Marilyn's Photos - June 22 2025 - We Love Peonies

 

How much do we love peonies?  We have North America's largest collection of peonies at Whistling Gardens, and another large one at the Oshawa Peony Garden.  We seem to love them a lot.  There are 1,300 varieties of herbaceous, intersectional, tree and species peonies at Whistling Gardens.   The peony that we are most excited about is the Itoh peony.  Dr. Toichi Itoh, a Japanese botanist crossed tree peonies with herbaceous peonies.  The resulting plants have the best traits of the parents, hardiness and herbaceous growth along with gorgeous flower colours and forms of the tree peony AND they don't fall over - they have the tree peony strength of stem.  Itoh's hybridization took place in 1948, with seeds germinating, and then there was a decade of seedling oversight before the hybrids bloomed.  Dr. Itoh died in 1956, so it was his family who oversaw the process.  American Botanist Louis Smirnow, brought them to the USA where the Itoh name came about and hybrids first patented. i don't know what makes them so expensive - at least $50.00 a plant.  So let's find out.  That amount is now inexpensive compared to the days prior to tissue culture.  Prior to that they were only available by division and a small root could sell for $300.  It took many attempts at tissue culture for a breakthrough, and today tissue culture is used for mass production.  Peonies grow at a slow pace, so the costs are significantly reduced, but won't likely get 'cheap'. A mature plant can produce 30 or more blooms each season. And they are big flowers, very showy in the garden. While there are no blue peonies, they come in white, yellow, orange, pink and red with variations.   Our world of plants and flowers has grown and changed significantly in the last twenty-five years with tissue culture.  I've wondered what will happen when it becomes easy to produce humans via tissue culture.  There are applications of human cell culture now. Can you imagine replications existing?  It is curious at best and a horror tale at worst. Leet's stick with plants and peonies: it is a wonderful story of abundance and beauty.

Here's the small peony collection at Winterthur with the bee hive gazebo as a focal point.

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Marilyn's Photos - June 20 2025 - Blue Nails

 

As I grow older, I become more adverse to makeup - to bright lipstick and bright finger nails.  I seem to notice a lot of light blue nails this summer.  Fingers waving in the air with these little light blue tips getting my attention.  I started to wonder about manicures, and checked online - one of the salons has published its manicure prices as ranging from $35 to $45. Especially if you aren't buying the nail polish.  It seems that nail polish is one of those things that soars above the sun when it comes to pricing.  "Red Carpet Manicure Amor 24 Polish gained global attention when it was worn by pop star Rihanna at the 2012 Grammy Awards. The metallic gold polish, which complemented the singer’s custom Armani gown, was the perfect finishing touch to her glamorous look. It is priced at $5,000."  I assume U.S At $5,000, that is the low end of the high cost of premium nail polish.   "The high price tag of $250,000 per bottle makes it the most expensive nail polish in the world, and a manicure using this polish can cost up to $25,000. Azature’s Black Diamond Polish is considered the most expensive manicure in the world. This luxurious nail polish is made with 267 carats of black diamonds, giving it a unique, shimmering effect. However, it costs a whopping $250,000 per bottle, and a manicure using this polish can cost up to $25,000. The high price is due to the rareness and high cost of black diamonds, known for their beauty and rarity. The polish has been worn by celebrities such as Kelly Osbourne and has become a symbol of luxury and opulence in beauty and fashion." Here's the promo picture - the finish reminds me of formica countertops from the 1950s - black with little flecks in them.  I don't think that's what we're supposed to be associating these nails with.

Here's one of the gazebos in the RBG Rose Garden.  Such a pretty structure that goes with the roses wonderfully.  I expect it cost less than the bottle of nail polish.

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Marilyn's Photos - June 19 2025 - Summer Solstice

 

The summer solstice is tomorrow, Friday, at 10:42 pm.  Is it PM, pm, or p.m.  I see a number of variations.  I don't know if it because there are competing style books, or if it because it is now a free-for-all and anything goes.  I vote for the latter.  So I thought I might check on what the official style book would say.  Wikipedia is a good enough source.   Wikipedia says:  The Latin abbreviations a.m. and p.m. (often written "am" and "pm", "AM" and "PM", or "A.M." and "P.M.") are used in English (and Spanish). "Before midday" comes from the Latin ante meridian and :after midday' comes from the Latin post meridian.  Twelve hours - so symmetrical.   So whether the Summer Solstice  is at PM, pm, or P.M. or p.m. we are cheated a bit in North America as it isn't much of a celebration here.  I assume we lack the ancient sites that have magic and wonder in them.  Stonehenge, for example, compels the world's attention at the solstices each year.  The estimate is between 12,000 to 15,000 people will be at the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge this year.   So onwards to Summer which will pass like a blink of an eye.  William Shakespeare said "Summer's lease hath all too short a date."

A multiple exposure image of Alliums at the Royal Botanical Garden - a watercolour version and the original.

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Marilyn's Photos - June 18 2025 - Picking Up those Papers

 

Got me.  It doesn't look awkward.  It was pretty fast.  He bent over and swooped them up quickly.  A deep knee squat for a 62 year old seems good to me.    The press has termed it "unfortunate."  It is as though Starmer "bent the knee" to Trump, as Trump was fond of declaring earlier in the year.  Is it because he is Sir Keir and has some "royal" sort of title that it is awkward?   Does that then confer something on Trump? This is the man who is quoted as saying that billions and billions of people have overwhelming support for him as "King of America."   The Wikipedia entry titled False or misleading statements by Donald Trump has this concluding line in the first section:  "It has been suggested that Trump's false statements amount to bullshit rather than lies." In the paragraph titled Bullshit, the definition of a bullshitter from Harry Frankfurt's 2005 book On Bullshit, says that the "liar cares about the truth and attempts to hide it, while the bullshitter does not care whether what they say is true or false." So likely, then,  Trump would take the title of the "King of Bullshit." Last month I found out about Assholes and Stupid people, this month about Bullshitter as a technical definition.  Things get stranger all the time.

Run Away - looks like an apt title for this one.

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Marilyn's Photos - June 17 2025 - Bingo

 

How long has Bingo been with us? Isn't that so unexpected - Italy in 1530 or so.Cards, tokens, and the calling out of numbers - sounds like Bingo. Games like this were used to teach children spelling, animal names and multiplication tables in German in the 19th century. In North America, its history is associated with travelling carnivals in the early 20th century.  And the name's history - perhaps one of the popularizer Lowe's friends shouting out Bingo in excitement.  I guess she was supposed to shout out Beano.    There used to be commercial Bingo Halls. There was a time when churches and charity organizations used these as fund raisers.  But things have changed - smoking not allowed in public, lottery licenses required for games of chance, and so on.  And then we've moved on to other activities and games of chance.  Bingo is still in the mindset of the U.S. Most of the Guinness World Records are from the U.S. - they include the biggest bingo card in 2019, world's highest bingo game in 2009, fastest bingo jackpot in 2010, and so on.   Bingo gets around - it makes its appearance in novels.  Here's one: The Bingo Hall Detectives – Jonathan Whitelaw "Jonathan Whitelaw brings the vibrant world of bingo to life, turning it into a stage for intrigue, secrets, and unexpected alliances. The story follows a reluctant detective who gets drawn into a case involving missing money and suspicious characters. As he investigates, he realizes that bingo halls are more than just places to play. Thus, they are communities where people form close-knit bonds. However, they can also hide dark secrets."

Railroad model layout that looks real to me.

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