August 3, 2021 a thought for today, We are all made of the same clay, but not from the same mold. Mexican Proverb

We had a bit of a mix up on which visiting minister we were having this week so I had to get that figured out before I could do the bulletin. I had the information I needed within an hour or so after finding out who it would be. So I got the bulletin done this morning. 

This months over all theme for the photo of the day is “month of gratitude”. So my choice for Day two of the month was the view I have of the near by park that I visit almost daily. It offers greenspace with trees, art, play ground equipment, tennis and racket ball courts along with a pond with fish available for those kinds of sportsmen and children. It is a place to relax and enjoy....

I may use one of the shots I got yesterday for my gratitude photo for today. 

I don’t have much on the agenda again today since I have an appointment this afternoon. I will get as much out of the way as I can so I won’t have any outstanding chores when I get home. 

The word today is companion. Patience is the companion of wisdom. Saint Augustine. The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility. Charles Caleb Colton. Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society. Thomas Paine.  Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance. Charles Caleb Colton. Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms, George Eliot.  Never have a companion that casts you in the shade, Baltasar Gracian. The rotten apple spoils his companion, Benjamin Franklin.  We may take Fancy for a companion, but must follow Reason as our guide, Samuel Johnson.  One of those poor fellows that had become a Christian was badgered by his companions; and one of them said, "How do you know that Jesus Christ has forgiven your sins? " The man turned at once and said, "How do you know when you have got sugar in your tea? John Bartholomew Gough.   Rashness is the companion of youth, prudence of old age, Marcus Tullius Cicero.  And the bright faces of my young companions Are wrinkled like my own, or are no more. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A pleasant companion is as good as a coach, Jonathan Swift. If you knew the secret of life, you too would choose no other companion but love, Rumi.  I am an ark in the swift flood of time, and my companions, a fellowship. Who throws in with us sails into light, Rumi.

Today’s gratitude photo of the day is a photo of an essential aspect of human daily life and health, pick up and disposal of waste in a safe and sanitary way. 

Some of the “As It Were” articles I have come across share a good bit of interesting history about Columbus. This one talks about “major transportation” in Columbus in the 1830s. We were, at that time, “a modest village on the edge of a moving frontier...... located in the midst of an old-growth forest.” In 1797 and in the War of 1812 Franklinton, across the river, was a growing village. Its growth was reduced after the war because of flooding. In 1824 the county seat was moved from Franklinton to Columbus. The only growth at that time was because it was a “political and social center”.  In 1832 the population was about 2,000 people. By 1834 it had grown to about 5,000. At that time many of the “new” people were immigrants from Germany and Ireland with more from the East and South. According to the article in 1831 the National Road finally reached Columbus. At that time most roads were little more than dirt trails. Henry Clay and John Calhoun “lobbied” for a “federally funded” road. In 1811 it began to be built. It began in Frederick, Maryland and was a 60-foot wide, gravel based road with bridges where needed along its length. It arrived in Columbus in 1831 on Main Street. The Ohio Penitentiary was at the end of that road, on the land that is now the Cultural Arts Center, so it was moved to Spring Street and Neil Avenue.  Local business men objected to its route of the new road so it was redirected. It entered Columbus on Main Street, turned north on High Street, turned again west on Broad Street and later continued on from there. Added to this mode of travel  “Ohioans approved the construction of not one but two complete canal systems linking the Ohio River to Lake Erie.....with a 9-mile feeder canal .....west from Lockbourne” to the center of town and went into the Scioto River. The events of the arrival of the National Road and the Ohio Canal made  Columbus a major transportation and trade center. 

I’m not sure about dinner yet, we may order in.....I have an afternoon doctor’s appointment that runs into dinner prep time. 

Joy

pot hole filler

  

August 1, 2021 a thought for today, Every exit is an entry to somewhere. African Proverb

I keep hoping the congregation will start coming back to services. Some have come back slowly after the pandemic but there are still several that I haven’t seen in over a year. The bible study before church service was pretty well attended some came in late but made up by joining in a great discussion about the study topic. 

Yesterday’s photo challenge was “dreamy”. This photo is from my archives. I came across it as I was searching for a photo that I had generated into a digital design and decided that it is perfect for this subject. 

This months photos are going to have a negative/positive outlook. Every day this month will be shooting something we are grateful for each day. I have and see many things I am grateful for each day and that is what is going to make it difficult (negative) on the one hand. It will be hard to choose just one to use for the subject each day. On the other hand (positive), there won’t be any shortage of subject matter. Since it is this wide open, I may choose a photo more for its aesthetic qualities in mind. I started looking and deciding and shooting on the way to church, at church and on the way home.

This being Sunday there is a thin agenda for the rest of the day. 

Yesterday, being the last day of the month, meant it was time to finish the composite of all the photos of the day that I have uploaded for this month.

The word for today is communication. Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute, Josh Billings. The true genius shudders at incompleteness - and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be, Edgar Allan Poe.  Good, the more communicated, more abundant grows, John Milton. Many can argue - not many converse, Amos Bronson Alcott. The pen is the tongue of the mind. Horace. An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind, Walter Bagehot.  What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  No pleasure is fully delightful without communications, and no delight absolute except imparted, Michel de Montaigne. Knowledge is to be acquired only by a corresponding experience. How can we know what we are told merely? Each man can interpret another's experience only by his own, Henry David.Thoreau. I can hear those glances that you think are silent, Jean Racine. All communication must lead to change, Aristotle. Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few, Pythagoras.  Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.  Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill, Gautama Buddha. Give me the gift of a listening heart, Solomon. 

As I mentioned earlier in this message, this month’s photo a day theme is a bit different and interesting. The theme for the month is “a month of gratitude” . Each day is supposed to be something we can capture that day to show one of the things we are grateful for. Today, as I was listening to the prelude at church and glanced around, I spotted the light fixture, the light coming from it and the architecture in and around it. It is something that awes me every time. 

I have passed the farm in this article many time. It will look a lot different if it becomes a “solar source”. The Galbreaths hope to make 900 acres of their 2,400 acre farm a “solar project” that would provide power to 50,000 homes. This was a “generational decision” since “the life of a solar farm could be 30 to 40 years”. At one time the farm was 4,800 acres. Some land was donated or sold over the years. Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park bought some. A thousand acres are leased to a farmer for corns and beans. Four hundred acres are leased to a sod farmer.  And there is an air strip on the farm. There is Darby House used as an event center and twenty rental houses on the property. The land planed for the solar project will run from Broad Street along Darby Creek Drive. The Galbreath family is interested in the environment and nature. The plan is to have pollinating flowers and grasses planted between the rows of solar panels and around them, inviting bees, butterflies and other wild life. According to the article the project would employ eight hundred people during the construction. Other positive aspects of the project are improvement of storm water runoff and top soil erosion with the plants. There is some concern from the Battelle Metro Park that there may be potential damage to the park. Another group representing some people who have property near the project fear reduced property values. The company working on this project states that studies show property values are not harmed fry solar farms. The company is also working with the metro park to address and assist with their worries. The article mentioned that one lady to the Galbreath’s that their grandfather would be disappointed in this project. Galbreath replied, “Quite to the contrary; he would be very proud of us being a good steward of the land and passing it on and not just developing it into a city with smokestacks.” It is also reported that there will be no long-term impact on the land.  

It’s going to be KFC for dinner tonight. 

Joy

                                       life....inflexible......pliable 

 

 July 30, 2021 a thought for today, Anxiety breaks a man's backbone. Hebrew Proverb

There are days in one’s life that a small thing happens, seemingly just a little thing but one that carries such a powerful touch on the heart. This was one of those days for me. I have a grandson and his family who live away from me, far enough that I  get very few chances to see them. As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen them this time in somewhere around two years. They were “home” (to the state of Ohio today). I got to spend a couple of hours with them. My heart swelled when I was able to give each of them a hug. The two little ones are growing and experiencing all the wonders of life and I am missing those times. Their mom has seen that I do get to have video contact with them two or three times a week which is a godsend for me. Touching them (and their parents) today brought a flood of emotion and memories. 

Yesterday’s photo challenge was “faded”. I have an old umbrella that had been in the back window of my car all spring and summer....it was very well faded. But uninteresting really, so I chose an old faded cone flower. I think it fit the title. 

Sue was with me and needed to drop off some paper work so we got that done then I dropped her off for another errand. After that we went in search of my photo for today. 

Once at home I put some effort into the dishes and gave the refrigerator some attention then made some meat balls for Sweet Pea (after I called to order her meds for pick up tomorrow). 

The word for today is comfort.  Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always. Hippocrates. Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness and captivity would, without this comfort, be insupportable. William Samuel Johnson. There is certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in traveling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position, and be bruised in a new place. Washington Irving.  In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds. Aristotle.  Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away, George Eliot.   What I aspired to be and was not, comforts me, Robert Browning.  Kind words produce their own image in men's souls; and a beautiful image it is. They soothe and quiet and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, morose, unkind feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance as they ought to be used, Blaise Pascal.  Labor is the great source from which nearly all, if not all, human comforts and necessities are drawn, Abraham Lincoln. 

Today’s theme is “my fave word”. Well....my favorite word is food. I couldn’t find an interesting printed word “food”. But I found this restaurant window that displayed two of my second favorite words pertaining to food, lunch and dinner.

I think this article is a bit of an interesting story about the art sign that has stood out for twenty years in the downtown area for several years. The Columbus College of Art and Design created and installed a ten-story tall sculpture “spanning” Gay Street. This event surprised everyone including the CCAD community. The idea for the sign or sculpture began in Taipei. A photography professor was visiting there when he saw a tower on the Taiwanese college campus. It was so impressive to him that he suggested it to a professor friend a CCAD who liked the notion. As the design was planned people more or less associated it with one of the men who suggested the idea. They say he was tall and thin and “towered over (the) campus”. It is felt that the sign helped make CCAD a “hallmark”. The article went on to offer some “fun facts” about the structure. First, only two of the aspects of the original idea stayed with the completion of the design. The word and the color that were finally used. The original idea was a neon red “ART” on top of the Canzani Center, a main gathering building on campus, with an arrow pointing toward campus. The second fun fact was that the actual construction and the funding came from a pair of CCAD alumni and their company. Another fact, it took ten hours to install. Next, the “A” was built to sway 18 inches in the wind. More fun facts: it is thought that it could be one of the most photographed places in the area. And, it has been and is used for classroom assignments. One more fact, it is 100 feet tall and 101 feet wide and weighs 62,100 pounds (“about the same as five full-grown African bush elephants”).

PIZZA!!

Joy

                                    lost and forgotten

 July 28, 2021 a thought for today, Fortunes exist among leftovers. Japanese Proverb

This day has been in the nature of a normal Wednesday with not too much on the day’s agenda beyond going to help at food pantry before noon. 

Lets start with yesterday’s photo theme, “fuel”. I actually started out early in the morning thinking about it off and on for a couple of hours. What I could snap for this subject? Perhaps a gasoline can, a stop at the gas pump, food for physical fuel (maybe). Then when I was out and stopped at a light lo and behold the gasoline fuel tanks I pass everyday spoke to me clearly, “yoo-hoo, here I am”. Fortunately the light held long enough for me to get the camera focused. 

The first thing this morning, I worked on getting the bulletin finished and sent to the proofreaders. Then the envelopes printed and a few new coloring pages for the kids at the HM3 free meal on Saturday evening. Hopefully I won’t have any problems with the copier tomorrow so I can get the bulletin done and the coloring pages printed. 

Today the word is color. Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises. Pedro Calderon de la Barca. The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Marcus Aurelius.  I have dreamed in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind. Emily Bronte.  There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice. John Calvin.  Modesty is the color of virtue. Diogenes. The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience. James Russell Lowell.  Colors are the smiles of nature. Leigh Hunt. Love makes its record in deeper colors as we grow out of childhood into manhood; as the Emperors signed their names in green ink when under age, but when of age, in purple, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  Sing will all the voices of the mountain, paint with all the colors of the wind, Pocahontas.  The heart should have fed upon the truth, as insects on a leaf, till it be tinged with the color, and show its food in every ... minutest fiber, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Today’s challenge is “animal”. I see bunches of squirrels but can’t get my camera focused quick enough
usually. This is my all time animal/pet/dog model, Sweet Pea.

Here is a little more history about our community. One of the first sentences of this article said that “The story of Ohio and Columbus is a tale of extraordinary challenge and change”. It was once an “isolated rural frontier” that is now keeping up with automation, “digital information and social change”. Through “diverse” land grants Ohio was formed. In 1803 there were 50,000 settlers along with “a few thousand” disappearing Native American communities. According to the article Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton saw Ohio’s development differently. Jefferson looked at Ohio as his “ideal world” as families were self sufficient on small farms. Hamilton saw “the future of America” in the towns and villages with commercial and financial strengths. The article went on to say Ohio moved more toward Hamilton’s view with the commercial and industrial revolution. It is reported that due to the industrial growth the “nation” came to Ohio for the dirt and rain”. Good soil was up to seven feet deep and there were “mighty rivers” and good rainfall. The farms fed people and some farmers came to the cities as entrepreneurs. Factories grew making plows, wagons and buggies. The Civil War initiated railroad growth. It was easier for farmers to get their products to cities. Coal, iron and timer was more readily available. One of the entrepreneurs started a tannery which helped the buggy companies. A financier named C.D. Firestone joined with the tannery and the Columbus Buggy Co. was formed. That led to hundreds of jobs. Later, in the 1900s,  there were twenty-two buggy companies in Columbus making it the “Buggy Capital of the World”.  The buggy companies tried to “make the transition to cars” but Henry Ford was more successful at that in that time frame. Ohio apparently remains to be useful in its abundance of “dirt and rain”. 

I think we will have fried bologna for dinner with some more left overs. 

Joy

    apparently someone didn’t get the memo about where old tires go or else they.....fill in the blank

 July 26, 2021 a thought for today, Walk your own road and bear your own load. Mexican Proverb

It has been a Monday of “different colors” so to speak. I usually spend the first part of the day on putting together the bulletin template for the coming week. I didn’t today. 

The challenge for yesterday was “art”. I made shots of an old tree trunk that had been decorated, some sculptures at the park and this a couple of graffiti type art. This one is a small section of a full graffiti wall on a local business. I love and admire the lines and proportions that artists can maintain in these huge, bigger than life images. The vivid colors add a vitality.

We had problems with the copier again. So we had to put off printing the newsletter this past Thursday/Friday. So the first thing this morning I went to church to see if I could recall the set up for printing the newsletter. It took a little coaxing but I finally got it figured out. It all worked except for the stapling. I called Dorothy to see if she could come in to help, she was there in about fifteen minutes. (Isn’t it great to have such friends?) I printed and hand stapled as she folded  and sealed them. When I had the stapling done, I joined her efforts and we completed the whole process in about an hour and a half. After a couple of other tasks I was ready to get on with the day. 

When I left the church, I stopped for brunch, then on to a short photo excursion. When I got home there was a couple of phone messages I had to attend to. 

So now I am well into the middle of the afternoon and don’t want to start a lengthy task. I will just tie up some loose ends today and get to the bulletin the first thing tomorrow morning. 

The word for today clouds.  Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray. Lord Byron. God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars. Martin Luther.  Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility. Saint Augustine.  Clouds and darkness surround us, yet Heaven is just, and the day of triumph will surely come, when justice and truth will be vindicated. Mary Todd Lincoln. It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are... than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise. Henry David Thoreau. The clouds may drop down titles and estates, and wealth may seek us, but wisdom must be sought. Edward Young.  To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education. Thomas Jefferson.  Rising genius always shoots out its rays from among the clouds, but these will gradually roll away and disappear as it ascends to its steady luster. Washington Irving. Without the frown of clouds and lightning, the vines would be burned by the smiling sun, Rumi.  Clouds signify the veil of the Most High, Honore de Balzac.  When there is love in the heart, there are rainbows in the eyes, which cover every black cloud with gorgeous hues, Henry Ward Beecher. Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud; Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun, And loathsome canker lies in sweetest bud. All men make faults, William Shakespeare. 

Today’s theme is “curves”. Again, I used images of the park as my model. I like the feel of curves,
“Curved or circular lines provide relief, softness, and balance”. 

I visited the garden mentioned in this article when they first opened. It is quite a place for the kids (and adults too). I hope many take advantage of the art of it, so much of it is graphic creation, art of all kinds but living in the plants and manmade. I believe art is a universal language. The article covers one of the hands on learning programs at Franklin Park.  On Wednesday morning as most mornings children were running around fascinated with the vegetable and flower gardens. Other young people visited the “Bee Bop Corner” where there were they could observe large objects that could be musical in the Sensory Garden. Another place to visit was the area of puppet shows. Added to these fun and learning possibilities, the park offered a six-week Summer Experience where 8,100 students took part in the summer school program. This year’s experience was retooled to offer more “project-based learning”. The program core focused on enriching interactive opportunities. This program presented core subjects such as social-emotional skills. There was something called  “summer school-meets-summer camp” format. There was more to this summer school than learning math and other such needed subjects. It added the interaction such as, the middle school students designing autonomous robots along with classes in aviation, fashion, robotics, cyber security and urban agriculture. They also got into nature and participated in golfing, kayaking, swimming, aviation and more. They experienced survival scenarios. One of the instructors said the students were so excited to be there and take part in the hands on project. COSI Columbus and Franklin Park Conservatory allowed the students to explore the city. Part of this educational program offered a blended program with instruction online. For high school students who work at night and have jobs there are weekends classes. One of the elementary students who participated said “.... I had the funnest day in my whole entire life.” 

We will be having left overs for dinner tonight....each our own choice, tuna casserole or chili (or chili mac). 

Joy

      green grass, shadows, reflections of trees, the sky....and then there is the cigarette butts and trash

 July 24, 2021 a thought for today, Truth suffers but never perishes.  Mexican Proverb

The days fly by....it’s Saturday again. A day to sleep-in a little (a very old habit, since the time of schools days way back so many years ago.... a habit so old it is hard to break and why should we anyway?). 

Yesterday’s challenge was “shop”. I drove around taking shots of facilities with this shop or that shop in the title but decided to go this route. I didn't like the background in this final photo. It was a gray cement wall,  so I used a Photoshop filter to bump it up a bit. 

Sue has been saying she has been wanting to go to the thrift store and spend hours “shopping”. I am not a thrift store shopper, more of an online shopper, so I told her I would drop her off then pick her up when she calls me to tell me she is ready. So that is what we did this morning. I have made the trip to drop her off but haven’t been called yet to pick her up. 

We had a problem with printing at church this week. I got the bulletin done with one extra step, having a copy made at Kinko then back to the church to make copies. Patti and I decided the let the newsletter go for a few days and try to get the copier problem fixed. I will go in Monday to try to print the delayed newsletter. It is looking like next week is going to be a busy one. With separate days of printing and two days of volunteering at food pantry. And one day for lunch without of town family. 

I will be preparing tonight's dinner early again this week so I will have time to get to HM3 (free meal) at church around five o’clock. 

So today will be spent with a little computer work, pick Sue up and a little work in the kitchen. 

Today’s theme is “peace”. Once again Westgate Park became my source. This is a spot where in the
cover of darkness it is reported that some untoward happenings occur. But in the gift of daylight it is a beautiful, restful and peaceful green space for city dwellers to enjoy. 

The word for today is circle. From the calm morning, the end will come when of the dancing horse the number of circles will be nine, Nostradamus.  Just as a circle embraces all that is within it, so does the God-head embrace all. No one has the power to divide this circle, to surpass it, or to limit it, Hildegard of Bingen. The earth together with its surrounding waters must in fact have such a shape as its shadow reveals, for it eclipses the moon with the arc of a perfect circle. Nicolaus Copernicus. Mankind is not a circle with a single center but an ellipse with two focal points of which facts are one and ideas the other. Victor Hugo. Gardeners instinctively know that flowers and plants are a continuum and that the wheel of garden history will always be coming full circle. Francis Cabot Lowell.  The realm of immediate or personal knowledge is a narrow circle in which these bodies move; the realm of knowledge derived through faith is as wide as the universe, and old as eternity. Matthew Simpson. Time will generally lessen the interest of every attachment not within the daily circle, Jane Austen. Most people grow old within a small circle of ideas, which they have not discovered for themselves. There are perhaps less wrong-minded people than thoughtless, Luc de Clapiers. Genius, all over the world, stands hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round, Herman Melville. We are all connected to each other, in a circle, in a hoop that never ends, Pocahontas.  I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why shells existed on the tops of mountains. How the various circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone, and why a bird sustains itself in the air, Leonardo da Vinci. In a narrow circle the mind contracts. Man grows with his expanded needs, Friedrich Schiller. Unity of opinion is indeed a glorious and desirable thing, and its circle cannot be too strong and extended, if the centre be truth; but if the centre be error, the greater the circumference, the greater the evil, Charles Caleb Colton. 

According to today’s article, it looks like the area of the Greyhound bus station, 2.5 acres, will be getting a much new look. It has existed in Columbus since 1943. COTA is in contract to buy the station. It plans to tear the facility and set up a “mixed-use-transit-oriented” development. The Greyhound operation will move to the COTA facility on Rich Street. There will be two transit corridors from the new development on the new site. The hopes are for a “substantial urban development that adds vibrancy, walkability and density to the area”. There are still further uses to be included for the property, office, mixed-income residential, and retail. In the area of the present Greyhound Bus facility there was the historic Central Market witch was demolished when the “urban renewal project” took place in the 1960s. 

 I will be making chili and hash browns for dinner before I go to help with the free meal at church. 

Joy

                         almost stuck....but look at the color and nature's affects all around

 July 22, 2021 a thought for today, There is more time than life. Mexican Proverb

This going to be a long, long day. The AC people are coming to do the annual check up of the air conditioner. They were supposed to be here between 8 and noon. Well, they didn’t make it at eight or nine. I was hoping they would get here early so I could get to the church to get at least part of the printing done before tomorrow. 

Yesterday’s theme was “old”. I love this architecture of the old weather weary stone and design lines and shapes. So it was my first choice among some of the other “old” things that I shot. 

I have a doctor’s appointment in the middle of the afternoon. I am having a problem with my eighty-year-old teeth. 

I got the newsletter and bulletin done late yesterday afternoon after I got the rest of the information I needed after I got home from helping at food pantry. 

Now I had better get the laundry started and get at least part of that out of the way before this afternoon. 

The word today is children. I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace. Thomas Paine.  Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children. Sitting Bull. There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.   A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them. Victor Hugo.  Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends. Chanakya.  Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven. Henry Ward Beecher. Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well. Aristotle.  Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence. Plato. It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity. Michel de Montaigne. We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right mayhap our children and our children's children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word. Charles Spurgeon.  Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children. James Anthony Froude.  Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, Plato. All things in this world must be seen with youthful, hopeful eyes. Henry David Thoreau.  We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  If you look in the eyes of the young, you see flame. If you look in the eyes of the old, you see light, Victor Hugo. One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Books, the children of the brain. Jonathan Swift. In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice. Charles Dickens. Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within hearsay of little children tends toward the formation of character. Hosea Ballou. 

Today’s challenge is “petals”. I have simply gorgeous hibiscus blooms on my plant right now but I was too lazy to walk outside and around the house to get the shot. I have a small vase with some very tired coneflowers whose petals are now showing character rather than the beauty of youth.  

This article sounds kind of exciting. By the title I am thinking a new way of travel at least here in the US. For instance the opening question was “Ever think of kavaking to work?” This along with some other thoughts of travel are in this article. It is a “new initiative” called the Rapid 5 Project, explaining links between greenways and area waterways. The Scioto, Olentangy, Alum Creek, Big Walnut and Big Darby creek ‘corridors’. All of that covers 200 plus miles of land.  The parks, called greenways, with bike and pedestrian tails near Franklin County residents. Some of th surveys by the Neighborhood Design Center that were conducted for this projects were provided five local design firms to come up with broader ideas for using parks and waterways to connect Franklin County communities. One proposal was the Big Darby Creek region having the landscapes, grasslands and woodlands that edge the Big and Little Darby waterways.  This plan connects 65 miles along bus and trolley services, bike sharing, hat air balloons, and a gondola. One vision was to connect a regional destination like that of Napa Valley in California, Wyoming, the Finger Lakes of New York.  Another proposal along the Scioto River corridor connecting O’Shaughnessy Reservoir, the Zoo, and the river confluence with Big Walnut Creek. The plans envision taking existing assets and use the river link to those that exist. Next comes the Olentangy River featuring the Confluence and other parks with opportunities to connect neighborhoods on either side of the river. Moving onto the Big Walnut Creek with wetlands, kayaks, with villages and parks, including Friendship Park. Coming along in the planning is Alum Creek offering natural features and connections with representations of the past like the Underground Railroad stops. This area has been called a hidden gem. The overall results of these plans are a vision of using exiting green space with waterways for growth to benefit all parts of the communities. The article mentioned that it’s to early to assess a price tag or set a time line. The article stated further that “Hopefully, it captures the imagination of a lot of people...... It will happen over time... a lot of this vision is well within our reach.”  

I pulled some tuna casserole out of the freeze for dinner tonight. 

Joy

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