towards colder weather, the tattoos won't be on full display.  I consider myself one of the few who doesn't want this display.  More than a third of people in Canada have at least one.  Millennials are at the top with over 50% having tattoos.  So they would enjoy the warm weather with the tattoo shows all around them.  I guess conversations are struck and friendships begin because of tattoo displays in the summer.  I am intrigued with the great interest in them and saw an article on the trend in tiny tattoos.  What will that one-third do?  Will they erase the current ones for a teeny, tiny one? A small tattoo is considered a minimalist design that "carries a deep personal or symbolic meaning for the wearer." There's a lady in the aquafit class who has a semi colon tattoo.  These are symbol tattoos - survival and mental health awareness.  It represents a person who considered ending their life but chose to keep living.   A semicolon is used when an author could have ended a sentence but chose not to.  "In this case, you are the author, and the sentence is your life." Project Semicolon was started in 2013.  It is a nonprofit in the U.S. There are various forms of the semicolon tattoo - on the wrist is one.  This person in aquafit had it behind her ear.  It says this is often for discreet visibility. It is to be a personal reminder of strength and resilience while keeping it subtle for privacy.  So aquafit turns into a revealing experience. Who would ever have guessed this?  All those variations of semicolon tattoos!  Lots of them have butterfly wings with the semicolon as the butterfly body.  There is a language of symbolic tattoos. There's the anchor - it stands for stability, strength, and staying grounded during hard times.   And the sun and moon - symbolizes the balance of opposites, such as light and darkness or masculine and feminine energy. Lotus flower means purity, rebirth, and the journey to finding inner peace out of adversity.  Arrows or malins - signifies that you must sometimes face setbacks or pull back to move forward in life.  I guess now tattoos can be appreciated a little more - checking to see if a person has a symbolic tattoo that communicates a life journey.

It is flower time in Niagara with Zinnias and other annuals making pretty bouquets.