Dec 19 2021 - Hansel and Gretel and Gingerbread Houses

 

Is Hansel and Gretel a bedtime story?  Famine in the land. A mother replaced by a stepmother, children not allowed to eat until everyone else finished, hard chores.  Abandoned in the woods to die. They find a candy house with a gingerbread roof. A wicked witch fattening up Hansel to eat him.  Pushing the witch alive into an oven and shutting the door. Escaping with her money.  Returning home, the stepmother has already died. Their father rejoices with their return. Somehow "For many years to come, Hansel and Gretel lived very happily with their father in the hut in the woods." It is said that Gingerbread houses became popular because of this original fairy tale in 1812.  Far earlier in the Middle Ages, Europeans had their own version of gingerbread and it was complicated. Nuremberg was recognized as the "Gingerbread Capital of the World" when in the 1600s the guild started to employ master bakers and skilled workers to create complicated works of art from gingerbread. The first documented instance of figure-shaped gingerbread biscuits is from the court of Elizabeth I of England: she had gingerbread figures made in the likeness of some of her important guests.  There were traditions of gingerbreads being given out at weddings, and so on. Medieval fairs known as Gingerbread Fairs were frequent in Europe throughout the year, not just at Christmas.  Gold leaves were involved in decorating the cookies and the tradition continued with gilding gingerbread houses - which came into their own with the publication of the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales.   Here is an example of the complex art of shaping and decorating.    Here's a gingerbread-looking fireplace at the Centennial Gardens Christmas mosaic culture display a few years ago.  And then my favourite Christmas card with Lilies from Lilycrest Gardens.

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Pothole Season So Soon!

Potholes are emerging.  Traditionally potholes develop in later winter / early spring when nighttime temperatures are below freezing and daytime temperatures are above freezing.  The temperature cycle results in several freezing-thawing that causes potholes.   So our mild winter is like spring, and we can look forward to an extended pothole presence.  In 2019, the City of Toronto fixed a record 110,595 potholes in time for spring.  The "Pothole Promise" is that the City will repair potholes in four days from the date they are reported  on the busiest roads.   There are large potholes in the landscape.  I found a picture of a large pothole at Foster's Flats in the Niagara Glen. "This Pothole was formed in the ancient Niagara River Bed, now Wintergreen Flats. Later the rock layers around it were undercut causing it to fall to the terrace below." The most famous is the Devils arch. Claims of the largest glacial Pothole comes from Eynon, PA - found by miners in 1884. It is located in the Archbald Pothole State Park. It is 38 feet 11.6 m) and 42 feet (12.8m) wide.  Right near WilkesBarre are the Seven Tubs - a series of potholes.   Back to roads, I went looking for the largest potholes ever. Britain' Guardian led the headlines with a pothole so large that the council road repair van became stuck in it. It was 10 feet long.   Then there's Detroit's claim of Pothole patrol:  We find the biggest and deepest.  They sent junior journalists out to find and measure the biggest. A novel approach to potholes comes from Russia a few years ago with Russian activists painting mocking caricatures of local officials over gaping potholes.  Here's the link HERE.  They call it "road shaming". Our pretty picture comes from my workshop a few years ago, learning to do macros of water drops.

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