October 28 2024 - London's Most Derelict House

 

I was definitely curious about the headline -" London's most derelict house sells from 2.0 million pounds."  It is famous all it was once owned by Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols.  It first went on sale in 2017 for 2.5 million pounds and has waited this long to sell.  In the middle of the story are these three headlines: London Eye has just done something it’s only done once before in 24 years Developer wants to cram 56 people into London house with one kitchen Much-loved London pie shop closing after 116 years Aren't they catchy stories? Maybe more than the derelict house.   That doesn't seem like a lot of money, really. I wonder what house in Toronto might be the most derelict.   Well a house shows up - Toronto's abandoned mega mansion is stated to be worth $20 million.  Here's the coverage on youtube HERE.  It is going to be torn down.  There's another youtube video for a $5 million mansion that is derelict.  It makes the London story seem meagre, just a Sid Vicious association. Detached houses in London England sell for over 1.25 million pounds. So just over an average house price there. I would expect our own derelict house in Grimsby is worth more than that.  It is known as the Burgess House and has been empty long before we moved here.  I've been told it has been empty for 30 years.  Too bad as it is a heritage home on Main Street.

This is the magnificent house on John Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake, once owned by Tricia Romance, along with the Rand Property next door.  The Rand property is contentiously being developed into a casino hotel.  Supposedly Tricia Romance promised to restore it as a heritage property, like this one next door. Thankfully, the people who bought this house have cared for it wonderfully.

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Nov 2 2023 - What Colour is this House?

 

I was at Grimsby's drive through banking machine yesterday.  It faces towards Main Street.  I was looking at the back of the tiny building beside the brand new bank building.  It is the size of a shed, and is now a take-out pizza place.  What got my attention is that the building is very interesting colours.  The window trim is a deep ocean blue, and the walls look to me to be a pinky beige.  I think it could be called a flesh colour.  It seemed like an unusual combination.  But then the building is a strange thing.  If we go back in time, 24 Main Street East has been home to many things to be sold - coal products, an electrician's, real estate office and and insurance broker.   How different these two pictures seem.  The first shows a characteristic building of the 1920s and beyond - probably in the 1950s given the air conditioner.  The roof line and building seem balanced and in proportion, along with the window and door. The second picture?  It shows roof signage that transforms the building into past-its-prime neglected shed with a patched on store front.   You can see the deep ocean blue trim.  The back of the store has the pinky beige/flesh tone colour. But that's not the real story at this spot on Main Street East. It is what  will happen by 2026 in this location.  Across the street will be 21 Main Street East where Unit 106 is offered for sale at $1,249,900.  Could you ever have guessed?

Here's a cute house further down Main Street East    Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Beb 10 2023 - Pausers and Fillers

Pausers and fillers seem to be more common now than the words they are pausing between.  And there are lots of them. Google says:  Scholars have narrowed down the causes of filler words into three categories: divided attention, infrequent words, and nervousness. Each of these activities can cause an increase in verbal disfluency, thus resulting in filler words interrupting speech. Now Bing, in its "NEW" version looks like this below.  On the psychology of filler words, it says this: Filler words also appear in speech when an individual uses words that he or she uses infrequently. In the International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, Dockrell et al. state that infrequent words are a major cause of the appearance of filler words. Infrequent words are simply words that we do not use on a daily basis and are therefore somewhat foreign to our mental dictionaries. Filler words, then, appear when someone is having difficulty processing a word. This means that a person’s brain cannot locate a word, which will cause him or her to pause, frequently throwing um in its place until the word, or a synonymous word, is found and used in speech. There is lots of advice saying it's not the end of the world to use these words, and at the same time there are lots of tips of avoid them.  There isn't anything on whether they are more prevalent today.  My theory is that we live at hyper speed, so a slight pause is an invitation for an interruption to take over the conversation.  This seems to revolutionize the speed and rhythm of speech.  Who knows how we actually spoke 500 years ago? Is this a contemporary filler word on the wall?  Love! Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

May 5 2020 - There's a Force for Everyone in being a Jedi

It's a long time since the Force came among us. It's over 40 years.  Since that time, the philosophy of Jediism has developed.  It is based on the depiction of the Jedi characters in Star Wars media.  This got attention in 2001 when a number of people recorded their religion as Jedi on their country's national census - it was meant to be a joke.  I assumed this is mostly Americans. But it turns out that 400,000 people in the U.K. and 70,000 in Australia did this. In 2005, the Temple of the Jedi Order was registered in Texas (of course).  There is also a substantial membership in Britain.  Here's how many people have self-identified as Jedi as of 2011: Australia - 65,000 Canada - 9,000  Czech Republic - 15,070 England and Wales - 176,632 To find out about this philosophy/religion the place to go is the Temple of the Jedi Order.  It is HERE.   The introduction: We are a Jedi church and international ministry of the religion Jediism and the Jedi way of life. Jedi at this site are not the same as those portrayed within the Star Wars franchise. Star Wars Jedi are fictional characters that exist within a literary and cinematic universe.  We are a recognized International Ministry and Public Charity; a tax exempt (donations are US income tax deductible) 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2005. George Lucas says that Joseph Campbell's book The Hero With a Thousand Faces was a major influence behind the Force's creation. In it Campbell draws parallels between the world's myths, arguing that they are all part of one "monomyth". In an interview with Bill Moyers, in 1999, published in Time magazine, Lucas said he created the Force as a device to awaken spirituality in young people. "Not having enough interest in the mysteries of life to ask the question, 'Is there a God or is there not a God?' – that is for me the worst thing that can happen." However, he said he never intended Star Wars to have a religious following. "I hope that doesn't end up being the course this whole thing takes," he told Moyers, adding that he would hate living in a secular world where entertainment passed for people's religious experience. He seems to have accomplished his task of awakening spirituality and needn't worry as the Jedi religion is not following Star Wars.. I found this abandoned farm house last year when I was on the greenhouse tour - the new greenhouses are in the background.  I drove by it last week.  It still stands, with more greenhouses around it. It still stands starkly alone on a bare field.

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April 10 2020 - How Much Stuff in a House?

I have a sense that in the future there will be less stuff around to keep virus-free. For now, it is staying at home as the location donation organization is not accepting things because of COVID-19 (open for food donations). How much stuff is there to donate?  I found 21 surprising statistics about how much stuff we actually own HERE - this is a website on becoming minimalist. How many items does a person own?  There are 300,000 items in the average American home, according to the LA Times.  British research found that the average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 daily, according to the Telegraph. The average American woman owns 30 outfits - one for every day of the month.  In 1930, that figure was nine.  Source:  Forbes. What is the impact of owning this many things? Over the course of our lifetime, we will spend a total of 3,680 hours or 153 days searching for misplaced items.The research found we lose up to nine items every day—or 198,743 in a lifetime. Phones, keys, sunglasses, and paperwork top the list (The Daily Mail).  The Pansy Orchid is our picture of the day.

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The What's and How's of that Sunrise Colour

There is a house on Mountain Street in Beamsville with a sagging porch.  In comparison, this whole building near Napanee is sagging. I was wondering about the sunrise colours at various times of year.  The sky has been  turquoise and pink at sunrise recently.  Here's a site posting by Robert Bowen that takes the photographs of sunrise colours and shows the colour palette. So I scrolled down and found the match-up. We've been seeing teknorat's sunrise the last few days.   Science sites tell us that it is molecules and small particles in the atmosphere that change the direction of light rays, causing them to scatter in various ways, resulting in colourful sunsets.  I found a great little chart that shows this.  It is at the physics classroom site.