Dec 13 2024 - Most Popular at Christmas

 

There are many most popular things at Christmas - top of the list is gifts.  There's urgency in the ads - who knows which ones will "sell out" - given gift cards are the top of the list, it doesn't seem likely that they are going to sell out.   Do you know that the top selling toy of all time is Barbie (at a billion).  You can see the most wanted toys for Christmas over the decades or years - think Tickle Me Elmo, Cabbage Patch Kids, Furby, LEGO, and don't forget Rubik's Cube.  Shopping-wise, the experts say that it is Christmas-themed things - lights, decorations, trees, all that sort of stuff that actually sell the most at Christmas. Christmas decorations are on sale at the floral store year-round, but would you want to buy your Christmas decorations in July?  Michael's had an understanding this year of how popular Christmas items are and how to position Christmas items.  They had some Christmas trees and decor out before Halloween.  It was a heads-up on what's to come, and a nudge to the early birds to get going.  Christmas is a magnet for all kinds of things to be "beloved" and "most popular" at Christmas.  This comes in the form of "tradition" generally. With both a religious event with its traditions and a secular one - Santa and the presents that has generated its own traditions.  There are so many things that align to make special meaning.  Things like our favourite dinner, favourite dessert, favourite cookies and candies - candy canes in particular. And then expand out to Christmas experiences - Santa Claus Parades, Christmas concerts, Christmas movies. We don't do this the rest of the year to such an extreme.  Christmas is the ultimate event for us.  It makes me wonder what would that next level of mass celebration could look like.  Who knows? Here's a Floyd Elzinga sculpture with a few sparkles added.  That looks Christmas-y to me.  And isn't that because we've squished in the Solstice Celebration of lights into the holiday.

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Nov 30 2024 - Last Day and Then

 

December is the glitter month.   That's where it got to.  Every tree in the Fantasy of Trees has some form of glitter on it.  And making wreaths, I have created an environment where there is always glitter in the house.  It never quite leaves.   Did glitter evolve from sequins?  I wonder.  There are glitter sequins.  But generally sequins are used to decorate clothes and clothing accessories.  Glitter is used in arts and crafts, as we know at Christmas.  It is also used in cosmetics.  Sequins are plastic, and glitter is a combination of aluminium and polyester.  Sequins started as metal coins attached to clothing displaying wealth and status, or to keep the item secured. That's way back.  IThere were sequins in King Tut's tomb, sparking a clothing craze of sequins in the 1920s.   I don't see any sequin dresses in the list of most famous dresses of all time. There are lots of Hollywood movies with famous stars in sequinned dresses - all from the thirties and forties. Think Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, and the fast forward to the Supremes, Madonna, Lady Gaga and Beyonce.   Glitter can't possibly achieve what sequins have.  There's no "attachment" to fabric so it is relegated to being attached to "stuff".   The European Union gradually eliminates glitter - banned due to microplastic pollution.  Christmas in Europe might return to its traditional fruits, nuts, and berries displays.  Here in North America, it is a "let's monitor to find out how bad it is" approach to microplastics.  A bit of Oops.  I guess we love our glitter trees.    Here's my photographic version of glitter - bokeh.  I created this background at a botanic garden in Florida.  Those chiny Camellia leaves give rise to these reflections.   Below that is the "Let the Blizzard Begin" tree at the Fantasy of Trees. It has real-look snow from Michael's - seems even better than glitter.  Which showcases the ornaments and snowflakes, themselves made of plastics.  Quite a few recycling oops in this tree.

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Apr 25 2024 - Retirement Regrets

 

What are those big item purchases that retirees try out?  Supposedly retirement often brings on a purchase of something one has always longed for.   Here are a few of them from an AARP article: The Boat - maybe  a sail boat to travel somewhere challenging or a speed boat for the weekends.  "Before you know it, what was supposed to give you joy and freedom is tying you down. “The two best days are when you buy and sell the boat." Recreational Vehicle - What better way to travel than with an RV?  “If you are going to use an RV once a month or three times a year, do you really need to buy an RV? Of course not. A lot of those things that make retirees feel good can add up.”​ Dream House - "Doing an upgrade here and an upgrade there, home improvement enthusiasts may soon find they’ve blown through a big chunk of retirement cash. That dream dwelling suddenly becomes a money pit at a time when less income is flowing in, leaving owners “really stressed out and frustrated,” Manske says. “It’s a really big one that retirees regret.” Resort Living - " For lots of people it’s a fabulous idea in the first year, but after that, the novelty can quickly wear off, Manske warns. They realize that all the things that gave them value and purpose and were fulfilling are back where they used to live, he says." And there's more - Giving to adult children can leave one destitute later, Buying a time share, Expensive musical instruments, Fancy cars. So many possible ways to dwindle one's retirement income. Here's some advice to a person starting their retirement.

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Nov 25 2023 - Leave the Leaves? Yes or NO

 

Leave the Leaves?  Yes or No.  There are a few headlines on leave the leaves yes or no.  It seems a bit late to me as most people have sent them away.  They ruin the "greenscape" or the garden of conifer bushes that make for the winter sculpture garden. We've created a difficult situation with our suburban yards.  With excessive amounts of grass, we are stuck raking leaves from the lawns.   Moving leaves about and getting my leaves to stay in garden areas is a difficult circumstance.  The wind likes to move small things about.  Our entrance door is a swirly wind area that accumulates leaves and when the door is opened, they move right into the house.   The reward of leaves left in the garden occurs In the spring in the places where leaves are in nice piles,  I usually find a toad underneath.  Raking should be done carefully in the spring - there is a lot of wildlife within.   Leaves also provide winter protection for garden plants keeping the roots insulated from the changing temperatures, and then in spring they are nutrients to the garden - the way mulch is. Our idea of mulch, though, is much more uniform that all those different shapes of leaves.  We like cedar mulch with its even texture and uniform colour.  It creates artistic landscapes. I notice that there are lots of headlines about the movement to 'leave the leaves.'   I think it is a distraction - the moment before the snow headlines. Our picture today is the brilliance of locust trees in the Autumn. These locust leaves won't need any raking.  Tiny little things, they just disappear into the lawn.

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Sep 9 2023 - More Prison News

 

Here's another "who would have guessed this headline?" Yesterday's escaped murderer holding out in Longwood Gardens is still at large, and the Mushroom Festival - Kennet Square is known for its Portobello Mushroom crop, is set to begin.  There are 400 officers in the search team along with multiple helicopters. Because I searched for the escaped prisoner topic, this promo popped up yesterday.   It is for Kingston Penitentiary.  This seems to me to be  surreal - here's the promo: Pumpkinferno at Kingston Pen "Canada’s oldest penitentiary and popular historical site is about to glow in the dark this Halloween season. How, you may ask? Pumpkinferno is taking over Kingston Pen for the first time ever and showcasing the most elaborate, creative, and spook-tacular glowing pumpkin creations. Here’s what to know. Pumpkinferno at Kingston Pen after dark is new for the site and is sure to round up eager attendees for what’s to be an exciting fall event. You’ll surely find yourself mesmerized “as the historic site is transformed into an enchanted wonderland of glowing pumpkins,” according to Kingston Pen Tours. Guests of all ages are welcome to explore the Jack-O-Lantern exhibit and take pictures of the sculptures." Having been on a tour of the Kingston Pen, it remains a haunting experience for me.  I can't imagine it transforming into frolic fun after-dark.   Here's a picture from our tour a few years ago. There's a wall that I can't imagine being scaled in a crab walk.  But who knows?   We didn't get to Durango or Santa Fe on our Denver trip.   I found this image from the last visit in 2017 - the beautiful white aspen trunks cascade down the mountainside and reflect in the lake below.

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May 9 2-23 - Opinion

 

Opinion.  There's a lot of it about. In fact, it seems to be edging out the factual event news.  Take the Coronation on the weekend.  There are many opinions being stated about various seating positions and hats and so on.  Newspaper opinion came into its own in the 20th century. The op-ed page was created in 1921 by Herbert Bayard Swope of The New York Evening World. It was further developed in 1970 under the direction of The New York Times editor John B. Oakes.  Well, that's newspapers.  Now, with social media, we the public have access to communicate our opinions broadly - just like newspapers.  The definition of public opinion seems to be outdated now:  "free and public communication from citizens to their government on matters of concern to the nation."    There is the idea of private opinion, but I think that private opinion is declining because of easy access to "the public" through social media.  The public likes this public access. Then a question came to my mind:  What if we had to use this phrase - in my humble opinion -  to present non-professional opinions - particularly those opinions without expertise backing them.   "A phrase used to present one's viewpoint or beliefs with an awareness or cautiousness that the listener might disagree or be offended." Oh well, just a thought. Other trees have straighter branches - this row seems particularly interesting.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Apr 23 2023 - A Regular Guy

 

It turns out that every expression is used up - take the expression "a regular guy."  It is a novel by Mona Simpson.  It is about Tom Owens, actually,  Steve Jobs.  That's her late brother. They were orphans separated by adoption who later found each other.  There was no "regular" childhood for them.  "The Urban Dictionary defines a regular guy as “a guy who is humble, down-to-earth, open and honest, easy to get along with, and generally well-versed about all the usual things people do. Someone who isn’t power-hungry, arrogant, super competitive, insecure, or egotistical. A guy you’d want to have a conversation with about things like sports, fishing, camping, hard work, relationships, home repair, music, cars, movies, power tools, etc. A guy who will never embarrass you or cause problems socially and has nothing to prove.” Given that mythical sort of definition, one wonders about the title of the book. I wouldn't use "guy" around him or about him at all, in fact.  And definitely not "regular." So it isn't surprising that the book is considered a "scathing expose... Mona changed the names and sold the book as fiction, but the world knew better." I guess a deceitful pretense needs an expression that matches.  I say that as this expression seems to be targeted to white North American men.  Romcom movies seem to be about regular guys.  Ask the question:  Ask it for different countries.  Are there regular guys in France?  And the answers are about dating, stereotypes and demographics.   Regular guys in Germany?  It is about height, then dating, and then demographics. Regular guys in China?  It is about why they are the most single in the world, then average height.   Now this is interesting.  The myth vs. the reality.  All good fun.

What a rain day yesterday!  We were back to the Niagara Street cherry tree and then on Stewart Road where this orchard had just been trimmed.  I've added the rainbow to the bleak sky.  Today looks like a blue sky day.  But those fallen branches will be wilted by today.

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April 21 2023 - SpaceX Explodes

 

Four minutes after leaving ground, the uncrewed SpaceX rocket exploded.  The explosion may have been due to the flight termination system being activated.  There was a previous cautioned that the chances of success were low. The employees at SpaceX cheered even after the rocket disintegrated.   "Unlike Nasa, which attempts to avoid risk, SpaceX has a record of showing a willingness to have test flights explode, with Musk saying the private venture benefits from understanding what goes wrong. SpaceX built its own spaceport, named Starbase, on the Gulf of Mexico in Boca Chica, Texas, to launch its rockets. Several other Starships are already in production for future tests." Musk wants humans to become an "interplanetary species".   This is one of the cherry trees at the Royal Botanical Gardens - the picture is from a few years ago.  What a lot of blossoms! Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Mar 15 2023 - Bob Hope's Best Oscars

 

was thinking about the Oscars, and really would have liked to see old clips of Bob Hope and Johnny Carson.  Bob Hope is considered the King of the Oscars.  What was it about Bob Hope? "He has hosted 19 times either solo or as a team, even before the Oscars were even broadcast on television. For a long time, it was just assumed that Hope would host, and only if he had conflicts would they ask someone else."    Here are his most-quoted jokes: 1955  "The winners will take home an Oscar. The losers will all be presented with monogramed do-it-yourself suicide kits." 1960 “There’s a lot of pictures half shot. One Western picture is hung up and it’s quite a situation. There’s 150 Indians crouched behind a boulder at Corganville, and no one has told them that John Wayne isn’t coming.” 1968 "Welcome to the Academy Awards, or as they're known at my house, Passover." And at the end in 1968   “I’ve never seen six hours whiz by so fast.” No year given  “I think they ought to give me an Oscar just for attendance, don’t you?” And they did:  Bob Hope received 5 honorary Oscars for his service to the film industry. There's a group on Fine Art America with the theme of tree of trees in black and white.  I turned some of my tree images to black and white so that I could put them in the group.   It reminds me of when television was in black and white.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 30 2022 - Birds vs Windows

 

Birds hit the corner office windows.  Sometimes a light tap and sometimes a thump.  Mostly little sparrows surprised they can't keep flying.   This is the leading cause of death of birds - hitting windows rather than cats. I recently purchased  "strips" that go on my corner office window to stop this.  These are specially designed to make the birds aware of a barrier, so they don't hit the window.  When we looked at the instructions, the temperature outside needs to be 10 degrees for the strips to stick.   Who would guess that today is the day!  The end of December 2022. We used to put pictures of birds on the glass to warn them.  There's a site called WindowAlert and it has a range of decals - from snowflakes to leaves to birds flying.   But that's not the recommendation from the authorities. What I've purchased from Lee Valley is designed based on the recommendations of FLAP Canada (short for Fatal Light Awareness Program) to warn birds away from glass.  Applied to the glass, the 2" grid of small squares convinces fliers that there are no bird-sized gaps; human eyes, meanwhile, can tune out the squares, similar to the way you barely notice a window screen unless you focus on it.  It is a very precise system is get give tay a tape measure and a grid to apply the grid correctly.   Go to the FLAP.org  website and find out a number of techniques to protect the birds from your windows.  You can take the Homeowner Assessment HERE.  This is what the survey looks like.   What a multi-trunk birch this is.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 3 2022 - Sleeping at Walmart

 

There's a difference between RVing and Van living.  The Globe and Mail had an article yesterday on Van living, and the approach to parking overnight on the street.  There is a growing community of people who have converted vans into living spaces, but where do they reside?  I got to wondering about how many people have slept in Walmart parking lots in their RVs and campers.    Walmart has been known as RV-friendly for years.  Campers and RV's on average are allowed to park and sleep overnight.  There are over 4,700 Walmart parking lots. But there is no number of how many people over the years have taken advantage of the Walmart offer.   In the mean time, I find an article with this information:  "even RV enthusiasts Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas, have been known to stay at Walmart. " "In fact, the Washington power couple spends each summer touring the United States in a mobile home, she said. The justice and his wife have cruised through 27 states since buying their used recreation vehicle in 1999. "We have found it's a wonderful life," Ginni Thomas told National Public Radio from upstate New York on Wednesday. "We have been in dozens of Wal-Mart parking lots throughout the country," she added. "It's one of our favorite things to do if we're not having to plug in and we've got enough electricity." Mrs. Thomas said that their joy in traveling has only been slightly tempered by the overwhelming to-do they occasionally get when other campers identify the high court justice. "Clarence gets recognized every once in a while and that sort of puts a damper on things because when we're out, we kind of like to be in cognito, if you know what I mean," she said, noting they stopped traveling to one camp site because 20 or 30 people would greet them each year. Should I be looking up how many celebrities live the RV life and park at Walmart?  Looks like Kristin Bell and Jimmy Kimmel are fans of parking overnight at Walmart.   There's a long list of celebrities with million dollar behemoths - Will Smith, Vin Diesel, Mariah Carey, and so on. Guelph's arboretum is the setting of this picture. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nov 28 2022 - Mithra's Christmas

 

Mithra(s) was a Roman god, and the subject of the December 25th festival.  History says that Mithra was the first immaculate conception and born on December 25th - the son of the Sun God, so also known as son of God.  The creation of the world is central to the Mithraic mythology.   This was a significant god and a significant Roman religion with its mysteries.  There were many temples and sanctuaries to Mithra, and Mithraism is viewed as a rival of early Christianity.   It is generally held that the Christians appropriated the festival of Mithras' birth celebration on December 25th - the winter solstice - with similar light metaphors and correspondence between Christ and the sun. Considering they were rival religions, the Mithraists faced persecution from the Christians in the 4th century when Constantine ruled. This religious community disappeared.   What fascinates me is how successful the Christians were at banishing all other religions.  They termed all of them as 'pagan'.   As a definition, pagan was rustic, unlearned, bumpkin, villager, country dweller, and so on.  It became an all-embracing, pejorative term for polytheists.  It was us vs them. This approach worked, but It brings baggage. That means that when today's biblical historians are tracing the roots of various holidays and festivals they always find themselves in "pagan" territory.  Remember John Milton who as a Puritan was part of the banishment of Christmas based on its origins as a "pagan" festival.   So any time you read about the Christmas traditions in those" four things you might not know about Christmas" articles on the internet, you will inevitably find Mithras in the mix of the discussion.   This motion blur image of birch trees seems to have the right tones for this time of year Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Oct 17 2022 - Not Bathing

 

When the Mayflower arrived, the Pilgrims were noted for their bad smell.  They washed their hands and faces on a daily basis, but that was it. That was the 17th century when it was a practice to not wash and that  underwear "would keep the body clean."  The hosting Indigenous peoples disagreed, but couldn't persuade them to get clean. It was a combination of morality and disease.  The issue was bath houses: "It doesn’t seem as if most church organizations had a big problem with the bathing itself, just the perceived immorality exhibited at many bath houses. For example, 6th century Pope Gregory I is known to have encouraged Christians to bathe regularly. And, as alluded to, Muslim and Jewish groups were likewise known to be even more fastidious than their Christian brethren about keeping clean." "As to why (bathing decreased), around the mid-14th century - about 60% of the European population died within about seven years or so - not too dissimilar to “The Snap”,  but in this case because of the Black Death. This saw the former popular practice of people communing in bath houses together start to become decidedly less popular for a time, though it seems to have picked back up after. "Twenty-five years ago, nothing was more fashionable in Brabant than the public baths. Today there are none… the new plague has taught us to avoid them" "There doesn’t seem to be a time in recorded history that people are known to have ceased bathing in some form altogether, with the record for the least hygienic not going to our ultra distant ancestors like medieval peoples or those before, but to our more recent ones, with the abandoning of better hygiene by some groups around the 16th century and beyond thanks to widespread disease and the development of more prudish attitudes." And let's check out our current times.  We also have our kings and queens who boast of not bathing, and gave the impression the majority of the population held their "beliefs". It is celebrities who make these similar boasts today - I guess they send above like "kings and queens":  "The tiny yet influential sector of the population who popularized juice cleanses and jade eggs—are touting the skin-care benefits of not washing. “You should not be getting rid of all the natural oil on your skin with a bar of soap every day,” Shepard argued.  “It’s insane.”  Or, as Gyllenhaal described his strategic non-showering: “helpful for skin maintenance.” And bathing their children: “Now, here’s the thing: If you can see the dirt on them, clean them. Otherwise, there’s no point,'” Kutcher added. On to Kristen Bell: “I’m a big fan of waiting for the stink. Once you catch a whiff, that’s biology’s way of letting you know you need to clean it up.” It moves on to a racial theme:  “Celebrity white folks bragging about not showering have the privilege of not worrying about stereotypes they’re inherently ‘dirty,’ said journalist Jemele Hill. “Black folks don’t have that luxury. *Most* of us were raised to be obsessively clean because we always have to ‘present well’ for white folks.”  Bathing seems to remain a very important topic - who could guess there would be a "no bathing" movement now. Today's pictures are motion blur on the highway amongst the pines.

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