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Tag: faith in action

Where Are They Now?

April 22, 2020

This photo haunts me. How are the Hartford area homeless families that once slept in these beds coping today? Where are they? Where is home? On a freezing February 11, 2020, one of the fifteen Tuesday nights from this past December through March that Hartford’s Immanuel Congregational Church volunteered as an overflow shelter during the … More Where Are They Now?

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Celebrating Fifty Years of Hands On Hartford

March 20, 2019

It’s Time to Celebrate Fifty Years of Hands On Hartford! That’s right, fifty years! Fifty years of Hands On Hartford helping Hartford. Since its founding as Center City Churches in 1969, Hands On Hartford has been committed to feeding, clothing, housing, and caring for Hartford’s most vulnerable residents, all with the helping hands of countless generous donors, volunteers … More Celebrating Fifty Years of Hands On Hartford

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A Blossoming Partnership Grows Beautifully

July 10, 2018

On a cool November 3, 2016 morning, a tractor trailer, emblazoned with the Monrovia logo, arrived promptly at 9:00 a.m. It was loaded with fresh, locally grown stock from its Granby, CT nursery ready for planting at the new Hartford Area Habitat for Humanity home in West Granby, CT. With tools in hand, a skilled Monrovia team … More A Blossoming Partnership Grows Beautifully

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Fresh Starts Begin with Grace

March 22, 2018

As I walked in with Pastor Rick Kremer to tour Asylum Hill’s unique non-profit furniture making business, Waseem was feeding a board into a planer, Ron was putting the finishing touches on a cabinet, and two volunteers were crafting tables and lamps. It’s a typical busy morning scene on Fresh Start Pallet Products LLC‘s shop floor. … More Fresh Starts Begin with Grace

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This blog celebrates the good works of people and organizations that make our world a better place, especially the stonecatchers who catch the hurtful stones that are thrown at the marginalized, vulnerable, and victimized. Be a stonecatcher!
–Don Shaw, Jr.

ABOUT ME

Community volunteer, affordable housing advocate, hobbyist photographer, occasional writer, and believer in human rights, respect, and dignity for all.

Retired executive from public, private, and non-profit sector careers; Hartford Area Habitat for Humanity Director Emeritus; and, for outstanding professional achievement, community advocacy, and service to humanity, the recipient of Ohio Weslyan University’s Distinguished Achievement Citation, University of Hartford’s Anchor Award, and Junior Achievement of SW New England Business Hall of Fame’s Spirit of Hope Award.

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Early this morning at Dismal Brook Wildlife Preserve I encountered a Common Raccoon when we simultaneously spotted each other. It cautiously proceeded to a nearby tree to keep a curious eye on me, which allowed me to capture a couple of quick portraits.
In preparation for imminent fledging these House Wren nestlings are getting “beetle-juiced” with plenty of protein.
When checking for monarch butterfly eggs on milkweed leaves and you find a cluster of these eggs, you’re looking at Milkweed Tussock Moth eggs. The emerging larvae will feed ravenously in a herd, ultimately becoming caterpillars with colorful tufts of black, white, and orange hairs, which makes them look like “fuzzy bedroom slippers.” The adult moths are not as colorful, being mainly a soft gray. These larvae will leave the milkweeds and pupate in small, gray felted cocoons until next spring. While these moths are essential for ecological diversity, the larvae devour milkweed leaves at a rapid rate. If you want to remove them, do so with gloves. Touching their hairs may result in an uncomfortable rash. I hope to photograph the larvae as they emerge and grow.
A female Blue Dasher dragonfly perched on a tomato plant stake in our garden.
This morning I found this Azalea Sphinx moth larva feeding on an azalea leaf. It appears ready to pupate. The larvae of this species are found on Viburnum, Kalmia, and Azalea including many of the cultivated species. The Azalea sphinx is a large moth with a wingspan up to four inches. It is diurnal (active during the daytime). Adults take nectar from flowers with their long tongues, and prefer elongate, tube-like flowers. As such, these moths are pollinators, and provide an important service to the environment. Caterpillars will move to the base of their host plant and form a silken cocoon out of dead leaves. Caterpillars overwinter as pupae.
Finding my Sunday solace in a previously unpublished photo of this elegant Great Egret calmly wading in Salmon Brook.
Celebrate pollinator week! Honeybee sipping nectar and gathering pollen from a winterberry blossom. Common Winterberry is a North American native shrub. The bright red berries it produces are an extremely bird-friendly food source.
A Lance-leaf coreopsis blossom glowing in morning sunlight.

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