June 30 2023 - Last call for the month of Brides and onto Donkey tales

 

June is the traditional wedding month.  After that is is September and October being considered the most popular months to get married. It has to do with the mild weather.  Maybe also all those roses filling the air with perfume. So we close June and head into July.  This is the month of "summer activities." We have a lot of summer activities compared to winter time.  Dozens of things to do and see.  Caves, hiking, boating, water falls, canoeing, kayaking, carnivals and fairs. It seems endless.  Of all of these what catches my attention? There are two donkey farms listed in Ontario.  The Donkey Sanctuary of Canada and the PrimRose Donkey Sanctuary.  The first is in Puslinch and the second out past Oshawa. Puslinch is very close to me.  Don't you wonder how we got to needing a sanctuary for donkeys when there don't seem to be many or even any around? In North America, donkey work is predator control and guarding animals on farms.  Coyotes and wild dogs would be the main concern in Ontario. While it doesn't say how many animals are at the donkey sanctuary in Puslinch, you can view the page of the donkeys that would like to be sponsored.  They have names like Beans, Big Ben, BlueApollo and Austin. Each has a profile - take a look HERE.    And if we wait for September, the second most popular wedding month, we can take part in the 5K trail run and walk through their nature trails and paddocks.  It is their biggest fundraiser of the year.   Today's picture isn't a donkey, but it came to my mind right away.  I took it in Strasburg as we were taking the train ride.  It seems amazing that a field would be full of flowers like this and to have such a delightful focal point.     Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

June 9 2022 - Dr. Biden

 

Which spouse of a head of state has a doctoral degree?  Would it be Boris Johnson's Carrie Symonds, Doug Ford's Karla Ford, Melania Trump or Jill Biden?  It doesn't take a lot of effort to figure it out.  Dr. Jill Biden has a bachelor's degree in English, a master's degree in English and Education,  and a doctoral degree in Education.  She has founded many charity organizations and is an advocate for education opportunities.  She's published a memoir and two children's books. She has a lengthy entry of accomplishments in her Wikipedia entry.  Karla Ford is Doug Ford's wife who bio entries say things like: "She is not much active in politics, but her husband is. Her husband Doug Ford has won the premier election again. Has become the Premier of Ontario again."   Unlike Jill Biden, Karla Ford doesn't have her own wikipedia entry.  The various biographies of her cover her height, weight, net worth, age, kids and so on.  All of them cover her children because of their names - Karla's daughters are named Krista, Kayla, Kara and Kyla. Pictures of Karla show her in body-building poses.  There are pictures of one of her daughters in body-building poses - lots of muscles.  Melania Trump is another world altogether when it comes to a wikipedia entry. There's a very lengthy and complicated entry. It covers her modelling starting at 5 years of age.  The sexually explicit photos and nude photos are all listed.  It highlights her businesses with a jewelry and skin care line where the manufacturers terminated their relationship with her in 2017.  It notes that she and Donald Trump gained attention in 1999 when they gave a lewd interview with shock jock Howard Stern.  There are all kinds of gossipy stories about her in the entry.  It just goes on and on.   In comparison to Jill Biden's authorship, Melania Trump's authorship is challenged.  She was "promoted" to have written a pamphlet where she contributed a paragraph in the introduction. Accusations of plagiarism followed. I also wondered about Boris Johnson's wife.  He's been in the news so much lately with the COVID party scandals and boorish behaviour. She was a Conservative Party media official and senior advisor to the ocean conservation charity Oceana.  Her biography seems somewhere between Jill Biden's and Melania Trump's. She was a victim who testified against John Worboys who drugged and sexually assaulted women. In relation to Boris Johnson, the entry indicates she had an affair with Boris Johnson while he was married and then they married secretly.  Is there any through-line in the biographies of these wives? There is so much contrast today.  What trends would we see in political heads of state spouses if we did a full analysis? Maybe it is chaos.  What do you think? The roses are starting to bloom in my garden - this is the Royal Botanical Garden's rose display last year. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

June 1 - 2021 - The Favourite Month - But Where?

 

And so our favourite months begin at this point where we move from Spring to Summer.  June is distinguished as the month of roses, one of the most beloved flowers throughout all history.  It brings consistent warmer temperatures here in Canada.  That isn't the case all over the world.  There are many different experiences of the favourite month(s). Considering the northernmost countries like Norway, the favourite months would be July and August.  Wouldn't that make sense - the daylight is 16 - 19 hours in Oslo and the average temperature is 10 to 20 degrees Celsius.  In Britain, they don't seem to have rated their favourite months by formal surveys.  But they do list their top events - June is by far the most festivals. There is everything from Royal Ascot, to Wimbledon Tennis, the Cotswold Olympicks - which includes shin kicking, and the Meltdown Festival.  I would think the Northern Hemisphere has a similar pattern of favourite and least favourite months. In India where there are 3 seasons - March to May is summer, June to September is Monsoon, and winter is October to March.  The dry months from October to April are considered the best in India.  Who would think the seasons could be so different?  Australia? September and October are their spring months with sunny days and cool nights, and Jacarandas in bloom. They have summer from December to February, Autumn from March to May, Winter from June to August, and Spring from September to November. Then they consider the wet season from November to April and the dry season from May to October in the north of the continent. South America, has summer from November to February and winter from June to August.  Peru has a rainy season from January to March. So the driest months are considered the best - May to October. July and August are considered tourist season. But then Peru is a narrow, long country and there is coastal weather vs inland weather.   Chile is even longer than Peru - it has seven major climatic subtypes.  It would be difficult to ask Chileans their favourite month.  When did we start to wonder about our favourite season and take polls and surveys?  My guess is that we started asking social preference questions is the 20th century with the rise of consumerism.  What do you think? This is one of my favourite garden pictures  - taken many years ago. It is the trellis decoration on the wall at Frank Kershaw's - providing a beautiful background for his woodland garden.

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According to one survey, May is considered the favourite month of the year, October second.  June and December that are tied for third.  With our cool spring, June will be on top this year for us.  So as we launch into our favourite month, I went looking for crazy and strange business, retail and company names.  Here are just three: Analtech Where it's located: Newark, Delaware What it does: Manufacturer of thin layer chromatography plates. How it got its name:Portmanteau of the words "analytical" and "technology." About: Analtech distributes its products to more than 40 countries and 6 continents. McJunkin Where it's located: Charleston, West Virginia What it does: Manufacturer of pipes and valves. How it got its name: Jerry McJunkin was the original co-founder of McJunkin Supply Company in 1921. About:McJunkin Red Man employees around 3450 people and and is #493 on the Fortune 500. Ass Compact Where it's located: Germany What it does: Specialist magazine for Capital and Risk Management How it got its name: This one is anyone's guess.  The rest of the companies are HERE.   There are many articles on this topic.  A picture tour of oddly named business and companies is HERE.  This article has Butt Drilling, Wally's Private Parts, Turd Baby, My Dung, Big Dick's Halfway Inn, AssCompact (see above), Glory Hole Center, Anal Jewelry Center, Beaver Cleaners, The Golden Shower Restaurant, and so on.  Huffington Post took on the challenge and found Goin' Postal.  It is followed by a restaurant with the name of Sam and Ella's.  How about Passmore Gas & Propane?  Even the websites themselves have crazy names - at chive.com they showed these pictures of business names: Mustard's last stand, British Hairways, Lettuce Eat, Juan in a Million, Lord of the Fries, and so on. Another site named Pleated-jeans.com had Jurassic Pork, Surelock Homes, Carl's Pane in the Glass - all as picture stories.  What if you want to create a crazy business name?, I found biznamewiz.com and  typed in my name to get over 15,000 whacky combinations such as: Marilyn Crispy Cornwell Aristotle Cornwell Behold Marilyn Craze Marilyn Sixth Man Our pictures today show the interesting flowers of Anthurium, blooming at Longwood Gardens.

Not Just Any Car!

Not Just Any Car Father's Day originates in West Virginia in July 1908.  While it is known it was first celebrated then, there aren't many records of the event. The next celebration was in 1910 in Spokane, Washington on June 19th.  It was a city celebration of 'sermons honouring fathers presented throughout the city'.  It faded away until the 1930's when it was promoted again and became a consistent celebration. There's a special place for cars in the celebration of Father's Day. Yesterday was a happy day for Porsche owners in our area.  We participated in the Niagara Fun-Run and drove our way around the Niagara area - from Grimsby to St. Catharines, up and down over the escarpment, among the vineyards and fruit orchards - all on those great country roads.  Here are a few of the license plate names of the almost 60 cars that participated. There was more than one group touring the escarpment - we met this group of motorcyclists up on the escarpment. That's a formidable sight coming towards you!

Welcome to June - Summer Unfolds

It's a wonderful month - peonies, irises, roses, garden tours start in earnest.  There are so many celebrations of birthday, weddings and Father's Day.  Enjoy this month, where Summer Unfolds...

Cosmos Wedding Dress

June is the month of weddings and flowers and I've taken on the challenge of creating dresses out of flowers.  This is a close-up of a white cosmos, and with the pleats and billowing lines, it seems to be right in line with the monthly theme!