Catalpa flowers

Sunday
A somewhat subdued feeling at church this morning for Memorial Day weekend, since we were saying goodbye to Dan and Debbie, who have been members at the church for years, and Dan has served as Music director and choir director for the last three years or so, as well as playing percussion in the praise band, organizing concerts by outside performers, and helping the church develop in the technology area. His wife Debbie conducted the handbells and played keyboard and piano. Besides being two extremely talented individuals, they were really fun to be with and work with. This is a second retirement for them both, as they both are retired teachers, in fact we knew Dan from our kids high school days, where he was one of the band directors, for Philip and Laura. They want to have more time to spend with their grandchildren, and I think Dan would like to travel a bit more - their lives have been so dedicated to music and church, it has left little time for travel, and Debbie’s really a “home body” anyway. They were presented with a gift during the service, then there was a reception for them after service.
It was another predominantly grey day, until late afternoon when the sun finally decided to put in an appearance. I had already been for a neighbourhood walk by that time, where I took a picture of the Catalpa flower. It is quite a striking tree, with giant heart-shaped leaves, white showy flowers, and long dangling bean-like seed pods in the Fall. First cultivated in 1754, the wood was used for fence posts and railroad ties because of its resistance to rot and the tree’s fast growth rate. There are a number of common names for the Catalpa, including cigar tree, Indian bean tree, Catawba and caterpillar tree.
Step count: 9,362