All God’s critters got a place in the choir…

First I’d like to say a word about my pastor, Nancy Bontempo.  She will be leaving in a week for a clinic in Chicago that does a combination of whole body and traditional treatment.  I believe she said she’d be there for five days while they have a team of therapists from different specialties examine her and ask her questions about her diet and exercise and mental attitude and such.  She will be staying with a friend who has offered to take her back and forth to her appointments, so she doesn’t have that kind of expense to worry about.  However, her insurance will only pay for any traditional therapy she gets.  She is attempting to raise $50,000 for the rest of her treatment and has started a GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/nancy-bontempo-fighting-breast-cancer?fbclid=IwAR13FnmbqhcqhgqZvqZc98yIDWGHzhHaHIs6gTkNG1REQw2Kri8rjXCojPI.  I don’t usually ask if my readers would like to help with things like this, but for her sake, I’ll make an exception.  If you could even contribute a dollar or two, it would be a help.  Thank you!

When I got home from church this afternoon, Mark was working on the bathroom.  I walked into the house and Tucson was crossing her legs, so I took her outside to do her thing and run off some energy.  While I was out with her, I saw something so amazing I ran back in to grab my camera.

I saw a dragonfly clinging to a branch and I was afraid that it would fly away while I got my camera, but it didn’t.

I set my lens to closeup and got in so close I was nearly touching its wings, and it didn’t move.

At one point I actually did touch a wing lightly with my finger and it still didn’t move.

I was beginning to wonder if it was even alive, but I could see the wide part at the base of its tail moving rhythmically almost like breathing.  I called Mark over to see it, and of course, where Mark goes, Tucson goes.  She brushed against the branch and the dragonfly flew away.  It was one of those moments full of awe and wonder!

I took my camera around to see what else I could see.

I found this grasshopper sitting on a fuzzy plant.

I am wondering if anyone can identify this plant for me.  I thought for a while that it was a Lamb’s Ear (I think that’s what it’s called), and was told that butterflies like to lay their eggs on it, but recently I saw a picture of Lamb’s Ear and it looked more wooly than fuzzy.  This grows around my yard like a weed but I have been afraid to cut it down in case there are butterfly eggs on it.  Can anyone help me figure out what it is?

Speaking of plants, I’m also trying to figure out what the tree in our front yard is.

The leaves look almost like ferns, and I noticed that there are things growing in the branches that look like miniature green clusters of beads, some of which seem to have opened into tiny flowers.  I thought I detected a faint fragrance when I put a cluster to my nose.

Mark got down and played with Tucson until she got tired. Then he tried to take pictures of her.

I have to admit she’s pretty when she’s not being naughty!

Then it was time to get back to work on the bathroom.

Mark cut out the last of the old floor.

You can see down into our crawl space.

Bringing in the last of the new sub-floor

Measuring where to nail it down

This is the first sheet of underlayment that goes on top of the sub-floor.

Stapling it down

The underlayment comes with Xs all over it to show where it needs to be stapled down.

I am encouraged.  From here on, the demolition is done and we are in the reconstruction phase!

 

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