Oct 22 2023 - Who Decided?

 

Today's "Who Decided?" is the question about who decided that women's breasts should be covered and that it would be a criminal offence to not cover them?  I sought out Wikipedia for some answers: The word "topless" usually refers to a woman who is naked above her waist or hips or, at least, whose breasts are exposed to public view..."   I wonder why it isn't the phrase "bare breasted" as it equates  to the phrase below for men. "Barechestedness is the state of a man or boy wearing no clothes above the waist, exposing the upper torso... While going barechested at outdoor activities may be acceptable, it is taboo in workplaces, churches and other formal settings." Attitudes towards toplessness have varied considerably across cultures and over time. The lack of clothing above the waist for both females and males was the norm in traditional cultures of North America, Africa, Australia and the Pacific Islands until the arrival of Christian missionaries, and it continues to be the norm in many indigenous cultures today. The practice was also the norm in various Asian cultures before Muslim expansion in the 13th and 14th centuries. Western culture shows the shift.  How curious to find out that in many European societies between the Renaissance and the 19th century, exposed breasts were acceptable while a woman's bared legs, ankles or shoulders were considered risqué.   Doesn't that make you wonder what the norms are for what is sexual in nature. I point to the Muslim clothing rules which say that body areas which are sexual in nature must be hidden from public view.  That it explains to me how Muslim women got to being completely covered.   We took a squick sprint through the available literature on the question for the day, and found meagre answers.  On to the next question of the day in hopes it will be more entertaining.

It is killing frost warning day here in Niagara, where the temperatures go below freezing and the dahlias are destroyed.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Oct 8 2021 - Stink Bugs on the Loose

 

Stink bugs are named for their smell when threatened.  It is considered an unpleasant odour.  It is native to China so has accidentally travelled to North America.  It looks prehistoric with its hard skeleton and angular shape.  They were initially found in Pennsylvania in 1996 and are a threat to tree fruit, grapes, sweet corn, tomatoes, soy beans and peppers.  These are Niagara crops.  What's the offensive smell?  It is supposed to be like coriander that has gone a bit off.  So many people dislike coriander as it is, let alone from a strange, tough looking bug who likes to winter in houses. That's why they are in the news now. Isn't there something about 'bugs' that is disturbing?  While they are small here in North America, they look fierce. The story goes that we are not typically afraid of them.  We have feelings of disgust, and the brain confuses fear and disgust.  When I look at pictures of the largest bugs in the world, fear and disgust join hands.  More dahlias today.

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Oct 7 2021 - Lightning hits the world records

 

The Weather Channel showed a picture of a tree in flames and had a short headline on what lightning can do.   Looking up world records on lightning, I find that the world record lightning strike happened in October 2018 and was confirmed in 2020.  "A new world record lightning strike of 440 miles has been confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization, according to a Thursday announcement. The "megaflash" traveled that distance over parts of southern Brazil on Oct. 31, 2018, the WMO said. This is equivalent to the distance between Washington, DC, and Boston. In addition to the longest flash in terms of distance, a world record for longest lightning strike in terms of time was also announced: A single flash lasted 16.73 seconds over northern Argentina on March 4, 2019." We think of people being hit by lightning.  Here's an article on peoples being hit by lightning. Roy Sullivan seems to be the official record-holder. He lived from 1912-1983 and was a park ranger in Virginia.  He was hit by lightning on seven occasions between 1942 and 1977.  In one strike it was reported that he saw a cloud, thought that it was following him, tried to run away, but was struck anyway.  That was in 1976, and his hair caught fire.  His seven strikes are described in Wikipedia HERE.  He's the current Guinness World Record holder, although one can find Melvin Roberts whose claim is having been hit 10 (or 11) times.  He looks in rough shape in the pictures.   I came upon an amazing Dahlia display in a Grimsby garden this week, and took the opportunity to photograph the flowers yesterday.  They are growing along a walkway to Centennial Park.

May 26 2021 - Hump Day

 

"Over the hump" is what hump day means.  But I've always thought of it as the bottom of a trough.  After Wednesday, it goes uphill in a happy way towards Friday with Saturday and Sunday at the mountain peak.  What about Monday? There's a sharp cliff with Monday and the descent slides down to Wednesday and lands with a bump. Hump Day is an expression of office environments.  Once over the hump, people get to coast into the weekend.  This had to do with the 'drudgery of the workweek.'  It came into vogue in the 1960s.   Hump Day points to "Thank Goodness It's Friday". It  was in the 1980s that this got into full swing.  Is that because "Thank Goodness It's Friday" restaurants showed up?  The actual expression first appeared in print in the 1940s as Thank God It's Friday.   I wondered about each day having a slang expression, so I went to the urban thesaurus.  This is undoubtedly a mistake for a person of my age.  There are many expressions associated with each day of the week.  But for someone my age, they are a "stream of consciousness" list of words, letters and acronyms that seems to scroll forever.  Here's the link for Wednesday.  Could you imagine that all these words could be associated with Wednesday?  Things like: cool, food,  ok, ratchet, sleep, whataburger wednesday, mike, fishco - explanations make little sense.  But then I need to repeat I shouldn't be attempting to make sense of these at my age. I find one amusing. It is pineapple wednesday - "The first Wednesday of the month. To celebrate, one wears clothing depicting pineapples, eats pineapples, drinks pineapple juice, sings/dances to the Pineapple Wednesday song, and does anything she/he can think of that relates to pineapples." I should have gone straight to the urban dictionary.  Its entry for Wednesday is :  The day that you wear a spiderman suit and goggles then scream at yourself in the mirror. 2. The day that you wear pink. "It is Wednesday my dudes, aaaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHHH"  "On Wednesdays we wear pink"   Some of my images of Dahlias - in the Dahlia a Day series.

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March 31 2020 - Island Homes

Tomorrow is April Fool's Day.  My searches bring forth strange objects from the sea of information.  Pinterest is such a site and full of real and imagined picture stories.  They seem like April Fool's Jokes available year round. Fact check:  viral photo of castle built on rock is just a fairytale, not reality. The doctored image shows a castle on top of a V-shaped rock which towers steeply over the water. A door with a ladder leading down to a boat on the water can be seen carved into the lower part of the rock. The misleading post’s caption states: “Castle on the rock..” with a shocked emoji. News 18 Buzz went about checking the story.  The island is an islet in Thailand's Phang Aga province and known as the James Bond Island as it was in the 1974 film, "The Man with the Golden Gun." The castle is the 19th-century Lichtenstein Castle in southern Germany.  Here are the comparisons: These are photographic hoaxes.  There are a number of amazing pictures of elevated islands with houses on top.     These pictures go off to ads and various lost websites. That's a feature of Pinterest.  One seldom finds the article to read about the topic.   A pretty Dahlia bouquet for today's image.

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Autumn Imminent

WAIT!  NOT YET!  Autumn starts today at 9/22/17 16:02 Eastern Time. There is a first third of Autumn (10/22) , Mid-Autumn (11/6) and Second Third of Autumn 11/21) before we get to the Winter Solstice (12/21).  There are many flowers that bloom in Autumn, but the rich colours of the leaves brings our focus to Autumn trees and leaves:  What did the tree say to autumn? leaf me alone. What did one autumn leaf say to another? I'm falling for you. How do you fix a broken pumpkin? With a pumpkin patch What's the ratio of a pumpkin's circumference to its diameter? Pumpkin Pi What do you call a tree that doubts autumn? Disbe-leaf. What is a tree's least favorite month? Sep-timber! What do you call a large colorful pile of leaves? The Great Barrier Leaf. Did you hear about the tree that had to take time off of work in autumn? It was on paid leaf. These are from www.jokes4us.com We continue on our Dahlia journey today...

Dahlias are Romantic

I realize these are florals and that will be posted in Open Gardens Niagara, and thought they were so pretty that you would like to see them at the Marilyn Cornwell blog too.  Dahlias are beautiful flowers that are a delight to photograph.  So many different shapes and styles of petals.  Some are geometric and uniform, and others are wavy and flowing.  These are all from Ralph Suttell's Beamsville showcase growing garden.

Dahlias are Autumn's Flower...More in Flowerography

It's not typical to consider dahlias to be an autumn flower.  To me, though, this seems to be the time when they are at their best in the glorious garden of Ralph Suttell of Beamsville Ontario.  He grows competition dahlias, and they have been wonderful over the last 2 weeks.  Grown in a hoop house, they are protected from winds and insects with screening, and during hotter times umbrellas shade the most prize blooms. It's all a perfect setting for a photographer.

Here are a few of Ralph's beauties.  I've named this one 'The Shadow of Your Smile':

This is 'Demure':

This is 'The Yellow Shines Within':

These images are part of the Flowerography Series.  The Flowerography series derives from the Victorian tradition of using flowers and floral arrangements to express emotions that otherwise could not be spoken or were not allowed.  It is known as floriography or the language of flowers.   

The tradition remains today - red roses still imply passionate, romantic love.  Pink roses represent a lesser affection; white roses suggest virtue and chastity and yellow roses still stand for friendship or devotion. Gerbera (daisy) means innocence or purity. The iris, being named for the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology, still represents the sending of a message. A pansy signifies thought, a daffodil regard, and a strand of ivy fidelity.

Dahlia Season

Dahlia Season...It's here and the flowers are as big and beautiful as last year.  Here's the start of dahlia portraits.  Two very different dahlias with different treatments.  


The first is like an exquisite wedding dress.  Each petal in the centre is folded like some expensive silk handkerchief.  As the petals mature, these folds disappear into gorgeous curls that open up into beautiful spirally tubes.  I chose a colour treatment that would make this white dahlia look like an antique white silk.

This second portrait pays homage to water lily dahlias.  I haven't been able to shoot my own water lilies, as the racoons buzz the top of the flower petals each time one comes close to blooming, and it's not nice enough for a traditional floral portrait, nor funky enough for something on the pop art side.  So here's my water lily portrait, with a deep blue ocean in the background to this lovely pink and green water lily dahlia.

Last Fruit Standing

These rows of old apple trees are near Ralph Suttell's place in Beamsville.  Ralph is the dahlia grower whose dahlias have been showcased here and on my website.  These photos were taken on the weekend - the first time in December that I can remember everything still looking like autumn.  The late afternoon light made long shadows across the field and turned everything golden.

Ralph Suttell - Dahlias and Lilies

Yesterday was another great garden day for me. My brother and I went to his Lily field in St. Catharines, then on to Ralph Suttell's who is a hybridizer and competitor in lilies and dahlias. Our day concluded with a trip to Ridley Garden to connect with Reggie and John for hybridizing.

Ralph's garden an acre and a half in Beamsville at the lake (yes, I'm jealous). It's a spectacle of plantsmanship and horticulture. Every dahlia is perfect and there seem to be hundreds of plants. They are specially grown so with a hoop house so that he can cover them before the competition to keep the blooms perfect from the elements (e.g. rain). He's not just a dahlia grower, though. There are a lot of lilies that he's working with. His garden is beautifully landscaped with interesting materials and there's a beautiful vegetable garden.