January 31, 2021 thought for today: If you want to clean the land secretly, the noise of the axe will give you away. African Proverb

I knew we were getting snow during the night but I didn’t realize how much. We had more than I could handle to get out of the driveway to go to church. Just after I got up for the morning to take a look, I got several texts telling me that we were cancelling church. The minister who was preaching this morning was coming from Marysville and some of the other parishioners were coming from a distance. It seemed safer to cancel for the day. It was being announced on the television that several other churches who had been open during the pandemic were also closing for the day. By way of texts, email and telephone and a facebook message some of the regular attending members were notified.

Yesterday’s photo theme was titled “summer/ winter”. When I looked up an explanation from the leader for the photo group she pointed out that since some of us are from Australia and some from the USA (as well as all over the world), show what the season looks like in our area. We hadn’t had the snow fall yet so I looked as bare tree branches and other signs of the season before heading for the park once again.  As I was headed that way I was thinking that it was about time for them to have put up the sign for ice skaters.....I was right, it was there.  

One of my facebook friends shared a recipe for cream cheese cookies last week so I decided since I would be home this morning I would go ahead and make some. I also got the dishwasher loaded but that is going to be the extent of my household chores for today this being Sunday. 

Bob has been out clearing the porches, sidewalks and driveway and sweeping off the cars but I think we are supposed to be getting some more negative weather coming in. The dogs have been coming back in from outside with snow all over their coats, especially Sugar. She gets teeny, tiny snow balls in her underbody fur. We have to warm them in order to get them untangled from her fur. I think Spring sounds very nice right now.

Today’s photo theme was in the form of another selfie in nature. The actual title is “this is also me”. The
word “also” gave me permission to be a little on the creative side so I picked a portion of myself. 

The word today is sand.  Lives of great men all remind us We can make  our lives sublime, And departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Philosophies fall away like sand, and creeds follow on another like the withered leaves of Autumn, Oscar Wilde. Write in the sand the flaws of your friend, Pythagoras. We write our names in the sand: and then the waves roll in and wash them away, Augustus. Time is like a handful of sand - the tighter you grasp it, the faster it runs through your fingers, Henry David Thoreau. History is a child building a sand-castle by the sea, and that child is the whole majesty of man's power in the world, Heraclitus. May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock! Charles Spurgeon. Who then can calculate the path of the molecule? how do we know that the creations of worlds are not determined by the fall of grains of sand? Victor Hugo. The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The divine is everywhere, even in a grain of sand.....Caspar David Friedrich. From a grain of sand in the Pearl comes, Confucius.  The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand. The angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone, George Eliot. The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it, Niccolo Machiavelli.  

Here’s another idea for sprucing up space. The title of the article relates that Pantone’s 2021 colors “send....a message of strength and joy”. Two colors have been chosen as colors for 2021, “calm Ultimate Gray and Illuminating, an ebullient yellow”. One of the upper level staff members of Pantone colors said that these colors are attached to mood and attitude. The explanation of gray is that even though some think of it as depressing and dull there seems to have been a shift and leads to looking for stability. This is presented by associating it with rocks, driftwood, stones and beaches. Moving on to yellow as a welcoming and friendly color encouraging the feel of sunshine and joy. “Ultimate Gray" is a mid tone gray so not dark like storm clouds. Once it would have been gray with a yellow accent, it is moving toward seeing yellow as the dominant with gray the accent particularly in kitchens. The article pointed out that for offices especially "the combination brings together a firm foundation in the gray with a yellow shade that heightens awareness and enhances intuition, lighting the way to the intellectual curiosity, originality and resourcefulness of an open mind." 

I don’t know whether it will be taco bell or subway for dinner tonight.

Since this is the last day of the month, I put together my composite of photos for January 2020. 

Joy