December 26, 2019 thought for the day: Live with your friend as if he might become your enemy. English Proverb

What a few days this has been. First off I spent the day at home in bed for Christmas day. I had the flu. Late in the afternoon my sister had an auto accident with the twins in the car. They were all injured. Fortunately not fatally. One of the twins was a little more banged up than the other. They have found one thing after another with my sister’s injuries as the hours passed. The most serious seems to be a ruptured spleen. My comfort in driving has always been questionable not to mention after her misfortune. So I am VERY worried about driving to the hospital to see her. My son took me there today. My daughter-in-law has been with her all night and into today so I know she is being cared for. I could be a bit in the way I think so I will wait until she comes home to see what she needs.

The best parts of my Christmas was spending a few hours with my granddaughter and two great grand children as well as my sons and daughter-in-law. I don’t have a regular tree up for several reasons but did buy a string of lights to add to my “Mickey Mouse tree” and around the mantel adorned with Christmas cards. My work on documents for the church enlivened my Christmas spirit and the candle light service (before the flu hit me) topped it off and helped make this seasons another place in my memory file.

On Christmas eve I spent the evening at church for our candle light service. It was beautiful and peaceful contributing to the true meaning of the season. This is where I got my shot for this photo a day theme “xmas eve”. Actually I wanted to get the shot uploaded before I went to church so I used the one from last years  archive of the service. The scene was exactly the same.

I printed the bulletin and newsletter at church this morning before Lowell was going to pick me up. Just before he picked me up, I got one of the packing boxes still left to unpack done. When he dropped me off, I started the laundry.

Today is almost like a spring day, odd for the latter part of December but pleasant and enjoyable.

My word choice today is dance.  Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul, Plato. Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance? Lewis Carroll.  All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing, Moliere.  Let us read, and let us dance — these two amusements will never do any harm to the world, Voltaire.  Never give a sword to a man who can't dance, Confucius. In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art, Rumi.  When you do dance, I wish you a wave o' the sea, that you might ever do nothing but that, William Shakespeare.  On with the dance! let joy be unconfin'd No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet To chase the Glowing Hours with Flying feet, Lord Byron.  Dancing is like dreaming with your feet! Constanze Mozart. Whosoever knoweth the power of the dance, dwelleth in God, Rumi. Dance, then, wherever you may be.

The December 25th theme was a challenge for me since I was “under the weather”. I chose from the archive again. The theme was “celebrate”. The event was a celebration of a very beautiful couple from my church.

I like plants...almost all plants. So stories about plants draw my attention and hopefully will be of interest to you to for one reason or another. This is something a bit new to me, sort of, it is about “tower gardens’. I tried some “vertical gardens” in the back yard. I was having trouble with getting the placement for sun and watering to the liking of the individual plants. These gardens seem a little different. Mine were in individual pots hung on vertical poles. These are tall plastic towers. This is about students in a local high school. Besides the plants they were planting they were thinking of conserving limited land resources. This led to talks about energy covering wind, solar and water along with knowledge that human population continues to grow. They consider this one idea for the future of farming. I learned from the article that tower gardens are in 19 schools around Ohio and are supplied by Mt Carmel Health System. I learned that instead of soil these gardens use a product called rockwool. After the roots start growing they are placed outside the tower in 35 slots on the exterior. These kinds of experiments make me want to be back in school with these students. The 20-gallon tube is filled with water and nutrients that are circulated and LED lights are used for “sunlight”. At this point cleaning and watering are necessary. Mt. Carmel has invested $28,000 in grants to fund the projects along with Franklin County Public Health and Fairfield County health taking part in the project. The students have been introduced to the idea of fish being raised in aqua culture as well as the plants in tubes for the future.

Today’s photo theme is “hat”. The only hat I could easily find fits the season and was used in a couple of the other photos this month of the holiday theme. Sweet Pea didn’t want to leave it on for very long so I had to shoot quickly.

I am going to order in for dinner. Sue is in the hospital so it’s just Bob and I.

Joy