May 10 2025 - Build Me a Blobbery

 

Do you remember the Monty Python movie with the "you must find me a shrubbery" scene?  It is "Scene 17:  How to Find that Perfect Shrubbery"  and you can read it HERE.   And I recommend you read it as it is hilarious. My favourite moment is Roger the Shrubber's short but excellent "soliloquy": "Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say 'ni' at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land. Nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history." Scene 18 follows with an escalation of the shrubbery demands: "First you must find... another shrubbery! Then, when you have found the shrubbery, you must place it here, beside this shrubbery, only slightly higher so you get a two layer effect with a little path running down the middle." I have found a third scene that could be inserted.  A decades later sequel to the movie.  This comes from the middle-sized garden weekly blog, and this week is showcasing blobberies.   Here's the possible scene: "And now build us a blobbery. One with balls, clouds and lollipops.  They give a garden structure and interest all year round.  And they are easy to clip and maintain." "And mix them together – different types of plants as blobs – and sometimes they’ll merge together over time." Wouldn't that be a perfect sequel to the shrubbery scene? I think of this tree as being a haze of blossoms.

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

Marilyn's Photos - May 6 2025 - Red Carpet Fever

 

There was a "red carpet" event last night - the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Met Gala.  It raised $31 million.  Its theme was black style.   There seems to be a lot of red carpet events.  So I thought I would ask google how many there are in a year. This is one of those questions that AI doesn't like.  It doesn't want to do the work of counting.  It is trained to "lift",  steal and plagiarize.  But actually do some real work?   So its answer to how many red carpet events in the U.S. each year? "It's difficult to pinpoint an exact, official number of red carpet events in the US annually. However, it's estimated that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of red carpet events each year, ranging from major award shows to film premieres, fashion events, and other high-profile gatherings. These events often include the Met Gala, Golden Globes, Grammys, Oscars, and Emmys."  Do you notice the bit of pompousness?  "exact, official" number - did I ask for that?  No. Why would an AI answer emphasize such a thing?  I consider this a way of avoiding the real question.  Ask the question again, and AI doesn't show up with an answer.  Maybe it has gone off counting the number of major red carpet events.  Then there's an odd self-consciousness with the headline "Here's why it's difficult to get a specific number."  Getting creepy to me. Last night's Met Gala showed off the epitome of surreal clothing that shows up all over the media.  You can scroll through the 100 pictures to see what I mean - go to VOGUE HERE. Scroll down to the pictures at the bottom and you can see lots.  People with names such as Dapper Dan, Charli XCX, Usher, Doechii, Dynasty Ogun and Soull Ogun, Doja Cat, Central Cee. That's Andre 3000 in the piano below. Don't you want to look up these names to see how the got them?  The Met Gala/Vogue presiding royalty is Anna Wintour - she was there.  She's now 75 years old, and was not wearing sunglasses in the picture. I guess she's had surgery to fix those lines under her eyes that were the supposed reason she wore sunglasses for decades.  In 2019 she told CNN they were useful because "you avoid people knowing what you're thinking about" and about 3 or 4 more reasons, all a bit pathetic justifications.  And then the final one was that she'd just had eye surgery.   Looking at the picture, there might be a bit of surgery going on. Here are two outfits to figure out - the first is an "overcoat" that was removed later.  The second is what it looks like.

The last of the cherry blossoms on the weeping cherry tree on Niagara Street.  There was so much moisture in the air that everything was dreamy and hazy. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Apr 28 2025 - Wayward Pigeon

 

The headlines include a story about a homing pigeon named Peter. He's distinctive in that he is from Spain.  He was supposed to fly to Majorca from Ibiza over the Mediterranean Sea. Instead, it went some 5,000 kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean to Sable Island, off of Nova Scotia.   Pigeons don't visit the Island, it was noteworthy.  The islands is 290 kilometres southeast of Halifax.  That would explain how a Parks Canada employee spotted the pigeon in late March.  The pigeon had a leg brace with an identification number, so it was traceable.  The theory goes that the bird decided to rest on a cargo ship and got a ride across the Atlantic.  It sounds like it was traumatized by the trip, because it didn't do much on Sable Island - hardly moved around at all.  The poor bird was found to have a gastrointestinal parasite when it was taken to a wildlife care centre. It has recovered since.  The pigeon got named Peter by the Parks people.  The Spanish owner says Peter can stay in Nova Scotia or come home, whatever is best for the bird.  I wonder what Peter wants to do?  Lounge around a wildlife centre or fly hundreds of kilometres in races?  Let's make a guess.  Our picture today is the first of the orchards to bloom -this is a multiple image in-camera picture.  This orchard is near Brian's lily field on Fifth Street Louth.  Lots of farms and Bakker growing fields there.  And the tulip pick farm is open on Seventh Street at Fourth Avenue.  Prime blossom time is arriving.

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

May 15 2024 - How Many Choirs

 

One of the songs we sing in the choir I am in is "Isle of Skye".  You can youtube search any song and a choir will have sung it - all kinds of choirs.  School choirs, church choirs, professional choirs, You've Got Talent auditions of choirs.  I wonder where choir music ranks in the top watched videos on Youtube.  This is too hard - there are a lot of choirs and a lot of music.  There is even a list of the 1,000 most viewed songs on Youtube.  That would take a little while to listen to.   There are about 28,000 choirs in Canada with 1.8 million adults (7% of all adults) in a choir.  More people sing in choirs than play hockey.  Another census found that there are 3.5 million Canadians singing in a choir/singing group.  Maybe that includes children.   That sounds like a lot of local music to be able to enjoy.   With that many people in choirs, there should be some jokes. Here are two for the choir members.   Here are a few traditional choir jokes: What did the choir director send his wife for Valentine’s Day? A choral arrangement What do choruses get paid in?   har-money Why do the singers rock left and right while performing on stage? Because it is more difficult to hit a moving target.   These are the Niagara Falls Dogwood trees turned to Spring Cherry blossoms.

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

May 5 2024 - There's a Woke Generation

 

Remember the Scrabble Story?  Who is that Woke Generation that is being ridiculed?  "Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) originally meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights." - Wikipedia One article says this:  "Gen Z is also (arguably) one of the most “woke” generations since the New Left of the 1960s and 1970s. Many members are outspoken advocates of social injustice, and are interested in topics including racism, homophobia, misogyny, poverty and climate change." But it didn't end there.  It has evolved or maybe it has been hijacked.  Mirriam Webster Dictionary says: "By the end of that same decade it was also being applied by some as a general pejorative for anyone who is or appears to be politically left-leaning." Poor Gen Zers - from self aware to commie cult zombie.  Woke, wokeness, woke culture, woke capitalism, woke washing.  What about "woke mind virus?" It has its own acronym - WMV.  Now woke lives in the land of insult and has spread all over the planet.  In New Zealand, one politician used the phrase "woke guilt industry"  - doesn't this all get so complicated in the Global Village!     There's nothing like wonderful blue skies, artistic clouds and a blossoming orchard.

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

May 4 2024 - The Celebration Begins

 

Despite the silly questions on Google about May the 4th celebrations, this is a wonderful unofficial holiday.  We created it.  That's because a literature society who enjoys language can create celebrations independent of authority figures and groups.  We did it with Pie/PI day too.   At the official Star Wars Day site, there are Star Wars Day Recipes such as Jump to Hyperspace with a Cold Corellian Iced Coffee.  This isn't some cynical marketing - it wasn't a promotion originated by Lucasfilm. Wikipedia says:  "The first recorded reference of the phrase being used was on May 4, 1979, the day after Margaret Thatcher was elected as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Her political party, the Conservatives, placed a congratulatory advertisement in the Evening News saying "May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations." The first organized celebration of Star Wars Day took place in Toronto in 2011.  That's when the games became entrenched forever.  The Lucasfilm's marketing information now says that the days is related to Geek Pride Day.  That seems odd as the Geek pride Day doesn't refer back to Star Wars.  But Geek Pride Day does reference science fiction.  So here we are 47 years after the release of the first movie in the series. That seems like a long time to me. I expect other people will remember the opening as thought they were there yesterday.     All those little blossoms on the ground instead of making peaches on the tree.

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

May 1 2024 - Universities vs Corporations

 

Can a student be suspended from a University for protesting?  That question came up in my mind yesterday as I read the articles on the protests across the U.S. and Canada.  But then I realized how complicated this research would be, so I have turned my attention to the Merry Month of May.   Joke of the Day:  A roman walks into a cafe holds up 2 fingers and gets 5 coffees.   Joke of the Day for Work:  Someone has stolen my Microsoft Office and they are going to pay for it... You have my Word.  Joke of the Day for the elderly:   An old man and a 20 year old are paired together at a golf tournament. They’re playing a long par 5 that dog legs around some tall trees. As the 20 year old sets up his tee shot to hit onto the fairway the old man notes “when I was your age we used to hit over the trees - not around to the side.” So the 20 year old readjusts and tries to hit over the trees - but can’t clear them and loses his ball. He tries again and loses that one too… Then the old man says “of course, when I was your age, the trees were only 6 foot tall.” Joke of the Day for elementary schoolers:   Why did the kid cross the playground? To get to the other slide.   Isn't this amazing?  I found this yesterday on Martin Street in Vineland.  This is the best ever combination of blossoms on the trees and on the ground.

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

Apr 21 2024 - Snow Blizzard Cherry Blossoms

 

The Weather Network has a video of winter snow and hail blizzard conditions in China.  Normally, the cherry blossoms fall to the ground/water creating a beautiful pink blanket.  Pink petals on the ground is desirable.  Pink petals, snow and hailstones is serious.  With climate change, the Weather Network is extremely busy - floods in Dubai, snow in China.  Here in Niagara the video says cherry blossoms Niagara and they are showing the Magnolia trees at the Floral Showcase in Niagara Falls.  They are beautiful pink, so maybe a good substitute for cherries.  We have more flower festivals in the area on the horizon - not just cherry blossoms.  There is a tourist tulip display on Seventh Avenue, just north of Fourth Street.  They grew fields of Dahlias last summer - I assume a picked flower crop.  They are advertising a tulip festival this weekend.  These flower festivals are starting to pop up in Ontario - the one that is best known is in Fenwick - TASC - they are advertising 2 million tulips this year.  They open in a week.   Checking the weather forecast, there don't seem to be any blizzards on our horizon.  The picture of the Magnolia tree with snow was from 2021 when we did get a snowstorm in April. The sense of movement is created with multiple exposures in camera.

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

April 4 2024 - Salmons Flip to Safety

 

Today's Globe and Mail has the headline of a truck overturn accident last week.  It dumped over 100,000 live salmon onto the ground.  Just over 3/4 of them flipped their way into a nearby stream to survive and escape.  This was at Lookingglass Creek, in Oregon. They were King Salmon raised in a hatchery that were being transported in Oregon to restock rivers  Given Salmon return to their creeks to spawn, there will be additional adults returning there in the future.  Will this really feel like home for them?   Remember the 5 million bees that fell off a truck near Toronto.  That was last year.  The truck was using an open trailer to transport the crates and they slid onto the highway at Guelph Line and Dundas Street.  A few crates were left behind for the bees they were unable to catch.  The hope was they would "naturally" return and could be collected later.   The advice to motorists:  don't roll your windows down.  Most animal stories involve attacks and often human deaths.  That's because they are relatively rare, so  get reported. But they are creepy to me.  We'll stick with the fish and bees today.   Sakura blossom season is at its height in Japan.  Today's picture is Montmorency cherries in Niagara orchards in the summer.

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

Jan 6 2024 - Ice Heaves Near You

 

There's a headline about a kilometre long ice heave in Saskatchewan.  That's a heave of ice from an ocean or large lake onto the shore.   When we consider shoreline erosion, I guess one of the causes can be ice heaving.  It is also known as ice jacking and then what it does to the shoreline is known as ice ridges, ice pushes and ramparts.    Cracks form in the ice when there are different temperatures at the top and bottom of the ice, making for different expansions ages.   There's a fact sheet from the Kawarthas so this must be a common issue in Eastern Ontario.  I guess the big damage would be to docks on cottage lakes.  In Alberta there are also ice quakes: these are also known as cryoseisms. It is a seismic event that occurs naturally by the rapid movement of the ice occur when there is a sudden release of energy from ice under stress.  The shock waves are not significant, so maybe the name sounds more ominous than the actual event. Beyond this there are ice tsunamis - that was on Lake Erie a few years ago. And remember two years ago when there was a Lake Erie storm that whipped up snow and water onto the shore-front homes encasing them in ice a foot thick.  They did not give a name for this occurrence. The places where the conditions come together to make ice heaves near us are on the east end of Lake Erie around Buffalo.  But we are quite close to Buffalo, so there have been cases where the ice heave was a shove that made its way to the Canadian side. Here's the story: "Back in February 2019, a major ice shove on Lake Erie produced spectacular video as the ice encroached on the Canadian shoreline across from Buffalo. Using an ice thickness of 6 inches, it was calculated that there could have been in the neighborhood of 13.5 billion tons of ice covering the 225-mile-long lake, being pushed downwind by wind gusts up to 70 mph. That gives you some idea of the forces involved when Nature flexes its muscles."  There are videos at this site HERE.  Here's a look ahead to spring blossoms.

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

Oct 25 2023 - What is snake oil?

 

The expression "snake oil" seems familiar from movies and television.  I wonder if that's the case, or just the thoughts of things past.   Oxford English Dictionary defines snake oil as "a quack remedy or panacea." The 1800s saw thousands of Chinese workers arriving in the United States as indentured laborers to work on the Transcontinental Railroad. Among the items the Chinese railroad workers brought with them to the States were various medicines — including snake oil. Made from the oil of the Chinese water snake, which is rich in the omega-3 acids that help reduce inflammation, snake oil in its original form really was effective, especially when used to treat arthritis and bursitis.The story goes that the Chinese workers began sharing the oil with some American counterparts, who marveled at the effects. Without Chinese water snakes handy in the American West, many healers began using rattlesnakes to make their own versions. The entrepreneur Clark Stanley, known as The Rattlesnake King, claimed he had learned about the healing power of rattlesnake oil from Hopi medicine men. Rattlesnakes oil wasn't effective, so there it was - a fraud. And did I seem to remember snake oil from Western films?  Yes, Wikipedia says it was a popular trope in Western films.

Blossoms line this walkway. 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