July 11, 2025 a thought for today, If a family has an old person in it, it possesses a jewel. Chinese Proverb

One of the uploads for yesterday was “my bag”. This is my purse, actually “cross body purse” or “hip hugger”. Usually full of change making it heavy. 

The next upload was “details details”. I am trying to show details on a fire hydrant in this image. 

Next is another of the “my choice” and another of my series of “paths or walks”.  It is another curved sidewalk in my neighborhood. 

This is another of the days that I have a fourth upload. This challenge is titled “full” and is, of course another of my iced teas. 

Life today. Well, yesterday was now THE accustomed busy day of the week. The printing was done on time and without problems. There were no other groups coming in while I was there this week. So it was completely quiet and free. I made the customary stops on the way home. Then there were some tiny projects that needed attended to as the customary multi-tasking began. There was a weed growing taller than acceptable so I took the pruning shears out and chopped it off at one of my breaks from the computer. The powder room floor needed a bit of mopping, another break from the computer. Then, of course, the undeniable laundry, yet another break. I had left a pot soaking in the sink from last nights dinner so that needed scrubbed, thankfully it was the only thing in the sink to be tended to. I think the “breaks” are done for the day so I can wrap up the letter/blog and photos. 

One of the uploads for today is “current view”. This is a look out my dining room, or “computer” room, door/window into part of my neighborhood. 

Today, so far, is much less “busy”. A few little “pick this up, put that away” kind of “breaks” from computer attention. As well as a few emails and phone calls to answer. So I’m enjoying calm. 

I think I will be staying inside until we leave for dinner. The heat is climbing again. The AC is doing its job. 

The next upload for today is another of the “my choice” and another of the
series “paths or walks”. It is yet another of the curvy sidewalks in my neighborhood. 

The word today is drive. A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows. Francis of Assisi.  Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression. No man is free who cannot control himself. Pythagoras.  Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger. Saint Basil.  You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she'll be constantly running back. Horace.  I pass my life in preventing the storm from blowing down the tent, and I drive in the pegs as fast as they are pulled up. Abraham Lincoln.  Water is the driving force of all nature. Leonardo da Vinci.  We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end. Blaise Pascal.  A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit. Desiderius Erasmus.  You, too, will be driven away from your native land and ancient domains as leaves are driven before the wintry storms. Sleep not longer, O Choctaws and Chickasaws, in false security and delusive hopes. Our broad domains are fast escaping from our grasp. Tecumseh.  There is a blessed necessity by which the interest of men is always driving them to the right; and, again, making all crime mean and ugly. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  While the mind is in doubt it is driven this way and that by a slight impulse. Terence.  Learn of the little nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. Alexander Pope.  

 The last upload for today is “cute”. This is Sugar, my last dachshund. She loved being under sheets, blankets and even throw rugs. 

Article: This seems to be the season that we see more ants in our area. Here is a story about those pesky critters. Makes me wonder, could there be more we don’t know about ants?  I have researched in Google (now  offers AI generated answers), soil aeration and fertility, seed dispersal, pest control, decomposition, and ecosystem indicators are among some of the things ants do in our lives. The article title is “When aggressive ant species come in contact, deadly conflicts ensue”. The article starts out talking about a group of plant in the South Pacific that apparently have a problem with ants and have by it nature have solved that problem for itself. It “compartmentalizes” itself. Some plants have “compartments” that “allow multiple aggressive ant species to live side by side inside them without ever meeting”. The plant used in this story, “Squamellaria plants” they are “epiphytes”. They grow on another plant for support. Since they don’t grow in soil they don’t “have direct access to the soil’s nutrients”. They have developed a relationship with ants as they develop parts of themselves that appeal to ants, it is called symbiosis. Here is a description: at the base of the plant a stem is formed with a “hollow structure called a domatium”. It appears that the ants find it “a perfect place to live”. These ‘rooms’ called domatium grow forming more room, more living space for the ants. What makes this special is that the ants and the plant benefit each other. The ants get space to live, the plants get nutrients from the ants. It was discovered in studies on this particular subject that there were several species of ants wanting space in the plant. Some of the species were more aggressive than others. In the study the plant had developed “an interesting internal architecture”. Each of the plants domatium divides into compartments with thick walls that “isolate” each unit with “independent” entrances. In the study the walls were removed which caused “deadly fights” between the different species of ants. The article explains that the walls ensure that the “plant retains access to sufficient nutrients provided by the ants”. Though the ants are living side by side they are not together. There is speculation that this kind of compartmentalization could work in other situations.

Out to dinner at Cracker Barrel tonight, yeah. 

Joy 

                                 the ring?