May 10, 2025 a thought for today, A man must make his own arrows. Native American Winnebago Proverb

The first upload for yesterday was “my choice” it is one of my series of “shadows”. It explains itself...a refuse receptacle in the sun making a shadow with all the shapes and patterns found in shadow.  

The next photo upload was “clean”. With some quick thinking I came up with the clean dishes in my dish washer. 

The last upload for yesterday was “a book”.  I do most of my reading and research on the computer or tablet so any books I have are vintage books that I have collected. This is one of those.

Life today. Weekends are nice...when I was in school they were the best. Sweet Pea and I made our usual trip to Kroger for grocery pick up. I generated the four photos I needed before I left for the store.

The first upload for today is “in bloom”. This is one of my snowball plants in
full bloom. The plant was given to me by a neighbor a few years ago. 

The paving hasn’t been done on the street yet. So now it will be another day next week for the street to be so torn up. At least we are having nice spring day with some sun and quiet, I don’t hear any lawn mowers. 

The next upload is “bricks old or new”. I have some here of each old and new with lots of weeds to keep them company. 

After the groceries were put up I spent some time on the photos. They only needed some clean up and “filed” to the archives and portfolio calendar. I need some potting soil but couldn’t stop where I had to leave Sweet Pea in the car so I ordered it through DoorDash when I got home and got it in less than an hour. 

I have a couple of small household chores to get done and then I’m on a week end schedule...rest and relax.

The next upload for today is one in the club that have four photo a days in a month. This challenge is “white on black or black on white”. I chose one of my fresh cut peonies on a black pillow. The peony was an early mothers day gift to myself and Sue. 

The word is admire.  To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind. Theophile Gautier.  We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire. Francois de La Rochefoucauld.  There is in true beauty, as in courage, something which narro”w souls cannot dare to admire. William Congreve.  The more I see of the representatives of the people, the more I admire my dogs. Alphonse de Lamartine. Many admire, few know. Hippocrates.  However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him. Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux.  I never admire another's fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own. Marcus Tullius Cicero.  The generous Critic fann'd the Poet's fire, And taught the world with reason to admire. Edgar Allan Poe. Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Fools admire, but men of sense approve. Alexander Pope.  All we see and admire today will burn in the universal fire that ushers in a new, just, happy world. Seneca the Younger.  For why should we not admire more the angels themselves and the blessed choirs of heaven? Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Celerity is never more admired than by the negligent. Cleopatra.  Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you? Walt Whitman.  

The last upload is “mirror”. I managed two for one in this one. One is my hand held mirror placed as to capture the mirror on the wall . 

Article: Art is art. Art is a universal language “it transcends cultural and linguistic barriers, allowing for communication and connection across different groups and societies”. I agree with this thought so I think this article shows other forms of art for us to analyze as we stretch it a bit. The title is “Can animals make art?”. Early on in the article the author mentions “it’s important to outline various theories of what makes something a work of art”. It mentions that there has to be a “sort of producer” and a some kind of “audience”.  There is no “universally agreed-upon definition of art”. The article brought to mind that “Leo Tolstoy famously suggested art is a conduit for emotion.” When discussing animals making art art critics argue that animals “simply don’t have the right kind of intentions for art-making”. A philosopher who was interviewed “pointed out that communication arises even in animals”. Examples of animals using meaningful forms of commination and intention is fireflies making a form of art in signaling a mate with light like flashes or dogs recognize a “call to dinner”. This is how the author relates that art “might be able to come about in less intention-demanding ways too”. Another way of looking at art is to relate that “where art is meant to be evaluated for its beauty”. There is beauty therefore art when a bird is “elaborately displaying his graceful plumes or splendid colours”.  Some say that a spiders web is not art yet they are “intricate and carefully designed”so are a “beauty” of sorts. That is also true of the tiny little hills that ants build. How about the “songs of humpback whales”, they are complex, featuring parts and repeated patterns that researchers often describe as “themes” and “verses.” To some this is “beauty”. Some even “train” animals to make “art”. There was a pig names Pigcasso who was such and “artist”. It is said that as she was trained she was “motivated”. In Japan a “male white-spotted puffer fish create impressive nests to attract females”. He removes rocks from sand with his mouth and “wiggles”making “long, strategically placed grooves”. So the article ends with “it’s plausible that humans aren’t alone in their artistic pursuits.”

I don’t know if it will be leftover Tuna Casserole or meat loaf for dinner. 

Joy

                                                        A view of a mall that is gone now