Mairlyn's Photos - Aug 17 2026 - El Nino Coming

 

When do we normally get winter forecasts in the headlines?  El Niño has hit the news this week because it is early and strong.  it is being called Super El Niño.  One headline says there is a 90% chance of a very strong event in the Norther Hemisphere this fall and winter.  The polar vortex expression has entered the prediction conversation.  Another possibility is record highs and above-average winter temperatures.  That's for us in North America.  In other countries such as Australia and southern Asia drought is predicted.  Severe flooding is possible in South America and the Horn of Africa. This has become top news because there is such intensity so early this year, and the temperatures are already higher.  Looking at the specific descriptions, there are expressions that are new to me. I don't think of water piling up.  That's near Indonesia.  Then that pile of warm water will rush back toward South America.  There are normal things like this in the ocean - bulges. I don't think of water forming bulges but the gravitational pull from the moon and sun cause shifts in huge volumes of water that create regional bulges thousands of miles wide.  Lake Ontario doesn't have any permanent water bulges but has tilted slopes of water called storm surges.  Lake Erie is more prone to water pile-ups and bulges.   The biggest permanent sea-surface "mound" of ocean water happens near the Philippines at 6.5 feet higher than the average sea level. It is called a "perennial topographic hill known as the western Pacific warm pool", or a standing water dome. Take worst case scenarios - Storm Eddie in 2024 caused open-ocean waves nearly 65 feet tall.  Southern Ocean Buoy in 2018 measured a 78 foot wave.  Put that through the imagination filters and see a wave that is as high as a building of 6 to 8 stories. Thanks to the CBC video for an illustration.   A garden corner, with a wabi sabi window.    Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Aug 16 2026 - Sunday Drive

 

Remember when we would pile in the car and go for a Sunday afternoon drive?  There would be a stop for ice cream cones.  Or maybe that was the point of the drive.  Would that be something people might still do?  Or is it a bygone tradition that started in the when cars were introduced to the public?  Cars gave people the freedom to explore the areas around them, to visit people, and do errands efficiently.  Wikipedia says this Sunday drive tradition started in the 1920s and 30s.  I don't think it was as popular here in Canada.  The Great Depression started in 1929 and continued for 10 years here.  Then there was the war, and people really sacrificed during the war so consumer items were in short supply, and that meant cars.  People had to work many extra hours.  My Dad said he worked every single day except for Christmas Day and Easter Sunday during the war.  He worked for an aircraft company, so they were on extra duty.   That makes it easy to imagine the enjoyment of a Sunday Drive in the 1940s and 50s, after the war.  There would be freedom - to visit friends, family and enjoy the countryside.  What a difference now.   There's heavy traffic, the price of gas, and a lot of suburban development where forests and fields once stood.  Also, there is competition from more forms of entertainment - such an abundance now.   There are some old pictures of our family in front of the fountains in Niagara Falls.  That would be a Sunday Drive back then. I know that the Sunday Drive to Niagara Falls is still a tradition.  It is stop and go traffic towards the Falls from the late morning until the evening on a Sunday, and also on a Saturday.  There are the fireworks at 10:00pm nightly, so quite a draw.  Daily estimates range from 21,000 to 26,000 people.  No that's a sizeable Sunday Drive crowd. Here's another Trillium house in Grimsby.  This one is on Livingston, very close to Casablanca.  I would expect the Sunday Drive time is taken up with topiary trimming.  Those spheres and rectangles are pretty impressive.  Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Aug 15 2026 - Buckle Up

 

There's an airline news story circulating widely. That's likely because this is a  favourite topic - toddler behaviour on airplanes.  A red-eye flight turned back to the gate and was cancelled as it couldn't get revised flight plans submitted in time for last take-off time of 12:30am.  What was the toddler delay?  Refusing to have a seat belt put on for take-off.   There must have been multiple frustrations here.  The crew and parent spent nearly an hour trying to buckle the child.  So I guess the plane wasn't sitting there for 2 hours.   The toddler and parent deboarded, but then the crew couldn't get new flight plans submitted in time for the 12:30am deadline.   Many people have weighed in on what could have, would have or should have happened.  And from far and wide.  The Globe had an article on the editorial page.  This is a universal theme of parenting, isn't it? Lots of advice on maneuvers to secure the child down.  Made me think of wrestling.  Is there a book on physical maneuvers to handle wiggly and squiggly situations.  Pretty well, lots of books and ideas. There's the protective hug, which is done from behind, the two-person escort, but that's for standing, the cradle hold but then they are in your arms and not belted in.  Finally there's the supportive guide, and that looks like a standing maneuver as well.   Because children get buckled into car seats, strollers and airplane seats all the time, there are instructions for doing this.  There are a few methods given for various situations.  Many scenarios abound - there's the leg kicker, single parent method, two parent method, and instructions on the strategic setup.   I guess the clock ticking and the buckling not buckling must have been a nail biter for the other passengers.   There isn't any pubic tracking of numbers of children refuse to buckle up on airlines.  They do track the number of injuries for people not wearing seatbelts during turbulence - 58 people in the U.S.  The underlying statistic is that 7% of passengers admit to rarely wearing their seat belt when flying.   This toddler was trying to get into the statistics book at a very early age.  Isn't this a cute house with a cute little garden of topiary shrubs?  It is on one of Grimsby's prettiest streets. Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos -Aug 14 2026 - Best-selling Books in 1510

 

There is a comparison between California and medieval times that I didn't know about. until it got some press with an old interiew with Dan Akryod.  Maybe he's in the news because of the anniversary of the Blues Brothers movie.  Looking it up, the AI chat told me it was named after a best-selling book in 1510. And the book was a chivalric romance which was the most popular book at the time.  Here is the summary: Las sergas de Esplandián: Published in Seville, this Spanish chivalric romance was a massive commercial hit of the early 16th-century printing press. It famously featured an island of Black Amazonian women ruled by Queen Califia—the mythical tale that ultimately gave the state of California its name. What a magical and mythical beginning.  Doesn't it make sense with California's beautiful coastline, magnificent ancient giant forests, and exquisite mountains and valleys.   This comparison has been made in relation to climate history, cultural metaphors and speculative fiction.  That name originating in 1510 is perfect for vivid metaphors. It was urban theorist Joel Kotkin who made this a popular theme: Tech wealth concentration made it easy to see the split into: an oligarchy, a professional group equivalent to the clergy, and then the working class.  His book came out in 2018 where California was his case study and the phrase neo-feudalism was immediately picked up by demographers and social critics.   I wondered how many places have interesting origin stories. We recently read about the naming of Canada.  This field is called toponymy. I don't remember seeing anything on this in my work on Thesauri.

Here's a watercolour/pen image of breezy leaves.  Everything should float so elegantly.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com

Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Aug 13 2026 - SunBound

 

Each eclipse of the sun becomes the best eclipse ever.  What made this one the best ever and so distinctive?  It is a rare European totality and crossing northern Spain and parts of Portugal during a dramatic sunset .  That hits all the markers for North American tourists in search of a bit of nostalgia of vacations past.  Being low on the horizon gave forth those beautiful shots of silhouettes of people in the foreground.  With the 2024 eclipse that we experienced, the sun was high overhead, giving a longer duration of totality and unobstructed by buildings, trees, and hills.  But it was farther from us. Yesterday's eclipse had an estimate of 15 million people living directly in the path or going to places to view it. There isn't an estimate so far of the total crowds of residents and tourists. For the North American eclipse in 2024, about 50 million people experienced totality with 44 million living directly under the path. The estimate is that 652 million people experienced at least a partial eclipse.   Almost half a million people travelled specifically to the viewing region yesterday.  In comparison Niagara Falls, ON alone got 200,000 people viewing the eclipse. Niagara Falls, NY got 45,000 people.  Do you know that 150,000 people watched Nik Wallenda walk a tightrope across the falls in 2012. Maybe he's some sort of equivalent to a natural wonder.  And then what record did the Guinness Book record that date?  The largest gathering of people dressed as the sun - 309 people with big yellow plastic sun tops. Here's the proof of what made yesterday's eclipse the best ever. Here are the latest sun and moon watercolour/ink pictures.  Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com