Sep 24 2022 - Royal Trees in Canada

 

Pinterest included in its feed Laura Tarrish's Hunter|Gatherer tree sculpture,  The picture below got my attention.  Made from wire, paper machier, paint, fabric and various things we wouldn't normally associate with trees.   It led to Thomas Heatherwick, UK designer and his tree sculpture - the Tree of Trees outside Buckingham Palace in celebration of the Queen's  Platinum Jubilee.  “The sculpture seeks to put the importance of trees and nature at the heart of this historic milestone to celebrate Her Majesty, who has planted over 1,500 trees all over the world throughout the course of her 70-year reign”  After the celebration the 350 trees go to community groups and organizations.  The big tree project for the Jubilee was the Queen's Green Canopy - a living legacy with over 1 million trees, planted in her name across the nation from 2021 to 2022.   This makes sense when you think of all the trees she planted. And here in Canada? There must be more than a dozen trees planted by the Queen as she visited more than 20 times.  The best known is the oak tree she planted in 1951 in Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver. There's another in Jackson Park in Windsor, planted in 1953.  In 1973, the Toronto Star headline was: Queen Elizabeth wields a silver-plated shovel as she plants a silver maple tree in Ganaraska Conservation area at Cobourg today in commemoration of Conservation week.  In Rideau Hall, Ottawa, amongst the 120 ceremonial trees that have been planted by famous people, primarily heads of state, are 16 trees planted by the Windsors -  that's since 1939, five of them dedicated by Queen Elizabeth. A Daily Mail  article with some then and now pictures of trees the queen had planted over the decades - the article is HERE.  So while there are pictures of the Queen planting trees, there are not many articles.   This is likely a bit mundane for most people.   The highlights of these 22 tours do not generally dwell on trees - they include things like: 1970: Queen Elizabeth wears a pantsuit to protect against clouds of blackflies during a stop in the Northwest Territories. DDT had recently been banned. 1973: In an unusual event to celebrate Ontario Conservation Week, the Queen is tasked with releasing 100 bass into Grenadier Pond in Toronto’s High Park. 1976: On her first day in Halifax, the Queen is serenaded by more than 100 young ukulele players on a visit to the Nova Scotia Olympic Folk Show.

Pansy petal close-up today. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Flip Flop - the summer sound

I heard this summer sound yesterday:  "flip flop, flip flop, flip flop".  The person ahead of me was walking along in her flip-flops.   So I asked everyone I talked to yesterday about flip-flops and when did they become part of our popular culture. My proposed answer was after the war with the great economic growth and the widespread adoption of popular culture trends in the U.S. and Canada.   That doesn't answer the question of where did they come from or how did it start?  What happened was the U.S. soldiers brought Japanese zori with them.  And this caught on in the 1950s during the postwar boom.  They were redesigned and changed into bright colours in keeping with the vivid 50s. In the 1960s they became associated with California beach style.  They have continued and expanded ever since, so much so that they are an accepted shoe style. They have an ancient beginning. There is a picture of thong sandals from the New Kingdom of Egypt dated 1550 - 1307 BC.  We know intuitively that this makes sense and that the Greeks and Romans wore versions of flip-flops.  I seem to know this from the sand and sandals epics we saw as children.  Or maybe they were wearing sandals in the movies.  I just checked - no flip-flops - fabulous sandals. Today there is discussion on flip-flops as casual wear.    Here's the advice on when not to wear them: Restaurants with cloth napkins Red carpet events Churches Funerals Business meetings First dates and blind dates Isn't that delightful? The advice seems consistent with when flip-flops originated in the 1950s.  Can you imagine deciding ahead of time what to wear in a restaurant "with cloth napkins."  And decide to wear "nice shoes" on a first date.  What is missing from the list?  Can you wear flip-flops to weddings?  Here you go...     Our picture today is a close-up of a leaf pattern.  This is the leaf of a Prayer Plant. Maranta leuconeura, also known as prayer plant, is a species of flowering plant in the family Marantaceae, native to the Brazilian tropical forests.

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Photo Spritzing

I have wondered how it is that some public holidays never made it to North America. May Day is a northern hemisphere celebration of Spring.  It is such a great tradition, there is even the verb "Maying".  In France,  lily of the valley are blooming, so a sprig is the traditional gift.   In the U.S. May Day was loathed by the Puritans who came over.  It was considered a 'fleshy indulgence'.  There is some activity today, although nothing like the big celebrations in Europe. Wikipedia says that on the morning of May 1st, various Morris Dancing troops from Toronto and Hamilton gather in High Park to dance.   I travelled to Barrie yesterday for a water droplet workshop.  This was with Don Komarechka.  His site is Donkom - and you can see his superlative water droplet images there.  He is extremely well known for snowflakes. His Snowflake print shows 400 unique snowflakes.  Every image takes many shots (about 50) to create everything clear.  His site says it took 2500 hours over the span of 5 years.   We had a great time spritzing water onto little dandelion seed heads set against gerbera daisies in the background.  This makes the gerbera show in the water bubbles and gets these wonderful colours in the drops.

The Outer Limits

Topaz Labs provides software filters for post-processing images.  This one creates little fibres and liquid lines.  So here we are today with our mushroom shapes turned into landscapes and alien forms.

Marvelling the Mushroom Series

Hi everyone,

Here are a few more images in the Marvelling the Mushroom Series.  These are macro images of the underside gills of mushrooms.  They reveal the rich patterns and textures in nature's micro landscapes.

Betterphoto June Contest Finalists

The betterphoto contest each month boasts over 11,200 photo entries. These were my two finalists among the top 707 images. 


Walking

The Earth Laughs in Flowers

Marvelling the Mushroom - Into the Heart

This is an oyster mushroom from the Etobicoke Market in the fall in Toronto Ontario Canada.  I've moved to Grimsby since then and have not found a local source for these varieties.  

How will I continue this series and eat well?