November 10, 2026, a thought for today, The will is a good horse. Welsh Prover

Photos in my life yesterday

The first challenge was “my favorite number”. Have several but for today I used three using these three candles. 

he second assignment was “antique”. This is a waffle iron, on they used on
top of a stove instead of being plugged in. 

The last upload was “bridge”. It is located in the middle of town. I walked across it every work day for over fifteen years. 

Life today. It has been another of the quiet and productive days. I did have one thing to get out of the way before I could dive into my computer and to my to-do list. I left early, after the sun was up and  safer for me to drive, to get my blood drawn for my coming biannual doctor’s appointment. I gave the nurse a compliment at the first stick, but it sort of change a little. There had to be a little probing. I have three black and blue spots now. 

I stopped by Kroger to pick up some meds that were ready. Then at Wendy’s for a bit of brunch. 

To add to my chores for the day was moving a couple of things. The forty pounds of kitty litter that I had ordered arrived. I had to move it from the front porch to the back of the house by myself, pulling and sliding it, good thing the box it was in was sturdy. I’m sure that would have been amusing to watch but I got it done. Then there was the empty trash can to bring from the front curb, up the incline in the drive way to the back of the house. I can move it when it is empty but when it is full I tend to lose it at the incline, so my kind and thoughtful neighbor does it for me. 

My sister is still experiencing some of the ongoing health issues so she stays quiet in her room for most of the day. She came downstairs for her lunch a while ago so we had some sister time and talked in bits and pieces for a while. 

We are having another near perfect weather day, though it was a bit on the chilly side to start. The sun is bright and shiny right now. 

The word offered to ponder today is fact.  He is indebted to his memory for his jests and to his imagination for his facts. Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Facts are the enemy of truth. Miguel de Cervantes. Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong. Dr. Thomas Fuller. Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not. We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them. John Henry Cardinal Newman. Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. John Adams. Facts or opinions which are to pass through the hands of so many, to be misconceived by folly in one, and ignorance in another, can hardly have much truth left. Jane Austen. The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Beauty is a form of genius--is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon. Oscar Wilde. There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge. . . observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination. Denis Diderot. There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three-story intellects with skylights. All fact collectors with no aim beyond their facts are one-story men. Two-story men compare reason and generalize, using labors of the fact collectors as well as their own. Three-story men idealize, imagine, and predict. Their best illuminations come from above through the skylight. Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Aricle summary. When I saw the title to this article it put me in one of my very frequent “research” modes with it being a start. It also felt a little like my own personal letters/blog/diary. I wanted to check out what kinds of things carried “history” and how the stories were presented. The title is How studying the old drawings and writings of kids can change our view of history. Karen Sánchez-Eppler. L Stanton Williams 1941 Professor of American Studies and English, Amherst College. At theconversation.com. It opened with a quote from 1 Corinthians, concerning childhood actions and thoughts and growth to an adult. Next it related that the way children speak, think and observe doesn’t relate much to “adult perceptions”. The author, a cultural historian, feels that it would be interesting to see if the childhood ways “may possess valuable knowledge and insight”. In other words about how we think about historical events of the past. As historians study more about past history they have begun “studying the history of childhood”. It includes “using materials produced by the people they study – not just the things said”. As the author continues her study, she uses “writings and drawings produced by 19th-century American children”. She explains the difficulty in finding the sources. There are drawings, letter, diaries, essays and doodles in “library collections” but it is not cataloged as “child-made”. After finding these kinds of items she has to “figure how to interpret them”.  In the article she tells about an 1827 diary written by an eight-year-old daughter of a minister, where she found information  about a snow fall, weather of the day, and  how mama played a guitar at home. The writing as short but the use of a guitar in “middle-class households” was brought to light along with the nature of that day. It also encourages us to detect the viewpoints of a child. In another diary she discovered that a young boy wrote about home life during the Civil War. He described the “skirmishes” that “closely replicate the battle plans of actual Civil War conflicts” and show how the boy followed the news. The author says she even pays attention to “scribbles” in the margins. She came across ones from the 18 and 19th centuries that could tell about race and colonialism by the colors used in her scribbles. Some of the writings she has found were about shipwrecks and the childrens’ own stories tied to the idea of the shipwreck in an imaginary world. There have been homemade books found that show interest in inventions and engineering and building. In one of the books there was a map that showed where different things like, iron, hay, fruit, books, and pictures could be found. The author feels that these finds show how the children played and about their curiosity, and how we can see the history as was seen in their eyes.

While I stopped at Kroger to pick up meds I also picked up what we use to call “TV dinners”. I just hope they don’t do too much damage to acid reflux.

Photos in my life today

My first upload for today is “the last thing I bought”. I stopped at Wendy’s for a sausage sandwich and a cinnamon pull apart. 

The next assignment is “a crack in it”. My blacktop driveway has several cracks in it, some with weeds taking up residence. 

The last upload is “what I am wearing”. It is sweatshirt weather so I have on one of my favorites, Mickey Mouse. 

Joy

Fine Art America upload for today....snowy and abandoned

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 November 8, 2026 a thought for today, Better a patch than a hole. Welsh Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday

My first challenge was “something gold”. I found one of the fallen leaves that had a little more gold to it than some of the others.

The next assignment was “my choice” and one of my series of “still life”.  I arranged the pear on a small cutting board all on a draped white cloth. 

The last upload for yesterday was “wildlife”. I was able to capture this bird as he was poised on the handlers gloved hand. 

Life today. It has been a good Sunday. I had a early progressive and forward thinking talk with my daughter. I was taken to lunch by my son and along with a good friend where we had a good study of Christianity along with the meal. The message at church was given by a beautiful person, one knowledgeable of the Word, and one of my favorite people. We also enjoyed a the monthly donut fellowship hour after service. 

My sister has a bit of news about her health that is going to take everyday considerations, along with to keep going on with helpful medications and regular doctor’s visits. She is being given a Chance to help herself. She can be and should be fine for her age.

I do a lot of research for this letter and other “notions” that come to mind. (My father always told me, “ask me a question, if I don’t know the answer I will know where to find it”). I have learned things that I thought were not always what I had come to see as I was growing up and so have kept as my guide to living a good life. I call that kind of learning, research, and changing anything but closed mindedness and stubbornness. It also reduces the temptation to tell an untruth or to be self absorbed (jealous).

I got most of my personal daily visits and chores done before I left for church. I didn’t get much done on the “daily check list” after all, it is Sunday, a day to refresh, renew, revisit and restore any positive outlooks 

The word offered to ponder today is face.  There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. A smiling face is half the meal. Latvian Proverb. The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart. Saint Jerome. God give me strength to face a fact though it slay me. Thomas H. Huxley. You never find yourself until you face the truth. Pearl Bailey. What has a man's face to do with his character? Can a man of good character help having a disagreeable face? Ann Radcliffe. Truth, after all, wears a different face to everybody, and it would be too tedious to wait till all were agreed. James Russell Lowell. He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face. Benjamin Franklin. O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible, As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a steeple. William Shakespeare. No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true. Nathaniel Hawthorne. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. Bible, James 1: 23-24. Let him who expects one class of society to prosper into highest degree, while the other is in distress, try whether one side of his face can smile while the other is pinched. Thomas Fuller. 

Article summary. When I saw the title it brought to mind what I have been thinking for a while, I liken fire to AI. We will have to see where it goes, with care I hope. The title is Human use of fire has produced an era of uncontrolled burning: Welcome to the Pyrocene. Stephen Pyne, Emeritus Professor of Life Sciences, Arizona State University. At theconversation.com. It begins by mentioning how there have many many fires in the word recently leaving destruction and smoke in the air. It goes on to say that the use of fire has become like a sign that we may are “creating the fire equivalent of an ice age.” It says that since the ice age the landscape is more “fire-receptive”. There have been studies on how it might be possible to control things better. The change in atmosphere has added to the problem. It is mentioned that “transition to fossil-fuel”affected things, how cities are designed, landscapes with agriculture and preserves, generating energy all are parts of the situation. Two areas of concern are fires in the landscapes and fires the “burn lithic landscapes”. The article makes the comment that “it is like a driverless car that barrels down the road” contacting whatever is around it. Another comment is “climate change acts as a performance enhancer”, both brought on by a “conversion to a fossil-fuel society”. So the use of fire seems out of the control beyond  it’s benefits. That’s how I see the use of IA could move in history. We need the good not the dangerous sides of it. 

Dinner will be on the snack side of things since I had a delicious and happy lunch.

Photos in my life today

The first challenge today is “not my house”.  I liked the neighgor’s bird house as my choice for this one. 

The next assignment was “my choice” and is one of my series of “black and white”. This is one of my last weeping fig plants. 

The last upload was “triangle”. I felt the legs of my tripod were a perfect
triangle. 

Joy

todays upload to Fine Art America is another of my black and white images. My dining room table, with bowls and a book with a few of my family photos in the back ground

Want to shop? fineartamerica.com search for joy rector (“view shop”) redbubble.com search for jarector

 November 6, 2026 a thought for today, One sin draws a hundred after it. Welsh Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday 

The first challenge was “l is for....”. I chose an image of a leaf that had fallen under the door at front of the garage. 

The next assignment was “a liquid”. I decided to use a bottle of handsensitizer for my sample of a liquid. 

The last upload was “a penny for guy”. I decided to use a candle to represent the “bond fire” and a pile of pennies to represent the collection of pennies. Penny for the guy refers to a traditional British custom associated with Guy Fawkes Night (Bonfire Night) on November 5

Life today. This has been a Friday that I have needed for a while now. It has been quiet even giving me time to day dream and to meditate on my life’s accomplishments made and the path to come. My three biggest accomplishments are three absolutely perfect, as perfect as the best in a humans can be. I am so proud I was chosen to be their mother. One of them is in heaven now the other two are continuing to contribute to the happiness of others. I am also happy with my place in Christian circles and activities. So it’s been a good feeling day.

I’m still anxious about how the church newsletter is coming along. I have it at the “draft” point. To move it along any further I need to get some articles to add. A very good member of my church family has taken it upon herself to ask people of our church who could possibly have information to share to send it to me for entry in the upcoming issue. So I am waiting for that and the time when I can try some printing issues. I have been doing some research on the subject and have been enlightened with what I have learned. I think my everyday research for these letters and questions that pop into my head lead to being as open minded as I can be.

The autumn leaves are covering the ground leaving the trees to begin their winter rest. The bare branches give a different look to the world. 

The word offered to ponder today is eye. Nothing contributes so much to tranquilizing the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart. Saint Jerome. Men are born with two eyes, but only one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say. Charles Caleb Colton. For visions come not to polluted eyes. Mary Howitt. What you don't see with your eyes, don't invent with your mouth. Jewish Proverb. When you go to buy, use your eyes, not your ears. Czech Proverb. One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy. Jane Austen. Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are. Niccolo Machiavelli. All men, if they work not as in the great taskmaster's eye, will work wrong, and work unhappily for themselves and for you. Thomas Carlyle. With affection beaming out of one eye, and calculation shining out of the other. Charles Dickens. History is philosophy teaching by example, and also warning; its two eyes are geography and chronology. James A. Garfield. All action is of the mind and the mirror of the mind is the face, its index the eyes. Cicero. A friend's eye is a good mirror. Celtic Proverb. Eyes that see do not grow old. Nicaraguan Proverb. One may have good eyes and yet see nothing. Italian Proverb. The eyes are not responsible when the mind does the seeing. Publilius Syrus. If a man's eye is on the Eternal, his intellect will grow. Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Article summary: I like writing as I have mentioned before, this is another article that may also be of interest to some that are interested in “supporting” their memory in a writing habit as life moves on. I like putting the word to ponder in each letter to more or less act as a kind of Easter egg although it is not a hidden message only one to think about. I also wanted to see this author’s idea of how it helps memory. The title is Note taking by hand: A powerful tool to support memory. Hetty Roessingh, Professor, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. At theconversation.com. It opened by suggesting how starting a hand written note you are “supporting” the “retrieval of information (memory)” while also creating an “external memory storage”. This author believes that taking notes is a “cognitive tool” and persons can begin as early as the third grade. It goes on to say that digital communication has its place and is an “important skill” too but “keyboarding” doesn’t offer the same “feedback” as hand writing. Some of that difference is that hand writing leads to “manipulating and transforming information that leads to deeper understanding”. Second grade students pick up the habit of using the hands that leads to the memory of that action and  “to the cognitive demands of note-taking”. The article goes on to say that sketching and drawing are also tools too. It mentions that Leonardo da Vinci is quoted as saying “…the more minutely you describe” meaning that it mayt be more likely to move off the subject so “it is necessary to “make a drawing … as well as to describe …”. When da Vinci’s statement was studied it was determined that his inventive mind led to three levels of “information processing”, possibly by going from to the start of note taking to the final written note. The article mentions Florence Nightingale’s “meticulous observations, documentation, note-taking and writing”. No matter the occupation you choose you may see “the benefits and importance of note-taking and sketching”. When the digital form of communication is compared it is important to consider that “hand-written notes matter and endure over time”. Much of what is hand written can then be shared digitally. It ends by saying that “note-taking is an indispensable cognitive tool and study technique” in creating “memory and meaning through the hand-brain complex is the key to understanding the value of hand-written notes”.

I think it will be another DoorDash pizza tonight for dinner

Photos in my life today

My first assignment is “fence”. Since I didn’t go out today I used an image of a fence from my archives. 

The second challenge is “sunset”. I used one from the archives again. I am not generally out and about at sunset anymore. 

The last upload is “street photograph”. Most time I think “street
photography” included a human. I used these orange safety cones for my upload instead. I felt it implied what most humans are experiencing in the time of ongoing maintenance  on the streets. 

Joy

my upload to Fine Art America for today. An abstract generated from a photo image of a red stick candle in a clear glass candle holder

Want to shop? fineartamerica.com search for joy rector (“view shop”) redbubble.com search for jarector

 November 4, 2026 a thought for today, The liar and thief are brothers. Welsh Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday

The first challenge was “a collection”. This is my house plant collection along with window boxes of miniature roses. 

The next assignment was “shallow depth of field”. I used one of the very large
lilies from my most current bouquet for the focal point in this image. 

The last upload was “purse”. It is my fanny pack which is heave and handy for photo opportunities

Life today. It has been a good day even though it is cloudy and rainy. The problems I ran into a couple of days ago are emerging as a learning experience. A learning experience for me and one of my bad habits, my big mouth to be exact. I had reason to touch on the subject with someone I love. She brought to mind of how I might have inherited the habit. My father was a wise man and he didn’t hesitate to suggest to ones around him when they were being foolish or honestly not knowing what they were talking about (some later thanked him). He didn’t feel he had any friends due to that but when he passed away the funeral home visits were standing room only. We also talked about my mother’s habit of speaking her mind no matter the circumstance, some may call that honesty. She was never proven wrong, but I guess that is no excuse. Anyway with the talk with the person who loves me and my stubbornness recognized maybe that is a step in a positive direction. Only time will tell for the long run. The after affects of the original situation seem to be smoothing out. 

The day has been productive. I have the newsletter ready for a test print tomorrow. I am expecting that after the “text print” there will still be some “clean up” work to do. My hope is that will only be clean up work and not a complete do over. 

The day has been one that has allowed me to get some work done on most of the things on my “daily to-do check list”. I am still working on the Christmas calendars then paper quilled snow flakes, the snow flakes are a later in the evening project after my daily devotional readings. Then there is also getting a page done in the book I am working on which may or may not ever be finished let alone be published, but fun and entertaining in the way of memories for now.

A word to ponder today is expression. The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. Walt Whitman. The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object. Thomas Jefferson. Neither can embellishments of language be found without arrangement and expression of thoughts, nor can thoughts be made to shine without the light of language. Cicero. I don't play accurately-any one can play accurately- but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life. Oscar Wilde. Our expression and our words never coincide, which is why the animals don't understand us. Chazal. Expression is the mystery of beauty. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton. Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets. Oscar Wilde. Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. Victor Hugo. Where painting is weakest, namely, in the expression of the highest moral and spiritual ideas, there music is sublimely strong. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Desire is possibility seeking expression. Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was a favorite expression of Theophrastus that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend. Diogenes. Gracefulness has been defined to be the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul. William Hazlitt. Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility... It is the utmost expression of human passion. William Wordsworth. Expression… gives reality to things. Oscar Wilde. 

Article summary. In our church we have a place in the service where we have a “passing of the peace”. We go around shaking hands with each other, with a warm greeting. During the pandemic we did a fist bump instead. For some reason I have stuck to that habit, the fist bump, reach out and touch method, with love and appreciation. There is a connection made during the “passing of the peace”. This article caught my attention. The title is Abraham Lincoln, Joe Biden and the politics of touch. Mark M. Smith Carolina Distinguished Professor of History, University of South Carolina. At theconversation.com. The author mentioned that since politics are in the forefront he wanted to look back on how “past politicians learned to use touch not to molest, intimidate or cow but to connect, engage and inspire”. He began the article with Abraham Lincoln’s handshaking, he saw this as a valued touch and social etiquette. The article mentioned that by the early 19th century handshaking seemed “democratic” and more toward the idea of equality. The author relates that Lincoln probably learned that “glad-handing” was a way to communicate as he was a “young traveling lawyer”. As it became more a politically positive  being careful that it wasn’t taken as sending the wrong message”. There was an article written in 1870 about “Hand Shaking”. The article told of some of the ways to do the hand shake, refusing was a “declaration of hostility,” the pressure in the hand was to be considered. To tight indicated to much strength or “malicious intent”, but not allowing a “fair hold” was “odious”. In 1861 Mr. Lincoln had shaken so many hands that it left him with “hurt hands”. He finally decided to use both hands for a hand the shake. It is said that  “Lincoln’s hands were imprinted with politics” key ideas were written on his skin. His hands were so shaky on the day that the Emancipation Proclamation was signed that his writing was “unsteady”. He was concerned what people would think but he said “I was never surer of anything in my life.” There is a cast of Lincoln’s hands that are “inscribed with history of handshaking”. The cast of his hands showed the swollen muscles. Mr. Lincoln “used touch to connect with voters” but he had “rules”, no hugging. The article ended with “appropriate touching plays an important role in American political culture (and, in my opinion not only the “political” culture)”. 

I haven’t decided on what is for dinner yet. I will have to look around in the cupboard, freezer and frig.

Photos in my life today

My first assignment is “a lucky find”. It is a penny that I found on my black top driveway. 

The next challenge is “movement”. I chose this one from my archives, it is a water wheel that was at the Ohio State Fair. The wheel was in very slow motion. 

The last upload is “macro”. It is another smaller flower from my most current
bouquet. 

Joy

one of my Fine Art America contest uploads

Want to shop? fineartamerica.com search for joy rector (“view shop”) redbubble.com search for jarector

 November 2, 2026 a thought for today, Old age is a hundred disorders. Welsh Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday

The first challenge was “a place to sit”. One of my friends and church family sits in this pew most Sundays. 

The next assignment was “my choice” and one of my series of “still life”. Oneof my red carnations sitting on my red tale top covers. 

The last uploads was “reflection”. This is my neighbors car with a beginning of a buildup of autumn leaves with the bare tree branches in the windshield. 

Life yesterday. This has not been one of my better days and I was really looking foreword to a productive day. It got turned around. Now there are things to study and find answers too. With that event and a personal error, it looks like my time on getting the church newsletter done will have to be pushed back again. I’ll do what I can with some help from a Friend. It appears to be a woe is me day.

I got the bulletin information a little while ago. I have been able to get the bulk of it done. Between a trip to a doctors office and time to vote I will squeeze it in as well as most of the rest tomorrow. It looks like it is going to be a more active week than I had hoped and planned for. 

I need to work on my personality. Some times I think that I need to be a different person than I was created to be. On the other side of the coin maybe I need to settle for I am who I am.

The day is coming to a close and I have my check list with blank boxes in front of me. I am going to quit for the day. I didn’t have any lunch, think I will go make a scrambled egg with cheese and toast, maybe peanut butter instead of butter on the toast.

The word to ponder today is expect. Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. Alexander Pope. As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly. Samuel Johnson. What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens. Benjamin Disraeli. When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece. John Ruskin. Endeavor to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others for thou has many faults and imperfections of thine own that require forbearance. If thou are not able to make thyself that which thou wishest, how canst thou expect to mold another in conformity to thy will? Thomas a Kempis. Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause; He noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self-made laws. Sir Richard Francis Burton. If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things. Plato. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Henry David Thoreau. Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish. Ovid. Those who cannot tell what they desire or expect, still sigh and struggle with indefinite thoughts and vast wishes. Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is men who wait to be selected, and not those who seek, from whom we may expect the most efficient service. Ulysses S. Grant. Do not always expect good to happen, but do not let evil take you by surprise. Czech Proverb. That is a good book which is opened with expectation and closed with profit. Amos Bronson Alcott. He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator. Sir Francis Bacon. A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open. Sir Francis Bacon. Life is largely a matter of expectation. Horace.  

Article summary. I have wondered how people may have read the bible back when it was written. And how far we have come from a scroll to a cell phone where we can read our books. The title is What were books like in ancient Greece and Rome? Konstantine Panegyres, Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, The University of Western Australia. At theconversation.com. In the opening chapter there was an explanation or description that suggested how “books” were read in the 2nd century CE. A Roman person named Anlus Gellius describes how he visited a book store with a friend. He saw a copy of the “annals of Quintus Fabius Pictor” that was in  “good and undoubted age, which the dealer maintained was without errors”.  As they were in the shop a new customer came in with a complaint, he “found in the book one error”. The customer found the error and proved the dealer wrong. There were bookstalls as he traveled along the Adriatic coast. Along the way he found “books” that were “marvellous” in tales from writers of “no mean authority”. The books were in “bad condition and unsightly”. But he was attracted to their “unexpected cheapness”. There “excited languages”, all sorts of stories of ordinary people and how the people of the times “engaged with a book”. The author related that many people felt that writing was “invented by gods or heroes”, as in Thoth used the first sign that represented a spoken sound. The earliest written book was written on a “wooden tablet radiocarbon dated to before 5000 BCE”. In this “book” there were “strange linear markings” that scholars believe are a form of writing. There is evidence of writing from different parts of the world including different scripts. In the earliest times it was written in signs. Around the 8th century the Greek people began using an alphabet in place of symbols. This alphabet was adapted fom the Phoenician alphabet coming with traders. There were only 22 letters. I learned that our English alphabet came from the Romans which also came from the Phoenicians by way of the Greeks. There were various materials used to write on, palm leaves, bark of trees, sheets of lead, sheets of linen, tablets of wax. The most popular in the Mediterranean for papyrus. Eventually the papyrus was glued together and used in rolls. If you wanted to write you would buy sheets or rolls of papyrus or write on other materials. Ink was made of burnt resin or pitch mixed with vegetable gum. Some pens were made of a reed. Then came the time that you could use a scribe to write your words. Libraries came along in Alexandria, Rome and Athens. Scribes made copies of the “books”

Photos in my life today

The first assignment is “a word I like”. I like many words. I have become very accustom to words and looking new ones up. This is one of my favorite due to what is behind the title. 

The next challenge is “blue”. This is one of the large foot rests in my house and one the young ones like to play on and Bobbi likes to test out every now and then. 

The last upload is “n is for...”. I used a small note pad at the image for “n”.I think is will be eggs tonight, I lost track of time as well as facing some errors that I needed to face.

Joy

all of my photo a day composites for the month of October 2026

 October 30, 2026 a thought for today, The strength of the bee is its patience. Welsh Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday

The first challenge was “words in a book”. This is from a very old cook book. The same title that my mom used over seventy years ago, The American Woman’s Cook Book. 

The next assignment was “my choice” and one from my series of “texture layover”.The image is one of the local metro parks in the area. I put a vintage cracked parchment layover on it. 

The last upload was “costume”. I didn’t have any costumes available and no children near by getting ready for the holiday. So I used a piece of one of the ornaments in the store. 

Life today. Printing yesterday went smoothly and quickly, I like this new format. I hope the rest of the congregation does too, the comments I have heard have been positive. 

What a day. Sue is getting some help from family for some paper work that is beyond my purview so there have been people in and out of the house this afternoon. My desk is right in the line of activity. 

I got several the items on my list checked off earlier. I also got the dishwasher loaded. We had a brief period that the electric was out in the neighborhood. I took that as an indication that I was lucky, giving me a change to get that done while my computer work was put on hold until the electric was back on. One of the big things I worked on from my list was the formatting the new newsletter, it is going slowly, it is all graphic test boxes and tables, both taking time to size, format and place.

I have the photos for today all ready for upload. This letter will be ready very soon. So I will determine which to do first the uploads or tomorrow’s curbside pick up order ready. 

We are having another as close as perfect that is possible autumn day, gorgeous sun, perfect temperature for this early in the season. 

The word to ponder today is exact.  It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact. Edmund Burke. The way to procure insults is to submit to them: a man meets with no more respect than he exacts. William Hazlitt. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. Sir Francis Bacon. Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. Edmund Burke. In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government. Thomas Carlyle. True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another, and the motive which impels themthe desire to do rightis precisely the same. Robert E. Lee. For we both alike know that into the discussion of human affairs the question of justice enters only where the pressure of necessity is equal, and that the powerful exact when they can, and the weak grant what they must. Thucydides. Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common. Denis Diderot. Where does the violet tint end and the orange tint begins? Ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty. Plutarch. Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Exactness in little things is a wonderful source of cheerfulness. Frederick William Faber. 

Article summary. I am hooked on texts and email. As I see it it is useful and effective in that the person that is being contacted may or may not be able to take part in a conversation at the same moment as the sender. There are “cons” I suppose, like written evidence in the case of a dispute, but then it can be there for review when necessary too. I am also a letter writer as shown here.  So lets see what what we can learn from this story. The title is I wrote a book about email – and found myself pining for the days of letter writing. Randy Malamud. Regents' Professor of English, Georgia State University. At theconversation.com. In the first paragraph the author explained that he was interested in “hidden” things in the “ordinary”. So he wrote a book about writing.  He also felt that email was a correspondence method that “evoked” energy and attention being “sucked away” like a “tsunami” in a missive that required little formality. He found instead along the way “how much richer old-fashioned letters are”. Email does not offer a paper and pen feelings of the touch of the paper, the unique smell of paper, the print of a letter head and closing signature. He went on to say the “.com” voided out the “historical and social value” of a hand written letter. Then there is the cost of postage. With that addition to writing and sending mail, he believed that could have encouraged people to be attentive in time and effort in the correspondence. As the article moved on, he recognized that email is convenient but there is the fact that letters can be storytelling, they “spread” Gospel, they express peoples feelings. There are famous letters to be recognized as a letter to President Lincoln from children and his response. According to the article that letter was sold for $3.4 million in 2008. There was a time when a complaint about letters and delivery timing prompted a “fad” of post cards in place of letters. (Maybe a step toward “email”?). As a technical point it is mentioned the there has been in the close past there were 300 billion emails sent every day. It was then elaborated with will it, email, ever be “valuable” as in to sell, as famous letters are or celebrated as some have been. In moving toward an end to this article the author says email is “paltry ...and...grammatically challenged”. It is sometimes ignored or deleted and may require a response. It ends in what was a little harsh, I think in saying, “maybe it’s just the mirror held up to life, and we are precisely as trite as our email suggests.”

Photos in my life today

My first challenge is “a quotes you like”. This is one of my favorite and I hope I reach it each years. It is
one of Ansel Adams’. “Twelve significant photographs in one year is a good crop”.

The next assignment is another “my choice” and another of my series of “texture layover”. This is a one of my still life’s of white flowers in a black vase with a cloth like layover. 

The last upload is “pumpkin”. I used another one of the decorations from McDonalds for this one.

This is pizza night from DoorDash. 

Joy 

the Find Art America upload for today is a black and white of another still life

Want to shop? fineartamerica.com search for joy rector) (“view shop”) redbubble.com search for jarector)