IN Carmel

 Lots of talk about the coming storm today.  We'll see how big and long.  It could be both.   I spent a lot of time watching the birds this morning.  There were times when the feeders were full and then empty.  That was repeated many times all morning long.  There were many Finch birds all morning long.  I would say they were the biggest groupie group. Mr. Carolina Wren showed up.  The Junco birds were doing their ground feeding as usual picking up after the other birds.                 Three different blue birds were early birds this morning eating black sunflower seeds. They usually only eat suet. I wonder if the birds can sense there is a weather change coming.  Can they feel barometric pressures. There were robins, cardinals, nuthatches, chickadees, starlings, woodpeckers, sparrows added to those already mentioned.  I probably missed a few more. This little critter got a big...

Those were the years.  There has been a major melt down in the Monarch butterfly world in central Indiana. Let's hope for better luck the summer of 2025.  This is a male Monarch butterfly.  The thicken lines by the body give me that information.  The day turned out to be pretty simple. It was another votive candle day melting broken candles and then turning them into something useful again.  I surprised myself to form even more candles than I did on Monday.  I certainly was a poor guesser although the number was closer than I thought it would be.  We are really set for a while with advent votives.  Now I wonder where there are more used candles hiding at church.  It's crazy where one can find unexpected stashes.                                                          ...

 No new pictures today.  So, you get a few old ones.   Today was the second workday of the week at church.  There were 6 workers as busy as bees all morning.  For some of us the 2 hours of work turned into 3 but that completed the assignments for today.                                                                                        Perennial Sweet Peas.   We took down Christmas banners and put up green banners for ordinary time.  The shell angels were collected from various places and eventually via Heidi, "flew" back to their home in the attic.  Roping and greenery were bagged from various places and labeled and sent to the same attic.  More banners were changed in...

 Today was really a take it easy day but there were a few things accomplished.  I was up early to hear about the New Orleans event.  It's a crazy sad world.   Yesterday I talked about votives and today that happened.  Our tall Advent Candles become candles because votives are set in the top of a pillar of wax. We have a blue set, a purple set, and a set of multicolored candles. Purchased votives have very thin wicks.  That produces a very weak anemic flame.  Thicker wicks produce a flame that can be seen throughout the sanctuary which is very large.  By using a small prayer candle with a thicker wick and inserting that candle into poured wax, the votive can produces a large flame.  Today was flame day.  I collected broken candles at church to melt and then left them there on Monday.  I had some used wax here along with all the other things I needed so the morning was productive with 33 votives ready for Advent 2025.  I can...