March 26 2021 - A Common But Mysterious Goodbye

 

Merriam-Webster's idea of "So Long" - an expression of farewell, a colloquialism that we take for granted as being a logical construction.  It'll only be so long before you meet again, right?  That sentence doesn't seem like a sentence to me.  But then it turns out that So Long's origin is mysterious.  According To Merriam-Webster, it doesn't appear to have clear origins in Irish, German, Hebrew, Arabic - as there is no provable connection between those to the English expression.   Walt Whitman's poem entitled "So long!" published in 1860 gives it American placement.   But even his friends were wondering what he was writing about, asking him to define the expression.  He called it "[a] salutation of departure, greatly used among sailors, sports, & prostitutes—the sense of it is till we meet again—conveying an inference somewhere, some how [sic] they will doubtless so meet—sooner or later." There aren't any "So Long" jokes that match our Goodbye colloquialism.  Here's a Goodbye joke. A bear prepares a list of all the animals he's planning to eat. All the animals find out about the list and are extremely frightened. The deer walks up to the bear and asks "Bear, am I on your list?"   "Of course you are." Replies the bear.   "Can you do me just one favor and let me live another day so that I can say goodbye to all my loved ones?"   The bear agrees, waits a day and eats the deer.   The wolf goes up to the bear and asks "Am I on your list?"   "Yes you are."   "Please just give me one day to say goodbye to my family."   The bear agrees and because he has honor he waits a day before eating the wolf.   The bunny finds the bear and asks him "Bear am I on your list?"   "You are."   "Well could you take me off the list?"   "You got it." replies the bear. This is my Witch hazel a few years ago at the end of March - clearly a snow storm day.  Let's hope this picture is the only snow we'll see between now and next November. It would be our "So Long" to snow. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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Oct 28 2020 Halloween Colours - A Retail Decision?

 

What makes for Halloween's black and orange theme colours?  It seems obvious:  pumpkins and fall colours, along with the darkest night of the dead and ghosts arising ancient ritual.  There's a website to answer this question:  Isle of Halloween.  I took a look and it doesn't say much more.  I guess the commercialization of Halloween cemented the colour combination.  The Irish are credited with bringing Halloween traditions to the US in 1840. Postcards and die-cut paper decorations started in the 1900s and costumes appeared in stores in the 1930s and my generation remembers candies available in the stores in the 1950s.   What the Daily Mail calls a 'department store invention' seems to be the standard development of all of our purchasing holidays.   The marker for Halloween is Anoka, Minnesota, known as the Halloween Capital of the  World since 1920. It is the first city in America to officially hold a Halloween celebration, in an effort to divert kids from pulling pranks like tipping outhouses and letting cows loose to run around on Main Street. The town organized a parade and spent the weeks prior planning and making costumes. Treats of popcorn, peanuts and candy to any children who participated in the parade, followed by a huge bonfire in the town square. The event grew over time and has been held every year since 1920.  So here we are in the COVID year, finding out that Halloween turns out to be the most popular celebrated holiday of the year. More of the leaves images today.  The scanner is immense fun and very restrictive in space.  It demands simplicity in design.

Oct 27 2020 - Halloween and the Darkest Night Fun

 

NASA is going to share an exciting new discovery - it is something about there being more water on the Moon than previously thought, including water in a sunlit region.  The announcement is at noon today. At the other end of the spectrum, we have this weekend's celebration of the darkness of the haunted corn mazes and farms in Ontario.  They are open after dark for a night full of Halloween terror.  Fonthill boasts the Howell Family Pumpkin Farm.  I found it by accident one year on a drive for fall foliage.  There were hundreds of cars parked along the country road and in the field with people everywhere.  They are open this year - they have removed the live show and the hay play but have kept the corn maze, train ride, and jumping pillow. You will see lots of little children and families at this attraction. Niagara Falls is lit up for Halloween this year with vivid orange illumination.   Niagara Falls tourism includes a number of Lundy Lane attractions on the scary theme. Even Niagara on the Lake has Ghost Walks and Ghost tours of Fort George. Our picture is Witch Hazel leaves  on the scanner.  They look like flames of fire.

Read past POTDs at my Blog: https://marilyncornwell.blogspot.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Mar 11 2020 - Square Foot Living

One of my experiences every day when I research a topic is to find out how much is already been investigated and written about it.   I saw this little living space in the NY Times morning news.   The article is about the impacts of the coronavirus causing people to work remotely from home. This is the illustration - it reminds me of the 1950s kitchen sets we played with.  Pinterest has pages for "Living in 100 Square Feet".  The only difference is that the bed is on a second level that one reaches via a ladder staircase.  These are endearingly named "My Tiny House."  And you likely know about tiny house reality series.   Articles written about tiny houses typically start: "High tech couples gives up high life to live in tiny space...and loving it." According to the engineering toolbox, the average person needs about 100 - 400 square feet of space in an apartment to feel comfortable.  They have square footage for all kinds of rooms - dental centres, churches, banks.  Residential is 200 - 600 square feet per person.  So tiny living is about reducing that in half or more. Can we shrink our living spaces rather than enlarging them as we've been doing?  Is this also a viable approach to our affordable housing crisis and to homeless housing? Seattle is a city that has built tiny houses villages and has experience in the area for a few years.  They opened their 11th village in February 2019.  I went looking for Canada's version:  and it turns out that Hamilton, Kingston and Keewatin have tiny house community initiatives.  Cute as a button in the pictures, but only three of them.  This seems to indicate this isn't a movement, more a promotional experiment. Today's picture is Witch hazel blooming in the snow.  It may seem funny to look forward to a forecast of rain.  Maybe that's the mystique of March.

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Winter's Garden Blooms

Witch Hazel is a shrub that will bloom on warm days in the winter.  It unfurls its small ribbon flowers in the warmth, and curls them back up when it's cold.

The large witch hazel around the corner from me in Grimsby has been blooming during February, and here are some images from this past week.

Ode to Spring - Witch Hazel

My large witch hazel shrub - 4 feet tall and wide - is in full bloom.  The image below was taken at Plantworld last weekend, and is a more recent variety than mine.  My shrub is a brilliant yellow and it bloomed in December so I didn't expect much this spring.  I can see that just one branch is not blooming, so I guess it took turns on who was to bloom!