February 14, 2020 thought for the day: Treat the days well and they will treat you well. Zambian Proverb 

It was nice to have Natalie stop by after work yesterday. I had a box to be mailed that she agreed to take care of for me. And we had a chance to visit for a bit. I am in a “family togetherness mood” right now. I needed a visit like  needing a fix must feel.

There has been a touch of nostalgia tinged with melancholy stemming from several layers of my life, hanging on for most of the day. It is hard to shake. It is one of those moods that has to teach a lesson and then move on.  It seemed I needed for my son to contact me for a mood boost and he did.

On February 13 the theme was “on the ground”. So we could have captured something that fell on the floor or grew on the ground or sets on the floor or ground, right? Well, first I placed the camera with the timer set on the cement of the front porch to try to capture the left over snow. There wasn’t enough color or shape to satisfy me so I tried again. I moved on to my indoor house plant garden in the corner of my living room on the floor. I wasn’t happy with the results of that either. Moving on....I noticed Sweet Pea sitting near by looking at me as I ran around thinking and searching. I decided to photo shoot her sitting on the floor. Here she is. 

I have been trying all week to get one of my prescriptions refilled. The machine on the other end of the phone both times I tried to place the order said that it was accepted and will be available tomorrow. Twice this week I went to pick it up (“tomorrow”) and there was no order according to the clerk. Yesterday I called to speak to a person, as opposed to a machine, to try to straighten out the mis-communication, wherever/however it occurred. They called this morning and it was in so I went to pick it up. I hadn’t planned on going out today but c'est la vie.

I got a little house work done, dishes out and in the dishwasher and the kitchen floor mopped. After that I searched around for the photo of the day and then just took the rest of the day as it came.

The photo theme for today is “I love this...” Well, that could be many things. After several attempts at different settings the thing that touched my soul was the winter sun coming in the side window. I did my best to capture it and send the feeling to you. After I made the shot and started the post processing I saw that one of my spider plant’s leaves, or it’s shadow, was leaning across the award winning photo of my dulcimer photo that was artully placed among the garden plants.

The word is dust. We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust, Rumi.  Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life, Pablo Picasso.  ...the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it, Moses.  Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble, Benjamin Franklin.  The soul, which is spirit, can not dwell in dust; it is carried along to dwell in the blood, Saint Augustine. Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with, Thomas Carlyle. The devil is not afraid of a dust-covered Bible, Charles Spurgeon.  Our lives are but specks of dust falling through the fingers of time. Like sands of the hourglass, so are the days of our lives, Socrates. The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched, Henry David Thoreau. Wash the dust from your soul and heart with wisdom's water, Rumi.  For everything exists and not one sigh nor smile nor tear, one hair nor particle of dust, not one can pass away, William Blake. Many a humble soul will be amazed to find that the seed it sowed in weakness, in the dust of daily life, has blossomed into immortal flowers under the eye of the Lord, Harriet Beecher Stowe.  

There wasn’t much news that caught my attention on the pleasing side today but this one sounded a bit educational, especially for foodies. It is about the flavoring vanilla. According to the article it’s not boring as it may seem to some. I like this statement “Vanilla gives unselfishly and helps its teammates succeed.....especially in chocolate sauce”. Did you know that vanilla came from orchids? Orchids, therefor vanilla, is difficult to grow. When the farmers ran into troubles with the growth artificial vanilla came into being. An educational part of this article for me was: “Real vanilla contains more than 250 organic components, while artificial vanilla contains only vanilla.” Vanilla comes in the orchid’s seed pod and took at least three years to grow. Vanilla can come mixed with alcohol or glycerin or in powder form. The author of this article did some experimenting with the amounts of vanilla she used in cooking. She doubled even tripled the amounts of vanilla that she added. There were some interesting responses from the children in her family. The moral of that part of the article was “finding the sweet spot” without adding sugar. .

I am looking forward to dinner tonight.....pizza.

Joy