Marilyn's Photos - Apr 18 2026 - War on Dandelions

 

It seems that Dandelions have been hated for a long time.  They were brought to North America by settlers in the 17th century for food and medicine.  I don't see dandelions in the woods - they need a fair amount of sun.  But I would expect meadows got overrun quite quickly.  Now, we are a rural and urban landscape with few meadows, and we gave dandelions the perfect environment to flourish Starting slowing in the 1870s and accelerating in the 1950s lawns became part of the urban and rural landscape.  In the 20th century, horses were replaced by cars, giving more room to having a lawn.   I would guess the gas-powered lawnmower helped lawns proliferate.  And once we had lawns, we had room for dandelions to spread.   I can remember that most of the neighbourhood children had lawn duty - removing dandelions with the long-handled tool that would be able to get out the tap root.  That was before all the herbicides.   What made dandelions so hated?  This quote from an article by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects likely says it all: "Colonial control over nature, demonization of the 'wild', and the 'othering' of those different from ourselves are all ideologies wrapped up in the history of the suburban lawn. Here's a lawn of dandelions on Grimsby Town property a few years ago.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Mairlyn's Photos - Apr 27 2026 - Golden Orb from the Ocean

 

Another one of those articles with something mysterious found at the bottom of the ocean - 2 miles to the bottom.  We're always looking for aliens and relics from a thousand years ago.  This item was in the Gulf of AlaskaIt turns out to be animal and not mineral. It is genetic material from a giant deepsea anemone.  It turns out to be a blog and not an orb. It was first discovered in 2023, and there was much speculation then.  SO here we are a few years later, and scientists from NOAA finished the DNA tests, after the initial ones were inconclusive. They can now be conclusive.  How is it that the tissue is gold with light reflection? Pictures of it look a lot like mud to me.  Not a treasure, an egg or an alien something or other. I somehow think they will find remnant of Atlantis, but I guess not in Alaska.   Here's a picture from the Monterey Aquarium.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Apr 26 2026 - Go Forth and Pun

 

Are puns the most popular form of humour?  Here's a sign that makes me think so.  I am told that is not the case, that puns aren't the most popular.  But that comes from Google's AI which I often find is flawed, faulty and wrong. The Note at the bottom reads:  "While puns are often met with groans, they are still considered a form of "small joy" and "intelligence" by many." I doubted that very much and followed the crumb trail of this "Note." I found its Reddit source.  It is a conversation and debate over what makes for a great pun response. The first entry claims that groans to one person are a negative and to another are a reward and sign of a good pun.  The second person challenges whether puns are an indication of intelligence, and says instead, they are a measure of vocabulary...the number of words you know and the priorities you place on comedy in communication.  Another person claims that the groan response is "not actually groaning, they just don't know how better to respond to a joke that didn't immediately make them laugh."  Turns out that Reddit can be entertaining at times.   By chance, I found these "Chew" jokes.  They have to all be puns.  Here are my favourite two.  So much fun with Shakespeare, followed by chewing setting off an electrical storm:   I own a pencil that used to be owned by William Shakespeare, but he chewed it a lotNow I can’t tell if it’s 2B or not 2B My son kept chewing on electrical cables so I finally had to ground him.Of course he denied the charge first, but later I found him coiled up in his room.  He's conducting himself better now, so I think that worked out. Well that's the current situation anyways, but there's definitely potential for greater resistance. Some days I just feel like I don't have the capacity for raising kids. He can be a real live wire sometimes. I found a little cell pack of 4 Black Kale plants (tiny) at one of the garden centres.  There are variations and I may not have the darkest one which is Black Magic Kale.  It doesn't matter that much - look at how wonderful the shape and texture are at maturity.   This picture is from the Celtic Garden.  Do you remember it?  Full of hostas that he hybridized and huge willow sculptures he created. Also blue-painted trees in the style of Claude Cormier.  It was located in Vinemount, near me in Niagara.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Apr 25 2026 - What Makes for a Feud?

 

What makes for a feud?  That word keeps hitting the headlines with the Pope and Trump seemingly engaged in one.  I have in my mind feuds are mostly an American activity.  That's all those Western movies I watched as a child.  So looking up the history of feuds here are a few that pop up right away, seeming to confirm this view: Hatfield-McCoy - 1863-1891: This started with a dispute over a hog and spanned Kentucky and West Virginia, resulting in over 12 deaths and Supreme Court involvement.   Sutton - Taylor Feud 1860s - 1870s: Texas' longest-running feud with over 35 deaths.  Historically, though, there are far more important historical feuds than those above: Clan Campbell vs Clan MacDonald - 1692: known for the Glencoe Massacre where Campbells murdered MacDonalds.  Medici vs. Pazzi - 1478: Renaissance-era rivalry in Florence, Italy. Elizabeth I vs Mary Queen of Scots - 16th Century:  a multi-decade battle for the English throne The Stacker article covers many more: Byron vs Keats, the poets; Charles Darwin vs Richard Owen over giving credit for involvement in the theory of evolution, Edison and Tesla over AC vs DC, Van Gogh vs Gauguin with recent theories that Gauguin cut off Van Gogh's ear.   While this is an interesting article in Stacker HERE, perhaps we should question what is really being described is a feud.  Some of these are disputes and others are rivalries. Compare that to the Wikipedia entry for Feud HERE.  Feuds are ugly, nasty things with violence and death. They are long-standing, bitter, and often violent conflict between families, clans, or groups, characterized by a cycle of revenge.  A feud is hard to end.  Now take a dispute .  It is a specific, generally shorter-term disagreement or argument over a particular issue. What I find on doing a little research is that Donald Trump has been described as "feuding" or in a "feud" many times - hundreds to thousands of times.  There are detailed lists of the journalists, politicians and places he has insulted.  I guess if it is never-ending, it might just be a one-person feud.  Like dancing in the dark alone.   Our Ontario native Trilliums are blooming. This picture comes from a few years ago in the forest, and not in my garden.  Too bad.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Apr 24 2026 - Weird Drone Pictures

 

Do you remember those very funny and/or weird pictures caught by the Google Earth Cameras? The most recent version is YouTube videos of drone footage of "accidental creepy sightings." Not the same as Google Earth pictures - these were likely exaggerations, faked events, and misrepresentations... except the shark pictures and videos.  There are quite a few of them and these are compelling.  The articles are about how drones are being used in Australia to monitor sharks and provide safety on beaches.   In comparison, here's an article from San Diego that shows juvenile Great White sharks amongst the surf boarders and swimmers and explains that they are not dangerous, despite their large size - between 4.5 and 9 feet long.  I've taken a screenshot of one of the pictures from the article.  Some of the drone images are from high above and show the shark swimming along the shoreline with the bather farther out and not seeing the shark at all.   Here's the article and video by Scott Fairchild.   I guess the equivalent would be swimming in Lake Ontario and looking down to see a Lake Sturgeon below you - seven feet and more in length and 200 pounds.  While they are not aggressive toward humans, their massive size and prehistoric look would be scary.  As they are bottom feeders, there's not much likelihood of having an interaction.  Here's our hilarious version of sighting Lake Sturgeons.  All the articles are about bringing the Lake Sturgeon back from being on the endangered list and releasing hatchlings to Lake Ontario.  The picture below that is a 10 foot long Sturgeon being tagged and released. This is in the Fraser River and the articles says it was the biggest ever seen. Here's the latest in the Moon series.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com