April 11 - All's Well that ends well

 

The oldest English surname on record is Hatt, from East Anglia  It was mentioned in a Norman Transcript, identified as a pretty regular name in the county.  Hwita Hatt was a keeper of bees. The oldest surname in the world is claimed to be Katz - considered the initial of the two words Kohen Tsedek.  Every Katz is a priest, descending in an unbroken line from Aaron the brother of Moses, 1300 B.C..  This comes from Ripley's Believe it or not, and has no evidence.  It does seem more of a mythical sort of story. What if all the English names ending in "well" were related?   "Well - This surname suffix or word well has an English origin. It refers to a good or proper manner, affluent, satisfactory, and comfortable. Well can also mean a deep hole, that can bring water and therefore, life. The suffix is gender neutral. It can be either male or female or neither. Some of the examples of the suffix well are: Atwell, Baswell, Blackwell, Caldwell, Cromwell, Crowell, Honeywell, Hopewell, Howell, Maxwell, Newell, Powell, Rockwell, Stilwell, Stockwell, Whitwell and there are many others." Perhaps in a manner of understanding, they are all related. Here's the website -  Surname Prefixes and Suffixes.  So many interesting stories.  Let us continue on  our Canadian vs American view of things through the lens of jokes: An avid Canadian fisherman decides to cross the Peace Bridge and go over to Lewiston and fish the American side of the Niagara river. He settles down on a quiet dock and begins to fill his bucket with some nice fish when an American game warden approaches him. "Could I see your fishing licence please?".  When he hands him his licence,the game warden laughs and says that it is no good because it is a Canadian fishing licence. At this point the fisherman replies "but I'm only catching Canadian fish". The warden scratches his head for a moment and says "what do you mean?"  The fisherman reaches in his bucket and pulls out a fish and asks the warden "what kind of fish is that?". The warden looks and says its a small mouth bass, to which the fisherman replies, "See what I mean, if it was an American fish it would be a Large mouth bass." This sculpture is in Burlington on the harbour.  The last few years, the Latow Photography seminar has been online.  Previously it was at the Burlington Art Gallery, and lunch time was a walk along the waterfront where children were playing and kites were flying.

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

Why is a Computer so Smart?

Wake Up on the Bright Side - Because it has a Motherboard Mother's Day weekend saw a worldwide online extortion attack in somewhere between 74 and 150  countries.  Included are government organizations such as NHS in Britain. It is called 'ransomware' in which people are locked out of their files and presented with a demand to pay hackers. What a story of intrigue that involves the US National Security Authority code known as "Eternal Blue" which made its way from a hacking organization called Shadow Brokers to a separate crime gang. Demands have ranged from $US300 to $US600.  The campaign was spreading five million emails per hour. The malware's name is WCry.  In Spain, major firms had to shut down computers using megaphone announcements. Even Russia was hit by a virus attack. Experts believe the timing is related to the April 14 attack by the US on Syria with a message from the Shadow Brokers that they voted for Trump and are losing faith in him.  We have two lake views today - the first from Grimsby's Nelles Beach.  This canoe up on the shore just seemed like one of those absurd scenes.  There's a boat launch access at Nelles Beach, which can explain the canoe sitting there.  There is no beautiful sandy beach to stroll along this year with the high lake levels. The next one is from a lakefront home in Burlington, showing its beautiful view across the bay to the Burlington Bridge.

There's a Yes In There

The song "Here's to Life" is written by Phyllis Molinary and became Shirley Horn's signature song.  JazzFM plays it regularly, and the station played it as a dedication to Jack Layton when he died.  In it are the lyrics "there's no yes in yesterday". There are many words with yes in them, but finding the yes in there seems illusive to me compared to these lyrics.   As a scrabble player, you are visualizing the words and not pronouncing them. So finding all the yeses would be much easier.  Scrabble sites that let us know all of the yeses to be found.  And interestingly, so many of them contain 'eyes' as in pinkeyes and shuteyes and frogeyes.    So we're back to the famous music composed by Johnny Mandel, released in 1992, with Winton Marsalis as the trumpet soloist.   Here is the verse: There is no yes in yesterday And who knows what tomorrow brings or takes away As long as I'm still in the game I want to play For last, for life, for love

Dreaming of a Burlington Skyway View

I took this picture of the Stelco view from the Burlington Skyway from the bus while commuting a few winters ago. It is a different story this weekend.  A dump truck with its truck bed raised hit the bridge last week on the Toronto-bound side.  There were workers on the scaffolding so it could have been a tragic event.  The truck was massive and the impact significant so the bridge will be closed all weekend.  It is currently being assessed for structural damage.  

This is pretty big news for us here in the Niagara region.  It is a holiday weekend here in Ontario.  There aren't that many easy alternatives to getting around that corner of Lake Ontario.  It is one of the major routes to the US border crossings at Queenston, Niagara Falls and Buffalo.  Here's the CBC coverage of the traffic routes around the Lake for those of you in distant places.  Grimsby is the next stop after Stoney Creek.

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