May 13 2025 - :Tulips in Niagara

 

I went to the TASC Tulip Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake yesterday.  It was vast with more than 3 million blooms of 175 varieties on 55 acres.  It is a "farm" rather than a "festival".  Watch where you step in the clay paths as they are bumpy.  Their farm previously was in Fenwick so you can imagine that they are likely doubling the number of visitors being in Niagara-on-the-Lake. There were likely a thousand people there yesterday - and that was on a Monday.   What distinguishes a tourist destination like this is that it is full of families - quite often 3 generations together.  Everyone is smiling. Flower events are perfect for our difficult political and social times.   I'll get to the Seventh and Fourth Avenue field this week - and then the tulips will all be over.  Fleeting, don't you think?

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Dec 7 2024 - Do shepherds watch their flocks in winter?

 

Do shepherds watch their flocks by night in the winter - that 's the question of whether Jesus born in winter?  It turns out to be a  difficult question for the historical scholars. Not enough information.   "in about 200 C.E., a Christian teacher in Egypt makes reference to the date Jesus was born. According to Clement of Alexandria, several different days had been proposed by various Christian groups. Surprising as it may seem, Clement doesn’t mention December 25 at all. Clement writes: “There are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord’s birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the 28th year of Augustus, and in the 25th day of [the Egyptian month] Pachon [May 20 in our calendar] … And treating of His Passion, with very great accuracy, some say that it took place in the 16th year of Tiberius, on the 25th of Phamenoth [March 21]; and others on the 25th of Pharmuthi [April 21] and others say that on the 19th of Pharmuthi [April 15] the Savior suffered. Further, others say that He was born on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi [April 20 or 21].   Given all this, how did December 25 and January 6 become the prime dates? This article HERE describes the  two theories: one extremely popular, the other less often heard outside scholarly circles (though far more ancient) "The most loudly touted theory about the origins of the Christmas date(s) is that it was borrowed from pagan celebrations. The Romans had their mid-winter Saturnalia festival in late December; barbarian peoples of northern and western Europe kept holidays at similar times. To top it off, in 274 C.E., the Roman emperor Aurelian established a feast of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), on December 25. Christmas, the argument goes, is really a spin-off from these pagan solar festivals. According to this theory, early Christians deliberately chose these dates to encourage the spread of Christmas and Christianity throughout the Roman world: If Christmas looked like a pagan holiday, more pagans would be open to both the holiday and the God whose birth it celebrated. The other is this:  Around 200 C.E. Tertullian of Carthage reported the calculation that the 14th of Nisan (the day of the crucifixion according to the Gospel of John) in the year Jesus died was equivalent to March 25 in the Roman (solar) calendar March 25 is, of course, nine months before December 25; it was later recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation—the commemoration of Jesus’ conception.10 Thus, Jesus was believed to have been conceived and crucified on the same day of the year. Exactly nine months later, Jesus was born, on December 25 Option A or Option B - which should we choose?

November clouds along the escarpment.

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Nov 1 2024 - Ocean Blobs

 

The news today tells us there are things besides waterfalls and rivers under the surface of our seas.  There are "blobs".  They stretch thousands of miles - scientists have found one in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  it extends from the tip of Brazil to the Gulf of Guinea. Its name is the Atlantic equatorial water.  Would there be rivers, waterfalls and blogs in Lake Ontario?  It is deep with a maximum depth of 802 feet and average of 283.  But finding out about rivers and waterfalls below Lake Ontario doesn't seem to be a top priority on the internet. I would likely need to contact the experts.   Could the Niagara River have such water formations?  The depth of the water below the falls is the same height as the falls - 170 feet.  And the depth of the Niagara River gorge is 300 feet deep and 7 miles long.  The depth at the Whirlpool is 125 feet.   There is a "ledge" in the Whirlpool - a rock formation. But finding out about the ledge is difficult.  I've been told that retrieving bodies at the Whirlpool Rapids (that's where everything ends up) can be difficult as things lodge under the ledge.  So I wondered if there could be a waterfall at the Whirlpool Rapids.  I wonder if there can be rivers within the river with such depth.  There aren't any articles on water formations below the River.  It may be there are none, or that these are highly technical sorts of articles. So while I haven't found anything out about rivers below the river, it has been a journey into curiosity.  And I did find this amazing aerial view.

Isn't this aerial view stunning?  Look ag the ledges all along the way.  And there's another Victoria Harbour picture - such a contrast.

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Oct 27 2024 - How Small the Writing

 

The story in the daily NY Times is about a Chopin waltz, previously unknown.  It was found in a collection of memorabilia.  The manuscript has been authenticated and was played and recorded by Lang Lang.   This is the link to listen to it HERE.  The "manuscript" seems like an interesting word to me.  I think of a piece of letter size paper, don't you?  But that's not the case here.   "It was put down on a small sheet of paper, about 4 inches by 5 inches, of a kind commonly used for gifts. The score contains fingerings and dynamic markings, suggesting that Chopin thought the piece might be performed someday." And don't mind me noticing that there are empty bars in the script.  I'd like to see a thumb against the 4x5 piece of paper, wouldn't you? The New York Times mentions that Chopin often wrote in very small font. But there's no easy path to finding out the size.  I would need to go to a library and archives to research this and look at real-size handwritten notes.  There are many images online to look at so it is tantalizing.  In contrast Chopin had extremely long fingers.  There are pictures of his hand cast and these look extraordinarily long.  But then, when I looked at the charts of composers' hands, Rachmaninoff's seems to be those of  a giant. Such an interesting thing to find out that a "lost manuscript" could be something so tiny and written by such large hands.

I must go to Vineland Estates today and see if this view of Toronto on the horizon appears.

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Aug 6 2024 - What is the State of Poetry?

 

What is the state of poetry today?  It seems far away and long ago to me.  But that turns out to be where my attention has been directed, rather than what poetry has been doing.  There are lists of the greatest poems.  On all the lists is William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 with its famous first line:  Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? What is Emily Dickinson's most famous/celebrated poem?  "Because I could not stop for death - this was published after her death.  Seems fitting.   Lord Byron's most famous poem starts "She walks in beauty, like the night"  Frost's "The Road Not taken" - a poem that we remember by its name rather than its first line which is:  Two road diverged in a  yellow wood"  Another famous first line is:  "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.    John Donne's "No man is an island, Entire of itself:"  Such a memorable opener.  Here's the Reader's Digest article with extracts of the poems HERE.   For a more extensive list of mostly 20th century and beyond poems check out this entertaining article HERE.  One of poetry's great questions?  Is poetry dead.  People certainly ask it a lot or they ask variations such as "does poetry still matter? Here's an entertaining title: "The ultimate and decisive is poetry dead article" Looks like poetry is alive for a lot of writers and journalists.  That handrail at Niagara Falls is instantly recognizable to me.  I took the recent picture and removed most of the people.  It seems poetic now.

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July 21 2024 - July's No Joke

 

July is the seventh month and gives rise to this Seventh Theme Joke: A man wakes up on the 7th of July at 7 o’clock When he wakes up, he checks his phone and sees that he has 7 missed calls and 7 messages from 7 different persons. He finds the coincidence pretty funny, gets out of bed with a big smile and gets in his car. Before starting the engine, he checks on his phone the location of his meeting, when he notices that he has to go to the 7th floor of a building located on 7 Ann Street 7 minutes away from his home. He thinks that this is probably the biggest coincidence he has ever seen in his life and laughs for a few seconds. After that, he wants to check how much money he has left, so he starts counting how much there is in his wallet. And to his surprise, he notices that he has exactly 777 dollars in bills. He thinks that this is much more than a mere coincidence and that today is his lucky day. So instead of going to work, he decides to drive to the nearest sports bar to bet on a horse. He waits for the 7th race of the day then bets all of his money on horse Number 7. The horse came in 7th. Here are pictures at the Niagara Falls Table Rock restaurant from Friday's Fun Run.  Thousands of people everywhere.  As we were leaving, the moon rose above the falls.

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June 21 2024 - Tree Huggers and Rock Cuddlers

 

Stonehenge was in the news yesterday for the Solstice and for a Just Stop Oil spray-painting of the stones.   There are pictures of people hugging the stones.  How much hugging will make them get too thin to stand?  I expect that's a theoretical question - I think in comparison to Niagara Falls and the water that travels over that cliff, and the erosion that is tangible there. There supposedly are fewer than 100 henges still surviving in Britain and Ireland.  Stone henges are distinct with an outer and inner circle.  There are stone circles all over the world. There are over 1,303 in Britain, Ireland and Brittany.  Isn't that mysterious?  That's a lot of people building things.   One article (HERE)  said that Stonehenge likely took 30 million person-hours.  That's 3,245 years - if they built it in a year - that's a lot of people. There would have to be a lot of people living there  if they were both  building something and maintaining food and shelter .  No wonder we are in amazement over Stonehenge.  We in Ontario don't think about these kinds of monuments.  Wait!  There is a Stonehenge conundrum in Norther Ontario.  There is a series of 18 huge rocks on the shores of Larder Lake east of Kirkland Lake. They are considered "Stonehenge" rocks - they are erratics - a piece of rock that differs from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests. This gives rise to the possibility of ancient indigenous activity.  That's Northeastern Ontario.  Is there anything here in Niagara? The internet wants me to check out Brock's Monument -  maybe colonialism seems ancient now. And that's our picture on the Queenston Heights horizon.  There is a stone stairway up to the top and when we were children, we would climb to the top to look out over Niagara. That's not possible anymore.

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Oct 28 2023 - Wearable Sleeping Bags

 

Would you consider a wearable sleeping bag an "essential standby".  Our author from the Wirecutter does.   They are different than a snuggie or a slanket.  A snuggie is a "wearable blanket" and a slanket is a blanket with sleeves.  Snuggies and slankets are shown in pictures as fleecy, slouchy looking things.  Something your dog would drag onto the floor. Wait!  There's also a Camp Wrap - more like a cape so you can wear a warm jacket underneath.  A wearable sleeping bag looks like a sleeping bag - with arms and open at the bottom for legs.     There are wearable hoodie sleeping bags too.  Some have separate legs so make a person look like they are in a thermal snowsuit.  Maybe it is a thermal snowsuit with a sleeping bag rename. Did I leave out the Napsack? That's the cozy and soft, cut close to the body, order-by-height bag with curved armholes and drawstring bottom?  I guess if I were a camper, this would be something I would know about.

Would you be wearing this when the air-conditioner gets too aggressive in the office?  Like our picture, on a winter  beach? How about outside on the porch as the snow falls or sitting around that cute fire-it.  Or do you have a chilly attic office?   We're into grape harvesting with our big, bright cloud-filled October skies.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

May 9 2-23 - Opinion

 

Opinion.  There's a lot of it about. In fact, it seems to be edging out the factual event news.  Take the Coronation on the weekend.  There are many opinions being stated about various seating positions and hats and so on.  Newspaper opinion came into its own in the 20th century. The op-ed page was created in 1921 by Herbert Bayard Swope of The New York Evening World. It was further developed in 1970 under the direction of The New York Times editor John B. Oakes.  Well, that's newspapers.  Now, with social media, we the public have access to communicate our opinions broadly - just like newspapers.  The definition of public opinion seems to be outdated now:  "free and public communication from citizens to their government on matters of concern to the nation."    There is the idea of private opinion, but I think that private opinion is declining because of easy access to "the public" through social media.  The public likes this public access. Then a question came to my mind:  What if we had to use this phrase - in my humble opinion -  to present non-professional opinions - particularly those opinions without expertise backing them.   "A phrase used to present one's viewpoint or beliefs with an awareness or cautiousness that the listener might disagree or be offended." Oh well, just a thought. Other trees have straighter branches - this row seems particularly interesting.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

May 5th 2023 - Nothing Today

 

When someone asks you if there's something your schedule today.  Don't you sometimes say "Nothing" - as though we could do nothing for a day. I wondered if we celebrate "nothing" given our propensity to celebrate things.  Yes we do.   National Nothing Day is an "un-event" proposed in 1972 by columnist Harold Pullman Coffin, and observed in the United States annually on January 16 since 1973, when it was added to Chase's Calendar of Events.   The unofficial holiday aims to provide people “with a day where they can just sit without celebrating, observing, or honouring anything. But it is honouring something and its nature makes this hard to do.  For example, here's advice for nothing day: Say nothing.  Take a day-long vow of silence, and don't say a word to anyone. Just carry your phone with an open web page like this one, and flash the explanation when your friends are confused. Here's another answer for the Do nothing day:  What is it called when you do nothing all day? Merriam-Webster's answer: sluggard. lazybones. couch potato. good-for-nothing. delayer. This day goes along with Un-Brithday and Buy National Nothing Day.  There must be more of these "not" days.  It is just hard to find them. Today, I'm just gonna do nothing... My friend replied: "But, you did nothing yesterday too!!"   Yeah, I know. I haven't finished it yet. When we see typos and do nothing the errorists win My feet were killing me yesterday. I bought some in-soles thinking they'd probably do nothing to help. Today I stand corrected. I can't believe I was arrested for impersonating politicians I was literally in my office doing nothing... A new prisoner in the gulag is asked..... "So how long are you in for?" He replies, "Twenty years." The veteran prisoner is surprised: "Twenty?? What on earth could you have done?" The new man replies indignantly, "I did nothing, comrade! Honest!"  The veteran says, "But the sentence for doing nothing is only ten years."   So when someone asks you what are you doing today, and there's nothing on your schedule - the response might be "having a national nothing day today." Graceful branches of Niagara blossoms today.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

May 1 2023 - Throuples it is

 

The New York Times had a headline on the right way for a throuple to break up.  What is a throuple?  Spellcheck, like me, doesn't know - it thinks it is throttle or trouble.  I figured that was a good guess. Taylor offers this definition: “A throuple is a relationship between three people who have all unanimously agreed to be in a romantic, loving, relationship together with the consent of all people involved.” You may also hear a throuple referred to as a three-way relationship, triad, or closed triad. This is where those Frequently Asked Questions come in handy: What are the rules of a throuple? Do throuples sleep in the same bed? What's the difference between polyamory and throuple? Is it illegal to have a throuple? Can a throuple have a baby? I actually don't want all the answers, or even most of the answers.  There are full guide books to throuple relationships, as though a how-to book is needed.  Maybe that's because the answer to "How common are throuples?" is this:  one in six people express interest and one in nine have engaged in it at some point. That explains all the articles on stars who've been in throuples - there are so many that Cosmopolitan had an article on 11 celebrities who've "opened up about non-monogamy".  Those are the ones who want to talk about it. There are the "hottest celebrity throuples", "famous throuples in history", famous throuples on tiktok". So now that I am aware of this form of relationship, I look back at how I got here.  What got my attention was the word itself - a portmanteau word - blending two or more words.  Somehow throuple doesn't show up in the list on grammary.com HERE.   The word that did get attention and was fun is threepeat (three + repeat) – a situation or event with the same outcome three times, typically in reference to a sporting event, like a championship. So a person could have a threepeat throuple. This orchard is in Jordan and if you look at the far end - that's the QEW with trucks racing by.  I  stopped for some pictures because the trees were such interesting shapes.

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Apr 23 2023 - A Regular Guy

 

It turns out that every expression is used up - take the expression "a regular guy."  It is a novel by Mona Simpson.  It is about Tom Owens, actually,  Steve Jobs.  That's her late brother. They were orphans separated by adoption who later found each other.  There was no "regular" childhood for them.  "The Urban Dictionary defines a regular guy as “a guy who is humble, down-to-earth, open and honest, easy to get along with, and generally well-versed about all the usual things people do. Someone who isn’t power-hungry, arrogant, super competitive, insecure, or egotistical. A guy you’d want to have a conversation with about things like sports, fishing, camping, hard work, relationships, home repair, music, cars, movies, power tools, etc. A guy who will never embarrass you or cause problems socially and has nothing to prove.” Given that mythical sort of definition, one wonders about the title of the book. I wouldn't use "guy" around him or about him at all, in fact.  And definitely not "regular." So it isn't surprising that the book is considered a "scathing expose... Mona changed the names and sold the book as fiction, but the world knew better." I guess a deceitful pretense needs an expression that matches.  I say that as this expression seems to be targeted to white North American men.  Romcom movies seem to be about regular guys.  Ask the question:  Ask it for different countries.  Are there regular guys in France?  And the answers are about dating, stereotypes and demographics.   Regular guys in Germany?  It is about height, then dating, and then demographics. Regular guys in China?  It is about why they are the most single in the world, then average height.   Now this is interesting.  The myth vs. the reality.  All good fun.

What a rain day yesterday!  We were back to the Niagara Street cherry tree and then on Stewart Road where this orchard had just been trimmed.  I've added the rainbow to the bleak sky.  Today looks like a blue sky day.  But those fallen branches will be wilted by today.

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