A Welcome Weed REPRINT

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Image result for dead nettle

From April 9, 2017

The first plant to come up in my wife’s little garden, this year and last year, is the purple deadnettle.

Hi, Mr. Nature here–and it’s called the “dead” nettle because it doesn’t have a sting like the real nettle. It’s a member of the mint family, memorable for its delicate purple flowers and its leaves that are arranged like a stack of dishes. It grows all over the place, around here.

Bob Bakker–the scientist who, more than anybody else, popularized the concept of warm-blooded, active dinosaurs–once told me one of the things that most draws him to God is the self-evident delight which the Creator takes in His creation. I agree! Even this fallen world, the Father stocks with beauty. Even the weeds!

I was happy when I read that a lot of people have come to appreciate the deadnettle for its beauty and are now planting it on purpose, usually as a border for a garden, and because it so delights our eyes.

Give thanks for the beauty of God’s handiwork: it tells us something good about its Maker.

The picture doesn’t do it justice, and yes it still comes up every year PD

Just a Closer Walk With Thee Willie Nelson

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Sufferings of Dave part 7

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Busy Day

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Today I spent quite a bit of time looking up people I need to contact.

That takes more time than you think it would.

Tomorrow I have a few errands to run, and I know that will take up more time than you think it would

There is a guy outside mowing the lawn next door and the mower sounds like a very large jet plane taking off.  Does it really have to be that loud?  At least it’s not a leaf-blower.

Somehow although it’s daylight saving time and the days appear to be longer, they are going faster.  Try to figure that one.

My bank has really moved with the times and it’s great.  Transfer funds from savings to checking and that’s that.  No waiting till the close of business or anything.  I don’t think I could function at all without modern technology.  How quickly we become dependent on it.

Another thing I have become dependent on is grocery deliveries.  They are really a blessing.  Otherwise I am trying to carry bags, manipulate my cane (which is temporary–but needed right now–) plus keys, etc.

At least I feel like I justified my existence today.

See you tomorrow.

God bless everybody.

Patty

Injured Fox, Plus Dog, Plus Cat = Happiness

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Amazing Story Wish It Was Longer And More Detailed

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This man who was allergic to cats ended up cancelling his Asian trip to rescue two siblings.  Wonderful story.  He lost his allergies, by the way.

Man Saves “Homely” Dog–Dog Rewards Him

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I Think I’ve Been There REPRINT

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Entelodon | Cool Dino Facts Wiki | Fandom

From July 5, 2020

This is Charles R. Knight’s 1894 painting of Elotherium, an extinct animal that resembled a wild boar. That’s cool–but what I’m really interested in is the backdrop.

This reproduction, the only one I could find, doesn’t quite capture the dried-out yellowish tones of the banks of this gully. You’ll have to imagine that. The gully is full of water and the animals are crossing it. Farther up toward the horizon, the gully feeds into a more permanent stream. And then a river? Then the sea?

The thing is–I think I’ve been there! Years and years and years ago. You got there if you went all the way down Orchard Street, back when there was still an orchard there, well past all the houses, and then just park your bike where this little bridge went across the gully. You could easily climb down and wade in the water–which of course you wouldn’t do if  there were Elotheriums present. They look irritable.

It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Knight used real places as the backdrops for his paintings of prehistoric life. I wonder: did he wander into my childhood, or did I wander into one of his paintings?

Intellectuals Say the Darnedest Things REPRINT

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From December 21, 2013

Ignorant louts do spout a lot of foolishness; but for pure, 24-carat inanity, give me a Ph. D. every time.

In the December 2013 of Hillsdale College‘s newsletter, Imprimis, Larry Arnn quotes this blather from the Teachers Guide for Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition, 1991, published by the outfit that administers the SAT tests, written by “an English professor from Agnes Scott College in Georgia.”  If you’re wondering why Arnn does not identify this clown by name, read on.

The quotation is rather long, so I’ll just give you the italicized portions.

“Instruction has become less a matter of transmittal of an objective and culturally sanctioned body of knowledge, and more a matter of helping individuals learn to construct their own realities.”

Whoa! Aren’t the loony bins full of individuals who construct their own realities? But Kluge Hans continues:

“Contemporary educators no doubt hope students will shape values and ethical systems… acquiring principles that will help them live in a mad, mad world.”

Does this SAT-wallah understand what he’s just said?

First he’s going to teach students they can construct their own reality–as in, “I am the rightful heir to the Throne of England,” or “See that beautiful woman over there? She is madly in love with me, even though she denies it and tries to act like she hates me.”

And then, having taught his students to be mad, he sorrows that that world is mad!

If you have children in high school or college, chances are they’re being “educated” by dunderheads like this one. And at great cost.

And just to clue you in, Prof. Whoever You Are–there ain’t but one reality. It was here before you were born and it’ll be here after you die. So deal with it.

(PS: Kluge Hans [“Clever Hans”] was a horse who was said to be able to do arithmetic, around a hundred years ago. It turned out to be a hoax.)

God’s Stuff Works: Spring Peepers REPRINT

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From March 4, 2016

Very soon–if not already, depending on where you live–some of you will be blessed by the music of these tiny frogs calling for mates. Spring peepers usher in the spring.

The procession of the seasons, according to God’s ordering of things, is an infallible sign of His sovereign government over all of His creation–a very good thing to remember, in the face of the tide of wickedness and folly that overflows this present age.

Someday, according to God’s plan, all of that will be abolished. He will regenerate His entire creation, and put all of it under Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.

Trust in the Lord.

These frogs do.