May 23 2025 - The Smallest Towns

 

A town in Newfoundland is known as  the "smallest town in Canada".  With only 4 people left, I wondered if that is the case.  How does a place with 4 people get to call itself a town.  There would be no mayor or councillors and where would the emergency services like fire and police be?   It has made the news everywhere as the last inhabitants are leaving.  The many repetitions of the article say nothing of that.  They talk about how Tilt Cove, Newfoundland has dwindled since the copper mine closed in 1967.   The nearest towns are Shoe Cove and Snooks Arm.  Shoe Cove is closest at 13 km and 16 minutes away.  There's a small grocery store in Shoe Cove and 10 minutes away from there is La Scie (population 820) with shopping. Are there other smallest towns around the planet?  The list comes up with Hum, Cratia with 30 inhabitants, as a widely recognized smallest town.  A town gate, cemetery, two churches and a restaurant.   Then there is Monowi, Nebraska - a town known for having a single resident. Next up is Mazar, Kansas with a population of five.   Who keeps the lights on and the water running?  I guess I am a big town and big city person - I can't fathom what services aren't likely available.

Here's a great :Longwood Garden scene at the entrance.  It is unlikely we'll get there this year, given the border issues. But one can enjoy the pictures of the past.

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Mar 8 2025 - 51st of Anything

 

I wonder this question about being 51st.   As a ranking, what if the U.S. is 51st at various things in the world?  You know, those economic and social surveys that show where the countries stand in comparison to each other - education, health, housing, and so on.  It would be ironic to find all the places where they rank 51st. But instead one retrieves all the 51st State stories.  How Canada would rank as the 51st state.  I think 51st has made its mark and will become a metaphor for a long time. So let's take a look at the things that have named themselves 51st. What are we competing with? The number 51 retrieves Chinese characters.   The 51News client is a mobile news client created by 51.com  Its goal is to provide Canadian Chinese users with a brand-new mobile reading experience.  There are a few more Chinese apps with 51 in the name.  51 is a lucky number, so a very popular name. In mathematics, fifty-one is a pentagonal number as well as a centred pentagonal number and an 18-gonal number.    Brings the Pentagon to mind, doesn't it? Another website is the51.com - "building the financial feminist economy.  Content and events, news and discounts, members-only networking opportunities.  this is a Canadian organization."  All the principal directors are listed with their resumes, but there doesn't seem to be a description on how the name originated. There doesn't appear to be any association with the Chinese-Canadian community.  And then the dark side of things - Area 51 Air Force base - this looks like a movie.  "Welcome to the future". We conclude with the mundane - take bus route number 51 - that's Leslie Northbound.  Wouldn't that be ironic for there to be a metaphorical Highway 51 - for Americans escaping north. Wouldn't it be great to be in Victoria at Butchart Gardens, counting the spring flowers in the Annual count.  Mind you, there's a severe weather warning for Salt Spring with an atmospheric river of rain coming.  Avalanche danger in B.C.  But for now, we can enjoy Butchart's brilliant summer display.

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Jan 07 2025 - The Ice Cube Trick

 

The ice cube trick, also known as the ice cube hack  - how many are there?   Burger: The recent on is to put an ice cube into a burger patty so that the patty stays moist while being barbecued.  And that's just the latest cooking use - reheat rice, remove fat from soups, clean blender blades...many more. Grounding:  This one is to calm a person down and reduce anxiety and panic - hold an ice cube or ice pack on the inside of the wrist or in one hand for 1 - 3 minutes. Power outages:  Keep an ice cube in a shot glass in your freezer to detect power outages. Double freezing:  to make ice last longer, double freeze them by taking the frozen cubes and put them into a freezer bag and freeze again. Wrinkles out of your laundry - throw a few ice cubes or a wet washcloth into the dryer with wrinkled clothes. Deodorize garbage disposal - pour ice into the sink and turn on the disposal then hot water. Remove furniture dents in carpet - Place ice cube where the dent is, leet it melt, blot up the wet spots and use the edge of a spoon to push the carpet fibres back into upright position. Remove chewing gum - Place ice on gum for 5 to 10 minutes - it will harden and loosen grip. Water your orchids - Place ice cubes in the plant pot to melt slowly. TikTok - ice cube trick for head on Bf (that's boy friend) it is HERE. This is for headache relief But once you are on TikTok there are dozens, maybe hundreds, and possibly thousands of ice cube tricks.  I don't want to find out how many.   And we haven't looked at science experiments with ice cubes.  Things like "How to pick up ice with a string experiment".   Or "how to melt ice cubes the fastest",  And what about setting ice on fire.  And we conclude with the Guinness Book of Records involving ice cubes.  What could it be?  Josef Koeberi stayed 2 hours 30 minutes and 57 seconds inside a custom-made glass box filled up to his shoulders with ice cubes.  There are ice cube eaters, ice cube holders, ice cubes in open mouths, and so on.

Here's Bodnant Garden in the spring quite a few years ago.  Good to see spring gardens as winter arrives.  It is just a few months away.

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May 17 2024 - Guinness and Gluttony

 

This isn't about beer and gluttony but about the Guinness Book of Records and gluttony.  Yesterday's topic of Red Lobster binge eaters isn't just any story, even though there are eye-popping numbers of how much people have consumed in there "endless shrimp meal". "I work at a Red Lobster in Southeast Missouri and two weeks ago had a man eat roughly 43 refills. That's  >430 shrimp and my manager said that the company still came out on top." "220 shrimp scampi is my personal record. The butter eventually gives you itis and they kick you out for sleeping in the booths..." There are lifetime/lifelong gluttons:  According to Wikipedia Donald Gorske has eaten 34,000 Big Macs in his lifetime -  he is  70 or 71. In 2003, Gorske ate 741 Big Macs, an average of 2.03 Big Macs daily.  Gorske commented in 2008 that his obsessive–compulsive disorder is what fuels his love of Big Macs.   So it is likely the case that people who are binge eaters have some disorder. I guess there must be two disorders involved - the other one is binge-bragging about wanting people they don't know to hear how much they ate.  You won't see any binge records in the Guinness Book of Records.  All that bragging on Reddit is where it begins and ends. Guinness no longer accepts records for gluttony. The story that is referenced is from 1983 when a 24-year-old woman arrived at a Liverpool emergency room with a popped out belly button as though she was pregnant.  But it was from eating what is likely the largest meal ever recorded - 19 pounds. The gigantic meal comprised 1 lb (453 g) of liver, 2 lb (907 g) of kidneys, 0.5 lb (226 g) of steak, two eggs, 1 lb (453 g) of cheese, two large slices of bread, 1 lb (453 g) of mushrooms, 2 lb (907 g) of carrots, one cauliflower, 10 peaches, four pears, two apples, four bananas, 2 lb (907 g) of plums, 2 lb (907 g) of grapes and two glasses of milk.  And from that vast volume - she died.  That would ruin the record book fun.  It wasn't until the 1990s that Guinness took consumption records out of circulation from the record and didn't allow them into the record. They switched the focus to speed eating. You can watch a dozen doughnuts or hot dogs pop down in a few seconds or watch Joey Chestnut eat 257 jelly doughnuts in six minutes. He is one of the great speed eaters. And those Endless Shrimp bingers -  I expect a lot more got sick and didn't get to write about the experience at all.   Here's a pretty garden structure at Chanticleer Gardens, near Philadelphia a few years ago.

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Feb 23 2024 - Trump Shoes in the News

 

This isn't really about Trump's "Never Surrender" gold sneakers. The Guardian: Sneakerheads on Trump's "Never Surrender" gold shoe:  tacky and very, very dumb  MSNBC News:  Trump hawks $399 golden sneakers after his $350 million fraud trial penalty  The Washington post:  Opinion Donald Trump sneakers cast a spell over you  The New York Times:  Those $399 Gold Trump Sneakers are about a lot more than shoes The Globe and Mail:  Donald Trump has zero qualifications for making an athletic shoe, but he does  I get the Globe and Mail and that's not the headline in the Globe.  Here it is:  "Trump's sneaker highlights how low sports attain has fallen."  This article is by Cathal Kelly. He quotes from the Guardian article with its opinions by sneaker aficionados.  But Cathal Kelly's own words are the quotable words.  Here's what he thinks the shoes look like - not stupid, no:   "They are a chastity belt strapped to your feet." It isn't Trump's shoes that worry him the most:  "Not so long ago, there were two types of people - those who did sports for a living, and those who watched them.  You knew the difference based on their manner of dress." Adults dressing up like a professional basketball player worries Kelly.   "Eventually, children wanted to dress like their sports heroes, in much the same way a kid might carry around a sword and shield.. this wasn't fashion.  It was make-believe.  How can you tell the difference?  A six-year-old with a sword and shield is charming.  A 34-year-old decked out like a medieval squire means you should dial 911." "Now here comes Trump, a guy that would be just as likely to wear sneakers outside the house as I would be to wear a live iguana." You can see from these snippets that Kelly is a fascinating and entertaining writer. And what is the lament of this article?  "...we can no longer deny the truth. As a culture, we look goofy". So can I conclude that the shoes are just the tip of the iceberg?

It seems gardens do have something to do about shoes. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Sep 4 2023 - Early Return

 

We return early from our trip to Denver, as Gerry got a bad cold/sinusitus, etc.  The rest of the trip was to be driving, so that wasn't very appealing.  We took Air Canada flights.  We were early at the airport and the flight destination on the sign was Vancouver.  That's the location where two planes had a little collision.  I can't imagine  being the pilot and explaining how one didn't see something the size of a jet.  "It was in my blind spot."  A piece of the wing fell off each plane, according to one of the passengers.   This is one of the busiest weekends for travel, so we were very lucky to travel on the Sunday rather than the holiday Monday.  The Denver airport was filled with people on the Labor Day weekend.  Canadians were filling the airport at the Toronto airport, but we were there for the Labour Day weekend.   Bing tells me that the busiest time at Denver is today at 11:00am.  There was a supervisor yesterday watching over the people at the departure gates.  He said today would be grid lock at the airport.  I thought it was busy yesterday.  I guess not flying for a few years has made me forget how congested airports are.   Pearson is Canada's busiest airport, with 35.6 million in 2022 - and that was recovering from COVID.  The report was that the volume was significantly up by August 2023 - 50% increase.   We would have seen at least a thousand or more people in passing yesterday.  On a daily basis it is in the range of 130,000 people travelling through.  That is hard to imagine.   What is interesting is looking through statistics on the airport - before, during and after COVID.  I wonder how they forecast volumes of people now and staff activities.  Looking at the retrievals, I expect it is messy and chaotic to work in that area now.  But no worries for us now that we are back home. Here's one of my favourite plants - an Ornamental Oregano "Kirigami".  This picture is from Denver in 2017 when we were there for the last convention. It was a delight to see it throughout the gardens this time during the visit to this extensive botanical garden.  One could call the flowers "hop-like".

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July 31 2023 - Confetti

 

had a thought of confetti ice cream.  All those pretty pastel dots in vanilla.  Seems wonderful.   Many cultures have tossed grains and sweets during special occasions dating from ancient times.  The adaption to paper came about through the centuries.   What does history tell us?  That Northern Italy had carnival parades where they threw objects at the crowd - mud balls, eggs, coins or fruit.   That seems  a tradition with its pros and cons. The tradition That seems to be the history in Italy - of sweet and sour - the nobles throwing candies and flowers and the lower-class people mocking them by throwing rotten eggs.   Our story takes a turn in 1875 in the province of Milan. It was one of the main hubs of silk manufacturing. Mangili, a businessman, begun collecting the small punched paper disks that were left as a byproduct from the production of the holed sheets used by the silkworm breeders as cage bedding, and selling them for profit. The new paper confetti was well received by the customers, being less harmful, funnier and cheaper than the alternatives, and their use quickly replaced previous customs in Milan and northern Italy. Today you can get a package of confetti in the shape of 2023 - black silver, multi-coloured. You can get a confetti printed home accessory or clothing item.  These are cheerful items.  There are confetti collectors and collections.  You can imagine there must be some huge confetti cannons shooting vast amounts of confetti at various celebrations, making records.   There was a recent news story of activists who disrupted Wimbledon by throwing confetti onto the grass.  There are a lot of Guinness World Records that when made/broken are celebrated with confetti all around. Could there be a self-referencing world record for this - Guinness World Records organization has the most confetti celebrations in the world.     It is another picket fence in the Grimsby garden day.

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July 30 2023 - Protecting Chickens From ...

 

Poor chickens.  They have their own wire mesh to protect them from so many predators.  And for what purpose?  So we can make them our prey.   What an interesting shape that hexagon is. In chemistry, molecules with fused carbocycles are compared to wire mesh.  In photonics, the wire mesh effect is the dominant pattern of low transmission paths between multi-fibre bundles in optical fibres used to couple multipliers to CCD sensors.  It is used for safety protection in machine tool designs.  It has been found to block or attenuate Wi-FI, cellular, and other radio frequency transmissions.  There is even a brain tumour with a fine wire-mesh capillary pattern.  It came about in 1844 with a wire mesh fabricating machine using the principles of fabric weaving machines. It was Charles Barnard who did this. From Redbrand:  "When our poultry netting is woven, each twist in the wire is paired with a reverse twist. As a result, the finished product will unroll flat, making the installation process easier. The mesh is very pliable, conforming to all types of terrain. Each roll is galvanized with a coat of rust resisting zinc. This will increase the lifespan of your fence and decrease the need for future maintenance." That takes us to the simpler visual world of chain-link.  It was the same Charles Barnard who produced the first chain link fencing by machine.  The manufacturing, though, is also complicated.  In an improved version of the weaving machine, it winds two wires around the blade at once to create a double helix. One of the spirals is woven through the last spiral that is already part of the fence.   That is  a bit hard to visualize, isn't it?  But it isn't hard to visualize the eternity of the longest chain link fence: The dingo-proof wire fence enclosing the main sheep areas of Australia is 1.8m 6ft high, plus 30cm 1ft underground and stretches for 5531km 3437miles. The Queensland state government discontinued full maintenance in 1982. Here's our most attractive picket fence in Grimsby - makes one think of times long gone. In fact, a North American Colonial era innovation.

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July 29 2023 - History Will Judge Us

 

Such a quote - it comes from the top news item on Bing about Kate Middleton requiring the insertion of "some recollections may vary" into their statement on the accusation by Harry of racist questions over their baby to be.   Do we rewrite past facts into different historical stories?  Are facts of history reported incorrectly at the time?  Are there egregious acts or false reports of events at the time that need correcting? That seems the case for the Pandemic where many heads of state made false assertions over its risk level. I was looking for a notion of history filtering and reviewing things in the past to come up with a balanced view in the present.  But that's not what I found.  I found Time Magazine's article.  It takes on the notion of doing the right thing at the right time as "being on the right side of history" - not hoping that the future will come up with a vindication.  One area this applies to is Trump where there was a "consolation attitude" that historians in the future would look back and judge him an abysmal president.  The notion is that "history will do justice."    The Times' article is scathing in its opposition to leaving things as they are and they'll all work out.  It gives a long list of such behaviours by heads of state/countries.  It outlines how this was a foundational element of "history" in the recent past. Here's a small excerpt: "But modern history is strewn with harmful acts justified as serving some higher historical purpose. Everything from luxury to war to slavery itself has been rationalized as a “necessary evil” with a part to play in history’s divinely guided unfolding. For example, the British knowingly resigned themselves to imperialism’s destructive effects precisely out of faith in its providential role. “It is by its…unintended influence that the British power metamorphoses and dissolves the ideas and societal forms underneath it,” explained the historian and jurist Henry Maine after the British brutally crushed an Indian rebellion in 1857. “Nor is there any expedient by which it can escape the duty of rebuilding upon its own principles that which it unwillingly destroys.” A damning example is Winston Churchill who took the view that history led to a preordained future: “I do not admit…that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia…by the fact that a stronger race…has come in and taken their place,” he insisted in 1937." That is shocking, isn't it?  It seems to me that we've been trained and taught that history is written because it gives a more balanced view of past events.  That "history" is a justification for current behaviours - this is worrisome in the moral realm. I had no sense of this aspect of the formalisms of history - of some preordained evolutionary tale directed by a god above.  Progress towards whatever that is in the future justifies anything and everything. There are many more fun things to write about each day. It does seem that the Kate Middleton story has a significance.  "History will judge them."  What evolutionary path does she think that the Royal Family is on to avoid the ethical accountability of the racist remarks in the here and now?   Most curious indeed.  Here's the Time article - it is written by Priya Satia, author of Time's Monster:  How History Makes History.

This is the neighbour's garden diagonally across the street - another beautiful garden in Grimsby. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

July 28 2023 - Just Call Me Sprague

 

Where would the name Sprague originate?  I saw it in the Business Section of the Globe in Corporate announcements.  What is noticeable is that it is the person's first name.   It means alert, lively, sprightly vivacious.   Sprague Name Meaning. English: from northern Middle English Spragge, either a personal name or a byname meaning 'lively', a metathesized and voiced form of Spark 1."  So maybe his nickname is Sparky.  He looks like he could be a Sparky. Another site says that it is English - Devon and a nickname from Milddle English Sprag, a variant of spark.  Other people with this first name?  Sprague Cleghorn, former NHL hockey player and Sprague Grayden, American actress born 1980.   There are many Sprague surname entries and there is one place in Canada with the name Sprague, Manitoba.   There's a website that seems to have information about various associated characteristics of people based on their first name.  Here is Sprague's entry:   Your most likely vocation: teacher, philosopher, educator, religious zealot, scientist, minister, instructor, writer, producer of luxury and beauty goods, manager of restaurant, irrigationist, horticulturist, zoologist, shipping magnate. Lucky colors: All varieties of blue except the very bright blues Lucky gem(s): Emerald, turquoise Lucky day(s): Sunday, Monday, and Friday Lucky botanicals: Verbena, dog rose, violets, walnuts, all types of beans, apricot, almonds It even describes people who are friends and enemies by their names.  Now that's a bit strange.  Besides, who knows people with the first name Oxford, Hellene, Jaciej, Jenice, Kahn, Andor, Whitney or Jerree. I guess that Sprague Richardson's grandmother was Muriel Sprague Richardson who made history as the first female company CEO in Canada.  Here's her bio HERE.   A family with a great history.

There are some beautiful gardens in Grimsby and this is a favourite.  Perfection in a very small space.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

July 27 2023 - How Hot is the Ocean?

 

There's a lovely Jazz standard by Irving Berlin.  How deep is the ocean?  How high is the sky? Diana Krall interprets it perfectly.  I hadn’t thought of it turning into How Hot is the Ocean? But there is the headline today.   “Ocean temperatures around South Florida hit hot-tub levels”. I seem to have a sense of how things would go with the temperature rising.  Or perhaps a fantasy sense - that ’s because I remember a Rod Serling Twilight Zone episode where the temperature was so high that an egg could be fried on the sidewalk and the paint melted on a painting. The episode was The Midnight Sun. This is the opening narration - and doesn’t it come to life with Rod’s voice in one’s imagination: The word that Mrs. Bronson is unable to put into the hot, still, sodden air is 'doomed,' because the people you've just seen have been handed a death sentence. One month ago, the Earth suddenly changed its elliptical orbit and in doing so began to follow a path which gradually, moment by moment, day by day, took it closer to the sun. And all of man's little devices to stir up the air are now no longer luxuries—they happen to be pitiful and panicky keys to survival. The time is five minutes to twelve, midnight. There is no more darkness. The place is New York City and this is the eve of the end, because even at midnight it's high noon, the hottest day in history, and you're about to spend it in the Twilight Zone. And how does this segment end? The scene cuts to the same apartment at night with heavy snow outside the windows. The thermometer reads −10 °F (−23 °C). Norma, who has been bedridden with a high fever, is being cared for by a doctor and Mrs. Bronson. The Earth moving closer to the sun is revealed to be only a fever dream, while in reality the Earth is moving away from the sun, and the world's inhabitants are actually freezing to death. Read the plot and story HERE.

Here is another favourite front yard/garden for me.  Bold shapes and colours make it seem very modern and stylish.  Or perhaps it fits a notion of 1960s modern for me.  Same time frame as Twilight Zone.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

July 25 2023 - Slippery Slope of Gardens

 

I am coming to the end of the main part of Trillium judging.  This is where front gardens in a town or city are nominated as the best gardens.  Then judges come around and score them based on a set of garden design criteria.  The result is that a number of gardens receive awards for the best gardens that year.   This has been a program in Grimsby for many years.  The idea started in St. Catharines in the 1980s.  Hamilton is renowned for its Trillium Program - three levels of judging with three levels of winners, and a final grand winner each year.  It includes the surrounding areas and garden clubs.  Hamilton is a garden city - it has the big Hamilton Garden Walk each - a free event with home owners putting their gardens into the schedule listing so people can come and visit.  I like taking pictures of the gardens.  I've been out at 6:00am each morning when the light is idea, and taking pictures of the top 40 or so gardens.  That's a lot of pictures. It is coming to the close, though, and then the final results will be published online and in the newspapers.   This year, the public can become directly involved. There will be 5 top gardens for people to choose their favourite.  It is an online poll, run by the town of Grimsby.  We are looking forward to finding out how much engagement there is for garden voting. So perhaps a little more photography today as the light is perfect.  Sun is the enemy of the garden photographer.

Here’s a Grimsby garden - on Livingston near Casablanca - so the main street of Grimsby.  Look at the topiary designs throughout. And then another completely different garden on the escarpment of Park Road - a naturalistic setting in the woods.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca