Marilyn's photos - July 15 2026 - The Royals

 

We have a notion called upper class. I think it stays newsworthy because of Britain 's Royal Family.  Doesn't the Royal Family seem both small and large.  So much press and focus on William and his family.  They are at the top of the pyramid - the Monarch and immediate Family.  Then there are the Working Royals.  There are 10 members with official public engagements.  That includes Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate.  The Official Royal Household has 48 to 50 members - they include all blood royals, spouses and extended family members with royal titles.  The Line of Succession incudes more than 60 of the King's descendants and extended relatives.  And then the Extended Dynasty - the wider family who are all direct descendants of King George V - the great-great-grandfather of the current heirs - and that has 50 to 70 individuals.   And that's the Royal Family - then there are Dukes, Earls and Barons - the second tier of nobility.  What might be the total number of upper class members?  It says 700 to 1,000 titled families.  But this seems a low number for something so dominant.  There likely are more than that and sufficient number for those not in the upper class to notice things.   But then it only takes a few members of Britain's Royal Household to be in the news every day.  So maybe it is only 1,000 people dominating our sense of privilege and priority.   We've got the Royal Botanical Gardens nearby.  This name was granted by Britain's King when the garden was established.  Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - July 14 2026 - There's Sugar and then there's Sugar

 

There's headline news that sugar has been detected in the galactic centre region of the Milky Way.  It is erythrulose that was found.  This is one of the chemical building blocks necessary for the origins of life and this means that it is widespread across the galaxy.  One possible conclusion is that it improves the odds that we are not alone.   Chemically there are thousands of types of sugars.  I am familiar with the sugars that make food sweet. Even there, there are many types of sugars.  I found  Robert Lusting 's book on sugar and he has a list of the 156 names for sugar - the list is HERE. Here are some I don't know about - Muscovado and Panocha.  The first is an unrefined moist cane sugar where the molasses is never separated from the sugar crystals.  Panocha is a traditional unrefined cane sugar block found in Mexican and Filipino cuisines.  Muscovado adds a rich chewiness to chocolate chip cookies, gingerbread, and brownies.  Panocha sweetens beverages like chocolate, makes savoury-sweet dishes, and melted with butter makes a spread.  The pictures of these sugars show cones and blocks.  I can remember wanting to do a photo series of ants (they were plastic) on sugar cones.  I went to all the specialty food stores looking to buy a sugar cone, but never found one.  I didn't realize I needed to go to a Mexican or Filipino store.   This is an October 2016 scene of Sugar Beach on Toronto's waterfront.  The Redpath Sugar Refinery there has a raw sugar shed that holds between 16,000 and 37,000 tonnes of unrefined raw cane sugar.  Can you imagine what it smells like near the Refinery?  I would expect it would be very sweet.  Here's what they say:  toasted cotton candy, caramel, burnt sugar, or molasses. Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - July 13 2026 - Tick Tock

 

The CBC today says that guinea fowl sales have spiked in Nova Scotia because they keep the tick population in check. Ticks have increased dramatically in Canada as the temperatures rise.  We are watching the clock hoping that we'll get a vaccine soon as guinea fowls aren't going to work in my garden.   And considering the clock, it seems an interesting phrase - tick tock - that's the phrase for the sound of a mechanical clock ticking.  It once was described as tick-tack and as the pendulum grandfather clocks became popular the sound was described as tick-tock.  It reflects a deeper, slower resonance. There's another aspect of the phrase tick-tock that is  interesting.  There is the subconscious rule in English grammar called ablaut reduplication.  Reduplication is when a word is repeated to create a new phrase - bye-bye is the example.  When the vowel changes in the repeated word, the human mouth naturally prefers moving from the front of the mouth to the back.  So there we are with tick-tock, flip-flop, zigzag and hip-hop.  But why wasn't it described as tick-tick-tick? The reason goes that we like repeated pairs and naturally turn things into pairs.  The brain assigns a higher emphasis to the first beat and assigns a lower tone to the second beat even when a clock goes tick-tick-tick with no differentiation.  Here's a new phrase that will likely catch on:  Delulu - slang for holding unrealistic, delusional or overly optimistic expectations.  It is catchy, isn't it? Here's another human tendency.  Here's a silly smiley face in the plane tree bark pattern. Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - July 12 2026 - Kate's Polka Dots

 

Pictures of Princess Kate always astonish me.  She is extraordinarily attractive with a gorgeous dimple and a wide and warm smile.  And then she's slim (so slim) which shows beautifully in pictures.  And finally she has the endearing quality of wearing polka dots.  And there's nothing more fun than polka dots.  It is reported that she has an affinity for polka dots and wears them at the Royal Ascot and Wimbledon which are two high-fashion events in England.  We can go to https://katemiddletonstyle.org/tag/polka-dot/ to see these many outfits.  They are part of the 20th century Royal fashion psyche. They loved polka dots. Here's a collage. It seems to me that after the Royals, the next most famous wearer of polka dots was Marilyn Monroe in that polka dot bathing suit.  It seems to be the American version of the Royal outfit.  The surprise, though, seems to be who is the second in line for polka dot royalty in America?  None other than George Clooney. What an amazing display this is. George Clooney's polka dot fame in 2013 was made possible by the great artist Yayoi Kusama. She devoted her entire career to exploring the emotional and philosophical dimensions of the dot.  Here's a quote about her polka dot work with George Clooney: ‘My idea is to send the message of ‘love forever’ to all the people in the world through the polka dots, which are all about the universe and human beings and living things. Your sex, being famous, being a star has nothing to do with it." Here's a summer polka dot design. Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - July 11 2026 - A bridge too far

 

The date is now July 27th.  That's when the Gordie Howe International Bridge is set to open, according to a news release last night sent out by the Department of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities.  That comes from the CBC.  From MSN comes the news that Donald Trump is quietly backing off an aggressive trade posture against Canada, which some were suspicious was an under-the-table handout to major GOP donors.  Then it goes on to say that the Canadian government announced the bridge opening date.  In comparison the Yahoo!Finance news says that Canada and Michigan have agreed to open the Gordie How International Bridge...with the support of the United States Government.  Should one be encouraged and have some optimism that the bridge will open?  I know nothing about betting sites, so off I went to find out what the odds are that the bridge will open on that date.  Perhaps you already know this: "The July 27th opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge is not available as a betting market on any regulated sportsbooks. Because both the Canadian government and U.S. officials officially announced this specific opening date, betting sites do not offer odds on this event as it is a settled certainty rather than an unpredictable contest." This is an historic moment:  Should you make the drive to Detroit and participate in the first day celebration? Is there the ability for Canadians to go halfway, turn around and come back, so we don't have to go through U.S. customs?  Well we could walk or bike across the bridge  It is 2.5 kilometers long. Would that be a bad sort of behaviour?  It says you will still have to go through Canadian customs just as if you had traveled all the way to Detroit.  It is designed specifically to cross the international border, so once you are on the bridge, you are in international zone requiring valid travel documents.  And you can walk the bridge for free. Sounds like a plan, though: walk onto the bridge for a bit, and then come back.  There's a FB post wanting to organize a Gordie Howe International bridge walk.  I guess when they opened the Ambassador bridge in 1929, there was a massive crowd walk. I guess it can happen again, so there'd be no easy getting back, would there? Today's picture is tree bark. This is a Sycamore or Plane Tree. Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

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