Mar 1 2023 - Size Matters

Do you enjoy comparisons?  I do, and especially ones I hadn't considered before.  At exporedplanet.com visual maps of various countries and their characteristics are shown - quite often in overlays.  How interesting and curious some of the comparisons turn out to be.  This one is the size of Australia compared to the U.S. The United States is around 9,833,517 sq km, while the land down under is 7,741,220 sq km. In mathematical terms, America is about 1.3 times as large as Australia, or 27 percent.  The Majority of the US has a smaller population than LA County.It has 10 million people.  Here's China vs the United States. It has over one billion people, but a little less land mass than the U.S. By using a bit of imagination, you can see that if you reconfigure the shape of China, it is almost the same size as the US. But, at the end of the day, China is just a bit smaller, at 9,596,961 sq km, while the United States comes in at 9,833,517 sq km. And what's this?  Cuba fits into Hudson Bay. The Hudson Bay's surface area is 1,230,000 sq km, while Cuba has an area of 110,860 sq km. With that size difference, no wonder Cuba looks like nothing more than a sandbar on this map. Many more are HERE. There's everything from noise pollution, metric vs imperial measurement, left-side vs right-side driving. The final map is what the world map "should actually look like flat.  March is the start of the spring flowers.  Look at these flaming tulips. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Mar 11 2020 - Square Foot Living

One of my experiences every day when I research a topic is to find out how much is already been investigated and written about it.   I saw this little living space in the NY Times morning news.   The article is about the impacts of the coronavirus causing people to work remotely from home. This is the illustration - it reminds me of the 1950s kitchen sets we played with.  Pinterest has pages for "Living in 100 Square Feet".  The only difference is that the bed is on a second level that one reaches via a ladder staircase.  These are endearingly named "My Tiny House."  And you likely know about tiny house reality series.   Articles written about tiny houses typically start: "High tech couples gives up high life to live in tiny space...and loving it." According to the engineering toolbox, the average person needs about 100 - 400 square feet of space in an apartment to feel comfortable.  They have square footage for all kinds of rooms - dental centres, churches, banks.  Residential is 200 - 600 square feet per person.  So tiny living is about reducing that in half or more. Can we shrink our living spaces rather than enlarging them as we've been doing?  Is this also a viable approach to our affordable housing crisis and to homeless housing? Seattle is a city that has built tiny houses villages and has experience in the area for a few years.  They opened their 11th village in February 2019.  I went looking for Canada's version:  and it turns out that Hamilton, Kingston and Keewatin have tiny house community initiatives.  Cute as a button in the pictures, but only three of them.  This seems to indicate this isn't a movement, more a promotional experiment. Today's picture is Witch hazel blooming in the snow.  It may seem funny to look forward to a forecast of rain.  Maybe that's the mystique of March.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://www.blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

The Ides of March is "best known" in "modern times" as the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44BC.  That's what Wikipedia indicates.  I find the "modern times" aspect the amusing part.  But I find that the Ides of March had marked the beginning of religious festivals - Cybele and Attis.  After Caesar's assignation, this day was remembered for his death and the rest was forgotten.   We remember this in modern times in various ways.  here is an image of the 'classic Caesar' joke for the Ides of March. I find this hilarious. We're at the Strasburg Railway in today's pictures, along with the great entrance hall to the Canada Blooms Show earlier in the week.  Doesn't she look like she's entering a portal?

The 4 Billion Blooms of March

How do we know if we are more "weatherfull" this winter than in past years.  We've just finished the high winds warning of the weekend, and we've now received a snowfall warning. Compare that to Victoria, which starts its flower count in 7 days.  The 44th annual event is sponsored and organized by The Butchart Gardens.  it is termed a 'light hearted promotion'.  Each municipality across Greater Victoria is encouraged to take up the challenge to be the "Bloomingest Community".   This from the website: For one week in early spring the citizens of Greater Victoria count all the blossoms they can see. The results are then reported to Flower Count Headquarters.  As the numbers come in, announcements are sent to local media to inform everyone of the growing count. So we thought we’d help make it easier and give you a guide and a counting sheet.. Brief how to count guide Small tree full of blossoms =  250,000 blossoms Medium tree full of blossoms =  500,000 blossoms Large tree full of blossoms = 750,000 blossoms Small Heather bush = 500 blossoms Medium Heather bush = 1,000 blossoms Large Heather bush = 2,000 blossoms "In 1976, over 130 million blooms were counted. By 1996, with a growing population and more community participation, that figure rose to over 4 billion blooms. 2010 we broke new records with 21 billion flowers counted, however 2016 we reached just over 25 billion blooms to set a whole new record." The results for 2018 are HERE. Our blossom count in Niagara would be in May.  Consider Victoria being able to count them in March.

Februalia Closes and the Cows Come Home

Lupercalia, the February 15th purification ritual of ancient Rome has come and gone. The thought.com website says that today we celebrate it with the hearth goddess, Vesta. The month was originally known as Februalia,  It is still a celebration for modern Pagans today, and is considered part of their spiritual journey. As children we were taught that pagan beliefs were non-religious beliefs.  Modern Paganism today is a collective term for new religious movements influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various historical pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe, North Africa and the Near East.   Does February have any other distinctions? February frequently occurs in lists of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language.  The Americans have trouble with the word February too – last year, a press release from the White House consistently spelt it as Feburary.  Much Ado About Nothing is the only Shakespeare play that mentions February.  February is the only month that can pass with no full moon. This occurred in 2018.  As February closes and Martch starts, we move into the ancient Romans' New Year. March is packed with familiar holidays and events:  daylight saving time, celebrations of Pi Day on 3/14, St. Patrick's Day, the Vernal Equinox and the start of Spring occur, and this year, we celebrate Easter. The budget news that made me smile is the reopening of the Kingston prison farms, closed by the Harper government as a cost-saving measure. There have been protests outside the prison every week for the past 8 years.  They vowed to remain there until "the cows come home."  There is a long article HERE.  The snow drops, snow crocuses, winter aconites, witch hazel and pussy willows are blooming.  These miniature daffodils were in the conservatory at RBG.

Melon-Choly March

A new headline has popped up Signifiant Digits for Tuesday, March 28 2017.  SIGD18 is the name and it is the fivetyityeight.com website, 'a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news'.  They tell us that: The Canadian gold maple leaf coin stolen from the Bode Museum in Germany was worth about $4.5million in gold weighing 221 pounds. 45 million British one-pound coins are suspected to be fake.  There are 1.5 billion rolling out into circulation to counter this counterfeiting. $27,000 is the amount paid for a pair of muskmelons in Japan.  This is a long article with much to say about the tradition of  ceremonial gift giving in Japan.  The article is in Slate: "By all accounts, Japan’s obsession with luxury fruits begins with Sembikiya, the country’s largest and oldest high-end fruit provider. So, ahead of a trip to Japan last fall, I emailed Sembikiya to see about arranging an interview at their flagship store in Nihonbashi, a tony part of downtown Tokyo that’s home to luxury hotels, lacquer bowl purveyors, and washi paper boutiques. When I arrive in the marble lobby of the high-rise to which I’d been directed, I pass back and forth in front of what appears to be a jewelry store before finally realizing it is Sembikiya. Dark, polished wood and sheer curtains line the walls, and sparkling chandeliers shaped like exploding snowflakes twinkle overhead. Glass display cases hold meticulous rows of fruit tended by prim women in starched black uniforms and berets ready to share anecdotes about the sweetness of the pears ($19 each), or Sekai-ichi apples ($24 each). Middle-aged women with Chanel bags and teased up-dos inspect plump, jade-colored Seto grapes swaddled in crisp white paper, while their husbands admire the altarlike case of muskmelons at the center of the floor, each one perched on its own wooden box lined with mint-colored paper ($125 each). Each fruit species boasts its own full-color brochure with tasting notes to rival those for first-growth Bordeaux. “The skin is thin, while the seedless pulp is moderately firm,” reads the card for the Suiho grape. Eaters can savor a “delicate sweetness and aroma with a refreshing aftertaste.” The spring flowers have started, with daffodils, crocuses, iris, snow drops, hellebores (Christmas rose, Lenten rose) blooming in the garden.   View this email in your browser

A March Ending

We are coming to the end of March.  Each day has something to celebrate: Sunday, March 26th - Nougat Day Monday, March 27th - Quirky Country Music Song Titles Day Tuesday March 28th - Weed Appreciation Day Wednesday, March 29th - Lemon Chiffon Cake Day Thursday, March 30th - Doctors' Day Friday March 31st - Crayola Crayon Day Then it is April  - the month of many activities and things: Garden Month Poetry Month Decorating Month Inventor's Month Couple Appreciation Month Straw Hat Month Jazz Appreciation Month These all come from daysoftheyear.com  where April 1st is not celebrated as April Fool's Day.

Canada Blooms 2014 is here

Hi everyone,

Canada Blooms opened on Friday. It's one of the largest flower and garden shows in North America.  I was there yesterday.  In the past, I've been able to register as Media and get into the show in the mornings before it opens to the public.  This year I joined the Garden Writers Association as a garden photographer.  Our section met at the show for seminars and networking, so I had a double event this year.    

The Canada Blooms show is excellent.  I was surprised to see innovation in the landscape designs.  Landscape Ontario, with its bee theme had some attractive beehive-inspired structures.  The floral design displays showed a sense of humour this year - bikinis created from flowers.  

It is quite a contrast to photograph the show before the crowds surge in.  I got a view of the show from the podium of the main stage.  This may spark a reaction from some of you - fear of public speaking is the number 1 fear.

March Calendar

I found a lovely little calendar template at Shutter Sisters - http://shuttersisters.com/home/2011/11/12/2012-photo-calendar.html.  I put it together with the Niagara Falls Greenhouse images and the Clivia Abstracts.