Tuesday, May 30, 2023

 May 29, 2023 a thought for today, A house has the character of the man who lives in it. Traditional  Proverb

An upload for yesterday was “I do this on Sundays....” Church....every Sunday.

I have my Monday morning part of the bulletin done. Then started my letter before Sue and I got ready to go to the hospital to visit with Bob. Due to the weekend and the holiday he had to stay in longer than he would have if all of the tests been completed a day earlier. He will be there until at least Wednesday. 

 After getting back from the hospital and this being a holiday I feel lazy so I doubt that I am going to get much done today. Except to enjoy the gorgeous day. I hear no lawn equipment working, only the gentle sound of the wind chimes.  

Another upload for yesterday is this image of texture. An old piece of wood and aged bricks and blocks with weeds that have found there way in a crack. 

The word for today is past. The past is not a package one can lay away. Emily Dickinson.   Words of snow, which fell last year. German saying.  A mother's happiness is like a beacon, lighting up the future but reflected also on the past in the guise of fond memories. Honore de Balzac.  The Past -- the dark unfathomed retrospect! The teeming gulf --the sleepers and the shadows! The past! the infinite greatness of the past! For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past? Walt Whitman.  Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live with the moderns. William Penn.  It is foolish to try to live on past experience. It is very dangerous, if not a fatal habit, to judge ourselves to be safe because of something that we felt or did twenty years ago. Charles H. Spurgeon. Whats past is prologue. William Shakespeare.  Nothing impresses the mind with a deeper feeling of loneliness than to tread the silent and deserted scene of former flow and pageant. Washington Irving. That though the radiance which was once so bright be now forever taken from my sight. Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower. We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind. William Wordsworth.  Human life may be regarded as a succession of frontispieces. The way to be satisfied is never to look back. William Hazlitt. To look back to antiquity is one thing, to go back to it is another. Charles Caleb Colton.  There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternally new now that builds and creates itself out of the Best as the past withdraws, Johann von Goethe.  The next day is never so good as the day before. Publilius Syrus.  Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too. Marcus Aurelius.  The past, the present and the future are really one: they are today. Harriet Beecher Stowe.  What is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past. Victor Hugo.  

Today one of the uploads was “I wore this...” . I could locate only one of the pair of my gardening gloves that I wore but then I was only using one hand to move the saw dust so I only needed one. 

A story fit for today ...... Memorial Day. After the Civil War “a former Union general took a holiday originated by former Confederates and helped spread it across the entire country”. In 1866 in the Confederate States there was a celebrated holiday to honor military dead. In 1868 it was “adopted” by the United States. In the Memorial Day in the south, 1866, in Columbus, Georgia, families, especially women, decorated graves of Confederate soldiers and, unexpectedly some of former enemies who fought for the Union. The Cleveland Daily Leader, and the New York Commercial Advertiser,  “lauded the Southern women” for this respectful act. Of course, as is common in society, not all had “interest in conciliation”. But one who agreed with the sentiment, Francis Miles Finch, wrote a poem called “The Blue and the Gray.” He was quoted as saying “It struck me that the South was holding out a friendly hand”. The poem became widely known. In the 19th century school children were required to memorize the poem. So by 1867 it was a “familiar phenomenon throughout the recently reunited country”. This all began a period of  “burying the hatchet” between the north and south and led to laying flowers on the graves of both sides. This act of sharing respect grew to include a “10-year-old who made a wreath of flowers and sent it to the overseer of the holiday....with the following note attached, published in The New Hampshire Patriot on July 15, 1868: “Will you please put this wreath upon some rebel soldier’s grave?” The article ended with this thought: “the early evolution of the Memorial Day holiday was a manifestation of Lincoln’s hope for reconciliation between North and South.”

The second photo for today was from the archives. It was taken when I made a trip I made to the Ohio State House on a photo excursion. I wanted photos of some of the gorgeous architecture that is in that building.

Haven’t decided yet on dinner for tonight. I think Lima Bean Soup as a base.

Joy

                                              time and traffic



Sunday, May 28, 2023

 May 27, 2023 a thought for today, The eyes can do a thousand things that the fingers can't. Persian Proverb

An upload for yesterday was “I can’t....”. My answer in the image is I can’t resist a view like this. 

This has been a day full of popup happenings. Bob has a medial profile program that we have had trouble accessing....forgotten passwords, kind of thing. So I spent some time researching and studying the problem and found the glitch. Now we have access.

Sweet Pea and I had just gotten back from the curbside pick up and the fellow we have gotten to mow the lawn came to the door. He was supposed to do the lawn tomorrow but asked if he could do it today. Sue and I were trying to make sure all the batteries were charged for the equipment he will need. The last battery finished charging just before I left for the store.

The second upload yesterday, another “my choice” is this view of another part of my town....the roof tops. 

My granddaughter and two of the great grand children are coming by for a visit about one o’clock so I wanted to have all the groceries put up and have a little time to visit with them. That’s done. 

Bob is still having medical tests. He is at the James right now and because of the holiday he will have to stay for a few more days. They don’t do the tests he needs on weekends and holidays. 

The first upload for today is “I live here....”. Well, this is a small part of where I live.....a cosy corner on the porch. 

The word for today is outside/out. You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength, Marcus Aurelius. No one outside ourselves can rule us inwardly. When we know this, we become free, Gautama Buddha. A world of facts lies outside and beyond the world of words, Thomas Huxley. Adventure is not outside man; it is within, George Eliot.  Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.  Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Joy can only be real if people look upon their life as a service and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness. Leo Tolstoy. Education is our only political safety. Outside of this ark all is deluge. Horace Mann. If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself. Confucius.  The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it. Thucydides. Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out. Benjamin Franklin. You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she'll be constantly running back. Horace.. Sunlight fell upon the wall; the wall received a borrowed splendor. Why set your heart on a piece of earth, O simple one? Seek out the source which shines forever. Rumi.

The second upload today is “my choice”. This one is another image that I took in a lunch time walk in downtown Columbus. 

One place in Columbus that of great interest to science minded folks and kids is COSI. This is another bit of history about it. It all started with a trip to Chicago in 1957 and a visit to the Museum of Science and Industry there. Back in Columbus a proposal was written to begin a Center of Science and Industry here in Columbus. It all happened with  a “coming together of personalities and circumstances”.The idea was presented to the Franklin County Historical Society in 1961. At about the same time the Memorial Hall, 280 E. Broad Street, was in need of revitalization. Funds were raised to do the remodeling. COSI came into being as a result of the renovations. In the remodeling a second floor was added to the building. New lighting was added in the lobby and a cyclorama wall “featuring a quote from astronaut John Glenn” was added. It was opened to the public in 1964 to over 5,000 guests at 50 cents admission. In 1999 it was moved to 333 West Broad Street. Since then there have been 33 million visitors from all 50 states and numerous foreign countries.”  As further recognition: “while COSI is no stranger to local and national laurels, a recent nomination may be the crown jewel of them all. On April 14, the local attraction announced it had been named a finalist by The Institute of Museum and Library Services named for a 2023 National Medal OG Museum and Library Service, then quoted as “the nation’s highest federal honor.”’

I think I am making taco salad for dinner tonight. 

Joy

                                  busy corner









Friday, May 26, 2023

 May 25, 2023 a thought for today, The fool's excuse is bigger than the mistake he made. Persian Proverb

An upload for yesterday was “I sat here....”. This is my spot most of the day light hours except when multi tasking in household chores. 

I had a call this morning that I have ‘sorta’ been hoping for. The reason for the call is not the best motive (for either of us).....the contact with that part of the family has been a dream for a few years now. It may go no where but it’s a step. ‘Nuf said. 

A second upload is from the archives. As you can see, it is a pink peony peaking through the chain link fence. I liked that fence. I could see into my neighbors back yards for several houses down, and speak/bond with them now and then. Now there are privacy fences all the way, almost like giant private play pens. 

Bob is in the hospital for a couple of days for some further testing. So when I got the church printing done Sue took me to visit him and take him some things he wanted. I won’t drive in the OSU area. I would become totally lost in all the buildings, traffic signals and traffic itself and the walk from the parking lot to the building then to the room. We will keep in contact through text, thank goodness for that form of technology. I would like to have him home but he is getting what he needs. 

Now that we are home from our trip I am getting a start on the laundry. I will leave a sink of dishes for tomorrow. Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day. 

My first upload for today is “I can....”. This image was generated from Bob’s room at the James Hospital (19th floor). The window was facing toward my neighborhood. The two water towers from Westgate Park are in the upper right corner. My house is one of those in behind the trees near the water towers. 

The word for today is order. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves, Henry David Thoreau. Order marches with weighty and measured strides. Disorder is always in a hurry, Napoleon Bonaparte.  The less of routine, the more of life. Amos Bronson Alcott.  Good order is the foundation of all good things,  Edmund Burke.  Routine is a ground to stand on, a wall to retreat to; we cannot draw on our boots without bracing ourselves against it, Henry David Thoreau.  Nothing is orderly till man takes hold of it. Everything in creation lies around loose. Henry Ward Beecher.  Method will teach you to win time, Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.  Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order. John Adams. The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be. Lao Tzu.  Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game. Voltaire.  We live in this world in order always to learn industriously and to enlighten each other by means of discussion and to strive vigorously to promote the progress of science and the fine arts. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  I quote others only in order the better to express myself. Michel de Montaigne.  Both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom: the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come. Epicurus.  Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. Chief Seattle.  

I found this huge mushroom on a walk in one of the near by metro parks a couple of years ago. It shows some of the amazement of nature in its shape and patterns and what I call freckles. 

This story is about a part, a large part, of something from my memories..... the amusement park at Buckeye Lake. I may have mentioned it in an earlier blog. Maybe this adds a little more information and a different perspective.  It was a spot famous bands would visit, a tourist attraction with dance pavilions, a beach, picnic places and even a baseball park as well as amusement rides and games. It was a place I spent many of my teen weekends. My aunt and uncle’s cottage was a home for many of my cousins and myself most of the summer for several years. We would take one of their boats across the lake to dock at the lakes wall at the park and spend hours enjoying all we could. It began from the Ohio and Erie Canal that connected Cleveland to Portsmouth, Ohio . Dams and levees in 1826 turned a swampy pond “into the Licking Reservoir to supply the canal with water”. In 1894, the reservoir was named Buckeye Lake. Note: the canal was abandoned in 1913. Visitor ship increased to Buckeye Lake Park in 1904 when the Buckeye Lake and Newark “inter urban railroad” was completed from Downtown to the park. The park and area continued to grow. By 1911 hotels and restaurants had opened. The dance pavilions, boating , beaches and picnic areas and the ball park all sprung up. As put by the article “The 1920s began the golden years”.This is when the amusement ride and games began to appear. A Ferris wheel and “spinning and twirling ride” dotted the landscape of the park. 1931 brought the wooden roller coaster. A skating rink was added. Up to 50,000 a day came by with many stopping by the Crystal Pool. By the 1950s the park “began to lose its appeal as people found other diversions”. Maintenance slacked off and attractions were demolished. In 1966 the roller coaster was blown down in a storm. The only thing left is a fountain that had been a “centerpiece” in the park. There is a museum featuring some of the stories of the park in its heyday. 

Dinner tonight is “up-in-the-air”. I am really late on getting the laundry started. And it is just Sue and I so I think we will each just find something we want that sounds good. 

Joy

                             used and left behind



Wednesday, May 24, 2023

 May 23, 2023 a thought for today, The bell is loud because it is empty. Polish Proverb

My first photo upload for yesterday was in the “my choice” variety. This one was taken when I was more able to go to the zoo on a regular basis in search of my photo ideas. 

I got the information that I needed for the bulletin in an email this morning so I was able to get it completed. I had the back side of the tri-fold done yesterday. Now I am just waiting for the information for the final page of the newsletter. This one is the one I wait for every month. Sometimes it is an easy fit for the section I have generated for it. Other times it takes some time to make the adjustments that may be needed. I get anxious about the time I have to get it finished. 

I am finishing up some chores that need to be done today so that I can be ready to go to church for food pantry in an hour. 

My second upload for yesterday was “on Mondays I....”. I begin the day, after my virtual visits, by working church projects. On Monday is mainly the weekly bulletin along with any inserts that need to be included that week.

I have finally heard my wind chimes. That is one of the signs that tells me it is truly spring/summer. I think the yard work tools make an earlier appearance than the chimes each year. Maybe....the birds and crocus flowers are the first harbingers of spring....then early yard care sounds.

.....I am back from food pantry. We had one of the biggest days we have had in several months. I think we had thirty-three families....one with seven children. We had one “gentleman” who was deliberately being disruptive. I felt I needed to be a bit blunt in talking to him. He was noticeably and rather forcibly annoying people. 

Now it is time to begin to think about fixing dinner. 

My first upload for today came from my archives. The title for the “assignment” is “I once....”. in this case I am showing that I was once able to bend and explore as this young lady is doing in this image. 

The word today is open.  Truth is the offspring of silence and meditation. I keep the subject constantly before me and wait 'til the first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into a full and clear light.  Isaac Newton. You cannot open a book without learning something. Confucius.  If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life's search for love and wisdom. Rumi.  No man is excluded from calling upon God, the gate of salvation is set open unto all men: neither is there any other thing which keepeth us back from entering in, save only our own unbelief. John Calvin. One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others. Niccolo Machiavelli.  Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes! Leonardo da Vinci.  Love is always open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself. Leo Buscaglia.  All the windows of my heart I open to the day. John Greenleaf Whittier.  Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought. Henry David Thoreau.  Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. Rumi.  When you open your heart with a quiet mind love rushes in, Genevieve.

My second upload today is “my choice”. This is one of the sunflowers that was in my backyard a few


years ago. There has been some changes to structures in the yard since then so I no longer have this sunflowers so I enjoy, instead, this capture of a moment in time.

This is an interesting concept..... “Downtown Columbus as a Solar City”. We have the solar farm being generated in Madison County now there is talk of a solar “farm” right here in the city. The article mentioned that there is logic in such solar arrays in the deserts, why not in cities? How about using parking lots? The article went on mentioning using “solar panels as canopies over these parking lots and atop buildings”. Apparently the Cincinnati Zoo already has such a panel in their parking lots....this also allows parking in the shade. Again in the article, Columbus State Community College is talking about “re-developing” some of their parking lots. Maybe start using the idea there? There are problems in building on this plan for the city. “Who would undertake such a project?”. Apparently the Columbus Division of Power has “already committed to at least two new solar arrays near the Jackson Pike and Parsons Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plants”. These two would provide “clean energy to power nearly 7,500 homes”.  In expanding this idea the article suggests “not confined to building strictly on municipal land. Many of the parking lots are private enterprises, and so the city might not be able to simply build over these spaces”.... (there is a) possibly leading to a “public-private partnership to generate solar power for the city.”  In the article it was suggested that as to keeping the city “attractive” these panels could be designed as “art objects”....perhaps like “crocheted canopies created by artists in Cartaya, Spain”. Thoughts may look to the art like objects we enjoyed in the Short North Arches. The article ended- “Columbus would become a self-sufficient generator of its own energy.”  

I think I am going to make chili for dinner tonight. 

Joy

                                                better days....gone forever?





Monday, May 22, 2023

 May 21, 2023 a thought for today, Do not use words that are too big for your mouth. Persian Proverb

My first “assignment” for yesterday was “I don’t like to .....”. Mine was iron. In my earlier days many pieces of clothing needed ironed after each laundry. We had sprinkler bottles to dampen the clothes making it easier to get the wrinkles out. It was a time-consuming weekly chore. Now days many items of clothing don’t need ironed. There is still some occasional pressing necessary but not a laundry basket full of clothing to be ironed. 

We had a baptism at church today. It has been a while since we have had one. We also had a guest, one of our people who comes for one of our ministries, who has also been coming to the church services quite often. He has been wanting to give the church something, a gift. So he was given the chance to present it to the full congregation today. It is a beautiful tapestry with the ten commandments listed at the top and an image of the last supper at the bottom. Now we want to find a place of prominence to display it. Also, at church today was a member who hasn’t been able to come often. He was once our minister. It is always so nice to see him. He’s a person who is a treasure and a pleasure to spend even minutes of time with. So today has been a wonderful day. 

The second upload for yesterday was one of “my choice” assignments. This one was once upon a time one of my best furry friends. I have had many over the years. None are forgotten.

Bob had a good time at the Ham Radio convention with Lowell over the last three days. I think he was sorry it is over for another year. 

For the rest of the day I will be resting and “refreshing” my soul and absorbing the pleasures of being at church this morning with my church family.

Yesterday was one of the days I had three uploads to generate. This one is called “intentional blur”. I did this alone ‘in-camera’ as opposed to using Photoshop to do it. 

The word today is opportunity.  Great minds must be ready not only to take opportunities, but to make them, Charles Caleb Colton.  Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage, Benjamin Disraeli.  A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds, Francis Bacon.  Remember, a chip on the shoulder is a sure sign of wood higher up, Brigham Young.  For Time calls only once and that determines all. Sophocles. Be an opener of doors, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Let us my friends snatch our opportunity from the passing day, Horace.  The same fence that shuts others out shuts you in, William Taylor Copeland. Opportunity is lost by deliberation, Publilius Syrus. I will prepare and some day my chance will come,  Abraham Lincoln.  The opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself,  Sun Tzu. For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress, And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year. Voltaire.  Talk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 

The first upload for today is called “I went to...”. This should be a familiar image from my photo
collection. McDonalds and White Castle are frequent stops on agenda.  

Here is a story about another park not far from us that may be worth exploring. It has an unusual name, “Seldom Seen Park”. It is located in Delaware County near Powell Ohio. Located on a road named Seldom Seen probably added to the fact that the park wasn’t often seen. In 1808 less than two thousand people lived in Delaware County and by 1900 no more than 25,000. In 1980 the population doubled. As communities grow “natural habitats implode”. The landscapes around the areas change. According to the article it is more important to “protect” whatever “wild places” that are left. In exploring the changed land a “gem” called Seldom Seen Park, owned by the City of Powell, was discovered. There are ball fields, a playground and a modern shelter house. But what was pointed out in the article is five acres of wetlands in one of the corners of the park. It is apparent that a group called the “MAD Scientist Associates, LLC  (the acronym is for its founder, Mark A. Dilley) designed and oversaw the wetland project”. It is an “environmental consulting firm” and “has overseen numerous successful wetland restorations.” In this part of the park you can find rushes, sedges, bulrushes, and many other aquatic plants. There are Ohio goldenrod, sky-blue asters and milkweed. It was noted that the aster was first found along the Olentangy River in Worthington. The ‘wildlife’ in the park includes damselflies, dragonflies, butterflies and moths. Moving up the scale are birds including purple martins and swallows, and more than 20 other species. There are upcoming programs featuring opportunities to “learn about wetland ecology, amphibians, macro-invertebrates, birds, plants and more.”

These were two visitors to my home. They liked to busy themselves while the adults talked by picking dandelions and stick them in their empty Yoohoo soda cans

I think it will be take-out tonight, taco bell or subway. 

Joy

                               close quarters



Saturday, May 20, 2023

 May 19, 2023 a thought for today, One man uses his tongue, another his teeth. Latin Proverb



The first upload for yesterday was “I love this time of day....”. Early morning as the sun’s rays show the highlight and shadows as its gift.

I like Fridays when all the work of the week is in the rearview mirror. As I mentioned in the last letter, I am through with the newsletter except for one piece that will come at the last minute.

The second upload for yesterday was “my choice”. This from the archives. It was taken when I worked downtown at the Federal Courthouse with a replica of the Santa Maria was docked right outside our back door. She’s no longer there, wasting away somewhere.  

Bob is in Dayton and Sue is having her hair done so it is quiet here and there is little on the agenda. I have been working on my photo archives trying to re-file some and finding some I want to use again and some that were never displayed on social media. 

I needed to back away from the computer for a bit so Sweet Pea and I went for a short drive with a stop at the park. After I finish another photo file I will do some quick work in the kitchen then enjoy the afternoon. 

The first upload for today is “I like to drink...”.  My favorite liquid mainstay at this time appears to be iced tea. 

The word for today is need.  As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task, Diogenes. If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Marcus Tullius Cicero. Our labour preserves us from three great evils -- weariness, vice, and want, Voltaire. He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god. Aristotle.  They might not need me; but they might. I'll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity. Emily Dickinson.  The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself. Lao Tzu.  Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character. Heraclitus.  Half an hour's meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed. Saint Francis de Sales.  Prayer is an act of love; words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love. Saint Teresa of Avila.  Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Francis Bacon. Be the one who, when you walk in, blessing shifts to the one who needs it most. Even if you've not been fed, be bread, Rumi. Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others. Saint Augustine.  Everything you need for better future and success has already been written. And guess what? All you have to do is go to the library. Henri Frederic Amiel. We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need. Epicurus.  

The next photo upload for today is “my choice”. It also was taken when I worked downtown. It was taken on one of my lunch time walks.

I always presumed that loud sounds and vibrations would disturb bees so I was surprised to learn that bees hives and their “homes” were being constructed on air port property. One of these projects are going on at the Akron-Canton Airport. They have 60 bee colonies (approximately 400,000 to 1.4 million bees). The plan is to “bring some sustainability” using air port property. The employees of the air port are being trained in the essentials of bee keeping. Apparently there are more and more airports discovering this possibility. Airports in Pittsburgh to Chicago are in partnerships with local bee farms. Airports that have taken part in this have claimed the honey is clear and there are less metals and toxins than in some store bought honey. In one article I read on the subject, I found that “In addition to increasing the number of bee colonies decimated by a worldwide condition known as Colony Collapse Disorder, apiaries at various airports around the globe provide valuable data about air quality, gleaned from chemical analyses of honeycomb pollen”. Bees pollinate more that $15 billion worth of US crops each year. So the plan to protect honey bees is more that worthwhile. The largest “airport apiary” in the world is at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. The honey produced there is either sold or used in the airport restaurants. As a note of interest the “Victoria, British Columbia, Harbour Air recently put four hives on the one-acre grass roof of its floating terminal for seaplanes.....passengers watch the bees busy at work.”

I will be fixing dinner for one tonight...me......Lowell took Bob to Dayton for the Ham Radio Convention. Sue prefers to fix something for herself most of the time. 

Joy

                        makeshift



Thursday, May 18, 2023

 May 17, 2023 a thought for today, Poverty shows us who are our friends and who our enemies. Latin Proverb

My first upload for yesterday was titled “I create...”. I have and have had several “hobbies” where I “created”. This is one of the many crochet projects. It is one of the four-piece set of “weather afghans”. Each color (row) represents a temperature of the day that the row was created. 

I  haven’t been driving myself to evening meetings for a while but now that the sun is up longer I am attempting it again (I am night blind so driving in the dark is a no no). We had a session meeting last night. I made it to the meeting but to allow myself plenty of time to get home before twilight I left early. It put me in mind of a dear friend who found it necessary to do that a couple of years ago. Janet usually left at eight o’clock in the sprint and summer time too. It has a chance to work June, July, and August and maybe a bit of September. 

I am caught up with most material for the newsletter a week in advance so I can take it easy for a few days. I have the bulletin for this week ready to print tomorrow.  

The second upload was for the “my choice”. This one was taken on one of my many excursions in the alleyways of in the city. 

I need to talk to my neighbor. I want to use the person he has to mow our lawn for a while.

The temperature has taken another turn around. The sun is bright but the air is cool. I was slowly moving from sweat shirts to short sleeve but today its short sleeve with a sweater. All of the plants are outside and now they are predicting a worrisome temp for tomorrow. The ups and downs can be a “pain” but better than 90 degrees or 0 degrees. 

The first upload for today is titled “I bought this....”. This was one of my most recent purchases other than groceries....my air fryer. 

The word for today is nature.  Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience, Leonardo da Vinci.  A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man, Tacitus.  For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver, Martin Luther.  How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude! Emily Dickinson. Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher, William Wordsworth.  Sail! quoth the king; Hold! saith the wind, English Proverb . I have no hostility to nature, but a child's love to it. I expand and live in the warm day like corn and melons, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nature is a labyrinth in which the very haste you move with will make you lose your way, Francis Bacon.  Words, like nature, half reveal and half conceal the soul within, Alfred Lord Tennyson.  Nothing that is natural is disgraceful, Latin Proverb.  There are only three pleasures in life pure and lasting, and all derived from inanimate things-books, pictures and the face of nature, William Hazlitt.   He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature, Socrates. What is more gentle than a wind is summer? John Keats.  I cannot imaging anyone looking at the sky and denying God, Abraham Lincoln. One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

The second upload today, another from the “my choice” and from my archives is this neon sign. 

I think I would like to see this place.... “Oldest known home in Columbus: 208 years logged”. The man who lives there, and has for ten years, says  “I’ve seen school buses idling outside, with kids staring out the windows.” The article called it a “cabin” was built in 1804. It is located between Franklinton and Worthington actually near the Ohio State campus. The walls, ceilings and floors have not been changed and are solid oak and walnut. “Low timber beams hold up the second-floor loft.” There is an original “massive stone slab” for a hearth. Giving it it’s natural, original and historic appearances are small windows and a huge fireplace.  On a historic note, of which there are many in this case, is that it was built eight years before Columbus was founded. Only two families have owned this log house in all those two hundred plus years. It seems to have been cared for the TLC all of these many years. Many furnishings are still the same. The article noted that in 1910 there was a photo of a boy “sitting on one of two tree-stump stools next to the fireplace. More than a century later, the stools sit in the same spot”. I think I mentioned the cabin in another blog mentioning a boy named David Beers who was raised by Indian captors. This was his cabin. Generations of the two families have lived in the cabin. One of the owners family members was a “world-record bicycle racer known as the Columbus Flyer, a circus performer.” There are posters “printed on silk” of a circus tour on the walls. There is ivory and brass from India on shelves. Here is a description of how it is to live in this cabin: “The home has electricity, a furnace, air conditioning and plumbing, but most of the walls are exposed logs, without insulation”. The lighting is dim. During its time two bedrooms and a bath were added. The present owner doesn’t want to renovate without caution to change this “piece of history” too much. 

I think we are going out to dinner tonight....for a late mothers day. 

Joy



Tuesday, May 16, 2023

 May 15, 2023 a thought for today, Safely housed to listen to the storm outside. Latin Proverb


Yesterday I uploaded my first photo titled “I love this view....”. On my blog you have seen many images taken at this park. It can be a relaxing stop to enjoy an area of “green” in the city.

I am thinking a week ahead of the calendar. I was thinking it was time to work on the church newsletter....it’s next week. So I put time in working on the bulletin. I have it done except for last, most important items when they come in. 

The second upload for yesterday was titled “something new”. I am showing the new bud under the pedals of the fully open iris bloom. 

The cleaning lady was here so now things are bright and shiny. She likes the temperature to be “cool” so if it is a day when the furnace comes on she turns the thermometer down....before she is done I am feeling the “coolness”. On days when I find the need to express the most effort on chores, I have never noticed getting “over heated”, except in the full on sun rays. I guess/know all of us have a different metabolic rate making atmospheric pressures experienced on different levels.  

I made some “sun” tea then started the dish washer and putting things away, (when the cleaning lady comes I put a few things out of her way that I normally have in other spots) I will move onto the photo side of the day now.  


My first upload for today is “I know....”. I can see and know that Bob is getting his lunch. 

The word for today is motivational. It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich, Henry Ward Beecher.  It is never too late to be what you might have been, George Eliot.  The distance is nothing when one has a motive, Jane Austen.  Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible, Francis of Assisi. Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best. St. Jerome.  Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. William Blake.  Never complain and never explain. Benjamin Disraeli.  Hitch your wagon to a star. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Always desire to learn something useful. Sophocles. To begin, begin. William Wordsworth. Be gentle to all and stern with yourself. Saint Teresa of Avila. God always strives together with those who strive. Aeschylus.  The more we do, the more we can do. William Hazlitt.  From my tribe I take nothing, I am the maker of my own fortune. Tecumseh. To be wholly devoted to some intellectual exercise is to have succeeded in life. Robert Louis Stevenson.  Well done is better than well said. Benjamin Franklin.  Everything is hard before it is easy. Goethe J.W. 

The second upload for today is back to “my choice”. This was taken on a hike in one of the metro parks a few years ago. 

This story maybe relating another way to help with climate change....dairy cows! It begins with the farmers working to produce “fresh, nutrient-dense dairy foods.....support healthy immune systems” for the cows foods and then food from the cows for humans. In producing nutritious food for the cow it actually has helped in “lowering emissions and conserving natural resources”. There are hints of how the “cow’s stomach” works in this process. With a “life cycle assessment ....on fluid milk” it is shown that “dairy accounts for approximately 2 percent of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions”. Due to “innovative farming and feed production practices” the production of milk in recent years (from 2007 to 2017) requires less water and land as well as a “smaller carbon footprint”....cutting carbon dioxide removal by half. Cows produce methane from their mouth in “burps” and from the other end as in manure. The methane from the manure can be stored and used to fertilize crops. Farmers are working to “minimize the impact of cow burps”. In the article it was noted that dairy cows are “the original recyclers” because about a third of their diet comes from “byproducts” like waste from food manufacturers: almond hulls, cottonseeds, citrus pulp and so on. So, because of their “digestive abilities”,  they are using “food” humans can’t eat then producing products we can use. There are studies in the reducing of the amount of methane they actually do produce.  There was, in deference to the plus side of things, a study to determine if there would be a measure of gain by cutting down on dairy farms. The result of the study showed that would happen at an expense to “human health and nutrition”. Getting to the point of the cow manure producing “renewable energy”....bacteria in the manure is broken down to create “biogas”. This biogas can be used for heat for warmth and gas as fuel. 

This being a day that I have three upload in my photo a day quest. This assignment was titled “berries”. Well, here you go....three berries on a dish. 

I am making lima bean soup (in the pressure cooker) for dinner tonight. 

Joy


  a painterly view of the notorious orange cones....this one a neighborhood path






Sunday, May 14, 2023

 May 13, 2023 a thought for the day, The cause at an end, the effect is removed. Latin Proverb 

The first upload for yesterday was “I like to....”. I like many things and one of them is eating chocolate chip cookies. 

Most of my days are “typical”, typical something....like Thursday is printing/laundry (plus), Monday is bulletin (plus), Saturday grocery pick up (plus)....there are many times I wish I were more spontaneous. But after eighty plus years I doubt that is going to happen or that even if it did if it would be comfortable for me.

So that being said....Bob and I did the grocery pick up today. The young lady who generally is our service person had her hair cut last week. She had it cut even shorter this week. I hardly recognized her from the back. She has gone through a kind of upheaval in her life, I think this is one of the ways she is trying to cope and move on.

A second upload for yesterday was “my choice”. This is a photo I took a while back of the city skyline. I think I was standing on the Columbus State Community College campus when I took this one. 

The last of my house plants are outside now. Oh....except for two HUGE ones upstairs. One is a Boston Fern and one is an over-grown-needs-repotting Snake Plant. The local city park was having a plant exchange this week. Plants were to be taken to the shelter house and dropped off on Friday (last night). Then today we would go back and take some of other varies for our own. Well, my plants are so large I couldn’t possibly have gotten them down stairs and to my car by myself so I lost out on this chance. Maybe later in the season I will ask someone to bring them down and I will leave them by the curb for some interested person to pick up. They are beautiful plants and I hate to get rid of them but they are getting beyond my ability to tend to them.  

My first upload for today is “on weekends I...” On Saturdays I do the curbside pick up of groceries. This is our “regular” service girl putting groceries in the trunk of my car. 

The word today is meaning/meaningful. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit, Aristotle. The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart, Mencius.  Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand, Confucius. A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love, St. Basil. A man is what he thinks about all day long, Ralph Waldo Emerson. In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you, Buddha. When man was put into the garden of Eden he was put there with the idea that he should work the land and this proves that man was not born to be idle, Voltaire.  Tut tut child said the Duchess. Everythings got a moral if only you can find it, Lewis Carroll.  First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak. Epictetus.  I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine, Emily Dickinson. The language of Friendship is not words, but meanings, Henry David Thoreau.  Silence is of different kinds, and breathes different meanings, Charlotte Brontë.  What Youth deemed crystal, Age finds out was dew,  Robert Browning. Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects. Blaise Pascal.  Man - a being in search of meaning. Plato.  

The second upload today is “something old”. This photo was taken several years ago and I had to Photoshop cobwebs out of the image so I think it could be considered “old”. I’m not sure how old the horse was. 

This article is a light-hearted explanation of how one man tried to adjust cooking during last years pandemic. He began the article with explaining that dough and things wrapped in dough would be his theme. One of those was dumplings...because it felt like a cocoon, an example is pierogis. His first batch was an “epic amount of butter” in the pastry, then  form the cheese and potato filled dumpling, fry in more butter then serve with sour cream. He said making them made him think further about diet. One of the thoughts was that finding that they are hard to make and time-consuming maybe it is not so much a good idea to make them again. Another of his trials was a Mexican dish with twelve tablespoons of butter in a pastry then two more in the filling. A funny explanation of making the thin dough was the idea of a “nightgown” when his were more like “flannel pajamas”. He tried making ravioli with slightly more success. He decided he needs more practice. He claims Asian pot stickers’ meets his best effort....he buys the wrappers instead of making them.  His last example was a stromboli. They became passable after practice and failure for “better distribution” of the filling. 

It’s going to be creamed chicken on biscuits for dinner tonight. 

Joy

                             once upon a time





Friday, May 12, 2023

 May 11, 2023 a thought for today, Unless what we do is useful, glory is vain. Latin Proverb

For yesterday’s first upload I chose this one. It is an upload to the group that has a photo a day four times a month. This one is titled “still life’. This is another of the early blooms of my flags (iris). 

This is the day of “tasks” to be completed. With the printing done and the church business done for the day its time to catch up on some minor household business. First the laundry, an all day event. Now, the multi-tasking begins. I just cleared the dishwasher and the sink. Next on the agenda it the frig. Tomorrow is trash pick-up so I shouldn’t put the frig off until tomorrow as I would like. I heard one of the weather announcers say that due to the upcoming weather conditions it probably wouldn’t be a problem to start with the outdoor plant situations a little ahead of the typical “after Mother’s Day rule”. So I am beginning the project of moving the houseplants outside for their annual “vacation”. There are two out now, maybe two or three more before the last of the laundry is done and it is time to think about dinner. 

My next upload for yesterday was called “I stood here....” . This is how I get to the upper shelves in my cupboards. 

The sound of lawnmower music is in the air also today. Now all I need is for there to be just a bit of a breeze so the wind chimes are playing. Spring is really here. The weather picture today is completing the whole mood and feel.

Bob is still resting from the beginning of his initial and upcoming treatments. So we are developing and getting a feel for new living arrangements. He is home more often now, for a while, and we have to practice a choreograph of sorts. We are making a few changes here while still trying to keep most things as close to routine as we can for comfort.

The last upload for yesterday was “my choice”. I chose my blue spruce with some pick morning glory booms creeping up in it.  

The word for today is memory. Happy moments for which I hope no longer, but whose precious memory death alone can take from me! Giacomo Casanova.  I look back on it as if through rainbows, the bit of sunshine hers, the tears my own. Thomas Carlyle.  When Memory rings her bell, let all the thoughts run in. Emily Dickinson. Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints, Chief Seattle. Memory is the treasure house of the mind wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved, Thomas Fuller. Of what significance are the things you can forget, Henry David Thoreau. Fond memory brings the light of other days around me, Sir Thomas More. Memory is the scribe of the soul, Aristotle.  Leftovers in their less visible form are called memories. Stored in the refrigerator of the mind and the cupboard of the heart, Thomas Fuller. We only labor to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void. Michel de Montaigne. Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory. Francis Bacon.   Memory is the mother of all wisdom. Aeschylus  Memory in youth is active and easily impressible; in old age it is comparatively callous to new impressions, but still retains vividly those of earlier years. Charlotte Bronte.  

The first upload for today is called “I work here....”. Actually, volunteer here.  

Here is a story about another part of our close by community. This one is about a quaint small town near Columbus called Plain City. Plain City was a favorite hunting and camping spot for prehistoric Indians. They traveled along the Big Darby Creek Valley after the glaciers were gone 16,000 years ago. It was once known as the Virginia Military District. There was a nine-year-old boy who was “captured by Indians in 1782" and was raised by them near Zanesfield. He moved around in close by areas. One of the cabins he lived in as he got older was along a creek “east of the present North Avenue”.  He eventually acquired some land and built a cabin on Chillicothe Road. Another gentleman connected with the history of Plain City was born in New York n in 1797. In 1814 he moved to Ohio having moved to then from Pennsylvania. He came to “make payment” on land, now where Plain City is located, for his father. He went back to Pennsylvania, became a doctor, married (his first cousin), and returned to Ohio in 1817. At time he lived in Trickle Creek. A year later he moved to Darby Township and “began laying out a new town”. That area of Ohio was growing and counties were formed. Madison County was formed in 1810  and included Darby Township and “extended into part of Union County”. Land in the area became Westminister whose name was changed to Pleasant Valley.  It grew slowly. It was located on Post Road where travelers passed by. There was a log cabin which was “surrounded with  underbrush and thickets of hazel and plum, served as the first hotel”. Soon more buildings sprang up, a post office was formed, a blacksmith shop sprang up, and a flour mill all added to the growth of this small city. In the 1850s slavery and abolition added to the growth and a portion of the Underground Railroad was established. Some of the newly freed people stayed there. Adding to its history was the “funeral train of Abraham Lincoln passed through”. Because there were several places called Pleasant Valley there was a bill to change the name to Plain City. Citizens helped keep the street in good condition. In 1885 a brick building was erected and became the jail, a storage area for fire equipment and some council rooms. This building still exists. The city continued to grow. The street lights were added, utilities were established, a town clock came into being, an opera house sprang up. Sheep and cattle “were driven through the center of town and down”. A three-story brick school was built which was a working school from 1891 to 1936, then it was torn down and a new school built. In 1959 the Big Darby overflowed with another major flood in 1997. The city experienced a tornado that destroyed many trees, some being over 150 years old. Plain City continues to make history. 

The next and last upload for today is “my choice”. This one I took a while back. I like the lines, shape, textures, patterns and shadows shown here. 

I think it is going to be hamburgers and fries for dinner. 

Joy

                                        facts of life