Christmas Joy and Beauty to All

 

The top two are from my home this Christmas.

 The above is a Christmas card I sent.

What a joy to know Jesus prepares a place for me in Heaven and for all who follow Him.

 

And a lovely card from penfriend Monica, I am sure it says "Merry Christmas" in Swedish.

Where I find health info, Where do you find health info?

 

I subscribe to the Epoch Times newspaper which arrives once a week in a paper edition. One section I like is the Mind and Body section. November 19-24 2025 has so many health articles. "Dehydration Spikes Stress Levels" and a favorite for me "9 Lessons from the Longest-Living Among Us." See above photo.

These long lived people share tips from their own lives. One of the women is an example of "Tap Into Forgiveness." 25 years ago when she was 79 at a prayer service she forgave the Communists who killed her parents and 5 of her six siblings. It lifted a load from her shoulders and she became more content. She is 104 today. Another tip is "Don't Dwell on Your Age."  

Another article is on preventing Pickleball injuries. Pickleball is very popular in my town, I live near a Pickleball court. "Eye Injuries Among Pickleball Players on the Rise: Study". Another article is "How Gut Microbes Influence Cancer Risk." I take a probiotic about 5 times a week and eat a healthy yogurt every day. 

Do you have favored sources for health info? I also subscribe to the Mayo Clinic Health Newsletter which arrives once a month. I have the Grok app and ask it health questions. Any tips you care to share for keeping healthy?

Several of you friends reminded us in your comments to stay hydrated. A great reminder. Sometimes we don't feel thirsty but I try to drink anyway, to stay hydrated. 

Bob Dylan postcards, Baptism, A Funny Exercise

 Do you love gardening? It is so calming, nature is patient. Plant a seed and hope. 

 Here are two old postcards of my much admired Bob Dylan. I have had them about 25 years and posted them at my desk at work. Now I am retired and still hang on to them. He is so playful and happy in the photos, and so young.My husband and I saw him in live performance in our city about 15 years ago. A show where he engaged with the audience. I still have the Dylan tee shirt I bought at the concert.

I had an especially joyful Sunday because my adult sons wanted to go to church with me. Adult baptisms were scheduled and that is very upbeat to see. It turned out one lady about my age was baptized and she told a little bit about her story, A month ago I attended with my sons and 5 young men were baptized. This gives me hope for the future. When I say young I mean in their 20s, 30s 40s, etc. Churches like ours are great places to find a future spouse!

"Younger generations now outpacing parents in church attendance, study finds." Hope for the present and the future. Charlie Kirk's assassination is motivating some of this return to church and to seeking, as young people reject violence. Hurray.

Memoirs,Writing to Authors,The Correspondent great novel

Earlier this month I happened to see the novel "The Correspondent" by Virginia Evans on sale on Kindle and bought it. This is now one of my favorite novels. It is hard to put it down. The main character is in her 70s and writes letters on paper. Not emails nor texts, too ephemeral. She even writes paper letters to favorite authors and loves when they answer her. She corresponds with some famous authors. She has a stalker who writes threatening hateful notes to her. 

I not only love the main character but I am inspired to write to an author, a physical paper note. The author I  chose wrote a memoir recently. I will tell you who I chose after I write the letter. I wrote two letters to favorite authors decades ago and they each wrote back to me! One was Sheldon Vanauken, for his memoir "A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy and Triumph" of his love for his wife and how he recovered from grief at her death and was guided to be a Christian by correspondence with C.S. Lewis. 

 

The other author I wrote to was Madeleine L'Engle about her 4 memoirs, collectively titled the Crosswicks Journals. I wrote to her just using Crosswicks Connecticut as her address and she wrote back. All 4 Crosswicks Journals memoirs are brilliant and The Summer of the Great-Grandmother a favorite for me. She is famed for many novels including "A Wrinkle in Time" which was made into a movie.

If you have written to authors or other celebrities please tell me in your comments. Let me know if they answered you or not. I am curious.
 

My pup has 4 teeth pulled, And this and that

 

My adorable pup, age 14 in November, had 4 teeth extracted yesterday. Small dogs are prone to teeth problems. He went in for a teeth cleaning and they found four teeth to pull. Today he is doing lots of sunbathing on the patio. They put in stitches and he will get a check up in one week. He was found on the street ten years ago and the shelter pulled some teeth and neutered him before I adopted him. Bounce is my Best Friend. I LOVE love love this guy.

 

Fall Colors 

Zinnias, Marigold and Calendula from my garden today

This is a beautiful Hibiscus flower. In August I planted some hibiscus seeds in pots and none have sprouted. I planted some directly and some I soaked overnight. I will plant some more seeds indoors soon. The Scripture is Isaiah 26:12 "Lord, grant us peace; for all we have and are has come from you."

These signs tell people that some Muslims consider dogs filthy and asks that dogs be kept on a leash and away from Muslims. I think immigrants should adapt to the country they move to, and not push their culture on the host country. This sign is from Vancouver Canada and they are popping up in areas of the UK too. I have a book of Sharia law and it says dogs can not be family pets because they are so filthy. Some imams cite sources that allow dogs as family pets. My dear pup is adorable! He is family.

Castles in Wales we visited, funnies

 

Today I found this small guide book from castles we visited in Wales years ago. We rented a brand new VW camper van with a pop up so you can stand up in it and traveled to visit many castles in Wales. Each one has a romantic and historic appeal. Caernarvon Castle is stunning. We also visited Beaumaris Castle, Harlech Castle and Conwy Castle. In England we enjoyed Berkeley Castle and Tintagel ruins, very dramatic.

We also rented a space for the van on a sheep farm in Wales, that was a beautiful location. We camped across the road from Stonehenge and saw the sun set and rise there. That was decades ago, it may be more controlled access now. Another don't miss place to visit.  

 

 

Charlie Kirk, Brew Ice Tea, Fun TV Shows,Home Repairs

 The dog's reaction to internet mad news is priceless.

Do you make cold brew ice tea? It is easy, cheap and we have a very wide variety of teas to choose from. Teamonk makes a jasmine rose tea and Yorkshire Gold is a standard black tea for me. I fill the tea strainer with my choice of loose leaf tea (leave a bit of room as the leaves expand when wet) and put it in a pitcher of water for 8 hours. I leave the pitcher on a kitchen counter at room temperature when it is brewing. No hot water used, just cold water. 

I watch some great TV shows: Son of a Critch (seems true to life, sweet comedic show about a young boy growing up in Newfoundland, Canada), The Cleaner (season 3 is here, a comedy, he cleans crime scenes), Fisk (funny Australian series about an eccentric lawyer. I like the TV series filmed in Tokyo, titled 99.9 about a young lawyer who represents the .1 percent of criminals in the Japanese court system who are found innocent. I had already read that in Japan if the police charge you it is 99% chance you will be found guilty. The show is fiction and the main character is very young and a quirky guy.

Yes Charlie Kirk, the pride is awakened in honor of you. 💕🦁🙏🕇💕

I'm having a busy week. My oldest son is coming over three times to cook dinner for the two of us. Much appreciated by me. Delicious healthy food (shrimp and risotto the first night) and best of all, fun chats. I got two plumbers to bid on replacing an old toilet with a new one. Shockingly expensive to hire people for home repairs. Last week my washing machine quit working (20 years old, a Kenmore, a great brand) and I replaced it with an LG brand washing machine. 

And you may recall I replaced the old electric panel for my house with a new panel a couple months ago. My house is 70 years old and so was the electric panel so it was time for a new one. The old breakers were failing. A fun thing is I made my first Shutterfly framed photo collage. A birthday gift for my sister with 9 photos of family. It turned out very pretty and full of memories. I titled it "Happy Times." Have a happy September friends.

 
 
 

Fun Family Friends Flowers Jesus

 I had fun this week. My son and his partner Julie visited on Sunday and Bounce met their new rescue pup, Reissie. She is a 3 year old toy poodle and the meeting was friendly. Reissie was raised for breeding and not socialized at all so everything is new to her. They rescue dogs that need homes, usually their dogs are very old and ill, so Reissie is a new experience for them.

On Wednesday 4 of us met at a friend's home to celebrate a birthday. We met at work at the university and have been friends for 30 years. One of the gals has a house in the redwoods so it is very country in feel. She fed us outside and played 3 piano pieces for us. We are quite an international group, with one of us born in California, one in Arizona, one in Communist China and one in Taiwan. We love each other and rightly so.

Dog riding a motorcycle, I like that.

 

Covered walkway at my favorite coffee shop. Below is also from the coffee shop gardens. The pink flowers are called Naked Ladies. I think they are a type of lily.

 

 Above: I planted sweet peas from seed and here are the results. Enjoy your day. Some blog friends mention being lonely. I found a way to get to know people better is to invite them to meet for coffee at a coffee shop. Best outside where you can chat freely.

I was at a fellowship of four friends at the coffee shop a few days ago where we shared Scriptures and life and worries and laughter. I started this fellowship two years ago by asking a few friends I had met in church to meet once a month. I shared 2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun."

 

Funnies and asking for suggestions on bloggers to follow

Do you have any tips on bloggers to follow? I would like to follow a few more bloggers, new to blogging or long time bloggers. Please leave their "handles" in comments. It is nice to grow our blogging community. 

I read that the average age of bloggers is 65 or so. I am older than that! It would be fun to meet some young bloggers too. Also more bloggers outside the USA. Anyone know a blogger in Turkey? I attended college there and remember it fondly.

Here are some funnies:

 

 Below are my cute salt and pepper shakers I bought on a whim for our summer BBQs.

"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well." Joe Ancis 1926-2001 This is a card. Have a smiley day friends.

Pelicans, Phil Robertson, Clever Cats, Mystery Photo

 I love pelicans. "Oh what a funny bird is a pelican. Its beak holds more than its belly can." Here is a fine fellow of a pelican from the ocean front restaurant where Wei and I treated Terry to her birthday celebration.

 

Phil Robertson is in heaven now and I love these words "When I die, don't cry. Sing. Dance. But don't cry when I die. When I die you say "He made it." The same words work for me, say "She made it". I hope not soon!

and for fun, I don't know how they managed to create this: Is it three girls and coffee, if you squint and almost close your eyes it is someone else! Someone I love.

Soon I will tell you about my gardening, I love the process and the results so much. Plus my getting a new electric panel for my house next week since my old one is failing. My house and the electric panel bringing electricity into my house are 70 years old. Expensive! 
 

Microplastic everywhere! Tips on how to avoid microplastics and a Pretty Photo

Epoch Times recently reported that for the first time plastics have been found to cross the human brain barrier. This is going to cause health problems, I am sure. A 2024 National Geographic article suggests potential risks including inflammation, oxidative stress and disruption of gut microbiota.

Before this serious topic, here is a bougainvillea I photographed in my neighborhood.

 

Here are a few things I do to avoid ingesting plastics.  

• The first is I carry a small 7 oz. thermos with me to every social event that includes free coffee and tea served in paper cups. Why? Because to be able to hold liquids paper cups have a very thin plastic lining, typically PE polyethylene or PLA polylactic acid. Otherwise the paper would dissolve. Pouring hot water or hot coffee into a paper cup causes plastics to migrate to the beverage.

• The second thing I do is not to use tea bags because to hold together in hot water the bags are sealed with plastic glue. November 2024 issue of Chemosphere recent research shows that tea bags immersed in hot water shed microplastics that gut cells absorb. No way do I drink that. I love tea and brew it with loose leaf tea in a small metal holder. So loose leaf tea for me. Mission accomplished.  

• I don't drink water from those plastic bottles so many people carry around. The water can contain  plastics from the bottle. Tap water contains only 4,000 microplastic particles annually, and bottled water up to 90,000 annually. Reverse osmosis removes microplastics from tap water, but I don't have that.
•  
• I have used a HEPA room air purifier for years to keep dust and pollen down in my home. I recently read that it removes microplastics from indoor air from carpets, furniture and textiles. When we had nearby wildfires the HEPA air purifiers made it easier to breathe.
  

So much microplastic entering our bodies. And so much in landfills or floating in our precious oceans. And thank you to GROK for lots of scientific documentation on this subject. Did I tell you how much I like GROK? There is a free GROK app for phones. It is much faster than old style search engines, goes deeper, and is more balanced in what it presents. I am a librarian and double check most everything.

 Let's all find things to smile about!

Funny stuff: Adopting Dogs to Lost in a Maze to the Lennon Sisters

 Some funny photos. Some clever. Some cute puppies.

 I adopted Bounce from a shelter. He was so cute right from day one. He is a teenager now, age 13.

 

Above is a photo of the tile stairs of a restaurant I like. In fact I was there with two friends who treated me to a birthday lunch recently.

 Above is a photo I took before I threw these items out. Who is old enough to know what these are? I am 80 so yes I know.

 I've not been a big fan of the Lennon Sisters but I saw this photo of them and the third one from the left could be my twin! At about age 10. I think the resemblance is amazing. Have a great week!

 

The Big 8 0 Birthday, Yes 80 for Me

 Happy Birthday to Me at Age 80

Yes the BIG 8 0.

I've been treated like a princess by family and friends. Two friends separately told me that my sons spoil me rotten. I agree and I rather enjoy it.

 My birthday table in the kitchen. My lemon tree gift is outside on the patio.

 God is good and I remember to count my blessings. Have a great day dear blog friends.

Knights, Ladies and Rumpole

 Hi beautiful ladies and handsome gents. Do you love knights and chivalry and ladies as much as I do? Knights and ladies in armor. Women in flowing gowns. Fighting for justice and honor. Here are some photos I found on X and Truth Social. I also love PreRaphaelite painters, and they often use knights and ladies in their paintings. I discovered them when visiting the Tate Gallery in London and they have become my favorite painters.

 These two paintings are not PreRaphaelite and may be AI generated. In England my husband and I visited the dramatic site of Tintagel Castle, said to be the castle of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. It is worth a visit. It is perched on cliffs near the water and looks easily defensible.

Who likes the tv series Rumpole of the Bailey? The actor who plays him is cast perfectly. He is a bit rumpled and wants justice for his clients. He is not interested in climbing the ladder of the legal profession. His wife pushes him to climb but he doesn't.

I just bought this book of Rumpole novels by John Mortimer, I think I will enjoy it.

What have you been up to? From my previous post you can see that this spring I am out in the garden and planting and weeding and pruning. At my age I prune or weed or plant for 15 minutes and then go in the house to read or watch TV. If you are younger you likely have lots of energy, as I used to. Gardening brings me joy, does it you?