Marilyn's Photos - May 4th 2026 - Star Wars Day

It is the celebration day of Star Wars.  The first organized celebration took place in 2011 in Toronto.  It is an informal, grass-roots celebration in many places.  Maybe not China where it is Youth Day instead. The actual release date of the movies was May 25th, 1977.  "The Star Wars: Tales" instalment premiered on May 4, 2024.  And the follow-up premiered a year later on the same date.  The final 2 episodes are supposed to be aired today.   It is such a good pun that the phrase will be repeated many millions of times today.  That's my estimate.  Google's AI is very reluctant to make estimates.  It does say that the phrase was said 24 times in the Star Wars film franchise.  That seems meagre.  Yet it has had a mighty effect bringing fun to everyone. Spring time at Grimsby Beach with the Painted Ladies houses.

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Marilyn's Photos - May 3 2026 - I Wear EyeweaR

 

There were such different responses to cataract surgery.  One person said she couldn't wait to get rid of her glasses.  At the opposite end of the spectrum, I told the doctor that since I've worn glasses since the age of nine or so, that I would prefer to have glasses.  And that turned out accurate as I had to wait a month to get a new prescription and I was looking for my glasses out of habit and reflex.  I got the lenses taken out and wore them to solve that problem.   Have you ever been tempted to get glasses frames that stand out from your face and demand attention?  Maybe yes or no - I think it depends on your professional orientation. We can sort the groups who will be interested in them.  Remove all the engineers as they are looking at the data and not at peoples' faces.  It is said that doctors want functional, protective, and comfortable eyewear.  What would you expect from lawyers?  Traditional, professional, conservative glasses are preferred.   I guess it is people who want to be "seen" - wouldn't that be celebrities and people in the arts? They seem to be the ones wearing unusual eyewear frames.  However, the market for the glasses are  "ordinary" people who want to exude those vibes. Frame styles today have names such as the Bayonetta, Expressive Futurism, Quiet Luxury and Pillow.  It makes me think of the Pantone Colour of the Year.   You can take a stroll through Hollywood celebrities wearing glasses.  HERE it is.  And below is a nice collage of famous movies showcasing eyewear in their posters.     And you can get the birds' eye view of eyewear trends with the chart below. And following that is a chart of famous eyewear through the decades.  Even after cataract surgery completed, it seems very hard to read.   My Saucer Magnolia is about to bloom - the Star Magnolia is just finishing.

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Marilyn's Photos - May 2 2026 - Skills I don't need

 

"In this guide I'll walk you through the seven skills that are rapidly becoming obsolete and what's replacing them..." These are panic articles about basic data entry, customer service representatives, copy writing, language translation and so on - jobs going, going, gone, maybe even long gone now.  What about things like dictaphone transcription, using carbon paper for copies, hand mending socks, treadle sewing machine operation, putting a record player stylus (I had to look it up as I didn't remember the name) on the record correctly,  using a manual can opener and a rotary egg beater? Things we did, like "roll down the car windows" for some fresh air. And we used a paper map to guide us to where we were going. And what about the trivial social skill of being quiet in a movie theatre?  OK, no longer needed as no one goes to movie theatres.  And that other skill - waiting - mostly obsolete now.  These are quaint skills now - vintage skills - thousands of them. We can go to Wikipedia to see the list of obsolete occupations.  That's the fear that is circulating everywhere now - like the seven skills guide above.  And what are some of those obsolete occupations?  Alchemist tops the list, and it is one that was "debunked" due to the rise of modern science. It started in the 3rd century and concluded in the 20th century - that hung around a long time.  The extensive and interesting list is HERE.  AI has snuck into my photos as this photo was retrieved with the keyword "vintage" - a keyword I can't ever remember using.  This tulip field is blooming now - located at Seventh Street and Fourth Street in St. Catharines - very close to the 13th Street Winery.    In comparison, here are some sewing machines that would be considered vintage - these were in Port Credit.  I keyworded these as "antique."

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Marilyn's Photos - May 1st 2026 - Silk Today

 

I bet I haven't seen anyone wearing silk for more than a year and possibly even more.  I would notice, Somewhere in the internet retrievals, I saw a picture of a pile of material and each one was labelled a type ofo silk.  I assumed the one at the top is the most luxurious and expensive.  Is that the case?  It turns out not so as Habotai silk is not considered as expensive as Muga silk sitting below it in the pile. And the pile should contain Mulberry Silk - named after the diet of mulberry leaves of the Bombyx mori silkworms.  That's the most famous producer of silk fibres.  The Bombyx mori have been domesticated for approximately 5,000 to 7,500 years. It is quite ironic that this moth is considered "entirely dependent on humans for survival" when in fact humans boil the pupae before they become moths to kill them so that they don't emerge and spoil the silk threads.  There are silk moths in Ontario: the Cecropia, Luna, Polyphemus, Promethea, Pine Imperial.  That does not mean there is Ontario silk - these moths will not be producing silk for clothing production - we don't have 5,000 years of domestication to figure things out. So if we were to sort a pile of silk fabric from most expensive to least expensive: 1. Muga 2. Mulberry 3. Eri 4. Tussah 5. Silk Blends/waste Compare that to the pile in the picture - it has all kinds of things - types of weaves, textures and weights. It still is fun to consider. Who knew this?  There is a fabric made of lotus called lotus silk.  Lotus stems are harvested to pull out thin, sticky filaments which are twisted into thread by hand.  The fabric is used for sacred monastic robes. This silk is considered to be 10 times more expensive than traditional moth silk.  It requires over 30,000 lotus stems to make a scarf and would cost upwards from $300 to $1,000.  Moth silk requires 5,000 cocoons to produce 1 kilogram of raw, high-quality Muga silk.  A Muga silk sari is likely to cost $6,500.  Interesting that you can tell my age by this topic.  Today's fabric for clothing is primarily polyester and accounts for almost 60% of global fibre production. Cotton is considered important as 75% of the world's clothing products contain some amount of cotton.  But polyester reigns supreme. Here is a Cecropia moth on the window about to be released outside. Here's a lotus at the famous LotusLand Garden in Santa Barbara.

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Marilyn's Photos - Apr 30 2026 - Month of May

 

Tomorrow is the beginning of everyone's favourite month.  We have celebrations galore.  May Day tomorrow, then May The Forth, Mother's Day, Victoria Day, and before we know it -  it is June, another favourite month. May is a month of flowers filling the air with perfume.   Except in Masachusettes where there is a Corpse Flower (Titan arum) blooming in Talcott Greenhouse. With a name of Corpse Flower, you can easily guess it either looks weird or smells weird.  It is the latter.  We have one in the Niagara Falls Greenhouse - it blooms every few years.  It is a huge flower around 4 or 5 feet tall, and then one tall plant stalk comes after flowering - more than 20 feet high, like a tree. This is a plant that grows from a tuber which can weigh in the range of up to 200 pounds. There might be some growing in its native Sumatra, but it is rare and endangered.  It has found favour as a celebrity plant and has been spread all over the world in botanic conservatories as a novelty plant - it's that massive size and big smell of rotting flesh.   Stinking flesh plants are not rare - there are over 200 species of this plant. I have a small variety in the garden -  and it will bloom in May - with its deep red spathe and its very big smell of dead flesh.  The flies are everywhere. The dog looks at it confused.  Visitors ask me why I would have a weird and stinky plant in the garden.  I thought it is self-evident that that's why I would have it. One of the many garden highlights of the Month of May. Here it was blooming in the Niagara Falls greenhouse.

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