ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the National Council of Churches.
Bethany loved her nurse Ida, and Ida adored her. Ida's estate included a lot of Bethany photos and portraits, and we inherited them.
Nothing is quite like falling into the cauldron of rare disorders in children. Ordinary doctors are useless. Specialists wonder how they can experiment. Most friends and relatives drop away, but new friends and new families by adoption develop. Mark 10:29-30.
Bethany had to endure the novelty of her disorder, which was never diagnosed. The Cleveland Clinic threw her records away, which is just one of their misdeeds. However, Bethany was the vanguard of our assault against indifference, malpractice, and dealing with various bureaucracies. I told Christina, "You are like Scarlet in Gone With the Wind. I pity the soldier who captures you."
Bethany loved the camera and had perfect vision, so getting a great photo was easy.
We had two friends in the same section of the PhD program in theology at Notre Dame. One dealt with his daughter's many neurological problems, and both of them succumbed to cancer. The other lost his sister, who had a rare disorder. The experiences changed our perspective entirely, so those LCA leaders who feigned faith became a relentless goad. But those other Lutheran leaders, who pretended to be Scriptural and superior to the LCA, coveted the LCA and clamored to be the same. The difference? - honest aposates versus lying apostates, all studying together at Fuller, Willow Creek, and Trinity Divinity.
Bethany grew stronger and could proper herself up on her elbows, but losing that ability meant neurological degeneration.
Bethany and Erin, who shared a room at one time, showed that nothing material really mattered. Threats were empty. Some of the worldly wise enjoyed being especially nasty and indifferent, but they were outweighed by another group of people. For them, Bethany and Erin were the Rosetta Stone that translated all of life. Both girls were as weak and helpless as a child could be, not even able to roll over. But they were very alert, took in everything, understood and responded to those who loved them, talked to them, and told funny stories about them.
The natural blonde curls suggested her nickname everywhere - Angel. Her eyes always followed the camera, which was contrary to her diagnosis.
When Bethany did not like her squash, she spit it into Ida's face. Ida loved telling us that story, and Bethany loved hearing it. They had many games and jokes together, a heavenly joy since Ida had her own mysterious disability. That limited Ida's ability in this world but enhanced her communication with Bethany. So what if 99% looked down on both of them, if the Good Shepherd watched over both.
I told one couple that situations like this are energizing rather than crippling, when understood correctly. Most people go through life measuring things by material goals, which is natural with so many metrics about happiness based on cars, phones, homes, and titles. When McDonalds youthful staff smirked at my Town Car - only Sassy's window could roll down - I said, "Don't laugh. This car is older than you are, and it's paid for."
What matters the most, the highly regarded treasures on earth or the eternal treasures revealed to us?
America and its allies have a great opportunity to unravel the criminal policies of the last decades, and some leaders are making a good start.
I am optimistic about that, because nothing can stop the arrests coming. Key political leaders have started the countdown, in Ohio, Illinois, and other places. People do not know the local leaders in another state, but those leaders have great leverage on the use and abuse of taxes, the business practices, and so forth.
For this to last, we need an educational revolution, and I am quite pessimistic about that. The old teachers who could have accomplished this are gone. We have several generations of teachers (and professionals) who
Do not read
Have no grasp of history
Cannot spell or write clearly,
And are captive to trends, fads, and fanaticism.
Undergraduate students assume they can plagiarize anything and get an A, or maybe just a tap on the wrist and an A-. Do not be shocked, the Anything Goes District in WELS endorsed clergy plagiarism, following Mordor's policies and the Love Shack's. "Why re-invent the wheel?" WELS has a fortune cookie answer for everything.
I do not think everyone should study Latin, but Latin/Greek should be expected of those who aspire to be leaders. We learned the basics of grammar far better than in English class and we studied the history of Rome.
"How do you expect to get into a good college without two years of Latin?" I heard that repeatedly in the Moline School System.
Digital toys are now included in the Young Dummies Bill of Rights. Tender, delicate children - so easily offended - are free to play constantly with their computers in class. Guess what? The teachers recognize this as a right and do nothing.
Digital toys put people in a haze, and they are addicting. I doubt whether more than 1% of a smart phone's capacity is used by most people. However, everything is geared toward using their apps. I tell vendors who ask if I have one, "I am too smart to be a a smart phone slave."
A member of the Military Gardening Group admitted to playing digital games 70 hours a week, even though he also worked. He came alive and started reading when he gave up slavery to the toy.
So who is going to educate the next generation in English, math, history, and science? I saw one community college give up the boring and expensive grammar textbook for an expensive network computer game for "learning" grammar.
I could tell them, based on teaching English to undergraduates in roughly 70 classes over 17 years -
"They are unteachable in grammar at this stage in life. They do not know the parts of speech. They do not know about objects of prepositions. They do not know that a pronoun must match the antecedent in number. They do not want to know and do not have the language skills to write complete sentences, in many cases. Copy and paste - they know that."
I believe the lovely Ms. Maxwell (not her real last name), age 58, is the keystone so many sought to discover.
Everyone thought Jeffrey Epstein was the main guy and Ghislaine was his subordinate. But he was a college dropout. She was the Oxford educated, royalty-connected, daughter of famous Mossad spy and British millionaire Robert Maxwell (Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch). Her siblings were deep in the spy and computer software hacking business. So I would give him 10 points in spycraft clout and Ghislaine 990 points. Linking with famous and rich people is easy, but only with a good based, such as knowing the Maxwell family of spies and crooks. Based on the logs of Epstein's jet, the couple were friends with just about everyone. As I mentioned before, Epstein suggested that Microsoft's Bill Gates give money to Harvard, and that Harvard hide the connection. That is like Ski facilitating a gift to Yale, giving me advice on the matter, when he probably cannot find it on a map. The Epstein-Maxwell couple connected with royalty (Prince Andrew), the ultra-rich (Gates), and celebrity entertainers (Kevin Spacey. Our congregation is studying Luke 16, about those who are unfaithful in minor things are also unfaithful in larger things. Look at what that has done for denominations bowing down to rich, corrupt people. Lutherans glory in their extra dough, but it is their swan song. Epstein-Maxwell are all about trafficking people, an enormous world-wide business. People make and spend billions on this; it is larger than I ever imagined. A victim said it is happening right under our noses, not just through special charities, foundations, child-centered entertainment. The illegal drug trade is connected, so we have the elite bragging about all their intoxicants and fountains of youth. But people are arrested for not wearing a face diaper and for protecting their own property from criminals.
1. Use a HDMI/USB camera, at $299. That would need a converter (about $70) from HDMI to the RESI encoder.
2. SDI connects directly to the encoder and they cost more. I need to talk to RESI a bit about that.
"This is easily connected via USB or HDMI to your computer. Then you would use the included IR remote for control." (A vendor wrote that about the camera mentioned above.)
I welcome responses from the vast majority who know more about this than I do. I am not buying a camera until I have more understanding about what we need and what will work.
"WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY."
And we have the money, ranging from the $300 to the $900 price. I am emailing this to various members and participants. Feel to offer an opinion, especially if you have experience in this area.
Tonight I was struck by the well known hymns written by Thomas Kelly, as many included in The Lutheran Hymnal as Newton (8).
I enjoy linking writers with all their hymns, if there are reasons to do so. For instance, Zinzendorf has only two hymns included, but he was very influential in the formation of The Missouri Synod since the Perryville kidnappers began in the Dresden church, which was connected directly to Zinzendorf and Pietism.
I am trying to link good musical performances or those excellent piano renditions with the music - for each hymn. Sometimes the hymn is hung to two different but interesting tunes.
The blog is also a good vehicle for promoting Lutheran hymns, because Lutheran hymns were especially important in the Reformation and subsequent eras.
1. Lo, God to heaven ascendeth!
Throughout its regions vast
With shouts triumphant blendeth
The trumpet's thrilling blast:
Sing praise to Christ the Lord;
Sing priase with exultation,
King of each heathen nation,
The God of hosts adored!
2. With joy is heaven resounding
Chirst's glad return to see;
Behold the saints surrounding
The Lord who set them free.
Bright myriads, thronging, come;
The cherub band rejoices,
And loud seraphic voices
All welcome Jesus home.
3. From cross to throne ascending,
We follow Chirst on high
And know the pathway wending
To mansions in the sky.
Our Lord is gone before;
Yet here He will not leave us,
But soon in heaven receive us
And open wide the door.
4. Our place He is preparing;
To heaven we, too, shall rise,
With Him His glory sharing,
Be where our Treasure lies.
Bestir thyself, my soul!
Where Jesus Christ has entered,
There let thy hope be centered;
Press onward toward the goal.
5. Let all our thoughts be winging
To where Thou didst ascend,
And let our hearts be singing:
"We seek Thee, Christ, our Friend,
Thee, God's exalted Son,
Our Life, and Way to heaven,
To whom all power is given,
Our Joy and Hope and Crown."
The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #214
Text: Psalm 47:5-7
Author: Gottfried W. Sacer, 1661, cento
Translated by: Frances E. Cox, 1841, alt.
Titled: "Gott faehret auf gen Himmel"
Tune: "Aus meines Herzens Grunde"
1st Published in: Neu Catechismus-Gesangbuechlein
Town: Hamburg, 1598
1. Jesus, Thy Church with longing eyes
For Thine expected coming waits.
When will the promised light arise
And glory beam from Zion's gates?
2. E'en now, when tempests round us fall
And wintry clouds o'ercast the sky,
Thy words with pleasure we recall
And deem that our redemption's nigh.
4. Oh, come and reign o'er every land;
Let Satan from his throne be hurled,
All nations bow to Thy command,
And grace revive a dying world.
5. Teach us in watchfulness and prayer
To wait for the appointed hour
And fit us by Thy grace to share
The triumphs of Thy conquering power.
The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #64
Text: Revelation 1:7
Author: William H. Bathurst, 1831, ab.
Tune: "O Jesu Christ, mein's"
1st Published in: Nuernbergisches Gesangbuch, 1676
1. Jesus, lead Thou on
Till our rest is won;
And although the way be cheerless,
We will follow calm and fearless.
Guide us by Thy hand
To our fatherland.
2. If the way be drear,
If the foe be near,
Let not faithless fears o'ertake us;
Let not faith and hope forsake us;
For through many a woe
To our home we go.
3. When we seek relief
From a long-felt grief;
When temptations come alluring,
Make us patient and enduring;
Show us that bright shore
Where we weep no more.
4. Jesus, lead Thou on
Till our rest is won.
Heavenly Leader, still direct us,
Still support, control, protect us,
Till we safely stand
In our fatherland.
The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #410
Text: Luke 5:11
Author: Ludwig von Zinzendorf, Cento by Christian Gregor, 1778
Translated by: Jane Borthwick, 1854, alt.
Titled: "Jesu, geh voran"
Composer: Adam Drese, 1697
Tune: "Seelenbraeutigam"
The Three Gorges Dam is proof that man can only put a dent in Creation, which is far more powerful than we can imagine.
After a gloomy and grumpy morning post, Sassy and I went outside to discover proof of serious raining overnight. Ranger Bob, the crew, and I have new roses that start leafing out in the summer rain. They were on clearance, so do not judge me.
I looked at the driveway and sidewalk, where all kinds of plant material was gathered, stuck to the concrete by moisture. I have fenced the Rose Garden in, to hold back water and mulch, but some escapes to feed sidewalk weeds, the hardiest plants I grow.
Someone told me about a family member, "He hates crabgrass." I reminded the messenger that crabgrass was brought over for its grain. It is very productive and a real pig for sunshine. My solution for knee-high crabgrass was to cover it with cardboard and wood mulch. That area, a virtual DMZ - where weeds and slugs crept in and defeated my plans, is now prolific for butterfly plants (Joe Pye, Butterfly Weed, Comfrey, and Hidden Lily).
Everything growing contributes to the soil, because the soil turns organic material into soil amendments and plant roots add the most of all.
It is not a zero sum game, unless the gardener removes all dead leaves, debris, sticks, twigs, and manure. Some gather those items, compost them, and return them as Red Bull for the soil. That is also good and reason enough to cancel the gym membership - a lot of physical work.
But remember - as the Carbon Cowboys teach - the plant roots are the most effective part of soil improvement. All plant roots matter, the deeper the better. They can prevent drought and flooding.
If roots do most of the work, I am going to be especially respectful of them. They are the Major Donors, for those who work on once-in-a-lifetime giving campaigns for their synods.
In contrast - listen up - chemical fertilizers diminish the work of the soil. The most they can do is spark some life and then pollute the water table. If you think manure smells bad, just visit the chemical fertilizer aisle of the hardware store and inhale. When the hacking cough and tears subside, go outside for some fresh air.
Back to Our Roots
Birds and squirrels spread weeds, and some - like maple seeds - twirl into the ground.
Rather than rage about weeds and threaten good plants with herbicides, it is better to allow weed growth and cut it down when they are too ambitious. The idea is to let them draw water down, fertilize the soil, and then stop or slow them down.
Everything left on top of the soil becomes part of it. I had one rugged looking clump of maple that fell from the tree. I kept it near the water faucet, to accelerate its change into soil products. Meanwhile, Wild Strawberries (planted by birds) sprouted on the wood and began to flower. Many life forms gather around rotting wood, so birds and toads come to the banquet to get their share.
Morning coffee, the Goldfinches will be told again and feeding on the thistles and Sunflowers.
Neglected Fungus
Until recently, no one gave fungus credit for connecting with all plants and exchanging its benefits for carbon credits. Fungus cannot grow without carbon, and plants have the carbon to swap for nutrition and water.
Fungus is a good reason to dig as little as possible in the garden. Blending the soil, with a 10 hp roto-tiller, means turning soil improvement upside-down. The fungus networks are destroyed and so are many earthworms. The soil begins to recover and Mr. Gardener says, "Look at my garden!"
Every case of tea in this Chinese warehouse is soaked by the flooding.
I used my A+ methods to induce rain, went inside, and almost went to the mailbox. The street was dark with a waterfall of rain that I could not believe. I went back for my umbrella. When I opened the door, the rain was gone. I was holding an umbrella for naught.
Meanwhile, the Borage is knee-high, no longer the petite little herb with bees crawling over the blooms.
The densest part of the garden looks well watered, but the most open part needs watering. Why?
The dense part practices water storage underground. Clay soil is quite absorbent but also lets water run off the top. Our sidewalks burst with greenery. However, the deeply rooted Joe Pyes and the dense Bee Balms open up channels to the lower soil levers, where the soil easily traps the rainwater, aided by the thirsty microbes and greedy soil creatures.
Bully plants - like Bee Balm and Joe Pye - shade the ground for themselves, which reduces evaporation. It almost looked planned, if you know what I mean.
Sassy can tell time. It is 7 AM, and that is her limit for walks. She taps the mattress to remind me I spent too much time reading about the Three Gorges Dam.
The TGD must expel water to survive. One engineer said about his craft, "Always bet on the water." I think the photographer is standing too close.
By chance I received a book called the Wheat Flour Messiah, about a hyper-Pietist who preached righteousness while leaving "Jesus babies" behind wherever he roamed in Sweden. He founded Bishop's Hill, not far from Moline, Illinois, where I was born.
The book reminded me of Martin Stephan, CFW Walther, and WELS. The fault of Pietism has always been confusing sanctification with justification, and making sanctification (good works) the requirement for justification (forgiveness of sin).
The hyper-Pietists are not just in WELS. In NW Arkansas, the Babtists make WELS look positively mainline. They send out the stink-eye without even knowing somebody, and their shunning is DefCon 1, the highest level of readiness.
WELS has the additional burden of the German Disease - alcoholism. Germans never accepted alcohol as a sin, and most make it a virtue. Cousin Peter would ask me, "Do you know what we call beer?" No, what? "Liquid bread!" WELS calls beer "synod vitamins."
Let's put it all together - alcoholism, false doctrine, treating staff like dirt, suing people for telling the truth, and always being bailed out by Church and Change.
Therefore, alcoholism is not a problem for WELS and drunks are very much admired for being out of control. The original starting point was Northwestern College in Watertown, where students who were minors were provided with as much as they wanted. The takeover by Martin Luther College changed nothing, and that merger was cited as advantageous for eliminating the grossness of NWC.
I could easily name famous DUIs in WELS and those who considered that nothing. No one considers what being caught once means for routine drunk driving. Maybe I am overly sensitive because two teens in my church were slaughtered by drunk drivers who survived those two accidents.
An alcoholic synod is one where stupidity and irritability go hand-in-hand. Drunks may start out smart but they fog their brains over time, and they get a lot more touchy from withdrawal symptoms.
Right and wrong are turned upside-down. Just as alcoholics stay squiffed most of the say and try to act sober, a hyper-Pietist sect will act much holier-than-thou while engaged in the same things they denounce.
Gutsche even had WELS on his resume, and he was buried like a saint.
WELS made such a fuss out of any suggestion of unionism - while leaders were studying at Fuller, Willow Creek, and Trinity Divinity. WELS worked with ELCA on many projects, decades ago, and lied about it. Everyone was afraid to admit the truth in a perfect but abusive sect. Discussing that among clergy was cause for alarm and revenge. Publishing about Church Growth and ELCA! - unthinkable.
GA - HB - Secret Mequon Initiation Rites
Let's stop and ponder the significance of a ministerium where every single pastor (a few exceptions) will engage in lying and deceit with their precious initiation rite - called GA in the past, HB or something else now. How many times has it been "eliminated" as Church and Change was? The innocent need to know that blatant lies from WELS mean - We are doing this our way and you will not open your stupid trap about it again!
WELS is no less rainbow than ELCA, and they know it.
WELS - Paleo-Woke
People are starting to notice the attributes of the Woke Generation - where youth and adults jump on anyone who has said or even suggested something on the banned list.
The Woke are humorless, quick to accuse, eager to shun, and impossible to placate with the truth. The shun-list is never revised because there is no forgiveness for breaking the rules.
The Woke in American society are simply the hyper-Pietists without religion.
WELS has been practicing this sanctimony all along, and they are good at it. The trouble is, they drive people away and rejoice in their iniquity.
The in-bred leaders take care of themselves and their kin, but they have squandered their assets so foolishly that nothing is left to keep the circus going another generation.
Erin Joy loved this swing, so the staff was very ornery about letting her use it. First they blocked it up. When we asked that it be available again, as it was before, they filled the entire room with storage. Many people were mean or neglectful, but she got over each malignant action.
Erin's nickname was Joy, so nurses were always delighted discover it was also her baptismal name. When her four upper teeth had to be pulled from the nerves being exposed, she cried, the dental assistant hid in the closet and cried, and I cried. Erin was crying too, but she gave me a little smile to cheer me up.
She was as weak as any child could be and as smart. She listened and knew the implication of every word. We switched to Latin and she took that as a bad sign too. Because crying set off seizures, we did our best to encourage smiling and laughing. She laughed so easily at disasters and pranks that Midland nurses set up events to hear her laugh, such as "scaring a nurse" with a black rubber spider.
Erin loved to smile and laugh, and she adored her mother. If I held Erin, she needed to be looking at Christina at the same time.
Erin ate fitfully but grew like a weed. Her sister Bethany ate very well and stayed tiny. They were deeply loved by many and gave back even more.
Like all children, Erin never let go of a joke. Every funny event could be repeated and enjoyed with her laughing about it.
Fake anger made her laugh, but actual rage made her shake with laughter. Once a nurse dropped a large, three-ringed notebook, and all the medical records slid out and scattered across the floor. The nurse shouted a bad word and Erin's laughter came out of her room. Erin loved to hear that story repeated. Try to scowl and complain when it makes a child laugh.
Erin was never precisely diagnosed, and the Cleveland Clinic threw away her records. She gave people so much happiness, without being able to turn over, crawl, walk, or speak. She never lacked in humor. When I held her and read the paper, she slowly dug her fingernails into my arm until it really hurt. "You did that on purpose!" She laughed. That required supreme concentration, but it was fun for her.
The Midland Daily News sent a photographer to take a picture of Erin at the hospital. The idea was to pose her holding her teddy bear. Nothing worked until we said, "Erin, don't you dare hold that bear." She grinned and pulled the bear tight.
Don't you love peels?
Their fault, I fear
I thought that you'd want what I want -
Not more weeds and tears
But where are the peels?
Quick, ship in the peels
Don't bother, they're here.
Someone photographed his new rose garden for Facebook, so I added a comment on using Peat Humus on each bush.
He responded, "I am using banana peels, egg shells, and..."
I answered that Peat Humus is $1.88 a bag.
Gardening by hearsay is usually not dangerous, but it is seldom valuable. People who read almost nothing in the field will pass on such nuggets as "birds will to death when we go on vacation, because they depend on our feeders!" Of course - no one should doubt the infinite value of egg shells and banana peels.
Egg shells do nothing for the soil, but the birds might use fragments. Banana peels contribute a tiny amount of organic matter, but they do not hurt. My objection is their $50 a pound price. Yes! The first one eaten is green. The second one is good. The third one is beery tasting and starting to go. Banana bread time slips away and the rotten leftovers, dripping banana ichor and surrounded by tiny flies, are carried gingerly to the garden.
In contrast, coffee grounds are easily tossed on a daily basis. After 10 years here, we have added 3,650+ packets of grounds and the paper filters to the garden. They rest around the plants as mulch until wood mulch is added over them.
Wise gardeners with generous coffee shop managers will take pounds of coffee grounds home to the garden.
"In addition, each cubic yard of coffee grounds provides 10 pounds of nitrogen (0.09% available). The grounds will provide nitrogen in a slow release fashion for use by plants over the long term. It is an excellent soil amendment and is recommended to be used at a rate of 25 to 35% by volume to improve soil structure."
Agricultural scientists used to make fun of organic additions, but they were clueless about the role of fungus connecting and feeding all plants. Plants give fungus tidbits of carbon in exchange for hydration and minerals.
The goal should be to provide as much carbon to the soil, in various forms, using common sense. This all seems planned somehow, as if all of nature was created, engineered, and managed by a super-intelligent source. And I don't mean The New York Times.
I was looking for some reading matter to promote drowsiness, so I looked for something entertaining on Mark Steyn's website. He is often on TV, his style reminding me of a 110 appliance plugged into a 220 electrical socket.
His guest reviewer discussed various Christmas classics, such as It's a Wonderful Life and The Bells of St. Mary. Mrs. Ichabod and I favor old classics. We watched Mr. Smith Goes to Washington for the 10th time and agreed it remains one of the best. We also saw A Star Is Born in its original 1937 form, with Uncle Jingles (Andy Devine) playing the role of publicist. Savvy entertainment reviewers like to show off their vast knowledge of all media and drop hints to make people confused. So I did that. He was in a Shakespeare movie (Romeo and Juliet) as well, so I imagined him saying "Plunk your magic twonger, Froggie" from his TV show.
In discussing the relative merits of each Christmas classic movie, readers began sparring with each other and the writer about their various opinions.
I thought, while reading the opinions, "There are just like the Lutheran Ovaltine set, expending vast amounts of time and energy arguing over trivia and getting very upset with each other. Likely they are as distant from each other - asking if Uncle Billy fits in It's a Wonderful Life - as the Lutherans are."
David Becker quoted me on the ALPB Online Forum, and they responded with hissy-fits and name-calling, aimed at me! The real issue is whether they can address the doctrinal issues instead of claiming our church is lodged in a garage.
I had fun on their site with the garage fantasy, but it made me wonder, "Why would a pastor promote a false scenario in order to feel superior?"
ELCA Pastor Steven Tibbets, aka Pastor Zip was recently arrested. He seems to be a member of STS, the high church, smells and bells Lutheran worship group.
EAST ST. LOUIS - The U.S. District Court - Southern District of Illinois - on Wednesday announced a federal criminal complaint was filed late on Friday, June 19, 2020, against a Madison County pastor, Steven P. Tibbetts, 61, for one count of knowingly distributing child pornography in December 2019. At the time the complaint was filed, Tibbetts was employed as the head pastor at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Godfrey.
Pastor Zip's touching tribute to Bishop and Mrs. Guy Erwin - grab your hankies - or perhaps a heavy duty barf bag. Guy will be president of the United Lutheran Seminary, because Theresa Latini, the previous president, was not gay enough for the students.
Opportunistic Bee Balm is having a great time elbowing other plants aside to gather as much sunlight as possible. I planted those little wads of roots a few years ago, and they absorbed two very rainy summers in a row to dominate the upper air spaces, side spaces, and spaces over the driveway and sidewalk.
When I cut a bunch of them in half to spare our postman, the remnants bloomed immediately at knee height.
Meanwhile, the Joe Pye is subordinate to no plant. Where Bee Balm reaches six feet, Joe Pye reached eight feet and gently spreads its strong branches upward to cast shade on any interloper. The enormous bulbous blooms add to the shade below and no paisano weeds try to grow in the stygian darkness below.
We had the entire front yard covered with wood mulch on cardboard. Now plants and weeds compete for sunlight and rabbits walk securely in the shade.
Ranger Bob knocked on the door Sunday afternoon and Sassy began issuing orders for Milk Bone. They are a series of sharp barks that make conversation impossible, until I go to the garage and get one to hand to Bob. Sassy pranced off to enjoy her treat, and Bob said in a conspiratorial voice, "Did you know what is out there? You have to do something!?"
"What?"
"Two hummers are at your feeders and they need changing, immediately. I'll help."
Sassy came back to keep Bob in line and Mrs. Ichabod joined the group to enjoy the shade and conversation. PFC was excused to visit his grandmother.
The hummingbirds appeared again and Bob said, "I will grab the feeders, you get them washed and filled." He strolled into the garden and grabbed the two busiest ones.
I told a Facebook/reader friend about this, and got this response, "Bob obeys Sassy, and you obey Bob."
The conversation turned to a mutual appreciation of telescopes and astronomy and soon we were in the chapel looking at used books on astronomy.
My favorite book on the topic followed us on our journeys, but was given away twice. I had the hardback, then the paperback. The paperback of Ferris' Galaxies sells for $200 now.
