Dragon and Hearts in a Tree

My neighbor's dragon. It is gorgeous and the head is about 5 feet across. I think it is chomping on some plants. Below is another discovery on my walk with Bounce; two hearts in a tree. The tree was recently pruned and the pruning yielded these amazing hearts with a reddish color.

I think I should title this post Dragon Hearts. That sounds like a fantasy novel I might read. 

The fires in my county and the neighboring county are 54 percent contained, which is good news. However, much of California is having a heat wave starting Sunday Sept. 6, and our state is very dry. Good news is that two of my best friends are allowed back home after their evacuation and their homes are safe and sound. Our God is Mighty to Save.

I have been happily attending church outside on recent Sundays, we are all required to wear masks. One recent Sunday we did not have church at church because we were caring for 50 evacuees, from the area fires. They slept at our church, we fed them, etc. so church was online only one Sunday. Now many/most evacuees are home, thank goodness.

Dragon, Chinese Guardian Lion and Fire

My dragon and Chinese temple guard lion enjoying the fire in my fireplace. I always wrote "our" for 45 years, now I write "my", sad to say but true.

The guardian lion is usually one of a pair, this is a male lion who guards the home, while the female guards the people. Chinese guardian lions are often called Foo dogs or lions or Fu dogs or lions in English.
My husband and I had not used the fireplace since the big earthquake in 1989. All fireplaces to be safe should have an inspection before use after the quake. In December of last year our sons decided to have a fireplace man inspect it for damage; he found one thing which he fixed, he cleaned it all, and voila, now I have fires again. This photo was taken a few days ago. I bought the fireplace tools and a log holder on Amazon, the tools are like sculptures, made of wrought iron. You can see the tools on the left in the second photo.