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| When my purple Bee Balm bloomed, I counted 7 bumblebees working it at once. |
An article was posted and I shared it on Facebook - about bumblebees and their special way of gathering pollen, which is essential for fruiting plants like tomatoes. Lovejoy called it the "bumblebee rumba."
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/07/19/486501293/watch-the-secret-buzz-only-bumblebees-know-to-unlock-our-favorite-crops?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social
The best laugh line: "Buzz pollination is an unlikely evolutionary strategy, because the plants are banking on bees working extra hard for a modest reward."
Who is doing the strategizing?
I mentioned Sharon Lovejoy and Jessica Walliser on my Facebook page, because they are two of my favorite gardening authors. Both of them responded on FB. Why waste time on Facebook? I get to write to interesting people, get responses, and hear from friends.
I have been Wallisered - that is - become more fascinated with garden creatures than the garden itself. Walliser thought that was neat. Now when I see an insect near me, in the garden or landing on my car, I get as close as I can to identify it.
I think a Japanese beetle landed on my car. It was fat and metallic looking. I never see them in the garden, which is packed with hungry birds. The avian chorus cheers when I go outside, because they know more food is on the way. The variety of birds has increased, which means their diets are even more demanding and discriminating. Pests barely have a chance now.
Cutting roses means the beneficial insects hover around the flowers in my vase. They are either gathering pollen for themselves or laying eggs to kill the pests. Before I would have waved away the supposed gnats.
Observing the entire Creation scene in the garden is like no longer seeing the world through a cardboard tube, as we did as children, when pretending to have a telescope. Some call it tunnel vision.
The powerful lust for life in Creation is such that we can botch everything, know nothing, and still have great flowers and vegetables. However, with less expense and work, we can have even better ones, with weeds that reach 8 feet tall.
My Poison Hemlock was so large that Mr. Gardener asked me to identify it for him. I knew it was in the carrot family, the plants known for harboring beneficial insects. The Poison Hemlock picked a place where sun and fertile soil (mulched and earthwormed) would feeds its hearty appetite. I told our helper to leave it along because I had planed some seed there and expected something good to come from the initial growth the previous year. As everyone knows, carrots are two-year plants, so the pay off is the second year.
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| This is the typical photo for "baby ladybugs" on Google Images. Sigh. |
Almost Eden found good in the plant, which I discovered on Google as the notorious killer of Socrates. He drank Hemlock tea as punishment for his crime of thinking. "Look at all the ladybugs," Almost Eden said. Each flower was crawling with the infant ladybugs. Nevertheless, I cut the plant at its base, because I did not want neighbors to be growing it and thinking the plant was harmless.
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| One use for Hemlock - decrease the thinking population. |
The Bible and Confessions have this in common. Sound doctrine is compared with false doctrine. In the Scriptures, this is a matter of God's revelation through the Holy Spirit. Confessions are significant because they are man's witness to the truth.
I consider the Nicene Creed one of the highpoints in the worship service, because its majestic and poetic cadences unite us with all believing Christians in the world, back to the Fourth Century. That was when one's confession of faith meant life or death, freedom or prison, not making or missing a committee assignment.
Even the weeds of Christendom have their faith-confessions (Glaubensbekenntnis in German, one of the best compound words in that language). Confession is ambiguous in English, because it may mean a confession of sin or one of belief. Glaubensbekennnis is perfect because it distinguishes between acknowledging sin and acknowledging one's faith.
If we listen closely to false teachers, we can determine what they believe and what they reject. The tall, strong, majestic plants reveal themselves as ordinary, plentiful, sterile, and obnoxious weeds when they flower and fruit. Their actions are even more revealing.
In the past, the heavily funded Change or Die! conferences starred Mark Jeske, who enjoyed promoting himself as a forward-looking thinker rather than the reality - the concept-xeroxer of like-minded pretenders and pastoral pests. The latest conference does not mention Jeske as a featured speaker. Has he lost control of his Frankenstein? Not at all. He is still on the planning committee, promoting the joint work of the Synodical Conference and ELCA women pastors.
Jeske is merrily sowing his Poison Hemlock seeds in everyone's garden, while the synod leaders gape in awe at the size of his waistline and budget. His latest conference should be called Drink This and Die!
Someone is spreading the rumor that Jeske will resign from St. Marcus, but I doubt that. The story sounds more like another deception to encourage a fake story and a self-righteous denial. The rumor does not fit the personality. The leaders of the Left never give up their control of anything. They may not work so hard in wearing their multiple hats, but they do not want to give up the joy of blackballing anyone who has crossed them. And they never ever give up a dime of income, no matter how much they have or how little they work.
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| The SPs need some of that Oompa-Lumpa makeup that Jeske wears. They look pale. |
