Spirea - Neon Flash - Butterfly Plant

Spirea is an easy-to-grow butterfly plant.
The flowers can be trimmed off for repeated blooms.

When some blokes walked into the rose garden, without being asked, I felt a need for some kind of fencing. Almost Eden had spirea on sale, so I surrounded the entire rose area with small spirea plants: Neon Flash.

One wag called it "Pepto Bismal colored," which is a bit unfair.

The plant -  like many shrubs (KnockOut roses) - is neglected because of its hardiness. The spirea can tolerate drought, like crepe myrtle. The bush reblooms easily if pruned but seldom is. Some call this dead-heading.

I was dead-heading some drying up flowers for one guy, and he was ready to slug me. I said, "Do you want them to re-bloom?" He did not budge because he knew so little about plants.

This variety should remain about three feet high and spread to that width as well. The little fence has made a difference in defining the rose garden, without a low fence to trip over - and I would definitely do that.

In the spring I will cut it back low to the ground to renew it.

Crepe Myrtle is so productive and beautiful when
pruned and watered. Its tolerance of poor care seems
to encourage neglect, which I can see all over our neighborhood.

Preview of May 30, 2016 Christian News. Readin CN So You Don't Have To. LCMS Gay News

Bill Cosby may be found guilty of molesting young women under the influence of drugs. If he is, will the Missouri Synod revise its official history and admit their Founder, Bishop Martin Stephan, did something far worse - as a Pietist guru - using the Christian Faith to seduce and maintain a stable of young women who ended up sharing his syphilis. Stephan told his main mistress that he was in charge of her body as well as her spiritual life.

The Great Kidnapper, CFW Walther, covered up for Bishop Stephan and enforced the tyranny of his leader. The clergy leaders knew Stephan was an adulterer, because Stephan took his mistress along, conveniently near his cabin, while leaving his dying wife and children at home in Dresden.

Pastor Therwanger is on the left - church FB page.
The other man is not identified.
One listing has him using a hyphenated name for the first time.
See below.

Harrison - Nunes - Therwanger-Tatone
Christian News received a report that Rev. Harold L. Therwanger, the Senior Pastor of First Immanuel Lutheran Church, Chicago, who had served as Fourth Vice President of the LCMS’s Northern Illinois District, publicly announced to his congregation that he intended to wed his same sex partner. CN asked him “Do you have a same-sex partner you intend to ‘wed’?” Therwanger has not responded.

CN asked Rev. Dan Gilbert, President of the Northern Illinois District on May 18: “CN is contacting Therwanger and Valparaiso University Professor Dr. John Nunes, an associate pastor of Therwanger’s, who is reported to have heard the announcement when Therwanger made his intentions known to his congregation. CN was told that already years ago you excused Therwanger’s participationin the gay games bysaying ‘well that’s just Harry.’” CN received an automatic reply on May 18 from Gilbert which said: “I will be away from the office for work with the Lutheran Church in Norway, God willing, until May 18.” 

The LCMS’s 2016 Lutheran Annual on p. 443 shows Therwagen, and senior administration pastor of First Immanuel, and Dr. John Nunes on p. 394, as serving at First Immanuel. The Lutheran Annual says that First Immanuel has 225 baptized members and an average attendance of 110. A pastor in the Northern Illinois District told CN that while Therwanger is no longer in the LCMS the responsible officials are so far allowing the congregation to remain in the LCMS and have taken no action vs. Nunes.

Therwanger - 12th place at the Gay Games.

On Google:

Rev Harold L Therwanger-Tatone - Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod ...

locator.lcms.org/nworkers_frm/w_detail.asp?W8267

Address: 4343 N CLARENDON AVE APT 2517. CHICAGO, IL 60613. Phone: (708)227-2779.

***

GJ - Does anyone remember how Otten got all apologetic for my review of the Roman Catholic book on gay priests - thereby printing the truth about the WELS Lavender Mafia? He apologized on the front page to WELS and Professor John Brug, his official handler.

Soon after that apology, the FBI raided WELS headquarters and grabbed some computers and devices. PR Director Joel Hochmuth had his best boy porn collection there - hundreds of files. Maybe he did his file swapping there because his wife caught him once before. In typical WELS-Otten fashion - I was the criminal for telling the truth about WELS. 

I am sure Ichabod readers were looking for Otten's apology to me and his retraction of the apology to WELS. But no - CN buried the  Hochmuth story on page 17. No apology. And - by the way - Otten does not answer questions sent to him, only subscription renewals.

Also in the news, Trinity ELCA Seminary has joined the pink revolution by signing onto Reconciliation Works, which was formerly Reconciled in Christ, a program where the institution is completely in the bag for gay activism.

Look at it this way. One days the conservative, confessional Lutherans will be the ones who say, "I am all for gay activism, but I draw the line at Toiletarian take-over, the Potty Jihad. That is just going too far." 

No? Did you ever think CN hero Ralph Bohlmann would be the father-in-law of his daughter's wife?

WELS is just as gung-ho, with a clever ploy, having an admitted homosexual traveling around the synod, asking for gay contacts to contact him.

---

Greenbay fan Voss seems less than thrilled with Scott Barefoot.

Scott Barefoot and SP Mark Schroeder.
Natalie Pratt always said Scott was a self-important jerk.
so it is strange she invited him to Luther Days.

People of Gomorrah

May 18 at 10:51am · 

MARK THE DATE FOR "LUTHER DAYS": SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016 at Shoreland Lutheran High School, Somers, WI!
Please join Pastor Richard Starr and Scott Barefoot for an exciting day of presentations and displays! Both Pastor Starr and Scott will be giving presentations on the subject of SSA - Homosexuality. Come visit the People of Grace display booth. Also, Pastor Starr and Scott will be doing a book signing of their book: "Forgive Us Our Sins: Homosexuality In The Light Of God's Truth". Copies of the book will be available there that day by Northwestern Publishing House! Here is some additional Information and links to the Luther Days website:
1. 75 Presenters with a 100 presentations & workshops.

-ScottP.S. – If you would like to contact me personally / privately, my email address is:ScottB@poglutherans.org

The Answers to the Issues Mentioned in This CN Edition Are Unpalatable to Otten and the LCMS

1. Disengage entirely from Thrivent, its pro-abortion, pan-sexual, and unionistic secular practices. Besides, it is not a very good company to force on Lutherans.
2. Break all ties with ELCA.
3. Adopt one flavor of the KJV so all the Lutheran synods are using and memorizing similar language, a precise translation - like the KJV 21 - rather than a surfer-dude paraphrase.
4. Stop selling and promoting Church Growth books.
5. Repudiate UOJ and its advocates. Teach the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace and Justification by Faith.

Otten sides with the Church and Changers,
because UOJ is the false doctrine behind all this radical change,
which will not end with he Toiletarian Left.

WELS is keen on this stuff -
just joking, they say.

Storms Sweep the Central States - Bringing Seed for the Sower, Bread for the Eater

Bee Balm, or Horse Mint, attracts
bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

Almost Eden and I talked about that he doubted rain would come. We had a  downpour that day, for a few seconds. The logical, factual wheelbarrow gauge read - not enough to matter.

Yesterday, the birds finished off the suet, emptied the hanging feeder, and worked over the platform feeder and ground for the rest of the seed. The barometer fell first, then wind kicked up to remind us of the Trinity Sunday lesson.


John 3 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

Spirit and wind are the same words in Greek and Hebrew. Since the Holy Spirit and the Word work together, and never apart, the Word of God is like the rain and snow that comes down from heaven. Their effect is inevitable,

Isaiah 55:10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

When the storm was raging at about 3 AM, lightning flashing, thunder booming, I thought, "Good, the rain-barrels will be full again."

Yesterday I hoped for Dutch white clover spreading even more, to take over the grass completely. Presently the grass is like the Dunkirk beachhead in WWII, having only a toehold on the property and easily overwhelmed by the Dutch forces.

We made the front row Falling in Love, because our friend loves this variety,
a fragrant surprise from the TV offering of inexpensive roses.
We did not know she was engaged to be married at the time,
so we are looking forward to saying, "This bud's for you."

Another hope - this rain is the final test for the remaining roses to break dormancy and start growing. I looked over the row of Falling in Love roses, to remind myself that they looked like ugly sticks a short time ago. They were all leafed out. But some here and there are stragglers, showing green in their canes but no leaves. A closer look has shown that some started to leaf out and then lost them, probably from cold snaps at night.

The rosarian pessimists will say, "That rain will increase Black Spot too." I do not need rain for Black Spot - it is inherent in most strains of roses. However, it is only bad in weak plants, where the leaves are tainted and unable to deliver much food from solar power. Our friend said what I figured to be true, "All the spraying (of toxins) will not get rid of Black Spot." 

This rainstorm - and days of rain following - will be remembered with advantages - as the Earl of Oxford wrote in Henry V. 

• I do not need to water the roses with chlorinated tapwater, saving me money and avoiding the shock of necessary but unblessed water.
• The mulch and soil will be even livelier with microbes and soil creatures, so food for the roses will increase.
• The rain will deliver mild fertilizer in the form of usable nitrogen formed in the sky by powerful lighting bolts that turn gaseous nitrogen into free, gentle rapid-gro in massive amounts all over the yard.
• The air will be cleansed of pollen which the rain and sun combination leverage to make me decide between allergy misery or Benadryl lethargy.
• The tiny seeds I have been sowing will germinate and take hold in the soil, to raise up a crop of plants hosting beneficial insects - Feverfew, Tansy, Angelica, Giant Dill, etc.
• The perennials I planted last year will continue to prosper and flower: Butterfly Bush, Bee Balm,  Blackberry, Gooseberry, Beautyberry, Blueberry, Raspberry, Chaste Tree, etc.

Beautyberry is a birds-only berry,
but aren't they all?
I grow berries primarily for the birds,
but would like them to share some blackberries.