Jan 25 2025 - Ketchup Wars

 

There's a big ad - an entire page - in the Globe and Mail today.  It comes from Heinz and tells us that their ketchup is made in Canada from Canadian tomatoes, and is all-Canadian. That's a reminder of the Ketchup War that occurred in 2016. Back in 2014 before merging with Kraft, Heinz upset a lot of Canadians in the small municipality of Leamington near Windsor, when it sold its processing plant and moved its ketchup operations across the border to the U.S.  It was the area's largest employer, and over 740 people were out of work.     French's used Leamington tomatoes for its ketchup and decided to move its bottling plant to Canada and advertise as 100% Canadian.  That came in handy when  the grocery store chain  Loblaw decided to remove French's ketchup from the shelves.  A social media campaign brought attention to this and people supported French's by buying their ketchup, outselling Heinz 3 to 1.  That got Heinz' attention and they backtracked and announced  they would be reopening their Canadian operations.   So today's paper with their massive full page ad proclaims they seem to be joining the Bye American movement that is quickly gaining momentum.   Will google catch up on the movement.  They show no bye American retrievals.   In the meantime, They still have the Gulf of Mexico on their map.  And one article says they might not make the change at all.      A bonsai Pomegranate at Longwood Gardens.

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July 9 2024 - This Golden Age

 

When I was at the Lily Show on the weekend, I looked at all the hybrids that have been introduced in the last 40 years and declared that we have been in the Golden Age of plant hybridization. The idea of a "golden age" comes from the Greeks. They defined it as time of prosperity, peace, cultural production, achievement and political stability of a society.  I just meant the time period when the greatest achievements were ade.  That's the definition during our lifetime.  Not just plant hybridization, but a lot of "Golden Ages" have occurred in the 20th and 21st centuries.   The Golden Era of music has been voted on in the U.S. They decided that the 1970s and 1980s were the best decades for music.  The Golden Age of American movies is considered to be from 1913 to 1962.  For television, the first Golden Age is  considered to be the 1950s.  And the second Golden Age is considered the 1980s to the late 1990s.   The Golden Age of aviation/air travel was considered to be the 1950s and 1960s.  And the Golden Age of American Automobiles was considered to be the 1950s and beyond.  I would guess it ended by the early 1970s.  The Golden Age of Space Exploration?  There's a view that considered it to be the 1950s and 1960s when it began and another that considers it to be now.  There are articles that say we are entering the "Spatial Age" where spatial technology and AI will drive the future of space exploration.  The Golden Age of medicine is considered to be the first half of the 20th century and the zenith the 1955 polio vaccine. It was a time of advances in surgical techniques, immunization, drug discovery and infectious disease control. It might be that when you are in a Golden Age, you don't describe it as such.  That's because I went looking for the golden age of computing and got the Information Age. It is described as having 3 phases; the 1st Phase, characterized by newspapers, radio and television. The 2nd Phase developed by internet, satellite, computers and mobile phones. And the 3rd Phase saw the emergence of social and digital/new media. Now that's completed, there's discussion of what to call the next "era".  Is there a "Golden Age" component within this time frame?  I guess we'll wait to decide.   The Bonsai Society had their work on display at the Pumphouse on Ricardo Street during the Niagara-on-the-Lake garden tour on the weekend.   One of the bonsai society members put a white board behind the trees so I could photograph them. That lets me add whatever background I want, so it is a cloudy sky for this pine tree.  There's nothing like a beautiful bonsai tree.

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Apr 18 2024 - Tiny Homes

 

No new houses in Grimsby are small.  There's a new development on Main Street East and the houses are monsters, according to my thinking.  What do you see when you look at this? Probably 3,000 sq ft.   They seem to be a long time in the making.  I wonder when everything will be completed. What I pass each day does not resemble this picture - all the houses are tight against each other and right up to the sidewalk.  No gracious front lawns and gardens will appear. Now let's head over to Fredericton, N.B. where a tiny home village has been in the news.  There will be 99 tiny homes.  This has been masterminded by Marcel Lebrun who has created a charity to develop the community.   Comparing the pictures, it looks like at least a 3 to 1 ratio in terms of lot usage.   I wonder what it is about Ontario builders and residents that we are not given to reducing our house size. Can you imagine what it would take to start thinking in terms of tiny homes?  There is one Ontario example of tiny home communities - it is in St. Thomas-Elgin.  This is similar to New Brunswick's project.  Both are charity-based projects building community services.  Let's hope there will be more of these projects.  A tiny tree is our picture today.

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May 28 2023 - Sommelier of What?

 

That's what I found in the Globe and Mail's style section yesterday.  A vacation curated by a mountain air sommelier. Would there be 4 levels of mountain air sommeliers?  introductory, Certified, Advanced and Master?   There are olive oil, water, milk, sake, coffee and tea sommeliers.  Beer sommeliers are known as Cicerones. You can find Christina Li, Canadian water sommelier's website HERE.    As to being a sommelier, Wikipedia says this: In modern times, a sommelier's role may be considered broader than working only with wines, and may encompass all aspects of the restaurant's service, with an enhanced focus on wines, beers, spirits, soft-drinks, cocktails, mineral waters, and tobaccos. The inclusion of tobaccos makes me doubt that this has been written in modern times.  And what about this quote: "An experienced sommelier can even determine, through their refined sinus canals, the moon phase of the day the coffee beans were harvested." And what does the Guinness Book off Records say about sommeliers - first robot sommelier is the first headline, then largest sommelier lesson. NEC System Technologies and Mie University, Japan, have developed a robot capable of tasting wine and recognizing the differences between a few dozen varieties. To "taste", the "wine-bot" fires an infrared beam through the wine and analyses the various wavelengths of light that are absorbed. A built-in speaker is used to announce the variety of wine selected.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 8 2022 - Bubbles are Bouncy

 

Bubbles are very bouncy things.  They bounce in the air, they bounce on water.  They usually burst when you try to catch them.  So elusive.   Here's the kitchen experiment that uses sugar and gloves to bounce bubbles and catch them with your hands.  Even bubbles have enemies: They are oil, dirt and gravity.   Ingredients Small bowl for mixing Spoon for stirring Cotton or wool socks or gloves Drinking Straw 60ml (4 Tbsp) Water 30ml (2 Tbsp) sugar 15ml (1 Tbsp) Dishwashing Liquid Instructions Mix all the ingredients together in the bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves Dip the end of the straw into the solution until a film forms on the end Gently blow into the other end of the straw to form a bubble Cover your hand with a sock or glove and hold your palm out flat Blow a bubble in the air and use your covered hand to gently bounce the bubble without it bursting The Science Behind Bouncing Bubbles Bubbles are simply air trapped inside a thin film of liquid – the bigger the bubble, the more air is inside. The liquid film that makes up the outside of a bubble is mostly water. Water molecules are attracted to each other by intermolecular forces – these are electromagnetic forces which act between molecules. The intermolecular forces draw the water molecules together, creating something called surface tension. Dishwashing liquid lowers the surface tension of the water, making it stretchy enough to stretch around a sphere of air to form a bubble. Bubbles, though, are prone to popping when the film is pierced or if too much water in the film evaporates, leaving too thin a layer. The sugar binds to the water molecules. This helps to stop the bubbles from drying out so they last longer and don’t pop as quickly. Usually, if you touch a bubble it bursts – this is because the natural oil on your hands breaks the surface tension of the water around the bubble. By wearing gloves or socks on your hands you create a barrier between the oil and the bubble, making it possible to bounce a bubble without bursting. All of this directly from:  The Kitchen Science Cookbook by Michelle Dickinson See Steve Spangler's science in action with his bouncing bubble video HERE.    Today's picture was taken at Longwood Gardens at the Orchid Festival a few years ago.  There is so much to admire in this beautiful tree and display.

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Aug 26 2020 - The Rainbow Rose

 

Have you seen the pictures of the Rainbow Rose?  It looks like it was made in photoshop.   There is no blue genetically possible in current roses.  The rainbow rose is a rose that has had its petals artificially coloured. The method uses the natural processes by which water is drawn up the stem. By splitting the stem and dipping each part in different coloured water, the colours are drawn into the petals resulting in a multicolored rose. With these changes to the rose, it causes them to not live as long as an uncoloured rose. Besides roses, other cut flowers like the chrysanthemum, carnation, hydrangea, and some species of orchids can also be coloured using the same method. We would colour Queen Anne's Lace by placing stems in a jar of water with food colouring in it.  To cut a stem into 2 to 4 pieces would take some skill, and then there would need to be special vessels created for the uptake. The best rose to use is "Vendela", a cream coloured Hybrid Tea cultivated in Holland, Colombia and Ecuador, as this cultivar absorbs the different dyes perfectly. I would love to see rainbow roses like this picture shows.  They seem to express hope, light and optimism.  Just like a rainbow promises a pot of gold.   The instructions for carnations are HERE. Today we have a sunset backdrop for a bonsai azalea at Longwood Gardens.  Skylum will only work with replacing skies.  And sometimes a grey sky isn't recognized by Skylum.  Other times there isn't enough sky for it to identify and replace.  I've discovered the technique of putting in a sky that I have available, and then using the Skylum Filter to replace it. We need to find a rainbow sky, like the roses above.

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June 6 - English vs Language Families

We in the English-speaking group don't think about other language families.  English seems to be dominant in so many areas that we might not even think about other languages. How many language families are there?  There are 141 language families and 7,111 living human languages within the 141 different families.   Membership of languages is established by comparative linguistics.  Just like plants - they are said to have a genetic or genealogical relationship.  We also don't think about which is the most-spoken language.  That's because English is dominant in many communications.  It's 983 million speakers fall behind Mandarin Chinese with 1.1 billion speakers.  Next is Hinustani at 544 million.  Another retrieval says that there are 1.121 billion speakers of English and 1.107 billion speakers of Chinese.  Or perhaps there are as many as 1.5 billion using English to some extent.  The native English speakers number 375 million. What would the scenario be like if Chinese surpassed English in Global speakers?  How would that change things?   When I worked in computers, the universal language for comments and descriptions is English - computer code is required to have English descriptors.  I worked on a project where the software was developed in Morocco and it was written in French, so it would not be allowed in a government department given it failed this mandatory requirement.  I wonder how many fields and professions require English for similar things. I would think that STEM would be the area that requires a common set of standards and practises.  The Oxford-Royale.co.uk side says this is the case - 80% of scientific texts are written in English.  Academia, Online businesses, Tourism, Diplomacy, management consultancy and finally Finance are the top areas that require good English.  So I guess that covers a lot of jobs around the world. Look at the 'trunk' on this bonsai azalea at Longwood.

Tussie-Mussies

What are December's flowers?  We would answer Poinsettias and Amaryllis.   The flower of the month for December is Holly and Narcissus symbolizing sweetness, self-esteem and vanity.  Wikipedia lists the British December flower as Poinsettia, symbolizing good cheer, success. The language of flowers has mostly left us now.  There was a time when floriography was a popular art.  It is a cryptological communication through the use and arrangement of flowers.  It was practiced in traditional cultures throughout Europe, Asia and in the Middle East.  Interest in floriography soared in Victorian England and the United States during the 19th century.  Coded messages to the recipients allowed the sender to express feelings which couldn't be spoken aloud in Victorian society. They exchanged small 'talking bouquets', called nosegays or tussie-mussies. To make a bouquet today, go to Ilonasgarden.com. Ilona quotes a press release from the Royal Palace: “The bouquet is a shield-shaped wired bouquet of myrtle, lily-of-the-valley, sweet William and hyacinth. The bouquet was designed by Shane Connolly and draws on the traditions of flowers of significance for the Royal Family, the Middleton family and on the Language of Flowers” I've looked up each flower: Myrtle - love Lily of the Valley - return of happiness Sweet William - grant me one smile Hyacinth - Unobtrusive loveliness Our bonsai trees today are located at the Pacific Rim Bonsai Museum near Seattle in Washington.

Bonsai, A Garden in the Palm of My Hand

Marilyn's Photo of the Day  Bonsai, A Garden in My Palm

Bonsai Today's image is a tree trunk close-up of a bonsai in the Marie Selby Garden in Florida.  I am always on the look-out for bonsai. They are such works of art.  With the small size, one can see details that aren't apparent in the full-size specimen, and the details on the bark demonstrate this wonderfully. This bonsai is fulfilling its purpose:  for the viewer it is contemplation and the grower it is the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity. The Beauty of Bonsai Gallery, on redbubble, is the second set of images.

Bonsai Art - A Garden in the Palm of My Hand

This is a beautiful Pomegranate tree at Longwood Gardens, May 2014.  You can see the little orange blossoms.  Its label says that it has been in training since 1910.  What a marvel.  I've taken the original image and show 2 interpretations, with French Kiss textures.  Let me know which one you prefer.

Those Beautiful Bonsai

I have been working on the beautiful Bonsai from the Pacific Rim Bonsai Garden.  It is located just south of Seattle, and is a wonderful collection displayed outdoors.  There's two interpretations for each tree. I hope you enjoy them.

A Garden in the Palm of My Hand

I just finished processing some bonsai images.  These are from the Pacific Bonsai Collection at the Weyerhaeuser head office location south of Seattle.  The Rhododendron Garden is adjacent to the Pacific Bonsai Collection and a short walk to the spectacular setting of the beautifully distinctive Weyerhaeuser building - a horizontal gem on the landscape.

So here's a selection of images from the Bonsai Series "A Garden in the Palm of My Hand"

The Journey

The Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection is located at the Weyerhaeuser Headquarters south of Seattle WA.  The trees are located outside in a viewing area so that each specimen can be appreciated.

The Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection is located at the Weyerhaeuser Headquarters south of Seattle WA.  The trees are located outside in a viewing area so that each specimen can be appreciated.   This tree is a Korean Yew. 

Reading about each tree was itself an experience.  Some of trees were created in interesting ways.  Some started their bonsai experience as a stunted trunk with few branches living in their natural growing environment.  They might be  hundreds of years old, living in difficult growing conditions that keep them stunted.  These special trees were dug up and transplanted and trained to grow in the small pots. Specimens are then grafted onto the living trunk and the training of a tree begins its journey.