April 9 - 10th

 

Palm Sunday

 

There was a special service at Hope Lutheran Church on Palm Sunday.  Artist and Pastor Paul Oman painted pictures during Scripture readings and praise music. This ministry is called "Drawn to the Word." He brings the Word of God to life before our eyes. He begins with a blank canvas.

 

 

Note that the images are initially upside down.

 

 

When the canvas is turned right side up, the scene becomes very clear.

 

 

Pastor Oman painted a completely different scene in the earlier service

 

 

The local alligator was cruising our lake today and spent quite a bit of time near our lanai

 

 

On Monday, we visited the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF) nature center. It features turtle and terrapin aquariums, a marine touch tank, a butterfly house, a network of quiet walking paths with an observation tower, and a native plant nursery. We learned that 68% of Sanibel Island is protected by SCCF.

 

 

SCCF restores wildlife habitat through projects such as planting mangroves and other native vegetation, removing invasive plant species and building oyster reefs from discarded shells that will provide shelter for other marine organisms.

 

 

We went there especially to look for an Earth-Geocache. These type caches are at special geological locations people can visit to learn about unique features of the Earth. EarthCache pages include a set of educational notes. There is not a physical container placed at the site and geocachers usually are required to answer questions posed by the cache owner in order to claim a find.

 

 

It was very quiet in the preserve while we were there and we only saw one ibis.

 

 

We did climb up the observation tower and enjoyed a beautiful view.

 

 

The Australian Pine is considered to be invasive all over southwest Florida and there are many efforts to eradicate this non-native tree. I personally think this is a beautiful tree, but can easily see the damage it does to the environment when nothing can grow on the ground underneath it.