Enjoying Another Beautiful Corner of God's Creation (Thursday, Sept. 16)

The last people that stayed at Leahaven had a close encounter of the wrong kind with God's creation: one of them stepped barefoot on a hornet that got in the house.  They saw where the hornets seemed to be, so we decided to go spray them.  We wanted to do it in the evening after they came back to the nest, so we headed over there on Thursday afternoon.

First we went out for an early dinner and enjoyed mediocre Mexican food with excellent country karaoke!  Then we bought wasp spray and headed back to do battle.

After spraying the offending nests, we drove the truck out to the stock pond and sat in the bed to see if we could see the beavers.  We didn't see them, but we enjoyed a beautiful evening with birds singing, bats zooming overhead devouring mosquitos, and frogs plopping into the pond. 

The sky was doubly beautiful, as we enjoyed its reflection in the water.  It seems quite appropriate that my Sunday school lesson, about the 6th commandment, used the image of our reflection in a pond to explain to the children about us being made in God's image!

It got darker until we could hardly see the water, and Herb touched my arm and breathed, "Look!"  I looked beyond him, and there was a possum about 10 feet away.  It was so dark my camera wouldn't even focus until I turned it on "Auto," bringing the flash into play.  The anti-red-eye pre-flash seemed to mesmerize the possum, so he sat nice and still for two pictures!

I "enhanced" this one so you can see him better.  I just love possums!  When we got back to the house, I read through a children's book about opossums.  Did you know that they are the mammal with most teeth per mouth space?  And they are the only North American marsupial.  They usually have up to 16 babies, but the mother only has 13 nipples.  After birth each baby (which looks like an embryo!) finds its way to a nipple, latches on, and doesn't let go till it's ready to leave the pouch.  Only the first 13 survive.  Isn't that sad?

Our evening in the country ended with a light show as the half moon (its glow makes it look full) sailed in and out of the clouds.  Yes, I know the clouds really sailed past the moon, but that's not what it looked like!

What a truly delightful evening!  I guess we owe those hornets!