June 03 2023 - Roses Ahead

 

As June started, the roses started in the garden.  First one, and then another.   Soon it will be roses ablaze.  The Rose Tree Museum in Tombstone AZ considers itself to have the largest rose in the world. It is a Banksiae, one of the popular roses in Britain. It spreads over 8,000 square feet and was planted in 1884. If you want to find the largest rose farm n the world, it is in Ethiopia.  Between three and four million roses are transported to the Netherlands each day.   The company is Afriflora Sher. For the largest rose collection ion the world go to Germany where the rose garden in Sangerhausen has 8,600 varieties and species, growing since 1903. There is a thousand-year-rose growing in Hildesheim, Germany.  "More of an out-of-control tree than the lilting flower the name might suggest, the Rose of Hildesheim, otherwise known as the Thousand-Year Rose, is thought to be the oldest living rose on the planet."   Here's our own rose-growing crop in Niagara near Brian's lily hybridizing field. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

April 11 - All's Well that ends well

 

The oldest English surname on record is Hatt, from East Anglia  It was mentioned in a Norman Transcript, identified as a pretty regular name in the county.  Hwita Hatt was a keeper of bees. The oldest surname in the world is claimed to be Katz - considered the initial of the two words Kohen Tsedek.  Every Katz is a priest, descending in an unbroken line from Aaron the brother of Moses, 1300 B.C..  This comes from Ripley's Believe it or not, and has no evidence.  It does seem more of a mythical sort of story. What if all the English names ending in "well" were related?   "Well - This surname suffix or word well has an English origin. It refers to a good or proper manner, affluent, satisfactory, and comfortable. Well can also mean a deep hole, that can bring water and therefore, life. The suffix is gender neutral. It can be either male or female or neither. Some of the examples of the suffix well are: Atwell, Baswell, Blackwell, Caldwell, Cromwell, Crowell, Honeywell, Hopewell, Howell, Maxwell, Newell, Powell, Rockwell, Stilwell, Stockwell, Whitwell and there are many others." Perhaps in a manner of understanding, they are all related. Here's the website -  Surname Prefixes and Suffixes.  So many interesting stories.  Let us continue on  our Canadian vs American view of things through the lens of jokes: An avid Canadian fisherman decides to cross the Peace Bridge and go over to Lewiston and fish the American side of the Niagara river. He settles down on a quiet dock and begins to fill his bucket with some nice fish when an American game warden approaches him. "Could I see your fishing licence please?".  When he hands him his licence,the game warden laughs and says that it is no good because it is a Canadian fishing licence. At this point the fisherman replies "but I'm only catching Canadian fish". The warden scratches his head for a moment and says "what do you mean?"  The fisherman reaches in his bucket and pulls out a fish and asks the warden "what kind of fish is that?". The warden looks and says its a small mouth bass, to which the fisherman replies, "See what I mean, if it was an American fish it would be a Large mouth bass." This sculpture is in Burlington on the harbour.  The last few years, the Latow Photography seminar has been online.  Previously it was at the Burlington Art Gallery, and lunch time was a walk along the waterfront where children were playing and kites were flying.

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BC or BCE?

The Oldest Country in the World?  Is it China, Japan or Iran? What about Greece, Rome and Egypt? I read in Thoughtco that the makeup of these ancient empires largely consisted of agglomerations of city-states or fiefdoms, which overlapped jurisdictions with the imperial government.   I wondered when our modern nation-states/countries came about.  The answer: in the 19th century - today's nation-states came about from the dissolution of empires, around communities that shared a common geography, language, or culture. The thoughtco article says that the Republic of San Marino is one of the world's smallest countries and is the world's oldest.  It was founded on September 3, 301 BCE.  It wasn't recognized as independent until 1631 by the pope, who controlled much of central Italy politically. San Marino's constitution is the world's oldest dating from 1600.   Japan is the next being founded in 660 BCE.  In the eighth century Japanese culture and Buddhism spread across the islands.  Modern Japan came about in 1868. China is the third with the first recorded dynasty existing more than 3,500 years ago. China celebrates 221 BCE as the founding of the modern country, the year Qin Shi Huang proclaimed himself the first emperor of China.  In the third century the Han dynasty unified Chinese culture and tradition.  in the 13th century, the Mongols invaded, decimating the culture. The Repulic of China came about in 1912, and the People's Replic of China was created in 1949. Here are the more founding dates: France (CE 843) Austria (CE 976) Hungary (CE 1001) Portugal (CE 1143) Mongolia (CE 1206) Thailand (CE 1238) Andorra (CE 1278) Switzerland (CE 1291) You noticed that the terminology used is now BCE and CE - Before the Common Era and Common Era.  I read a few rationales for this - from accuracy to the removal of Christian context.  It is part of the ISO 8601 standard which came about in 1988.  Here's the section on CE/BCE: "To represent years before 0000 or after 9999, the standard also permits the expansion of the year representation but only by prior agreement between the sender and the receiver. An expanded year representation [±YYYYY] must have an agreed-upon number of extra year digits beyond the four-digit minimum, and it must be prefixed with a + or − sign instead of the more common AD/BC (or CE/BCE) notation; by convention 1 BC is labelled +0000, 2 BC is labeled −0001, and so on." Isn't this a great spring image?  A lawn full of dandelions - everything a bee could desire!  If you look, you can see the little leaves in the lawns.  They are ready!