October 19, 2025 a thought for today, No is a good answer when given in time. Danish Proverb

My photo a day challenge uploads for yesterday

My first upload was “a good habit”. It is a new habit I intend to get use to happily, staying with me at what I love to do...what better companion. Meet Bobbi.

The next upload is “favorite color”.  I don't know of any color that I don't like.
The one I chose for today is blue like the thin blue line and such.. I used this image from an original image of playground equipment. I used a plug in filter to Photoshop (before AI) to create it.

The last photo upload for yesterday was “food”. This one was from my archives. It is one of my sweet muffin with a dollop of whipped cream to top it off. 

Life today. Church attendance was light today probably due to the rain we were having. Those who were there are always a joy for me to see. I decided to give up an attempt at a new church choir experience. I gave it a try a couple of weeks ago. I got this feeling then and from earlier observations that we seemed to be  preparing for a semi-professional performance rather than singing for the purpose of praise.  I’m sure a lot of my discomfort involves my age and the naturally assorted limitations that comes with it as well as more spiritual experiences in my past choir activities. 

Tami and Andy were here for a while yesterday for a visit and to give Sue a hand with something she wanted. It ended up that I gave them a couple of other things to take care of for me. They also wanted a visit with Bobbi. The rest of yesterday was pretty much a “normal” Saturday.

Today is my rest, refresh and renew for the coming week. There is very little on my agenda except for the every day letter/blog and photos. 

The word for today is least.  He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature. Socrates.  Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite. Charles Spurgeon.  He has the most who is most content with the least. Diogenes.  Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers, and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love. Thérèse of Lisieux.  I may be no better, but at least I am different. Jean-Jacques Rousseau.  The bee collects honey from flowers in such a way as to do the least damage or destruction to them, and he leaves them whole, undamaged and fresh, just as he found them. Saint Francis de Sales.  The vegetable life does not content itself with casting from the flower or the tree a single seed, but it fills the air and earth with a prodigality of seeds, that, if thousands perish, thousands may plant themselves, that hundreds may come up, that tens may live to maturity; that, at least one may replace the parent. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  That government is best which governs least. Henry David Thoreau. Seize the day, and put the least possible trust in tomorrow. Horace.  Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know. Michel de Montaigne.  The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold. Aristotle.  Let your hook be always cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be fish. Ovid.

Article: Here is another thing in history that I know little about so I thought I would have a look and share. The title to the article is: “Erie Canal’s 200th anniversary: How a technological marvel for trade changed the environment forever”. It opens by telling how th Erie Canal looks today, a “tranquil waterway” that passes through towns and forests. People hike, bird watch, kayak and cycle along the way. It all looked so different 200 years ago when it opened in October of 1825. Some of the description mentioned sights of decaying trees as it winded through 360 miles of forests and fields. Then mules pulled barges at 4 miles an hour. Goods were carried from the Great Lakes to the Port of New York City. Travel then was faster than wagons over “primitive roads”. The article said that cost in transporting goods dropped by 90%. The growth then and use of the Erie Canal “transformed the surrounding environment and forever changed the ecology of the Hudson River and the lower Great Lakes”. Prior to the canal people traveled the Great Lakes and Hudson River by canoe. In planning for the canal it would require locks to raise and lower boats. In 1817 thousands of men started the digging with hand shovels and pickaxes. Hydraulic cement from local materials were used and locks were created that “lifted the canal’s water level about 60 feet at Lockport”. As the canal allowed people to move more freely it “fueled” religious revivals as well as “social reform” and growth of cities in the Great Lakes area. With the growth of the waterway naturally aquatic species were involved leading to how to handle problems that arose with fishing and with harvests. The article went on to say that today there can be situations with invasive plants and animals. It helps when “boaters, kayakers and anglers”clean, drain and dry what ever equipment they use after each use to avoid carrying one “invasive species” to other locations.  In the late 1800s there was environmental concerns with  the canal. One such concern was erosion along the eastern feeder rivers as they were filling up with silt. There was a preservation plan where parks balanced recreation and commercial use of the lands. In the 20th century there was a decline in the use of the Erie Canal with the “deeper and wider St. Lawrence Seaway and competition from rail and highways”. I learned from the article that now there is still commerce but “the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor now provides an additional economic engine”. In 2024 3.84 million people used the canal for “cycling, hiking, kayaking, sightseeing and other adventures”. I like the part of the closing review of the article that the canal “has both shaped, and been shaped by, ecological forces and changing socioeconomic priorities”.

I think I will have “tuna helper” with fruit and sliced tomatoes for dinner tonight. 

My photo a day uploads for today

The first upload for today is “an autumn walk”. This is another one from my archives. Sue and I were on a short road trip on an autumn day when we passed this covered bridge along the roadway.

The next upload is “a circle”. This wreath on my neighbor’s fence seemed the best of the many circles I had shot today. 

The last upload is “bones”. I don’t buy meat with bones attached any more. I
do have one xray of the hip I had replaced several years ago but I can’t seem to find it. So I used some broken up leg parts from the top box in the corner of the living room. 

Joy

 I have another bonus photo today. This one is an art creation I made from the original image of a orange and brown afghan I crochet a while back.