February 13, 2024 a thought for today, Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come. Chinese Proverb

The first upload for yesterday was “starts with the letter P”. This is a flower Pot that two of my great grand children made for me for Christmas. 

The nest upload for yesterday was “indoor decoration”. This is what we had planned to put on what had been our Christmas wreath on the front door. It didn’t happen that way so I chose to use it on the door to the powder room. 

The third upload for yesterday was “adventure”. This is one of the many adventures Sweet Pea hopes to have with a squirrel. He never seems to want to play with her. 

Live today. It’s been a fairly uneventful Tuesday. There are no meetings and no deadlines for this week other than the weekly bulletin. I got the information to finish that in good time this morning. After my early morning checks of email and news headlines, I worked on a couple of the annual report pages. Then I rechecked the email and found the bulleting information was there so I finished the bulletin. I had the anthem lyrics insert already done. 

There were a couple of areas in the house that needed tidied up so I did that before lunch. I kept a couple of spots that will take a little more time for later. I had been up moving around more than my legs would hold out. 

After I finish this letter I may have time to work on either the newsletter or the annual report again or prepare a page of the church windows for instagram and facebook. All of these at this point are on going projects so I have time each day to piece work on them. 

My first upload for today is “starts with the letter S”. This is for sunset. Sometimes we have a gorgeous  ky in Columbus Ohio. It’s not like those around the oceans or mountains but still special just to our part of the world. 

The weather is beginning to turn again. There is even a prediction of light snow. But the sun isn’t giving up for today. I probably shouldn’t mention that so far it has been a fairly decent winter. I hope it hasn’t been storing up a huge snow storm or even worse ice. 

I have mentioned that I am working on turning many of my plants to the hydrophobic method. I am finding that not all plants are suited to that method. I have a few that are doing very well. One that I had high hopes for is not doing well. My Boston Fern is the culprit. I decided to try an aquarium type fern called a Java Fern Windelow. I ordered it by email and have received it. It doesn’t seem to be doing to well. I think I may have been a little two rough with it when I took it out of the package. 

The second upload for today is “lighthouse”. I’m not privy to any kind of view of a true light house. There are, I am sure, miniature garden ornaments of lighthouses in our city but I don’t know where they are hidden. So I used a photo of a house that has welcoming lights showing in their windows. 

The word for today is action. Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. Thomas Jefferson.  Act, and God will act. Joan of Arc.  The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then. Thomas Carlyle.  Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives. Alexander Hamilton.  The spirit desires to remain with its body, because, without the organic instruments of that body, it can neither act, nor feel anything. Leonardo da Vinci.  The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it. Confucius.  Education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the worlds work, and the power to appreciate life. Brigham Young.  The foolish are like ripples on water, For whatsoever they do is quickly effaced; But the righteous are like carvings upon stone, For their smallest act is durable. Horace. There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord. Thomas Paine. 

My last photo upload for the day is “portrait”. This one was taken when I volunteered at the humane society taking votes of the pets up for adoption to be put on the societies web site. I found this little fellow already posing for me as I walked up to his cage. I hope he found a happy home and had a happy life. 

The article. I think this dilemma can in any city when and where there is a major celebration so I am sharing the article. This article is talking about trash that is left after such crowd gatherings. One of the biggest products that cause the worst problems is plastic. The story is centering on the Mardi Gras.  It’s a colorful, fun and traditional party. Thousands of people look forward to and travel to this event. With that many people there is naturally going to be some left over debris. After the parade it takes several days to “cleanup”. When the clean up begins there are beads dangling from tree limbs like “Spanish moss”. These beads are also under foot “ground into the mud”. Some “wash into storm drains. As pass intro into the storm drains then get “washed through the system and into Lake Pontchartrain – the large Gulf of Mexico inlet north of the city”. These bits of “nonbiodegradable plastics are a threat to fish and wildlife”. One of the programs used in New Orleans to help slow down the growing problem it is to find ways to reuse the old pieces of plastic. The hope there are paradegoers who help with this program by using shopping bags to collect the “beads, foam footballs, rubber balls and a host of other freshly flung goodies can donate the haul to the Arc of New Orleans”. There they will be “repackaged” and sold to raise money that will provide assistance to children and adults with disabilities. There are also “collection points” along the parade routes for collecting cans, glass and, of course, some of the beads. There are other uses for the collected items going through the process of recycling. They are also finding other things being made to help with the celebration habits besides plastic-made products. There they’re sustainable items that the parade “riders” can “pitch”. Some of these items are headbands made from recycled T-shirts and “beads made out of paper, acad. seeds or recycled glass; wooden yo-yos; and packets of locally made coffee, jambalaya mix or other food items – useful, consumable items”. The hopes of the parade organizers are that the these practices  will continue in the adoption of the biodegradable alternatives” as I hope all such large gatherings will do. 

I think I am going to try a recipe I found for low acid tomato soup. I was talking to my granddaughter in law the other day and she was saying my great grad daughter wanted homemade tomato soup that got me started searching. I have a problem with eating too many tomatoes but I love them. 

Joy

                                                  this is a fallen leaf on my windshield