Mar 17 2023 - St. Patrick's

 

Is there a true meaning to St. Patrick's Day?  Is there real history behind this date?  Often that sort of question makes me ponder what would be the false meaning. But there are no contentious beginnings with St. Patrick's Day.  And this is celebrated in more countries than any other festival. It starts as the celebration of the arrival of christianity in Ireland.  Back in St. Patrick's time, the Irish were "pagans" and the three leaves of the shamrock were used to explain the Holy Trinity.  Probably these were the same Celtic pagans who brought us the Leprechaun - small-bodied fellow to entertain us with possible pots of gold. No celebration can reap mass commercialization without its own colour and the Irish green is spectacular.  We have taken to it completely. There are even pictures of the international space station version of the festival with Chris Hatfield wearing green.    Just like Christmas having Poinsettias, St. Patrick's Day has its flower - Shamrocks - Oxalis - with those green leaves.   Getting ready for today, we tried to buy some at the Watering Can yesterday, but they'd sold out.  And I found out that there was a crop failure at the Hellebore grower so they won't have  Hellebores this year.  Now that one really worried me.

This is the highlight display at the Hamilton Gage Park spring show this week.

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Nov 28 2022 - Mithra's Christmas

 

Mithra(s) was a Roman god, and the subject of the December 25th festival.  History says that Mithra was the first immaculate conception and born on December 25th - the son of the Sun God, so also known as son of God.  The creation of the world is central to the Mithraic mythology.   This was a significant god and a significant Roman religion with its mysteries.  There were many temples and sanctuaries to Mithra, and Mithraism is viewed as a rival of early Christianity.   It is generally held that the Christians appropriated the festival of Mithras' birth celebration on December 25th - the winter solstice - with similar light metaphors and correspondence between Christ and the sun. Considering they were rival religions, the Mithraists faced persecution from the Christians in the 4th century when Constantine ruled. This religious community disappeared.   What fascinates me is how successful the Christians were at banishing all other religions.  They termed all of them as 'pagan'.   As a definition, pagan was rustic, unlearned, bumpkin, villager, country dweller, and so on.  It became an all-embracing, pejorative term for polytheists.  It was us vs them. This approach worked, but It brings baggage. That means that when today's biblical historians are tracing the roots of various holidays and festivals they always find themselves in "pagan" territory.  Remember John Milton who as a Puritan was part of the banishment of Christmas based on its origins as a "pagan" festival.   So any time you read about the Christmas traditions in those" four things you might not know about Christmas" articles on the internet, you will inevitably find Mithras in the mix of the discussion.   This motion blur image of birch trees seems to have the right tones for this time of year Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Oct 3 2022 - World Architecture Day

 

This is world architecture day and Bing's front page has Antwerp's Port Authority Building as the example of preserving historic buildings by combining them with modern structures.  World Architecture Day coincides with World Habitat Day.   That connection seems a bit ironic to me. The  architecture who designed the Antwerp building is Zaha Hadid who is known for never designing a building containing a right angle.  That is "she was the inventor of 89 degrees, nothing was done in 90 degrees."  It is wonderful to look through her designs - so many beautiful curving shapes.  But back to us in the small world of individual/family residential living. The average house size varies from 484 square feet in Hong Kong to 2300 sq ft in Australia.  In the U.S. the average is similar to Australia.  It is around 1,500 sq ft in Canada, but growing quickly.   We in the first world countries live in big internal spaces.   The houses emerging on Ontario's landscapes are on narrow lots.  The houses are very tall, in order to accommodate the sparsity of land, but also the desire for big square feet and royal dimensions.   They have 2 garages and a double height entrance. All the rooms have extra-tall ceilings.  I think of this as "everyman castle syndrome. " The second trend in these homes is everything black - the brick, the windows. This I consider to be the same as black cars with black windows - keeping everyone from looking in.   So here we are on World Architecture Day, celebrating beautiful architectural accomplishments, side by side with bad residential architecture.

This is the Losani development in Beamsville.  I can see Benchscape, the property where I tended the raised herb and edible flower garden.  The paths to the end of the garden are clearly shown.  It is on the first west-side street on the upper left side just past all the "promises." Continue along Mountain Street going south up the escarpment, and just above the brow of the escarpment is Floyd Elzinga's studio.   Here are two Grimsby versions - these are older houses so spread across a property.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 21 2022 - Jubbly Celebrations

 

eing in a Commonwealth country, we can lament the decline of the Queen's English.  It is a daily occurrence to experiencedrastic spelling and grammar errors.    Here's the once in 70 years drastic spelling error - this time the Queen herself is the subject of the error.  It has resulted in thousands of souvenirs marking the following: The Platinum Jubbly of Queen Elizabeth II     The intended celebration is her Platinum Jubilee.   Over 10,000 mugs, tea sets and decorative plates meant to mark the monarch's 70-year reign featured an illustration of the Queen surrounded by images featured in her coat of arms — as well as the misprint. " They come from a Chinese manufacturer.   This is particularly hilarious for fans of Del Boy, who is known for the catchphrase 'lovely bubbly' in a British 1990s television series.  The resellers website has this humorous promotion: "Apart from the obvious gimmick factor, there is an abundance of fantastic things you could do with these: Become an Only Fools and Horses fan and wow your friends with your Lovely Jubbly set! Have a plate smashing contest Take-up plate spinning as a hobby Have a dangerous game of Frisbee." The actual meaning of Jubbly?  It's a jocular exclamation. It means excellent, brilliant, great. It's the sort of thing you'd say when you got some good news or had a stroke of luck, 'ah, lovely jubbly'.

Happy  butterfly pictures from a visit to the Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory on Gerry's birthday last week.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca