Marilyn's Photos - Feb 24 2026 - More Jokes Please

 

The Guinness Book of Records has monthly highlights. February has the usual stuff - things you wouldn’t think of people doing or having.   We’re heading into the end of winter when we get weary.  What about some records around jokes?  OK - here’s the one I picked:  The most jokes told in one minute is 26 - Clive Greenaway did this on March 10, 2015 in the UK.  Each joke required a setup and a punchline, and the audience had to react for the joke to count. His routine used one-liners. Can you imagine the record of the most jokes told in one hour ?  It is 676. That was done by Geechy Guy in 1993.  There’s no list of Clive’s 26 jokes - you have to watch the video.  There are lots of pictures of him smiling with his record.  Sifting through the many articles, here are the 10 of the 26 that I found.  There were 27, but one was disqualified. My wife dresses to kill - and cooks the same way My wife and I were happy - then we met I ate a plougman’s lunch - he was not happy My wife and I haven’t spoken in years - I don’t likek to interrupt Pollen count - that’s a tough job Man walks into a bar - ouch…it was an iron bar I’m on a whiskey diet . . . I lost three days last week Went to the paper shop . . . but it had blown away And  I found these two in an NPR article: Exit signs - they’re on the way out Two elephants fall off a cliff - bum bum You never know when we might find the rest of these hidden in various articles.  Clive has been called a Punslinger. It turns out that Clive was a member of Toastmasters and a Toastmasters magazine had a short interview with him.  At the time, he was a professional working magician, after-dinner speaker and auctioneer. Here’s a beautiful orchid at a past Orchid Show.

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Marilyn's Photos - Feb 23 2026 - Olympic Highs and Lows

 

It is time for the Olympic wrap-up. And that means the Highs and Lows of the 2026 Winter Games. But whose highs and lows are these? The Globe and Mail’s reporters weighed in on their own version of highs and lows.  It seems like it is about which country won the most medals. Norway is the winner of the highs here. There are lots of countries who won no medals - new competitors and smaller countries. Canada is noted for experiencing the worst medal total and ranking since 1992. This has been tied to decreased funding for the past 20 years. In contrast, Norway’s children-focused sports model was seen as the winner of sports models along with medals.  Norway has been dominating the Winter Olympics since 2014. It has won the most gold medals at every winter games since Vancouver 2010.  Everyone wants to report on why is Norway so successful.  Here’s one answer listed: “The point of doing sport in Norway is to lead a good life. So you start young and learn motor skills, social skills, and then you learn how to use your body in a physical setting."  Here’s another article: “Until the age of 12 in Norway, nobody in youth sports is allowed to keep score, and there are no league standings either. As a result, there is far less destructive pressure and no reason to specialize too soon, and young athletes are encouraged to try out multiple sports. If one player gets a trophy, everyone gets a trophy; they want as many children as possible to return the following season.” Here’s a downhill snowboard scene from a few years ago in Toronto.

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Marilyn's Photos - Feb 22 2026 - Snowdrop Sighting

 

Enough snow was gone yesterday to reveal the leaves and grass, and that means the garden.  I looked and looked and finally found some tiny leaves coming up - Snowdrops. This is late for them.  I guess being buried under snow gives them the sense that they can have a long winter nap.  Snowdrops are considered our earliest spring bloomer. I went looking for blooming cherry trees in Victoria but alas, the internet has lost its retrieval tools.  It wants to show me things from whenever and wherever.  I got to thinking that we went to Vancouver in February many years ago, and then went to Victoria. We visited Sooke Harbour House. Early spring was everywhere.  Sooke got my attention because it was a boutique hotel with a pioneering culinary approach of the 100 mile diet, a garden-to-table approach which included edible flowers. Since then, we have visited every so often whenever we were on the West Coast.  Sooke Harbour House went through a few years of financial and legal controversies - all with much news coverage. In July 2025, restauranteur Luke Evanow purchased it after a $14 million dollar renovation. Here’s what it loos like from the air - far larger than the last time we were there.   Here are some of my pictures from February 2006.  I remember the Erica (Heather) everywhere, and Rosemary was a perennial in the gardens. This is likely an ornamental plum tree blooming beside the wood storage.  And of course, the beautiful view of the mountains and ocean.

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Marilyn's Photos - Feb 21 2026 - Who is related to who?

 

My initial thought about former Prince Andrew being removed from the line of success to the throne is about the immediate Royal family dying in some catastrophic event, and there he is - the next Royal standing.  More of a plot from the 1500s or 1600s, don’t you think? Or not, given the urgency there seems to be to remove him. We focus greatly on the Royal succession.  Then I wondered this question?  Who walk among us today as the living relatives of some of our most revered humans throughout history?  Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, William Shakespeare? Let’s start somewhere and find the closest living relative to Leonardo da Vinci.   From the Smithsonian Magazine:   Fourteen people (men) alive today, ranging in age from 1 to 85 years old have a direct genetic link to the famed Italian Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci.  Only one of these knew about their link to da Vinci.  There are other relatives that are mostly indirect from the female line - that includes Franco Zeffirelli. They can’t help with information about Leonard’s DNA - particularly on the Y-chromosome which is transmitted to male descendants and remains almost unchanged for 25 generations. Narrowing down the list of Leonardo’s blood relatives is time-consuming, complicated work. Leonardo never married or had children, so there are no direct descendants. The scientist and artist was born out of wedlock to Ser Piero, a Florentine notary, and Caterina, a young peasant woman, in 1452. All told, Leonardo had an estimated 22 half-siblings, including 17 from his father’s multiple relationships.  So the next question is:  So what? That means:  What is there to learn in this DNA revelation? The project doing this gruelling research wants “to understand how his extraordinary talents, such as visual acuity and creativity, may have been influenced by his genetics…The project’s findings could reshape the way the art world thinks about authenticating works and provide a deeper understanding of da Vinci’s genius.”  There’s an idea that his elusive DNA may be right here in his art work. I finished my presentation on Great Public Gardens in Your Own Backyard.  Then I realized that I had omitted a very important but tiny garden in St. Catharines.  This is the Harriet Tubman Memorial Garden at the Salem Chapel, BME Church on Geneva Street.  The picture is from 2014 when I was a garden volunteer taking care of the tiny Memorial Garden that held this statue of her.  This was her church from 1851 to 1858.

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Marilyn's Photos - Feb 20 2026 - Yosemite Horsetail Fall

 

Seeing Yosemite’s Horsetail Fall now is complicated with permits and restrictions.   And then recommendations:  “From mid to late February, the waterfall begins to light up 5 to 15 minutes before sunset. However, you should plan to invest several hours to get to the right place in time.”  That would be referring to “you” in the thousands. No reservations for 2026, so I guess it will be a Photographers Shove-Fest. That’s because it is an alignment of sun, waterfall and the Viewer.  Alternatively, we can sign into one of the webcams - such as  the El Capitan Webcam to check the water flow in Horsetail Fall before you make the trip. That’s funny for us here in Niagara to think that would be useful.  At the same time, we get to see what’s going on for ourselves with many webcams positioned around  Yosemite.  The webcams are all  HERE.   Some of those thousands jostling for a view will get to stand where Galen Rowell stood when he took the first photo that was published and revealed the astonishing phenomenon.  Ansel Adams got the photograph earlier - but it was in monochrome - too bad.  So it has only been since 1973 that we have had this marvel available to us through photography. Here it is.  Doesn’t it look like lava or fire!  And the second photo is just one of many of his that brings home the reason why Yosemite has been a sacred place since humans have experienced it. John Muir referred to it as a sacred temple. Lincoln protected it in 1864, the first time the U.S. government protected land. We can marvel at the every-day reflections.  Here’s Main Street Grimsby with the red light reflected on the wet pavement, giving a shimmering effect. Not Yosemite, but a little reminder there are beautiful things all around us every day.

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