Dec 3 2022 - Sleeping at Walmart

 

There's a difference between RVing and Van living.  The Globe and Mail had an article yesterday on Van living, and the approach to parking overnight on the street.  There is a growing community of people who have converted vans into living spaces, but where do they reside?  I got to wondering about how many people have slept in Walmart parking lots in their RVs and campers.    Walmart has been known as RV-friendly for years.  Campers and RV's on average are allowed to park and sleep overnight.  There are over 4,700 Walmart parking lots. But there is no number of how many people over the years have taken advantage of the Walmart offer.   In the mean time, I find an article with this information:  "even RV enthusiasts Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas, have been known to stay at Walmart. " "In fact, the Washington power couple spends each summer touring the United States in a mobile home, she said. The justice and his wife have cruised through 27 states since buying their used recreation vehicle in 1999. "We have found it's a wonderful life," Ginni Thomas told National Public Radio from upstate New York on Wednesday. "We have been in dozens of Wal-Mart parking lots throughout the country," she added. "It's one of our favorite things to do if we're not having to plug in and we've got enough electricity." Mrs. Thomas said that their joy in traveling has only been slightly tempered by the overwhelming to-do they occasionally get when other campers identify the high court justice. "Clarence gets recognized every once in a while and that sort of puts a damper on things because when we're out, we kind of like to be in cognito, if you know what I mean," she said, noting they stopped traveling to one camp site because 20 or 30 people would greet them each year. Should I be looking up how many celebrities live the RV life and park at Walmart?  Looks like Kristin Bell and Jimmy Kimmel are fans of parking overnight at Walmart.   There's a long list of celebrities with million dollar behemoths - Will Smith, Vin Diesel, Mariah Carey, and so on. Guelph's arboretum is the setting of this picture. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Mar 20 2022 - SPRING NOW

 

It is spring today at 11:33am.  It is autumn today at 3:33 Australian Eastern Daylight Time. Two different experiences.  As we are in the northern hemisphere, everything relates to the spring equinox.  Stonehenge is the icon of the season change.  We have to go to Twitter to see what's happening.  The pictures are great with a beautiful sunrise and daffodils everywhere.  We in North America are less inclined towards the musical.  Our gardener's joke of the season seems proof of that.

And then the name Equinox is sprinkled far and wide, just like fairy dust. The Chevrolet Equinox is a series of mid-size, later compact crossover SUVs from Chevrolet introduced in 2004. They are still available, and you can find them right after the solar equinox.  We could ask this question and get a car answer:  What's the difference between a Solstice and an Equinox? More Equinox vehicles include an ATV EMS transport, an ATV Coach MPV and all kinds of industrial trailers, car tops, sports sleds and various sports things. The Equinox Group's Luxury Fitness Club - It's not fitness, it's life. Sounds more like a vacation and the picture on the website has a young woman running through the air way up in the trees.  There are a lot of companies in the Equinox Group - 193 in total.  They hog the internet retrieval space. I expect there's an Equinox named company in most  industries.  There's a publishing company, a cruise ship named the Celebrity Equinox. Today is our day to celebrate Spring and the weather it promises.  Get over to twitter and watch the dancing.    Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Facebook Twitter Website Email Share Tweet Forward

April 20 2020 - Silly String Alive

I have to tell you about the silly string creature in the ocean off Australia.  It showed up on the Weather network a few weeks ago.  It is a giant siphonophore Apolemia, that looks like silly string.  It is 150 feet long.  New Zealand's common name for it is long stringy stingy thingy.  It is many thousands of individuals which form an entity on a higher level.  It is a string jellyfish.  You can see the video HERE. I don't remember having silly string as a child.  It is a mixture that is dispersed from an aerosol can.  It comes out as a a string.  It was invented in 1972. What Leonard Fish and Robert Cox were trying to invent was an instant cast.  When the string shot across the room about 30 feet, they turned it into a toy. Who owns it today? The Car-Freshner Corporation, the maker of Little Trees owns the Silly String trademark. We have a pretty rose arbour from Filoli Gardens, south of San Francisco near Half Moon Bay.

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

Romance is a Feeling - Exploring Romantic Gardens

With my interest in gardens and all the garden pictures that I have, I've started doing presentations to garden speaking to garden clubs and horticultural societies.  The first is "From Snapshot to Great Shot - Explorations in Flower and Garden Photography".  The second is "Exploring Great Public Gardens of North America in Search of Magic and Mystery".  The third one is "The Romantic Garden is Alive in Great Public Gardens of North America". 

I just completed this last presentation for the Master Gardens of Niagara.  A lengthier version will be developed for the Toronto Botanical Gardens (TBG) Seminar series in February near Valentine's Day.  This longer version will delve into the romantic flowers as well as romantic garden design and elements.  

Certainly the romantic flowers are well known - we would all guess roses at the top of the list, and then there are daisies, irises, lilies, carnations, lilacs, wildflowers and sunflowers.  I would add the draping flowers like wisteria, laburnum, and jasmine.  Of course who would resist a field of lavender.

So today's image celebrates the romantic garden element of the bench on the path, draped in the soft colours of a romantic rose on a trellis.  This is at Filoli, a great historic house and public garden, just south of San Francisco.  I consider it one of the great Romantic Gardens of North America.

Garden Benches

Hi everyone,
I seem to be drawn to garden benches.  They are meant for us humans, so make the garden a human place.  They are invitational to sit and enjoy, and they provide a resting place for the eye in the landscape too.

Everywhere I go, I just seem to find them.  Of course, going to a lot of gardens does mean I find a lot of them.  If you know of any beautiful benches, it would so wonderful to hear from you.

My favourites so far this there have been the Royal Botanical Gardens benches in the Mediterranean Greenhouse with that beautiful variegated Bouganvillea framing it and in the Rock Garden with the tulips framing the bench with their vivid colour display.  These pictures are from April 2013.

This last bench is in the Harry P. Lieu Garden in Orlando Florida in February.  It is particularly pretty with the Camellias framing it, and the light patterns.

All my best,
Marilyn