July 8, 2026 a thought for today, God gives clothes according to the cold. Portuguese Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday 

The first challenge was “a meal on a plate”. This was my doorcase from K.C.

The next assignment was “my choice” from my series of “black and white”. This is a tiny bit of my neighborhood. 

The last upload was “a road sign”. I was not out and about so I decided to use what I could see from my front porch. 

Life today. I usually have a week or two each month where I don’t have an obligation listed in my calendar. This is one of those weeks. So I am “rolling’” along on the “lazy river” this week. 

I have been trying to pick up Sue’s medicine. I called Monday, Tuesday and today....it is not ready yet!!! 

I have got the material I need to complete the bulletin and the mailings for tomorrow. I have been working on this letter with “research breaks”. Those “breaks” have become a regular part of most any work I do on the computer now including photo techniques I get wind of. I love learning and a lot of the “research” takes up a good part of the day....don’t know if that’s “bad” or “good”, I’ll choose “good”. 

My “kids”, they still are my “kids” even though they are grown and well and nicely established as adults, are both in interesting places in their lives right now. Lowell is on a moving adventure with one of his sons. Tami is in a new adventure with a new furry family addition. We are all animal lovers so when a new one joins the family it is cause for celebration. This one, a young dog, was abandoned on the streets and up for adoption. She is taking some time to become used to being safe and loved and “bonding” with her new “brother” who is a bit excited with the new addition too. 

The weather is taking a very welcome turn for a more livable temperature range. After all, it is the good old summer time. My rose garden is presenting me with a few colorful blooms. I have it set up in two window boxes, actually “rail boxes” on a fence rail on the back porch. One of the boxes is producing beautifully the other not so much yet, hope it perks up soon. One set are a peach color the other are yellow. 

The word to ponder today is beautiful.  I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may - light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful. John Constable. The most beautiful adventures are not those we go to seek.  Robert Louis Stevenson. Money, which represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. Henry Ward Beecher. Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action. James Russell Lowell. How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward. Spanish Proverb. A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one another the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden. But if these minds get out of harmony with one another it is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden. Buddha. The best, most beautiful, and most perfect way that we have of expressing a sweet concord of mind to each other is by music. Jonathan Edwards. There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. Sir Francis Bacon. Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good. Ralph Waldo Emerson. I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of imagination. What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth - whether it existed before or not. John Keats. The pride of youth is in strength and beauty, the pride of old age is in discretion. Democritus. Beauty in things exist in the mind which contemplates them. David Hume. 

Article summary. I was looking for something else that I had in mind when I came across this title and decided to have a look at it. “The history of animal companionship” caught my eye. The title is Pets & their People explores the long, strange history of human animal companionship. Philip Howell, Professor of Geography, University of Cambridge. At theconversation.com/us. In the first sentence some calculations were mentioned about numbers of pets as companions existed as close as could be monitored, as in 2025 thirteen-point two-million dogs in the UK. This was compared to around 11 million cats. It was even more difficult to count the number of fish as pets. Then they began thinking of how the relationships pet animals leads to the many different ways people through the ages have expressed their feel for the companionship they offer. There was a naturalist who looked into how far back in human history did people “enter(ed) the life worlds of other animals”. As the article moves on, it mentions that in the 19th century there were calling cards to remind visitors that “pets are us”. This led to how people used “pets to tell stories about ourselves”. In the 1970s there were tamagotchis, handheld digital pets. In 1975 there was the pet rock craze. In this day and age there are digital pets. It does seem the love of live pets and the grief that is attached to the end of their lives was the same in the days of ancient Egypt as it is to the pets in our lives today. The article touches on the subject of money spent on our companion animals as well as how there beings are embedded in our emotional well being. As the article was winding down it related to the word “pets” is hard to define but the term “companion animal” accounts for the “variety of relationships people have had with animals over the course of thousands of years and in innumerably different cultures”. The article ends with a lukewarm expression that the researchers can’t quite figure how some peoples through all the ages love pets and others don’t. 

I have been slowly clearing out the chest freezer. I am finding some of the things I have frozen for later use and have forgotten. I will most likely find something good for dinner. I think there are some meat balls in there somewhere.

Photos in my life today

My first challenge today is another of the “my choice” and another of my “black and white”. There are vines of what I call morning glories on my chain link fence. 

The next assignment is “a drink”. I wanted to use something different from my iced tea drinks that I have used several time. I used a Pepsi ice cream float instead. 

The last upload was “6:00pm”. I remembered last night that I needed this for
today photo-a-day images so I made my self watch for 6:00pm. I happened to be reading my most current ebook on my ipad so I used the tablet’s time. 

Joy

I uploaded this flag iris to Fine Art America contest and to be used on many household products available to anyone who would enjoy them

want to shop? Visit: fineartamerica.com search for joy rector click on “view shop”  and redbubble.com search for jarector (and take a look at flickr.com search for rectorjoyce)