July 16 2023 - Lily Show Weekend

 

It was the Ontario Lily Show yesterday at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington.  RBG is again under renewal.  I can’t help but contrast the funding in the U.S. and in Canada.  I expect that it isn’t that the US receives more government funding. It is that there are more super-rich people there who support and fund their favourite institutions.  Brian was recently in Chicago and commented that the Chicago Botanical Gardens were large and  perfect with immaculate maintenance.   That’s not the case with RBG.  It isn’t that I want immaculate gardens, but when gardens are presented as ornamental display gardens, then they end up with the expectations of an ornamental garden. That means weeding and caretaking that matches with this ornamentalist approach.  It is like having a lawn and then maintaining it poorly - not mowing it regularly and having major weed infestations.   With that, there still is great delight in the Royal Botanical Gardens displays.  The lily ponds are beautiful and the rose garden is a showplace.  Its renovation a few years ago make it more inclusive of all kinds of plants and has been very successful.  The Lily Show has decilned in numbers of lilies each year.  Members are growing older, the lily beetle has diminished interest in growing and showing lilies, and competitive flower shows have dwindled in numbers and interest. - young people have other inclinations.   It still remains a wonderful show and in particular, the floral arrangements are creative and beautiful.

Isn’t the black water of the RBG lily pond so amazing!    Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

April 21 2023 - SpaceX Explodes

 

Four minutes after leaving ground, the uncrewed SpaceX rocket exploded.  The explosion may have been due to the flight termination system being activated.  There was a previous cautioned that the chances of success were low. The employees at SpaceX cheered even after the rocket disintegrated.   "Unlike Nasa, which attempts to avoid risk, SpaceX has a record of showing a willingness to have test flights explode, with Musk saying the private venture benefits from understanding what goes wrong. SpaceX built its own spaceport, named Starbase, on the Gulf of Mexico in Boca Chica, Texas, to launch its rockets. Several other Starships are already in production for future tests." Musk wants humans to become an "interplanetary species".   This is one of the cherry trees at the Royal Botanical Gardens - the picture is from a few years ago.  What a lot of blossoms! Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

May 28 2022 - It's coming next week - the Platinum Jubilee

 

It is coming next week - the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.  June 2, 2022.   It goes from Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th.  Every week on the royal.uk website is a "Royal Week."  There's a picture highlighting each week and it is all part of "The Platinum Jubilee Image Countdown."  How many people does the Queen meet on a weekly basis?  I don't see anything on that, but one can find out her typical daily schedule.  It is divided into mornings, afternoons and evenings.   It never gives any number of people or events.  The number of letters is said to be 300 letters each day.  I expect more than one lady-in-waiting handles the ones she doesn't respond to. She doesn't just wake up:  "The Queen wakes from her slumber each morning at 7:30 am. She stays in bed for a few minutes, listening to the "Today" program on BBC Radio 4." What next?   "The Queen receives assistance from her long-serving personal assistant, Angela Kelly, who draws the Queen's bath, ensuring that it's the correct temperature using a wood-cased thermometer. The bathwater will be precisely seven inches deep." She does two hours of "paperwork" in the morning, and then meets with dignitaries for two hours.  And how about her lunch at 1:30pm? "The Queen enjoys light meals with impeccable presentation. Apparently, all vegetables on her plate must be of equal size." Reading through that summary, it seems to me that the Queen might be alone a fair amount of time, or that what is left out is all the people that she is with and does meet.  When the article was written Prince Phillip was alive, and it says he didn't live at the Palace.  So she would have been busy with a lot of people, it seems to me. You can read that schedule HERE.  It is similar to others that are published.   Haven't you wondered why the Queen looks younger in pictures than one would expect?  I found this picture of her on the royal website.  That seems to me to be closer to what one would expect.   I am waiting for my Itoh peony to bloom.  What is this? This is sa cross between tree peonies and herbaceous peonies.  They share qualities of both parents, strong stems like tree peonies, resistant to blight, and can get a second set of blooms. They come back in spring from the ground.  For now, here's the view at Royal Botanical Gardens. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 26 2022 - Time to March

 

It is only a few days until March - the start of Meteorological Spring.  We get to celebrate two springs each year.   It is at this turning point - from February to March - that we experience big variations in climate - green grass and rain one day and snow flurries another.   Compare this to Vancouver and Victoria where the early cherry blossoms are in bloom.  Butchart Gardens calls February the Spring Prelude.  South of us in Delaware at Winterthur, millions of snow drops and early crocus are in bloom by mid-February.   So while I may be able to see the leaves of snow drops outside the office window in between the snow and rain, they won't be blooming for a number of weeks.   I can enjoy the photos of spring gardens past.  The pictures today are from the Royal Botanical Gardens before the renovation of the Rock Garden.   And here is a spring flower joke:  Roses are gray Violets are gray Tulips are gray Because I am a dog   I wonder if there are more dog jokes like this.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

June 24 2020 - Clean and Pure

The story of cleanliness is a long journey through history.  Religions have many rituals around hygiene and cleanliness. The religious notion seems to be more around purity - which a a physical, moral or ritual state of freedom from pollutants.  "Pure and clean" go together in various bibles/religions.  The Phoenicians used soap and the Greeks and Romans had plumbing and toilet facilities.  There is evidence of nethanderals practicing cleanliness in the caves.  Even during Medieval times, it was common practice for people to wash their hands before meals (they didn't use utensils then.)  An ordinary peasant removed the day's grime, but the aristocrat had many roles of etiquette: …and let your fingers be clean, and your fingernails well-groomed. Once a morsel has been touched, let it not be returned to the plate. Do not touch your ears or nose with your bare hands. Do not clean your teeth with a sharp iron while eating. It is ordered by regulation that you should not put a dish to your mouth. He who wishes to drink must first finish what is in his mouth. And let his lips be wiped first. Once the table is cleared, wash your hands, and have a drink. So what happened that changed things?   It is the Plague:  it is blamed for the deterioration of cleanliness. Doctors declared that bathing was dangerous and opened the skin to illness. From the mid-16th century into the 19th century a person could live a whole life without a good wash.  This is the age where people changed into fresh 'linens' to absorb dirt and grime, so that the linens could be washed rather than the body.  Nosegays were held close to the nose to cover the smells (Stench) of city and people.   So here we are today - back into a world where cleanliness is again valued and hygiene considered essential to life. More irises today - with their complicated frills and amazing colours.

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

Facebook Twitter Website Email Instagram

June 10 2020 - How Many Flowers?

Irises come in every colour.  Yesterday's visit to the Laking garden at Royal Botanical Gardens was a tumultuous gathering of colours.  How many flowers were blooming?  There are over 1,000 types of irises in the collection.  There likely are least 20 stems on every planting.  Each stem has at least one flower in bloom.  So we were looking at something in the range of 20,000 flowers yesterday.  It is satisfying to see so many flowers. There are lots of theories on why humans love flowers.  One article says this: One clue is that flowers stimulate the same sensory apparatus that humans use for assessing the quality of fruits. Fruits often have colors similar to flowers, and one theory suggests that trichromatic color vision in primates has evolved to better detect and evaluate edible fruits. From an olfactory perspective, floral volatiles are chemically similar or even identical to those emitted by fruits, and thus smelling a flower may possibly bring to mind a ripe, sweet fruit. Psychology Today's article says  it more simply:  dopamine. Dopamine is triggered by the expectation of a reward. Flowers were a huge reward signal in the world our brain evolved in because they marked the coming of abundance after a hungry winter. Today we have enough to eat all year round so we don’t consciously link flowers with food. But the blossoming of a flower triggers the sense that something special is coming because it triggers dopamine. Isn't it nice to know we can look at flowers and get the same effect as a physical  fitness class. Here are two views of the Laking Garden.

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

Esperanto Pirates Flying the Flag

How to design a flag...that was one of Ronnie Hoffman's upcoming ideas. We can combine that with his interest in conlangs:  the Esperanto community has its own flag - a Green Star.  It was first proposed as the symbol of mutual recognition among Esperantists in 1892.  The colour green was considered a symbol of mutual recognition. There seem to be three major steps in flag design: 1. Choose the shape of your flag.  Most flags are either rectangular or square.  Triangular works well for a pennant flat, while a rectangle works for a sports flag. 2. Choose a simple design. Some of the most common flag designs are bicolors, tricolors, and quarters, or use stripes, panels, and borders. The flag can also be a solid color with a unique symbol in the center. Alternatively, you can place a rectangle in the upper left hand corner called a canton (like on the American flag) that includes a symbol. 3. Use 2 or 3 colours. The most common colors found on flags are black, blue, green, red, white, and yellow. Do you know that the Gilbert and Sullivan musical "The Pirates of Penzance" has been recorded in Esperanto?  Which flag would we choose in this situation?  The Esperanto or Jolly Roger flag - the one with a skull and crossbones? There were actually numerous pirate flags.  That happened during the Golden Age of Piracy in the 1700's.  This seems an odd way of describing stealing and killing.  You can see the famous flags, their originators, and information about them HERE.  The two pirates who are first attributed with naming their flag "Jolly Roger" were Bartholomew Roberts and Francis Spriggs.  Because their flags were so different, it is thought that the name was in common use before them.  The wikipedia entry HERE has even more flags.   The custom of Piracy ships was to not fly the Jolly Roger.  They used a variety of different flags, and would fly false colours or no colours.  The Jolly Roger would be raised, often with the warning shot.  The flag was flown to given warning so that ships could surrender without resistance.  A number of sports teams have the Jolly Roger symbol as part of their flag - football team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for example, and numerous other teams have also adopted the symbol for their flags.  What about this?  The early development team of the Apple Macintosh used a pirate flag to maintain a "rebellious" spirit. Our picture today is a a more calming and reflective one - a close-up of plants at the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Richest Person Ever

The Globe and Mail reported this week that the richest man in the world has $150 billion.  He's Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.  He's the richest person in history. This is more wealth than anyone since Forbes started its rich list in 1982.  Bill Gates had a net worth around $149 billion in 1999, and has since given away billions to charity so has 'lost ground'. The Independent UK article says that the nine richest men in the world have more combined wealth than the poorest 4 billion people.  In another article by author Tim Worstall in Forbes, he says that the average American today is 90 times richer than the average person in Central Africa.  And richer than the historical human being.  He proposes that outside addiction or mental health problems, there is no one in the U.S. today who suffers from the usual human description of poverty.  Real poverty is defined as $600 a year.  Brad Delong pointed out that historical living standards never fell very far below $600 for long, because if they do then they become dying standards. Tim Worstall, the author, makes a poignant observation: "...we sure do have a lot of people still talking about poverty so what are they on about? The truth is they're not talking about poverty at all. They're talking about how some have more than others: inequality." Which is where we started: wondering over the wealth of the richest person ever.

Feb 26 - two six quarts today

The world of dry measures - pints, quarts, etc. have little poetry in them even though they have been with us for as long as we've transported food. Niagara has an intimate relationship with dry measures - we're the fruit belt. At the farmer's market in St. Catharines,  the apples and potatoes are displayed in the traditional wood veneer (or cardboard) baskets and bushels.  When we buy our 4 quart or 6 quart basket of potatoes, the transfer to a plastic bag happens. The basket goes back to the vendor to fill for the display. The sizes are half pint, pint, quart, 4 quart, 6 quart, half bushel, and full bushel.  During jam season, out come the trays that hold up to 12 quarts.  Walking around with a 12 quart tray of strawberries is almost as good as walking around with a puppy. These familiar baskets are still available from the original supplier - Vineland Growers Co-operative.  They have been selling these supplies for over 100 years - since 1913.  I drive by the corporate head office/retail store in Jordan Station and the retail store in Virgil on the East West Line.   They have the distinction of being the longest continually run co-operative in Ontario. From their website: "The history of Vineland Growers' Co-operative closely parallels the development of the co-operative movement in Canada. The original directors and those who have followed throughout the years have been steeped in the spirit of co-operation, coming as they did from hardy Pennsylvania stock that immigrated to Canada in the early 1800's, when barn-raisings and other co-operative activities were commonplace". The original directors have familiar Niagara names: Honsberger and Moyer.  The Honsberger Estate Winery is located in Jordan today.  Nearby in Vineland is Cherry Avenue Farms - the home of the Moyers family - in operation since 1799.   I drive by Cherry Avenue Farms on a regular basis.  They sell all kinds of fruit - fresh and frozen. Today's picture comes from the Royal Botanical Gardens Orchid Show on the weekend.  There were many beautiful specimens arranged together into garden-like displays.  While Longwood Gardens has the big display wow factor of hundreds of orchids in an arch or column, this show has the beauty of a miniature garden.  Both are wonderful experiences.

Our National Record

Canada has achieved more medals in this Winter Olympics than any previous ones.  Norway will likely  match the record 14 gold medals that Canada had in Vancouver.  Remarkable achievements. What caught my attention is the upcoming event with the name "Big Air".   It is making its debut this year.  It is considered an extreme sport.  On the bottom of the snowboards are names such as Burton.  I found an article that helped with understanding all these names.  It has to do with the Olympic brand police.   "Snowboard manufacturers Burton, GNU, Salomon and StepChild have seen their names plastered on nearly every high-flying snowboard at this year’s game, despite Rule 50, which says that gear brands can be represented, but only by a 10 percent surface presence on gear or apparel. But watch any of the popular snowboarding events, and you’ll see that the 10 percent rule has gone out the window. Instead, brand names are slapped across the bottom of boards in bright, bold colors, screaming for attention." Logos get 'taped over' by the Olympic brand police. Reports claimed that Samsung, an official sponsor, asked athletes to cover up their Apple logo on their phones. Duct tape is the common tool for this.  A Handyman's special tool, used frequently by Red Green. The real excitement over the brand police was in 2012 in London.  London went extreme to protect its investment, with 300 'enforcement officers' working to ensure firms were not staging 'ambush marketing' or illegally associating themselves with the Olympic Games.  They went into shops and offices near Olympic sites, and could give fines up to $31,000 for misuse of words such as gold, silver, bronze, summer, sponsors, and London.   We think of the commercial side of the Olympics as relatively recent - since television perhaps.  However, even the first Olympics in London in 1908 had sponsors.  Oxo refreshments were handed out to the marathon competitors along the route of the race.   Save the Date:  I will be at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington on Sunday, April 8th in the afternoon.  The speaking topic is The Romantic Garden.  This is a free event, so please consider coming.  It is one of the all-time favourite garden topics.   Let me know if you can make it - we can get together for lunch in the cafe, and then on to the meeting.

Halloween History - 94,000,000

There are 94,000,000 results for the search halloween history.  This is a sizeable number.  Halloween is very popular - Christmas history has 179,000,000 results, likely the most popular celebration search.  However, my search results seem uninteresting, so let me turn to the rich history of the land that the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, sits on. The Royal Botanical Gardens sit on an ancient gravel sandbar known as Burlington Heights.  This land feature was created millions of years ago by Lake Ontario's predecessor lake, Lake Iroquois.  Burlington Heights was a significantly sizeable 'sand bar' created by this lake. Lake Iroquois's shoreline came through Toronto just a few blocks north of my house at Royal York.  Looking at the 'approximate location map', I expect my brother's back garden at Royal York and Eglinton is part of the shoreline - it is a sandy hillside. Burlington Heights separates Cootes Paradise Marsh on the west from Hamilton harbour on the east.  It has been a gathering place for thousands of years. Archeological discoveries date from 1000 to 800AD at Princess Point, and it was thought the settlements were from 400BC to 1000AD. Cootes Bay was identified as a bird paradise by Europeans - typically the quote is 'enjoyable for naturalists and sportsmen alike'.  One of the most famous paintings of Cootes Bay is by Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, John Simcoe.  It is dated 1796. It is repeatedly described as a paradise, and eventually became part of the name. This area had the largest number of bird species ever found in one place. It is still home to the highest concentration of plant species in Canada.  Everything was in abundance: it was designated a fish sanctuary by 1874, and became a formal provincial game sanctuary in 1927.   Coyotes Bay gave us nature's abundance, and Halloween gives us the weird and wonderful. This picture comes from the toy store window in Santa Fe - the quote is one of the versions of "Most everyone is made here" - by the cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland.

Snow in the Headlines

Today's weather headlines:   Blizzard barrels towards northeast Snowstorm slams northeast Here are more great headlines about snow: Ice Scream! Now, Melt! The Brrrfect Storm From snow to whoa Gee bliss - New York socked by snow Snow fly zone No-mageddon:  The Washington, D.C. snow hole Snow Maggetin' Gipped The Snow Must Go On S'no Foolin' BONUS:  Have You Been Plowed? How many snowflakes are in a blizzard?  Is there a number big enough to represent a snow storm's parts?  Of course there is, and someone has created a table to show us this at thealmightyguru.com.  Here's the introduction: "Ever wonder what a number with 228 zeros after it is called? No? Well who asked you anyway? Actually, it's called a quinseptuagintillion. Duh! Here is a list of all the big numbers up till the infamous centillion. Just some more incredibly useless trivia for you from TheAlmightyGuru." I scrolled to the bottom and clicked on Pointless to see a page with  "all the useless knowledge I've posted over the course of my page. I've been told many times that I know too much about everything, and not enough about anything. As you can see from this page, it's pretty much true. I'll continue to update this page with more and more pointless data just so you'll know all sorts of things you never really cared to know in the first place. I'm doing this as a public service. You're welcome."