December 19, 2023 a thought for today, We are often shot with our own feathers. English Proverb

My first upload for yesterday was “tree”. This house has some interesting decorations for almost every holiday. As I passed it yesterday morning I thought this would make a perfect upload for the day. 

The second upload yesterday was “something cute”. This is my grand kitty. With no fur I worry about him getting cold but he seemed perfectly able to find comfort in many areas of the house. 

The next upload for yesterday was “transport”. I was on the look out for a UPS or FedEx truck for this assigned image but there were none to be seen as I drove up and down the street. So I captured this bus as it was picking up one of its riders.

Life today. There was a meeting at church last night that I was planning on attending. As the evening went on I slowly decided that I would most likely not go. The wind was blowing and snow was beginning to fall not to mention that the news people were predicting slippery roads and accumulations in some areas. So I begged off. 

Things are moving at a more steady and successful pace than I was worried about for this week. I have several of the pieces I will need for the Thursday printing done. I have two that still need small pieces added to make them complete and ready. I hope to have them in hand so that I can finish them both when I get home from food pantry tomorrow. 

The first upload today is “festive”. As I was coming into pantry today, I noticed the box of decorations some of the ladies made and passed out. It is a perfect image for this upload.

One of the photos I need for today is “winter”. We had a bit of snow that accumulated on the roofs and grass during the night. I decided to snap a photo of that scene. Naturally I had to open the door and step just outside the door.....what a shock!, something like walking into a freezer. Two days early maybe, the first day of winter is tomorrow, the 21st.

I think the main things on my today list are done except for food pantry. I will be leaving for that in a few minutes. When I get home, I may have the rest of the information I need for the newsletter and/or the poinsettia dedication list. 

The next upload today is “watch”. This is a watch that was in some of my mother’s collections of memorable items she kept. I didn’t test it to see if it would still run. It is somewhere around seventy-five years old. 

The word today is poetry.  Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks. Plutarch.    I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty. Edgar Allan Poe. Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. Thomas Gray. Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history. Plato. God is the perfect poet. Robert Browning. Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason. Novalis.  Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth. Samuel Johnson.  Poetry is the mother-tongue of the human race. Johann Georg Hamann.  Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. Percy Bysshe Shelley.  Always be a poet, even in prose. Charles Baudelaire.  Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular. Aristotle  Poetry is all that is worth remembering in life. William Hazlitt. Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven! Lord Byron.  Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it. Vincent Van Gogh.  

The next upload for today is “winter”. We had some snow. I was able to capture a little of it still left on the roof of one of my neighbors. That along with the bare tree branches and the overcast sky give the signs of winter. 

This article caught my eye with the name Lazarus in it. The Lazarus family did so much for Columbus especially at Christmas time with the lavishly decorated windows in the department store. The store offered special activities for children like the talking tree, the secret Santa shopping and other. Then there was the annual holiday Santa parade. So I thought I would share what is happening to the families one time home. The article is telling about a home of one of the Lazarus’ that  “Undergoes a Preservation-Focused Revival”. The historic Lazarus House in question is on East Town Street. It was built in 1879. The article started out by describing that the “structure” is divided into three “well-appointed” apartments. Some of the outstanding features are a “parquet floors to ornate fireplaces to wavy glass windows and newel posts.” It is of a Victorian style with much unique decor. A couple lives in the house as they are doing the renovating. They say there have been many surprises in this journey, as “gold buttons buried in the yard, a coin from 1889, an old illustrated deck of playing card....the original parquet floor in remarkably good condition after 150 years”. They bought the house during that pandemic and found that “building material” were “skyrocketing”. They are trying to keep the “original features” as original as possible and may find they will want to re-purpose some of them. They have some assistance in this desire from the Columbus Landmarks as they protect architectural legacy. Before starting a project of historic restoration one should begin with “examination first”. In one of the many projects they “incorporate(d)” new elements as in the “custom-made kitchen chairs from Edgework Creative, rounded at the top to mimic the arched doorways throughout the house.” They have a rooftop patio since there is not much of a lawn. They also have pre-teen boys and wanted have outdoor space to enjoy. They had some help form the Columbus Downtown Commission in dealing with the patio. One of the thoughts was the patio door “would take away from the building”. The solution turned out to be to mask it to look like a window. They built a vaulted room for the boys. The 16-foot ceilings allowed plenty of space for the room. As it turned out the room wasn’t just for the boys but allowed for a way to “hide” the HVAC on the side leaving plenty of floor space. The couple wanted others to know that rehabing an old structure doesn’t have to be as expensive as one might think. There are tax credits for historic home and tax abatements. To add to the history of the story one of the present owners grandmother’s worked as a master seamstress in the Downtown Lazarus department store. 

I think I will have stir fry for dinner. 

Joy                                     

                                                    some trees to stick with the season