December 8, 2020 thought for the day: If you are in a hurry, go via the roundabout. Chinese Proverb

I need to start working on the Christmas Eve bulletin for church so today was a lot of information gathering for that purpose. I have the music selections from the choir director and some of the information from the pastor. There were a couple of spots that I needed information from other people. With all of that gathered I think I am ready to put it together. I am using a template from past years so I know I have a lot of information to put in a small amount of space so it is going to be a feat in geometry or physics; or go to a larger paper size and then have too much room left over. Thanks to the habit of the pastor for this week, getting me the information early, I have the weekly bulletin done. 

On December 7 the photo theme was “brown”. As I was making my breakfast I noticed how the pancakes were turning a beautiful golden brown, “there’s my photo for the day”. Easy peasy 

We have been searching for a bread box. I have a container that I have been using for other odds and ends that need a storage container. I decided to move some of the things I have to several different containers to make room for nothing but bread. I worked on that today. Now we have a “bread box”. 

I think I mentioned in an earlier letter that we had a tiny problem with mice, they’re back. One of the dogs discovered one and was trying desperately to get beyond some boxes that seemed to be between her and the invasive critter. So I loaded a trap, one of the “humane type” to try to capture him/her. I’ve never used one of this type so needed to figure that out. I’ve used the other type but my fingers aren’t as agile as they use to be, and I’m a namby pamby about killing things, so I am trying this method. 

I’m also still working on the Christmas calendars. I am trying to print at least one a day. I am doing them on my own printer which is very slow so it is going to take days to get done. 

The word for today is precious.  And it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us, Charles Dickens. An inexhaustible good nature is one of the most precious gifts of heaven, spreading itself like oil over the troubled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable in the roughest weather, Washington Irving.  Genius and sunshine have this in common that they are the two most precious gifts of heaven to earth, and are dispensed equally to the just and the unjust, Anna Brownell Jameson. A word in season is most precious, Aesop.  Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul, Democritus. The search for truth is more precious than its possession, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.  When Honor's sun declines, and Wealth takes wings, Then Learning shines, the best of precious things, Edward Cocker. Pain pays the income of each precious thing, William Shakespeare. A high character might be produced, I suppose, by continued prosperity, but it has very seldom been the case. Adversity, however it may appear to be our foe, is our true friend; and, after a little acquaintance with it, we receive it as a precious thing - the prophecy of a coming joy. It should be no ambition of ours to traverse a path without a thorn or stone, Charles Spurgeon. 

Today’s photo challenge is “purple”. For me purple isn’t an easy color to find at least not right now and not right here. Some of the Christmas tree ornaments come “close, but no cigar”. One of the pink ones was the closest to purple so I used a Photoshop adjustment of the hue and saturation feature. After I touched the image with a stroke I found that parts of the bulb picked up the purple more than other parts. I liked the effect so I left it at that and added an oil paint filter. 

I always wanted a train set with a landscape set up all around it but back when I was a girl that “toy” was for boys. It seems the hobby of model electric trains comes to mind a lot at Christmas. The article today is called “Chugging along”. There is a place in Canal Winchester called “Queen of the Line Depot”.  A while ago a group of small-scale model train enthusiasts met in the Ohio Expo Center. They were looking for a place to set up and found an available empty room in Canal Winchester. This was around 1995. By 2019 it had fallen into “disuse”. Some wanted to tear it down, others chose to try to save it. A train “aficionado” was called upon to help. He gave time, talent, money and material. Another interested party contributed her talent in art to work on a backdrop of a “vivid blue sky filled with clouds”. According to the article the layout that came about with their efforts was a route representing a traveling from the south Columbus Brewery District and Front street to Canal Wincester then on to Carroll next onto the quarry south of Lancaster. Eventually the groups want to extend the layout to “travel to southern Ohio to a mountain with a coal mine in the loop.”  For the physical set up in the restoration project a new plywood base was erected adding plaster to build the topography. I learned from the article that stained sawdust was used for grass. Structures were made with kits or custom made to set up the towns along the way.  The set up can be viewed through plexiglass partitions. There is even a model of a canal boat in the water feature area. A schoolhouse will become a “miniaturized depot”. The “downtown buildings are handmade” which include a “the interurban” (an old railway in the area) “and drawbridge”. The hopes are to add realism to the display. It is hoped they can open the newly refurbished model to the public in early 2021. They hope to maintain it on a permanent basis. I think I would like to visit. Maybe I’m not too old to make an effort to have a small electric train set up??

I think I am making sloppy joe for dinner. 

Joy