Bees, Butterflies, and Hummingbirds

Sassy cannot sit close to the group - she has to stand watch. 

We had a plenary session of the Military Gardening Group on Monday. I made pour-over coffee. Ranger Bob wants a little sugar in his. PFC wants sugar and whipped cream. Sometimes I have whipped cream alone. Christina enjoys cooled down coffee, and Sassy expects a Milk Bone.

Sassy barks at Bob until she gets her bone. That is why I call her his senior commander. He tells her off about how spoiled she is, and she smiles, knowing the treat in the final point in the jeremiad.

 Crepe Myrtle blooms and turns into thousands of seeds for Cardinals and Robins.

We talk about the flowers currently blooming. "Professor, you need to fill the feeders for the hummers. I will do that for you tomorrow." Thus motivated, I filled them. They loved hearing how I poured a glass of hummingbird food from the refrigerator, thinking it was cranberry juice.

 Bee Balm is loved by bees and hummingbirds.

The Bee Balms were going through cycles of blooming. We saw a Monarch butterfly so I figured the Joe Pye was starting to bloom. Clethra was ready to start and fill the air with cinnamon sweetness.

 Two fragrances irresistible to insects - Joe Pye and Clethra.

Today we went from almost blooming to new blooms - Clethra, Joe Pye, and the blue Bee Balms. A new Swallowtail butterfly showed up, but the bees were the stars. As I walked into the Bee Balm, which leans into the driveway, I had two bumble bees almost on my shirt, just ahead of me. They were everywhere - with smaller bees - on Bee Balms and Joe Pye.

I pulled out my camera and caught many bees feasting on the flowers. I do not jump up and down, scream and shout, wave my arms, or swat at bees. In decades of gardening I have had only one minor sting, perhaps from a wasp. Pollinators appreciate my efforts to provide plants untouched by toxins. Tomorrow I will also look for the tiny beneficial insects (Flower Flies, Ichneumon Wasps) hovering around these flowers - or finding other ones. The daisies attract the flies that lay their eggs near aphids.

Jessica Walliser says that she became more interested in the insects than in the plants, and I can believe that. The garden is beautified by the cycle of life around it.

We have two birdbaths for the Rose Garden now. The AC has always dripped into a shallow clay bowl. I scrub it out often. Mrs. Robin considers it her drinking fountain and chatters at me when I get close to it.

Another bath has been set up, but it will take weeks to attract birds. The backyard has three more baths, two made from kiddie pools, one from the garden shop.

I continue to chuckle about evolution narratives that claim these creatures and plants decided to grow in order to benefit themselves and others, with thousands of mutual dependencies in the same plot of land.

 Hosta is a strange plant, but its weaknesses (slug damage) are overlooked for the hummer-friendly flowers.

Humans, with our brains and books, have a terrible time putting one project together harmoniously. So how do we graph the experts plans and execution of so many projects among the unthinking insects, birds, worms, and predators?

The lower creatures have a built-in purpose, which they never question, never avoid. Sassy has to guard us, so she picks a spot where she can cover any kind of danger, up and down the street, and behind us. She maps all human movement within that scope and makes sure it is harmless.

We have a different challenge, because God has a purpose for each one of us. Whatever we may think or plan, He has a definite role in shaping it. Just to show us how true this is, He sent His only-begotten Son to teach us this wisdom, using the very Creation which He fashioned at the beginning of time. Nothing was created apart from Him (John 1:3). When we discover Creation, we find the entire purpose of God within it, revealed in the clearest possible way in the Scriptures.

Pastor Jordan Palangyos Baptizes a Family

 The roof project was stalled by the Wuhan Flu virus and lockdown. However, now Pastor Palangyos can reach his members.

Pastor Palangyos:
"A mother always prayed for her children to go to church and believe in Christ. For years, the prayer seemed not answered. Still, this mother faithfully prayed and hoped  that someday one of her sons will go to church and follow Christ. This July 2020,  God answered her prayers.

Eric and his whole family was baptized in Bethany Lutheran Mission church last July 5, 2020. He was sick and cannot stand but his faith carried him together with his four beautiful children.

His eldest daughter, Jerica, always attended Sunday school. She wanted her whole family to come to church as well. Most young people her age already started to abandon the church but she remained faithful and clung to our confession. During my visitation, her father accepted the Word and decided to be baptized. I was surprised but was joyful by his decision. We pray that this pandemic ends soon so we can conduct home visitation and continuously study the Word. Also, we pray that others will follow his footstep.

I and other lay leaders are happy with this development and this proves that even during pandemic, God is still active and is working in mysterious ways . Bethany Lutheran World Mission is an instrument of God to announce God's forgiveness."

 Handcrafted sign by G. Jackson via Photofunia.

Watch the Water - Three Gorges Dam, Yang tze River, in China

Questions abound about the actual value of the Three Gorges Dam, its engineering and construction.

Even before the Three Gorges Dam was started in 1994, many questioned whether the benefits would outweigh the ecological damage and future risks of the project.

The company building the dam also certified its safety. The norm is for another, independent engineering firm to make sure those building a complex structure also take care of safety concerns.When a visiting Western engineering group said the dam was unsafe, they were expelled and called racists.

Constant flooding has put enormous pressure on the dam, and some have claimed it is already distorted from the stress and poor design.

A catastrophic collapse could topple the regime.