July 2, 2024 a thought for today, What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul. Yiddish Proverb

One of the challenges for yesterday was “sea shells”. I only have two now. When they are not posing for a photo, they are both serving as a place for one of my nine air plants to rest and show off. 

The second upload for yesterday was one of the “photographers choice”.
This is one of the many trees in the park down the street. I like the shapes the roots have taken above ground. I like the picnic table slightly hidden behind the trees and the pond in the foreground.

The last challenge of yesterday was “skyline”. I decided to use a bit of the panorama feature on the camera to take this shot. I hoped it would give more height to the sky as it minimizes the size of the houses. 

Life today. I have days, as I have mentioned before, that I move from thing to thing as an idea pops up. That’s what it’s been today. I started on the letter, then got side tracked to some photo researches for ideas on how to present things I had in mind for the challenges. Then I took a break and headed, you guessed it....McDonalds and then some photo shots. 

Back from Micky Ds....back to the letter. Then some uploads to the photo archive files. I stopped there to move on to making meat balls....some for Sweet Pea’s “treats” and some for our dinner. When they were done and clean up from that mess was complete I moved back to the letter. 

The first upload for today is “to my left”. As I swivel my office chair this view is to my left. 

I took a short break in the above chores to make an eye doctor appointment....had to wait over six weeks for an open date. Then I called Lowell, which I try never to do when he is at work, but I needed to let him know I should cancel the time we were going to go look for new phones for me. We were going to meet before dinner time to go but I remembered I have a meeting at church tonight. We will do it later this week.

Now a move back to the letter and photos. Then on to making some spaghetti sauce to go with the meat balls...not Sweet Peas...mine and Sues.

The second upload for today is “high angle”. I was going to drag the ladder out but decided I didn’t feel like climbing today so I use my selfie stick. I made several attempts to use Sweet Pea as my model but she refused to raise her head at the moment that I made the shot....it was a messy image so I used the dining room table and its adornments.

The word today is guard. The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature. Marcus Aurelius.  Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism. George Washington.  Guard your roving thoughts with a jealous care, for speech is but the dealer of thoughts, and every fool can plainly read in your words what is the hour of your thoughts. Alfred Lord Tennyson.  Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue. Joseph Addison.  Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues. John Locke.  Of all things, guard against neglecting God in the secret place of prayer. William Wilberforce.  Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness. George Sand.  It is the part of a fool to give advice to others and not himself to be on his guard. Phaedrus.  God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it. Daniel Webster.  In order to preserve the dominion of our own passions, it behooves us to be constantly and strictly on our guard against the influence and infection of the passions of others. John Quincy Adams.  Guard your roving thoughts with a jealous care, for speech is but the dealer of thoughts, and every fool can plainly read in your words what is the hour of your thoughts. Alfred Lord Tennyson.  

The last challenge is another of the “photographers choice”. This one is Sue’s long needled fir tree. A year or so ago the center branch was injured and it stopped producing new branches. Now the lower portions form an umbrella and a lot of pine cones. 

This article brings up a little about nature and “a portal” to Ohio’s glacial past that can be found at Cedar Bog.  I have never been there but according to the article it is “a glacial relict populated with flora that one would normally have to venture far to the north of Ohio to see”. It went on with the description of a “time of European settlement”. It was then a “massive 7,000-acre ‘swamp’”. Then suggested that a swamp is a “catch-all” term for wetlands. In the last global ice age, beginning about 2.5 million year ago. Ice “bulldozed the landscape, creating valleys and depressions suitable for northern plant species”. The article related that since the climate was much colder then plants as spruce, fir, tamarack and others “flourished in what would much later become known as Ohio”. The area that we are reading about in this article was slowly replaced with more “southerly plants” within the areas “around the margins of cold glacial lakes and specialized peatlands known as bogs and fens” which includes Cedar Bog.  I learned that the Cedar Bog is a “fen” (peat-forming wetlands that cannot easily be restored once destroyed). It is reported that Cedar Bog is one of the largest and “is exceptional” with the it particular plants. When settlers moved into the area they began clearing timber and draining the swamp.  All but 450-acres of the wetland was destroyed. Soybeans and wheat took up the other former part of the “fen”. In 1942 the state raised money to purchase the site. The Ohio Historical Society took over the bogs care. It became a National Natural Landmark in 1967. When entering the bog area today there are white cedars to be observed. They are normally a northern tree, the Cedar Bog is the only place in this area to see them. One of the plants found here is the Michigan lilies. The article informs that “Cedar Bog hosts one of the highest densities of rare plants of any site in the state”. Another of the plants at the bog are ladies’ slippers, a huge orchid with pink and white flowers. There are critters that call the bog home. There are lizards and five-lined skinks. The smallest dragon fly called the “endangered elfin skimmer” also lives there. And there are more, elfin skimmers, damselfly, the seepage dancer, and black-necked stilts. All of this can be experienced about an hour away from Columbus.

Spaghetti and meat balls for dinner.

Joy

                                                  trees in a line....perhaps oxygen to spare