Marilyn's Photos - May 20 2025 - Dishwasher Detergent

 

There are over 43,000 products on ULINE, and dishwasher soap is one of them.  But my question this morning is what is that weird little red ball called the powerball in the Finish dishwasher detergent. It fell apart when I put it in the little holder this morning.   Detergent is different than soap.  If we washed dishes with soap, they would have scum on them. So what is detergent if we had to make it ourselves?  Homemade versions include ingredients such as borax, essential oil, eucalyptus oil.  Borax, soap, washing soda, salt, lemon essential oil, citric acid are ingredients.  Lemon would not have been available until recently, so wonder what our pioneers did. They left it out. So zooming ahead 100 years or so, our powerball is a specialized compartment with compressed detergent to provide a "concentrated boost of cleaning power." The powerball is one of three chambers for breaking down all types of food residues.  There's a chemistry lab in that tiny cube.  I wonder how many chemists worked over the decades to get to that seemingly simple product. Simple?  Just type in 20 uses for dishwasher tablets and you will get more than 20 uses for it:  clean the toilet, wash the washing machine to freshen it, brighten white clothes scrubs the oven, revitalize patio furniture, soak pots and pans to remove burnt food, deodorize the trash can, soak silverware... an "all-clean" set of scenarios. A picture from the past of a steam locomotive from the past.

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Feb 21 2024 - It is Firefall Time

 

Last week a friend showed me the Escarpment hillside covered in orange.  It was a picture from the morning sunrise, and it was blazing orange as though an autumn scene.  But we're in February and the trees are bare.  This was morning Alpenglow.   And it is this time of year when Yosemite has the Firefall display.  This is where the sun catches the water cascading over the Horseshoe Falls to create a fire-effect.  The Horsetail Falls is fed through snowmelt and run-off so it dries up in the summer and disappears.  It is only a few weeks starting in February when it shines brilliantly.  It is 2,130 feet long so that when the sun catches it, it is amazing.   Permits, logistics, reservations have turned this into an exclusive event.  I bet it is packed like some outdoor festival. Here is a picture from their facebook page.  Wouldn't this be something to see live!  There's even a video showing the valley at night with all the visitor activity.   You can see more stunning images on their facebook page - here is the link:  https://www.facebook.com/yosemitenation

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Oct 26 2021 - Flower-Powered Steam

 

Yesterday was a windy, rainy day.  The waves on the Lake were significant.  I'd reserved my spot for the Hamilton Chrysanthemum Show at Gage Park.  So I drove off through the sheets of rain and wind towards Hamilton.   And it was worth it.  Niagara grows millions of pots of garden mums for the outdoor display garden this time of year.  These are mostly hardy mums.  But there are even more than the myriad of colours and shapes in our gardens.  Check out a flower competition and one can see how they organize by bloom type and shape. We got to see all the types in an exhibition format.  Beautifully grown flowers - big pompom varieties, spider and thistle, spoon, anemone and the regular sorts of single and semi-double.  And then there were displays with mosaic culture art around themes to give drama to the experience.  There was 20,000 square feet of displays, themed around past years so the overall show was a Trip Down Memory Lane.  There were 200 varieties on display, plus hundreds of varieties of companion plants to make the display interesting and entertaining.   How does that compare with Longwood Gardens' display?  It claims to be the biggest Thousand Flower Tree outside of Asia with more than a thousand flowers each year on a single-stem plant.  It is a beautiful display with an amazing grand conservatory setting. You would guess that other festivals in Asia are larger.  Korea has the Dream Park Chrysanthemum Festival.  It is outside in a 860,000 square meter space. That's massive. There are numerous festivals in China.  Kaifeng Chrysanthemum Festival in China is a month long. It has over 1.6 million pots on display.  Japan too has numerous festivals with one of the festivals over 100 years old.  Asian countries have a particular fondness and love of Chrysanthemums. One of the things that is so lovely is that we humans mark our opening and closing garden seasons with flowers - the beautiful Cherry Blossom and Bulb Festivals announce Spring, and Chrysanthemums close off the Fall.  Maybe we mark every season with flowers - Christmas has its decorated trees and Poinsettias.  And the winter?  The exotic Orchid Festivals. And add to the fun - somehow, it is Train Day everywhere you go - flower festivals included!

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Aug 9 2021 - Olympics Fade but the Jokes Live On

 

The Olympics concluded with its medal counts and highlight pictures.  It seemed like an echo of past Olympics with allegations of bribery, plagiarism of the initial design, and illegal construction overwork.  And then there were the worries about weather. But in the end, the Olympics is declared a success with the excitement of big sports events between nations.   Do we have a sense of humour about the Olympics? It was difficult to find non-racist jokes for the Olympics. Here is the most repeated Olympic joke? At the Olympics a man walked up to a competitor who was carrying a very long pole. Excuse me, are you a pole vaulter? Nein, I am German, but how did you know my name ist Walter? In contrast to all the racism, I found this site of Canada Olympic Jokes.  These were from around 2010 when Vancouver won the chance to host the 2010 Winter Olympics.  These aren't really jokes, but questions that were asked, and silly answers in response - the full set is HERE:   Now that Vancouver has won the chance to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, these are some questions people from all over the world are asking.  Believe it or not these questions about Canada were posted on an International Tourism Website.  Obviously the answers are a joke; but the questions were really asked. Q: I have never seen it warm on Canadian TV, so how do the plants grow? (England) A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around and watch them die. Q: Will I be able to see Polar Bears in the street? (USA) A: Depends on how much you’ve been drinking. Q: I want to walk from Vancouver to Toronto – can I follow the Railroad tracks? (Sweden) A: Sure, it’s only Four thousand miles, take lots of water. Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Canada ? (Sweden) A: So it’s true what they say about Swedes. Q: Are there any ATM’s (cash machines) in Canada ? Can you send me a list of them in Toronto, Vancouver , Edmonton and Halifax ? (England) A: No, but you’d better bring a few extra furs for trading purposes. Q: Do you celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada ? (USA) A: Only at Thanksgiving. Q: Are there supermarkets in Toronto and is milk available all year round? (Germany) A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of Vegan hunter/gathers. Milk is illegal. Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Canada , but I forget its name. It’s a kind of big horse with horns. (USA) A: It’s called a Moose. They are tall and very violent, eating the brains of anyone walking close to them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking. Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (USA) A: Yes, but you will have to learn it first. A nice locomotive for our picture today.

June 2 2021 - The Rose City

 

I take the Welland Canal for granted.  We lived a block away from it and could see the ships at the end of the street moving along the canal towards the lock.  What do you think of living next to the Welland Canal in a seniors' condo residence.  That's the advertisement for a Welland condo development.  But it isn't really on the banks of the canal - it is to be located on the Welland Recreational Waterway.  It is the old canal and has been turned into a recreation area. It looks very pretty in the pictures.  The current canal banks aren't very attractive for a condo - they are steep and fenced in. Any thoughts on living in Welland? That's the headline on city-data.com.  That's because Welland has the poorest reputation of the Niagara Peninsula.  I haven't been to Welland since moving to Niagara, so I guess it is time to go take a look.  It is the Rose City so June is its month. How is it that Welland is a city and Grimsby is a town? Welland's population is just over 50,000.  But it isn't population size that defines designation of town vs city in Ontario. A municipality can 'brand' itself as a city.  So maybe Welland considers city status to be something that will elevate it.    Which would you choose:  city, town or village?  Will a luxury condo residence or two uplift Welland?  My sense is that the price of housing is moving Welland into gentrification quickly.  It has been experiencing a building boom over the last few years given there are building lots available for both commercial and residential.     Our train image for June is the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad locomotive.

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Feb 22 2021 - Become a NASA employee

 

Google just sent some fireworks across the screen. Was it for the Mars rover landing?   I think so as it repeats every time the search term is retrieved.  You can imagine being involved in that project. The cheering staff in the pictures are referred to as NASA engineers.  That's quite prestigious to me even in comparison to the rocket scientist title of the past.  What about a career at NASA? This is from their website: Career Corner for Students Grades 5-8 Have you ever thought that one day you might work for NASA? Many students have written, asking "What do I need to study to work for NASA?" The fact is NASA needs workers that have a wide variety of knowledge and skills. NASA isn't just astronauts and scientists. NASA has engineers, mathematicians, accountants, historians, writers, computer support technicians, project managers, artists, educators, human resource personnel, public relations managers, physicians, lawyers -- and more. The most important thing for preparing to find a job at NASA is that you study what you like and work hard to achieve your goals. It's true - there are a lot of jobs at NASA.  Here are some of the positions being recruited: Manager of Rocket Propulsion Test Office Director of the Office of Strategic Analysis and Communications Extra Vehicular Activity Safety and Mission Assurance Lead Lead Aerospace Engineer Chief Engineer There's 37 jobs listed - everything from Deputy Directors to Branch Chiefs.  Lots of good salaries - up to $190,000 US and the lowest looked like the Administrative Specialist at almost $74,000.   That's 37 jobs listed with a workforce of 17,000 people and it excludes government contractors.  The total NASA budget for 2020 was $22.6 billion.  There are articles praising NASA as a great place to work.  Things like: projects are incredibly interesting, challenging and critical to the success of an experiment or mission.  "Great assignments" - that would be an understatement, don't you think?   This is one of the locomotives from the Kaitangata Line in Otago New Zealand.  This locomotive was donated to the preservation society at Shantytown, near Greymouth where it operates as a tourist train.  These pictures are from our visit in 2009. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

April14 2020 - What's in a Name?

There are people who see things in very funny ways.  Here's an example that popped up last week when the bad dog jokes popped up.  Perhaps there was a google humour day in the searching and retrieval algorithm. It makes me wonder about first names and surnames.  We think of surnames as coming about in England.  They were adopted between the 11th and 16th centuries. The aristocracy started the consistent use of surnames. The Domesday Book in 1086 is the marker for the introduction of family names.  That was so they could tax everyone, and know that everyone had been taxed. But much earlier, the Romans had personal and family naming conventions - both a personal name and regular surname. Well, quite complicated, with the tradition evolving over centuries.  But it broke down following the collapse of imperial authority in the west.   Today, we engage in names as a social convention and personality statement. Websites have recommendations for turning surnames into first names.  A great example is Beyoncé:  "The singer's full name is Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter. Her mother, Tina Knowles, chose the name because of her own French maiden name, Beyince."  I put that in quotes, because I wonder if her mother had spelling issues. Johnny Depp?  This is more traditional:  Depp is a surname of South German origin, from a nickname for a 'maladroit' person, or according other sources a comedian.  Ellen Page's surname is traditional - status name for a young servant, Middle English and Old French. And 50 cent? This is the personality statement name:  Curtis James Jackson III adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for change. The name was inspired by Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent"; Jackson chose it "because it says everything I want it to say. I'm the same kind of person 50 Cent was."   It is a Cumbers and Toltec day - these are from our visit to Colorado in 2017.

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Live Music

How did we get to thinking recorded music is the same as live music?  That listening in a one-way receiving relationship through streaming, radio, television is the same experience as being present to living music through all the senses? It is easy to ask that after experiencing Kurt Elling live last night at the Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines.  Big presence, big voice in a shiny silk suit.  Bringing us the earlier days of Jazz and today's music.  His facial features have some similarities to Richard Nixon's - as we wanted Richard Nixon to be.   I looked up the concert tour, as he made a point of describing it as packed - upcoming concerts in the 2020-2021 tour zig zag all over the place.  Next week he's in Miami, the week after in Palm Desert,  then Indiana, Pittsburg, and back to Markham in April. His concert tour will switch over in April - to the new recording "Secrets Are The Best Stories" with pianist Danilo Perez.  I expect this will be a change from what we enjoyed - lots of scat singing,  some Swingle Singers styling, crooning like Frank Sinatra, and revising lyrics liberally (Pennies from Heaven became Benny's from Heaven - based on the intro of a war veteran who returns home to find his wife with Baby Benny, and when he asks where is Benny from?  She says: From Heaven...Benny's From Heaven).  The finale was an extended version of Nature Boy - a mesmerizing interpretation of this already haunting song and lyrics. I checked around to find out what writers put in print about his singing and style.  Only a few brave writers put words to paper - the less brave give background facts from his website (if you ask me):  - Renowned for his singular combination of robust swing and poetic insight - Elling’s rich, chewy baritone – and his easy-swinging, ring-a-ding-ding delivery on the Great American Songbook - it’s about the groove he creates on stage I mention the live performance experience - Elling has something to say about this: I was lucky enough to go to the clubs. I realised, oh my goodness, there’s a whole culture around this: men and women living this life. That’s when I found out it was a living entity. I noted his comments on travel -  here is a Huffington Post article The Jazz Singer Off Road:  Kurt Elling.  Barry Singer points out this travel bug:  "Kurt Elling takes the jazz singer’s travel truism to a longitudinal and latitudinal extreme. Where most jazz singers tour, Elling traverses the globe." So I guess the lesson from yesterday is straight-forward:  spend more time at live events.  Here's a pretty scene from the Sundance Layout.

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Christmas Gadgets

These special offers are only available online!  These 19 Cool Gadgets have MILLIONS SOLD worldwide.  What are they? I've chosen just three - they are all available on Amazon in case you are inspired.  If you have one, let me know.  "FIXD Powerful Check Engine Light Diagnostics — Read and diagnose your check engine light, understand the severity of the issue, and clear that pesky light from your vehicle. FIXD translates your vehicle into simple English, empowering you to make the easy fix in many cases & saving you precious time. FIXD also saves you money by providing you with estimated repair costs up-front, allowing you to feel more confident during those trips to the mechanic. Muama Enence Voice Translation: Intelligent voice recognition technology to make cross language communication easier. Translate your speech into high quality foreign language text and transmit into voice output. Eliminate all obstacles in language communication, You can travel around the world more easily.   Peeps™ Glass Cleaners - With over 1.5 million sold, this gadget is a must have for everyone. Designed specifically for cleaning eyeglasses, sunglasses and reading glasses, Peeps is the world's safest and most tested lens cleaning technology. Peeps groundbreaking invisible carbon microfiber formula will have your glasses as clean as the day you bought them.  This is actually the same lens cleaning technology used by NASA. Then on to the Telegraph.co.uk site with just one remarkable selection:  the Combekk Thermometer Dutch Oven made from 100% recycled disused iron railway tracks. (It must have inspired my picture today.) And there are Oprah's recommendations. If you go to the Huffington Post article on her top favourite things, you get 20% off with the code OPRAH at Amazon.  Finding ourselves back at Amazon... I am organizing and consolidating photos, and Lightroom popped up with Cuba pictures.   What a contrast of colour compared to our Winter landscape now.

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Dec 29 - How to Bet Trump

Canadian politics was dominated by Donald Trump news this past year.  And 2018 was the year of Trump impeachment predictions.  Scholar Allan Lichtman has predicted that Donald Trump will be impeached in 2019.  He has successfully predicted 30 years of presidential elections, and predicted Trump's win in the 2016 presidential election, so people are paying attention.   Lichtman created a model with Russian Seismologist Vladimir Keilis-Borok.  It is known as the Keys to the White House.  His prediction on timing is that it will be in the spring.  He is promoting his book extensively on his Twitter site. What does Wikipedia have to say about impeachment?  Wikipedia's entry is 'Efforts to impeach Donald Trump'.  It has extensive coverage, and includes the results of polls showing what percentage of Americans want Trump impeached. There are several 'impeach 'o-meters' keeping track of this.  I listen to CBC's Day 6 Program on Saturday mornings and they give the latest 'reading' by a political expert who estimates the odds. Odds were better last Saturday than the week before.   Since betting is a human activity, there is always somewhere to find out the odds of things.  One place is Paddy Power who are reported to be saying the current odds are 6-4 that he will not stay in office through 2020 - that's a 40 percent chance. Website Predictit.org says the latest Yes Price is 50 cents.  Their odds are 43 percent up from 37 percent at the end of May. The website odd shark.com shows the odds to be 'even money'. They considered this bad news.   The website oddschecker.com (comparison site) says impeached in 2019 5/4 and in 2020 5/2.  Their chart shows almost 30 betting places to compare.   It makes me aware of how many people bet - supposedly 30 to 40 percent of the population. What's ahead in 2019?  Will we see this play out?  The next few days and weeks will tell us what the experts have to say on this. Today our pictures show some of the Sundance Layout in Florida.

Olive the Reindeer

It is Sunday and time for a selection of Christmas jokes: Why does Santa have three gardens? So he can 'ho ho ho'! What do Santa's little helpers learn at school? The elf-abet! Why was the snowman rummaging in the bag of carrots? He was picking his nose! What did Adam say on the day before Christmas? It's Christmas, Eve! How come you never hear anything about the 10th reindeer? 'Olive, the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names.' What do you call a bunch of chess players bragging about their games in a hotel lobby? Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer! Now what about the oddest Christmas records from the Guinness Book of World Records? The largest gathering of Santa Clauses - 14,000 people in Derry City, Northern Ireland on December 9 2007.  I expect they are having an anniversary get-together today. The largest gathering of Santa's elves - in Wetherby, North Yorkshire, on November 9th, 2013 with 1,110 elves. The largest gathering of people wearing Santa hats.  Anaheim, California in the Angel Stadium June 2014 - 30,333 people. We're at the Cumbres and Toltec rail yard in pictures today.

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