Marilyn's photos - June 25 2025 - Is this heart attack season?

 

That's my question from the numerous headlines offering heart attack symptom advice.  Myheart.net says "No" - heart attack season is winter. They are least likely to occur in summer. And the most likely time of winter is over the Christmas and new years period.   And the day of the week?  Monday.  That's the case for various heart diseases and problems.  In the Middle East, it is Fridays and in Japan it is the weekend.  And the most likely time of day?  It is the mornings, and within the first few hours of waking.   So the worst scenario would be "a winter Monday morning in the setting of a natural disaster acting as a trigger" So we're home-free, aren't we?  It seems not so - the heat dome is dissipating slowly.  While the temperatures are going into the high 20s today, they will feel like the mid-30s.   And heat is a contributor to heart attacks. One article says that "experiments have discovered that for every increase in temperature of 1°C (1.8°F), the chances of a heart attack raise by about 2-4%. Every day, throughout lengthy heat waves, this danger adds up..."   There aren't that many terms related to heat in the weather dictionary - heat index, humid, heat wave, heat stress, and heat dome. There is a wet-bulb temperature - the combination of heat, humidity, wind strength, sunlight angle and cloudiness. To quantify this, scientists turn to the “wet-bulb temperature,” which is based on a reading taken using a thermometer wrapped in a damp cloth. So much for summer heart attacks.  What was the winning bid for the piano on which Freddie Mercury composed Bohemian Rhapsody?  Sotheby's auction says it was £1.74m.  That was in 2023.

Here's my summertime heat dome abstract.

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Dec 31 2021 - Top FIVE things for 2022

 

What if there were only FIVE things to watch in 2022?  What's the first?   It is the Pandemic and its persistent set of rolling waves.  Everyone is asking if 2022 is the year it moves into an endemic which somehow seems less scary than the past two years of pandemic.  That's the active word right now.   I am looking past the waves that roll into endemic and on to the aftershocks that impact the health care system itself.  That seems to me to be the actual thing to keep track of in 2022.  And it is going to be close-up and personal for those of us who are older and more dependent on the health care system. On to Number Two:  Would you think climate change, climate events, and climate actions might be the second thing?  Not according to the media.  Nothing there on climate change as the key trend.  It is things like inflation, The Big Resignation, electric vehicles and space travel.  These are so much easier to write about.  And the news organizations have been very low on expertise on climate, just as they were low on expertise on the pandemic when it started.  As an aside, I think the space travel trend in 2022 might bring the first big space accident, given the near misses of 2021.  I don't see anybody else making this sort of prediction, but then it is macabre. So climate change is likely to have even more climate events that impact more of us, and personally. A growing swell of weather gone wrong.  I am attentive to the weather forecast as never before, and considering the worst scenario is where I live. And the other three things?   It seems it is up for grabs, but it is actually easy to see.  It is our attention to U.S. politics and the state of democracy in America.  The US news media and social media players have a hold on us.  They want to rekindle the comedy and tragedy of the Donald Trump days - that Trump frenzy. And what about  the gladiator hand-to-hand combat of the "Republican problem?"  Be ready for it to play out on January 6th. So we're down to what are the remaining two things to watch in 2022?  What are you considering?  What compels your attention?   It is time for a new calendar - but I don't seem to have Kim Klassen's New Years templates.  I'll have to go find out if she produced them this year. Here's a New Years greeting from a few years ago.  What a different time that was, and doesn't this image demonstrate it.  A magical Longwood Gardens' Himalayan Blue Poppy welcoming the New Year into a welcoming Blue Starry Sky.

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Double Day

Here we are in 2017 and already a leap second was added to the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on December 31st 2016.  The  Earth's slowing rotation needed synchronizing.  A few things we can look forward to in 2017 according to cnn.com are:  Drones delivering food and maintaining inventory in Wal-Mart warehouses; an Italian surgeon planning to do the first head transplant; and milk made without cows.  In terms of anniversaries, it is 20 years since Diana died and a spring exhibition is planned of her most famous outfits. It is the 20th anniversary of the start of the Harry Potter novels.  Not an anniversary, but very notable is that the documents amassed by the JFK Records Act will be revealed to the public in October.  And don't forget that this is Canada's 150th birthday and the celebrations began on December 31st. The Mosaicanada display that was initially proposed for Niagara Falls will be in Ottawa.  These are large-scale sculptures made of plants.  OK the first spoiler alert of 2017 - the Mosaicanada site is French-only as it is actually situated in Gatineau, Quebec.  For those with January 1st birthdays, there are double wishes today. And we might as well start our Canada Birthday celebrations so we're well prepared for the July 1st day!

When the Sun Flows In

Hi everyone,

This is the Meconopsis poppy.  It was named for its poppy-like appearance - mekon - poppy, and opsis - alike.  What an interesting history it has in terms of discovery - this from Wikipedia:

Meconopsis grandis, known as the blue poppy, is the national flower of Bhutan. In the late spring of 1922, a British Himalayan expedition, led by legendary mountaineer George Leigh Mallory, discovered the plant on their failed attempt to reach the summit of the then-unconquered Mount Everest. The flowers were introduced to much excitement at the Royal Horticultural Society's spring show of 1926. However, since they are difficult to grow, the species has become fabled over the decades. 

This reputation remains today.  This is a plant that needs cool and moist summers, so the Jardin de Metis (Redford Gardens) in Quebec has a well-renowned planting.  Here's a link to the site:

http://www.refordgardens.com/english/gardens/gardens-blue-poppy-glade.php

These pot-plants at Longwood were much admired last year.