May 16, 2020 thought for the day: Listen to valuable statements even if they come from your enemy's mouth. Greek Proverb

Finally, I think spring is here! It is a beautiful day outside., Which gave me an even stronger notion to get my house plants outside for a period outdoors. I finished that project about two hours ago. Then I started the irobot (roomba). There were a lot of fallen leaves. The floors needed a good sweeping anyway. Sweet Pea never ceases to lose hair. I will let the sweeper run until it is out of power and heads for the recharging “station”.

Yesterday’s photo, “reflection”, caused some looking around. For a moment the search left my focus then as I glanced thru my side window I caught this view as I passed by taking laundry to be put away. I laid my handful down and rushed to get my camera. Here is the result. 

By the time I got the plants outside and the spot where they have been for the last ten months I was slowing down. They were doing a great job of soaking up carbon dioxide and letting off oxygen. They only add to our oxygen and diminish carbon dioxide in small amounts but better than not.

I think moving the plants and doing the straightening has done me in for the day except for the cooking at the end of the day.

One other thing, that needed attention badly, got done today. We have had a huge prickly weed growing and choking out and iris plant as well as my mint plants. Bob put on a pair of gloves and a shirt with long sleeves and let me tell him which to pull, which were weed and which were not. He did a great job and the weeds are gone for now.

I got a little done on the upcoming newsletter to make it at least started. I might get back to that a little later.

Yesterday was one of those days where I had a pair of photos of the day. The second one was titled “shoot from the hip (no view finder)”. I love the shapes and forms on this image but more especially the textures.

Now to look for my photo of the day pick and then to watch some food network shows.

The word today is future. With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time, Abraham Lincoln.   He who controls the past controls the future, Laozi.  Everything that looks to the future elevates human nature, Walter Savage Landor. The future is purchased by the present, Samuel Johnson. Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith, Henry Ward Beecher. What we look for does not come to pass; God finds a way for what none foresaw, Euripides. Life is divided into three terms - that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future, William Wordsworth. Take as a gift whatever the day brings forth, Horace. The past, the present and the future are really one: they are today, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Hardly anyone knows how much is gained by ignoring the future, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle. Men are often capable of greater things than they perform - They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent, Horace Walpole.   

The photo challenge for today was “I isolate here”. I thought of my lounge chair but with the weather changing the porch swing is an isolation place with added pleasures, like the sounds of birds and wind chimes and soft breezes.

Before the pandemic closed the schools, some Hilliard middle-school students created an 8 by 8 foot mural. It was part of the school’s innovative learning classes and a Franklinton street artist who has produced murals throughout Columbus worked with them. They brainstormed for what they wanted it to look like and made sketches and images for the piece they would produce. The completed mural is a black and white portrait of one of the students who was picked as a model. It is bordered by splashes of aqua, green and orange and is overlaid with sketches of suns, sunflowers and human hands. It can be seen at the Civic & Cultural Arts Center on Center Street in downtown Hilliard where it was set up earlier this month. The purpose of the project things that represent Hilliard, the school and the people. A portrait of one of the kids was selected as the focal point with drawings that remind of neighborhoods. The article went on to say that the adviser for the project was amazed at how the students seemed to be thinking of public art and why art is important as a bridge to conversation.

Hot dogs and cheesy potatoes are on the menu for tonight.

Joy