Wildlife hike at Rowe Woods

Sunday
We had a great morning at church as usual. Pastor David, who does most of the preaching, was taking a much deserved Sunday off from preaching, and so it was Pastor Brian who gave the message today. He has a different style and slant to David, which we appreciate.
It had been a cool start to the day, but by the time we left church after Bible study, it was warming up nicely under sunny skies, so after getting changed, we headed out to Rowe Woods. We enjoyed a good hike, with quite a bit of wildlife to be enjoyed - it was full house at the turtle log, and there were tadpoles and newts to be observed in the pond. Towards the end of our hike we heard a loud sound of a woodpecker, which actually turned out to be two pileated woodpeckers working at the same tree, following each other round and round the trunk. The pileated woodpecker is our largest woodpecker. We occasionally see him in our back garden, but more often out in the woods.
I had to prepare an early dinner, as we were out at another concert in the evening, the Fusion Ensemble at Calvary Episcopal Church. They are conducted by Howard Helvey, whom we have known of for many years - besides being the organist and choir director at Calvary, he is also quite a prolific and nationally recognized choral composer. This is the third time we have been to their Spring concert, which always includes a guest organist, and another choir, this evening was the Winton Woods High school varsity choir, who were amazing. We were first introduced to the Fusion Ensemble by Matt, who used to sing with our church choir as a choral scholar. As we were going in, we bumped into Eric, a young African American gentleman, who also used to sing with our choir, while he was doing his doctoral studies at the College Conservatory of Music. This was his first time singing with the Fusion Ensemble. The whole concert was wonderful - both choirs singing individually, three organ solos, plus he also accompanied the choir on one or two pieces, then the finale was the combined choirs, accompanied by organ! The concert is always followed by a reception with plenty of cake and cookies!