All-Woman Spaceflight

It's an all-woman spaceflight that's in the news.  Is this a big deal?  I find out it is.  There have been 420 spacewalks and at least one man has taken part in every one of them. Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir are the two woman to carry out a spacewalk today.  Koch was supposed to do a spacewalk with another female crewmate in March. But NASA had to scrap the plan just a few days in advance because there wasn’t enough time to get a second medium-size spacesuit ready. The second medium was put together on board in June. So while there have been 420 spacewalks, Koch became the 14th woman to walk in space last March 29 when she and crewmate Nick Hague worked to install the second set of solar array batteries.   A total of 565 people have gone to space from over 38 countries. One source says 40 and the Atlantic article says 60 American women have flown in space. The first woman flew into space in 1963 - a Soviet.  A number of American women underwent the astronaut selection process in the early 1960s - and passed. They were not eligible to be astronauts: All astronauts were required to be military test pilots, a career not available to women at the time. NASA opened the space program to female applicants in 1978, in response to the new anti-discrimination laws of the time. Sally Ride became the first female US astronaut to go into space in 1983.  At the time, the press asked her questions about her reproductive organs and whether she would cry if things went wrong on the job.  Things have improved since then. So this turns out to be a big deal and worth noting in the press. The Atlantic has an article on why there were so few women in space - it is HERE. Where is this blossom-strewn path?  In the Sacramento Cemetery.  This was a wonderful highlight of the visit.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com

Valentine's Day with Odile Fleurs

The Valentine's Heart

Odile Fleurs  This floral petal heart is from around 2010.  I took pictures of one of Odile's flower petal cards.  Then software filters were applied to make three variations.  I like the last one - the filter is called Turner Impressions. Do you wonder about the origin of the heart shape that we see here? I started a search and all the answers came back with body parts - female, male, etc. They don't make much sense as it is hard to see the visual connection.  This is the one that seemed logical (and appealed to my botanical leanings). According to Dr. Armin Dietz, a cardiologist and a man who's apparently written a book touching on this subject, The ivy leaf portrayed by prehistoric potters of long-forgotten cultures evolved into the red playing-card heart. This botanic symbol found in ancient Greek and Roman art - primarily in vase painting - represented both physical and, above all, eternal love, withstanding death. The final transformation of the green heart-shaped leaf into the red playing-card heart took place in medieval writings, predominantly in the central-european literature of courtly love. During the Middle Ages and early modern times, when medicine had a scholastic character, this symbol was used even by anatomists to portray the heart. The worldwide circulation of the heart symbol through art, playing-cards and above all, however, through religious worship, has made the heart, besides the cross, into the probably most popular non-geometric symbol and into cardiology's emblem. He also notes, Interestingly, in Buddhism the playing-card heart also developed - independently of the western metamorphosis - from the fig tree (the bodhi tree) into the symbol not of love, but of enlightenment. It was under such a tree that the ascetic Gautama found liberating enlightenment through years of meditation and became the Buddha. His website (which contains excerpts from his book) traces the evolution of the heart symbol through the ages. The ivy leaf theory is also noted in some detail here. In conclusion, the heart symbol appears to be less gynaecological and more botanical in origin.

The Lotus - Deep Inside

The Lotus

The Lotus Today's images are close-ups of the inside of lotus flowers. "The Pink lotus is considered the supreme lotus, generally reserved for the highest deity, sometimes confused with the white lotus it is the lotus of the historical Buddha."  The colours that are distinguished in symbolism are the white, red, blue, pink and purple.  I would like to photography the blue lotus this coming summer.  What would be interesting is the contrast of the yellow interior with the blue petals.

Dahlias are Romantic

I realize these are florals and that will be posted in Open Gardens Niagara, and thought they were so pretty that you would like to see them at the Marilyn Cornwell blog too.  Dahlias are beautiful flowers that are a delight to photograph.  So many different shapes and styles of petals.  Some are geometric and uniform, and others are wavy and flowing.  These are all from Ralph Suttell's Beamsville showcase growing garden.