Oct 28 2023 - Wearable Sleeping Bags

 

Would you consider a wearable sleeping bag an "essential standby".  Our author from the Wirecutter does.   They are different than a snuggie or a slanket.  A snuggie is a "wearable blanket" and a slanket is a blanket with sleeves.  Snuggies and slankets are shown in pictures as fleecy, slouchy looking things.  Something your dog would drag onto the floor. Wait!  There's also a Camp Wrap - more like a cape so you can wear a warm jacket underneath.  A wearable sleeping bag looks like a sleeping bag - with arms and open at the bottom for legs.     There are wearable hoodie sleeping bags too.  Some have separate legs so make a person look like they are in a thermal snowsuit.  Maybe it is a thermal snowsuit with a sleeping bag rename. Did I leave out the Napsack? That's the cozy and soft, cut close to the body, order-by-height bag with curved armholes and drawstring bottom?  I guess if I were a camper, this would be something I would know about.

Would you be wearing this when the air-conditioner gets too aggressive in the office?  Like our picture, on a winter  beach? How about outside on the porch as the snow falls or sitting around that cute fire-it.  Or do you have a chilly attic office?   We're into grape harvesting with our big, bright cloud-filled October skies.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

June 20 2022 - Summering

 

It is time to summer somewhere.  That's a well-known notion.  Everyone wants to go somewhere where the skies are big, the lakes are clear, and the air smells of Eastern White Pine. We are into  the next 2 generations of cottagers.  A big boom started in the 1950s.  My grandfather built a cottage near Killbear Park in the late 1950s.  The landscape there was beloved by many immigrant Germans.  Before they took to cottage country,  it was inhabited by the wealthy or the eccentric.   The eccentric would be equivalent to off-the-grid types today.  Rustic, rudimentary living.  Often with the facilities of the 1920s and 1930s - no electricity, a refrigerator with a block of ice, and an outhouse.  Or maybe a generator, so they'd have some electricity. But a lot of decades have passed for cottage country to fill up.  Today cottage country is more in the realm of luxury living rather than rustic cabins. There's high demand for cottages that are built for the four seasons.  Multiple offers and high prices.   In Southern Ontario, we have many places within easy reach.  However there are many people to reach them.  Ontario has 10 million residents.  That's a lot of swimmers and boaters.  How well-off do you have to be to own a cottage today?  The average price of a Muskoka cottage is $737,890 in 2022.  That's up from $653,000 in 2021.  So I guess you need to have more than a little extra money.  And remember that's the average of all the cottages on all the lakes, not just the Muskoka Big Lakes. - which are Lake Joseph, Lake Muskoka and Lake Rosseau.   So once the money has been spent, what next? The next thing is how long is the commute and how bad the traffic is, or isn't.   And then how peaceful is a cottage?  With the jetskiers, motor boats, the power mowers, and so on all competing on the weekend. And would you relax?  Or would you be maintaining that "cottage" house, the dock, the boat, and so on?   It doesn't seem to matter, though.  The dream of that glorious sun sparkling on the lake as one skims the water in a motorboat.  That is quite an experience. Today's pictures give that sense.  They were taken in the Kingston area where Lake Ontario's shores get rugged and rocky with the granite terrain of cottage country.

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May 4 2021 - May the Force be with you day

 

A suggestion today is to type in "may the force be with you day" and get the Google results. it is fun.   And what is the answer to that statement? The answer varies across the Star Wars franchise, but it's generally accepted that a traditional reply is 'And also with you' or 'May the force be with us all'. This is one of the most beloved movie franchises of all times.  In revenues the actual winner is the Marvel Cinematic Universe with $22.59 billion based on 24 movies in 12 years.  Sometimes the franchise series has a name distinct from the movie we remember: The Lord of the Rings Series is named "Middle Earth". The Harry Potter Series is named "The Wizarding World". Star Wars is named "Star Wars".   It comes in at number 2 in revenue - $10.2 billion. It has a total of 12 Star Wars films — nine that are part of the Skywalker Saga, two that were standalone spinoff films and one animated feature. It spans more than 40 years, with the original movie released in 1977.  The series held a life view that considered a philosophy today, named Jediism, and has thousands of followers today.  I remember the movie as so creative,   imaginative and energizing. There are many jokes.  The Star Wars jokes are fun - I consider them wholesome and even reverential.  They don't seem to be mean-spirited in their intent.  There are pages to scroll through, but Jokes4us.com can always be counted on - theirs are HERE.  I found these organized by episode:  Star Wars Jokes Episode I: Become Pun with The Force Q: Which program do Jedi use to open PDF files? A: Adobe Wan Kenobi. Q: Which website did Chewbacca get arrested for creating? A: Wookieleaks! Q: What did Yoda ride as a kid? A: A do-cycle. Because there is no tri. Star Wars Jokes Episode III: If Darth Vader’s Final Words Were Dad Jokes “Luke, I’m reading a great book about Force levitation…I can’t put it down.” “Luke, I want you to have my car…I hope you weren’t hoping for a ToYoda…May the Porsche be with you.” “Luke, I know what you’re going to get for your birthday. I felt your presents, Luke…   I admire the skies in Spring.  The first picture is a montage with a rainy window overlay.  The expression April showers bring May flowers is attributed to Thomas Tusser in the 1500s.  The origins of the idea are attributed to Chaucer. The second shows those brilliant Lake Effects skies.  Often, one can face in one direction and a storm is looming overhead, and face the opposite way and it is blue skies with fluffy clouds.   Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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Nov 16 2020 - American Thanksgiving

 

It is coming soon - American Thanksgiving.  So late in the year, it crowds into Christmas.  They have developed orange Poinsettias to accommodate this cross-over.   The other thing it has in timing that is difficult is the American election.  This sets up difficult and troublesome situations.  For example, Trump has been ruining American Thanksgiving since 2015 when a poll showed he was the politician most likely to ruin the Dinner.  The headlines about Trump and Thanksgiving in 2015, 2017 and 2019 were things like: "How to talk to Trump-Loving relatives at Thanksgiving."  During this election campaign, Trump predicted that if Biden becomes their next president, the Americans will have to bid farewell to Christmas and Thanksgiving.  That is a definite "ruin Thanksgiving" headline. On the other side of the ocean, the UK does have a sort of Thanksgiving - it seems to be November 26th this year.  Here's a quote from a website named wayenglishcourse.co.uk:  "The American thanksgiving is not celebrated in the UK because no one had to be thankful for their new land and good ocean trip." Our picture today is compensating for the diminishing colours of our landscape that November brings. It is a lovely Florida sunrise in 2016.   I wonder when we can expect the best sunrise/sunset colour here in Niagara.  Is there a time of year when it is best?  In terms of locations, Port Dalhousie and Niagara Falls have dramatic sunrises/sunsets.  One dilemma for Niagara Falls is that it has the most dramatic ones during the coldest winter weather.

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Apr 4 2020 - Bad Dog

All those dog and cat jokes that I didn't know about.  Here's the Bad Dog joke: What are all the bad dog behaviours? Things like digging, chewing, begging, not coming when called, pulling on the leash, separation anxiety, whining for attention, barking at the door, jumping, biting, aggression, barking all the time.   What are the bad cat behaviours? Scratching, biting, yowling at night, spraying and aggression towards other cats are common bad cat behaviours.  The article says they can be rectified by the owner.  What are bad human behaviours?  It turns out there aren't any bad human behaviours listed - there are bad people, people who do bad things, probing the good in bad behaviour,  and bad habits.  Our two skies today have the same dramatic sky replacement from Skylum.  Isn't that interesting how it creates reflections in Port Dalhousie Harbour in the first, and the second, with the choppy water, gets nothing.

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Mar 27 2020 - Benefit of the Doubt

This idiom came to my mind - benefit of the doubt.  What a fascinating expression. Here's Merriam-Webster's definition: the state of accepting something/someone as honest or deserving of trust even though there are doubts  "He might be lying, but we have to give him the benefit of the doubt and accept what he says for now." Here's Oxford's version: A concession that a person or statement must be regarded as correct or justified, if the contrary has not been proven. I saw this definition attributed to Oxford: an acceptance that a person is truthful or innocent if the opposite cannot be proved.  These seem subtley different to me.  In one, the subject is presumed to be guilty of something, in the other presumed to be innocent.  Alfred Lord Tennyson's words speak to the kinder and more generous interpretation of the second definition:  “Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt.”  ― Alfred Lord Tennyson In my research I found numerous articles challenging people to stop giving Trump the benefit of the doubt.  This one - about Guinness Word Records is the more interesting story. And the two answers demonstrate the two sides of the expression. Q Is Guinness World Records (GWR) trustworthy? A1  GWR has a track record of approving or disapproving record attempts based on whether or not it will benefit their Brand. The most recent is the 1 minute pull up attempt by Anthony Robles, it is clearly not a good attempt, however GWR approved it so that they could attach their Brand to his increasing popularity. A2 Very trustworthy. Their standards for acceptance of records is very strict, sometimes ridiculously so. I have a good friend, a very talented athlete at both distance running and now as a pro cyclist, who had had knee surgery that did not allow her to run. She thought, however, that she could set a Guinness record for the fastest 5-kilometer race on crutches using one leg. She actually did complete a 5K race in a faster time than the listed Guinness record, but Guinness rejected her application because she did not submit a video of the entire race to show that she used the crutches the entire way; her partial video was deemed inadequate. It is a train day today, which means a 'Skylum" day replacing the plain blue backdrop with a sunny sky.

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Feb 27 - Chocolate Month Completing

Our winter months' celebration days are colour-coded.  Christmas is red and green, Valentine's Day is red, St. Patrick's Day is green.  As we move into Easter, it is pastel colours, but not a dominant  colour theme.  We go on to Victoria Day - and abandon colour coding.  We pop up with the national flag of red and white on July 1st, but don't worry about colours until Christmas again.  We do sprinkle a little orange in for Thanksgiving and Halloween, as though in readiness for the darker, colder, and starker days of winter. I became aware of this at the long-term care home yesterday, where the St. Patrick Day display is up with its shiny, green hats and clover leaves replacing February's red hearts. February being the chocolate highlight month, I can let you know that February concludes with a chocolate theme - it is National Chocolate Soufflé Day tomorrow, February 28th.   And while February has a high concentration of chocolate celebration days, there are chocolate festivals, fairs and celebrations all year long, and national chocolate days throughout the entire year.  Here are two stories that popped up: What is the longest chocolate truffle?  A choo-choo. This 111-ft 8-in-long (34.05-m) chocolate choo-choo was put on display at Brussels South railroad station in Belgium on November 19, 2012. The tasty train was crafted from Belcolade chocolate by master chocolatier Andrew Farrugia (Malta) as part of Brussels Chocolate Week. A jazz band provided the musical accompaniment on the day, with the keyboard player tinkling away on a grand piano that was also made from chocolate! The Chocolate Fashion Show. This is an annual chocolate trade show in Paris in October - the link is HERE. You can see the dresses, purses, decorations on shoes - chocolate creations everywhere.  We enjoy summer skies by Skylum today with pictures from the Minneapolis Arboretum.

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Feb 25 - Take a Seat

Yesterday we found out that dogs on seats were 'out'.  What could possibly make us not want to sit next to children on seats?   Here's a response below.  I am impressed with the bare feet.      Today we find out that dogs on seats are also 'in'. This picture below comes from a performance last year of Stratford Festival's production of Billy Elliot.  It was a performance to help train dogs who will be guide dogs, typically for those with autism spectrum. The training included getting up at intermission and returning to their seats for the second half. Will there be a dog section in the future?  Or will they sit in seats next to their owner.  Not likely. Generally they will sit in the wheelchair area to give enough room for the service dog to lay comfortably by their side.  Look at those model train skies, thanks to Luminar's Skylum sky replacement.

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