Dec 27 2024 - Buy Nothing Time

 

Now that we've spent money buying Christmas presents, we can start a new chapter and join the Buy Nothing Project.  Started by Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller,  it sponsors communities everywhere and anywhere.  There are 7.5 million community members, 13,000 community builders, 128,000 communities around the world, and 850,000 BuyNothing app downloads.  That's quite a bit going on.  Local group members offer things for free and  look for things for free.  It is called a gift economy - no money is exchanged and no trades are required.   There is a lot of press about the "Buy nothing movement" - there are rules and administrator roles that people complain about.   There are guides for beginners, advice on how to take part and lots of gratitude and generosity talk. Of course, there are the Reddit posts on the "best thing you've scored in a buy nothing group. " Someone was so happy to receive - school uniforms before the age of 5?  And lots of baby and children items and toys. Especially squishmallows.  Remember the squishmallow tree at the Fantasy of Trees.   And there are the Reddit posts of complaints and rants, of which there are plenty.   I've joined the Grimsby group so will keep you posted on what develops. Let me know if you belong to a group. Here's a pretty sight - Longwood Garden's Christmas display.

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Dec 1 2024 - Fairytale Month

 

Glitter is the stuff of fairytales.  And December has turned into a star-lit month with lights and decorations in abundance.  People in Grimsby were so ready that lights were up by mid-November on many homes.  Even Niagara Falls started early - from November 16th until January 5th is their Festival of Lights.   We have the butter tart trail in Ontario.  That's for summer.  For winter, there's  "The Hot Chocolate Trail" - there are 20 stops and over 30 flavours to sip and savour in Niagara Falls and the surrounding area.  Seems Canadian to me.

The Niagara Falls version of fairytale celebrations focus on the light displays.  There are 3.5 million lights on display in Niagara Falls with dozens of display installations in the Falls, the Parkway and Lundy's Lane.  Here's a screen shot of one of them - The Niagara Falls version of a fairytale walkway. . This one by Oreos is 100 feet long. The displays are described here.     One year I create the decorative urn display at the Casa Toscana restaurant in town.  It was a naturalistic display, and received such poor reactions that one patron offered to fix it.  So I went out and bought a lot of red white and green ornaments to bling it up.  This minimalistic displaya few years ago at the Niagara Falls Greenhouse would likely get a similar response.  This year, it seems to need a whole bunch of lights on the right.  What do you think?   Having a light festival at Winter Solstice is perfect.  It seems a bit of luck that we get to focus on such bright and sparkly displays at the darkest time of year.

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Jan 4 2023 - Unidentified Flying Lights - a Record!

 

The news that got swallowed up by Christmas Cheer was the mystery objects lighting up Dubai's skies.  Captures of them are posted on social media.   The UAE News says the story is this: "For those hoping for an extraordinary celestial event or even an alien invasion, the answer may be a little disappointing but is far from mundane. It turns out that Skydive Dubai has soared into the record books with the highest altitude skydiving firework display, from a staggering 5,150 metres above ground. "Over the last few weeks, highly skilled skydivers shot across Dubai's night sky, enthralling onlookers with scintillating pyrotechnic skydiving displays," Dubai Media Office said on Twitter. There will be a whole host of stunning firework displays to come as the UAE prepares to ring in the New Year. But this fantastic feat will be tough to eclipse." The sponsor is a property company - here's their announcement: "DAMAC, in association with Skydive Dubai, achieved the grand feat by setting the mark at 5,130m (16,830 ft 27 in), breaking the existing record of 4,907.28m (16,000 ft 100in). The record-breaking attempt was made on 7 December, as part of the celebrations to honour a milestone in DAMAC's journey."   Today is a Dahlia Day. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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Dec 14 - Festivals of Lights

 

Today's Bing picture is Butchart Gardens' Christmas display.  To me, this is  the triumph of the Solstice celebration of lights in the battle of the holiday season festivities. I like to think that the outdoor lighting displays equal the religious celebrations in our contemporary social realm.  While we won't be flying out to Victoria to see the greens lit up, Niagara Falls is an easy drive to see their display. And it includes the Falls themselves.  They boast 3 million lights, 75 displays for 1010 Nights of Twinkling Lights - from November 12 2022 to February 20 2023. There's also the fireworks display. "To celebrate the beauty and majesty of the winter season and mark the 40th anniversary of the Niagara Falls Winter Festival of Lights, a new illumination light show “Sparkling Winter Lights” has been produced for Niagara Falls Tourism by the Niagara Falls Illumination Board. The display features the subtle and sometimes harsh movements inspired by winter in the north. From gentle snowfalls to the aurora borealis gliding over snowy tundra, to blizzards and the frosted falls; winter’s spectacle is exciting and magical. The mighty American and Canadian Horseshoe Falls will come to life every evening with this tribute to the natural beauty all around us. The display is part of the regular nightly illumination of the Falls, with the five-minute lighting display playing through on the hour, at 6:00 pm, 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm each evening between November 12, 2022 and February 20, 2023." What better way to make this enjoyable than to include a chocolate trail.  The write-up offers a Velvet Kiss or a Dirty Snowman. Today's stars  were at the Niagara Falls display and then the Longwood display a few years ago. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

May 26 2022 - Write a Review

 

Today everyone is invited into the experience of being an expert. What is the invitation?  "Write a review" is the headline everywhere.  "Share your experience."   There are lots of tips for writing a review.  The article with 8 tips says that the last one is to proofread your review.  Ha Ha!  Would that be possible for most people now?   The stated motivation why companies want us to write a review - interaction leads to sales and profits.   Trustpilot goes about answering the question of why people write product/customer reviews in this article HERE.   "The top three reasons customers write reviews are to help others make a better buying decision, to share an experience, or to reward a company for good performance. This ranking held true for both men and women internationally." That sounds so positive and rational.  But they continue on to further reasons - the ones we're suspecting are the real drivers - I call these the "ego responses": “Reviews are kind of like an on-demand emotional type of thing” - quote from a surveyed shopper In the words of one reviewer: reviews are “a great way to voice your opinion and let people know about your experiences when dealing with companies and businesses around the country - fabulous!” "Reviews can also serve to feed the ego, by giving reviewers the opportunity to be recognized and acknowledged by their peers." This is rather banal article.  There's a lot more to the Trustpilot article on "Bad reviews:  Why people write them, and what they expect."  That one is HERE with lots of charts - all kinds of analysis.  What a contrast - positive reviews don't get that kind of attention at all.    More light fixtures - seeming like the galaxy to me. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Light Painting

I did lots of light painting in 2008 and 2009 and found this motion blur and light painting image.  I want to add more painting and water colour brush strokes to images to give them a fine art sense.  I hope that  my subscription to Filter Forge will be the answer.  Here's one of the results below. 

Stage Lights

There's nothing like the intense  colours used to light a music concert.  This is from the Shine On Concert Series by Michael Occhipinti.  Motion blur is used to create the abstract lines.

Countdown to Christmas - Join in the Decorations!

So many colours, lights, reflections at Christmas in the trees and displays.  Today's countdown photo encourages to go out for a stroll to see it all.