Mar 4 2024 - Spring Ahead

 

Here we are with spring a month early and California has up to 7 feet of snow - a blizzard that includes 45 - 75 mph winds.  The governor of California told people to stay home rather than go skiing. I can imagine driving mountain roads would be scary. Something got my attention the other day - a truck with Old Dutch on the side.  You likely recognize the name - potato chips.  How did that product get such a name as Old Dutch?   Here's the answer: It was the association of the Dutch with quality and cleanliness. That was the inspiration.    What about Pringles?  That name supposedly came about either as a phrase that popped up - Pringles Newfangled Potato Chips or was named after Mark Pringle who invented a potato chip processing machine at Procter and Gamble.  Or it came from a street name in Finnetown, Ohio.  Pringles can't be called potato chips because the aren't made with real potato, but dehydrated processed potato.  They are called "crisps". I thought about how many potato chips must be eaten all the time for a truck to be delivering them.  Canadians eat an average of 8.66 pounds of potato chips per person per year.  Ii wonder what the average bag of chips is as 34.69 Americans consumed 16 or more bags in 2020.  I think they are speaking of 16 oz bags supposedly ro serve 8 people.  Consider the U.K. where 93% of the population regularly consume potato chips, and 63% say they do daily.   What a curious image this is.  The reflection of  clouds and sky in the windows of the building.

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July 2 2023 - Living Your Dream Home

 

The house we live in reveals much about us and is is our biggest expenditure.  No wonder there have been so many television shows along the way about our houses.  Are we happier because we own a home?  An Atlantic article says "Yes." "Many studies over the years have shown that homeowners are, on average, happier than non-homeowners. In my own calculations, using the General Social Survey, 21 percent of people who own their home are “very happy,” compared with 16 percent of those who pay rent." That quote comes from the Atlantic, Mar 30 2023. And this Houzz article goes even further:  "Feeling a bit down? Maybe it’s time you redecorated your living room or finally tackled that remodeling project. No, seriously. In a recent Houzz survey, 87 percent of the more than 6,000 respondents said that their home design impacts their overall happiness. So if you’ve remodeled or redecorated your home in the past two years, you might be among the 74 percent who say they are now happier at home as a result. Of those who describe their home as being “in need of work,” only 51 percent reported feeling happy at home." What caught my eye was a CBC article.   In contrast to these American sources, the CBC has a different story headline:  Housing price, size don't have much influence on happiness:  UBC professor And what does make Canadians happy?  "It turns out that what really matters is the extent to which our houses facilitate positive social connections," says Elizabeth Dunn, director the Happy Lab at the University of British Columbia. That from the CBC article HERE. This article from Ramboll in Denmark says this about happiness and our homes:  "We are eager to find how a home – understood as the private sphere as well as the connection between the private and the community - supports well-being for families and individuals. What are the constituents of happiness in this context? What does the architectural design mean for a home and for the community at large?"   This research is still underway, so we will await their findings.  This Ramboll study follows from the Danish Happiness Research Institute research results about people's happiness with their homes.  The results are HERE.  Those results concluded that 73% of people who are happy with their home are also happy in life. And that your home is as impactful as general health and fitness and more impactful than earnings on happiness. Here's quite the view from a home's window - the Ringling Museum Mansion - overlooking the water through stained glass windows. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.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

WHAT YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW ... Daylight Savings Time

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW...this is a regular headline in the internet.  Today's topic is what you need to know about the time change to daylight saving time this Sunday.  There was nothing that I needed to know in the article on Daylight Saving Time from Globalnews.ca.  But it got me to look at it.  What if there is something important this year and this weekend? When I think of a clock - I see one of those regulation school clocks. Isn't this such a familiar sight all through my generation's childhood and well into adulthood.  We would see these clocks in schools, hospitals, industries.  What does the ITC stand for on this clock?     It stands for independent transmit clock.  Looking at pictures of classrooms, there is the electric clock high on the wall in most of them.  I assume they are electromagnetic. It is interesting how little moI know about the time-keeping of clocks and yet they are so ingrained in everything we do today. Remember the school bell in the classrooms?  It signalled the end of class.  It must have also signalled the beginning, but it is the end that seems more appealing to the memory.  The move to Daylight Savings Time is a welcome one - it signals the end of winter approaches and the beginning of spring is here. Today's image was taken at Vineland Research - one of its buildings has a wall of boston ivy that turns a beautiful red in the fall.  The windows seem to be eyes reflecting the sky.

Scentsation!

Scentsation is defined as an outstanding use of fragrance in applications other than perfume and cologne. It is said to be coined by PerfumeCulture as a scent and trend agency.  It has since made its way into the naming of flowers.  Here are a few. I mistakenly bought Honeysuckle "Scentsation."  It was a lucky error.  I thought I'd purchased Paul's Scarlett, but the blooms were not pink - they were yellow. I had thought I might have one of the invasive Japanese Honeysuckles.  Instead these were blossoms that lasted from mid-spring to late summer and has strong fragrance.  What are the notes in honeysuckle?  It is considered fruity and warm with hints of honey and ripe citrus.  There is a petunia that has been hybridized to have its fragrance back - just as roses lost and got back their beautiful scent via David Austin.  What is the fragrance in this blue Petunia "Evening Scentsation"?  It is described as having notes of hyacinth, sweet honey and rose and is stronger in the evening.  There is a series of miniature roses in the "Scentsational" series. "Overnight Scentsation" journeyed to space to aid in studies about the effects of low gravity on the smell of roses.  "Moonlight Sensation" is another one. What about finding the Camellia "Sweet Scentsation".  I would need to go to warmer areas of the U.S. for this. We know that Evening Scented Stock (Matthiola bicornis) is night-scented. It has a series named "Starlight Scentsation". This is a flower with strong notes of cloves and cinnamon. Others have nutmeg and vanilla scent. And there is a Tuberous Begonia that has the name Scentsation - it is a Blackmore & Langdon variety. Many of the scented begonias smell like roses. Many people don't realize the Cyclamen is a scented flower - they also have a Scentsation Series.  It isi considered light floral, clean, fresh, and slightly mysterious. And there is a Nicotiana alata mix "Scentsation" - it comes in pinks, purples and whites - that's interesting to me.  I will definitely find this one for this year's garden. The scent is considered similar to Jasmine. If we want to describe out floral scents, take a look at this website - theperfumeexpert.com/notes These window view pictures were taken at the Ringling Circus mansion.  All the windows have pale stained glass panes.

Sometimes a Cigar

When did sometimes become 'a time' that people referred to?  Have we always had the notion of time as a precise and as a vague thing?  Sometimes means "occasionally, now and then."  It is truly a vague idea. The expression "sometimes, always, never" refers to a man wearing a three-button blazer.  The middle button should always be fastened, the top button is up to you, but the bottom button?  Clearly it means don't even think about it. This is known as a fashion edict.  It came about with King Edward VII - the Prince of  Wales.  He was known for overeating and being overweight.  Hence the button remained unbuttoned.  Alternately, we can explore this scientifically:   "Sometimes, often, and always:  exploring the vague meanings of frequency expressions".  Linguists are mathematicians and the article describes a two-step procedure for the numerical translation of vague linguistic terms.  "The suggested procedure consists of empirical and model components, including (1) participants' estimates of numerical values corresponding to verbal terms and (2) modeling of the empirical data using fuzzy membership functions (MFs), respectively."  US National Library of Medicine.   "Sometimes" is present with us in famous expressions and quotes.  It has become the handle for "life is tough"  and "what I know about life, I think." For example:  "A question that sometimes drives me hazy:  am I or are the others crazy? - Albert Einstein One of the first expressions that comes up in a search is:  "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" - This is attributed to Freud.  It refers to the search for significant meanings where none are to be found.  It turns out that there is no written record of Freud as the direct source of this quote.  It is considered a false quote as tracked down by QuoteInvestigator.com  Here is some of the investigation of the cigar quote in Freud's life: "He was so addicted to smoking that he grew annoyed with men who did not smoke.  Because of this, nearly all his apostles became cigar-smokers." Poor Freud, he seems to be attributed with excellent quotes that he didn't say. Another famous quote attributed to him:  "time spent with cats is never wasted."  But there is no evidence that he ever said this.  What he did write to a friend was:  "I, as is well known, do not like cats". Here's another that is researched and found to be fake: "Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility".  This expression has approximately 73,700 attributions to Freud.  It was found to be falsely attributed to him. There are hundreds and hundreds of Freud quotes.  As I look through the list, some have the reference source, but many do not, so I wonder how many of these are true vs falsely attributed.   The site that investigates false quotes is Shimmer College Wiki - the Fake Quotes Project.   And here is their Facebook page.  While I've provided the links, the site is difficult to navigate in that it doesn't have a search function.  Too bad, it would be fun to know Freud's False/True score. We have Longwood doors today - the first speaks to the mystery behind the door and the second points out the long path ahead - different stories about doors..

One Third of the First Quarter

Yes - our title today announces that we are one-third through the three months of winter here in Ontario. Both of these windows are in the Queen Street West neighbourhood in Toronto. The first is an empty store front with its eerie white fog of a space.  The second is the Malabar window on the alley way with its fluorescent wigs in the window.  Two opposites that define what the Queen Street West experience is. The history of windows is a long story of evolution in building openings - the start is holes with flaps.  The word window is considered a loanword - adopted directly from another language.  The most familiar parallel name for window was the Roman fenestra which became fenester in German. The words fenestration and defenestration are still in use. Of course we can move on to the most amazing stained glass windows from the BBC 'here' or from Huffington post 'here' or 40 of the most beautiful windows 'here' - stained glass reigns. A search for the most famous windows in the world reveals one window - the window from the Pope's apartment. Another search had a top ten, with the second most famous window being the Texas School Book Depository's notorious window.  This seems to be a 20th century American view of things. I wonder if there are amazing windows nearby to photograph. Are there some in the GTA to visit?

The What's and How's of that Sunrise Colour

There is a house on Mountain Street in Beamsville with a sagging porch.  In comparison, this whole building near Napanee is sagging. I was wondering about the sunrise colours at various times of year.  The sky has been  turquoise and pink at sunrise recently.  Here's a site posting by Robert Bowen that takes the photographs of sunrise colours and shows the colour palette. So I scrolled down and found the match-up. We've been seeing teknorat's sunrise the last few days.   Science sites tell us that it is molecules and small particles in the atmosphere that change the direction of light rays, causing them to scatter in various ways, resulting in colourful sunsets.  I found a great little chart that shows this.  It is at the physics classroom site.