Jeremiah & Lamentations at Emerald Heights, May 4th, Lesson 8 of 8

I gave my final hour-long lecture to wrap up the book of Jeremiah.  I also fit in a 20 minute overview of the five poems in the book of Lamentations.  (The image at the left shows the Babylonian record of King Jehoiakim's surrender in 597 BC.)

From Lesson 8: 

Jeremiah often spoke of the coming “sword, famine and plague.”  The sword stood for all the implements of death brought by the invaders.  Famine was the inevitable consequence of a prolonged siege. And plague always accompanied war and famine as the embattled and besieged population became physically weaker and the quantity and quality of food and water declined. To use the United States as a modern example, where we actually have numerical data, it was not until World War II when more soldiers died of actual trauma inflicted by the weapons of war than by the diseases and infections that accompanied our wars.

Four hundred years after the great King David made Israel a world power, the nation was chastised, broken, and dispersed.  But as God promised through Jeremiah, Israel was reestablished right on schedule – and persisted just long enough to witness the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the One who’s sacrifice made His father’s forgiveness both possible and available.

There’s good reason why most of the commentaries that cover the Book of Jeremiah also include the Book of Lamentations. Jeremiah’s 52 chapters are the novel to which the five poems of Lamentations are the epilogue. As I’ve mentioned before, if you want to hear all of the Book of Lamentations, I suggest you listen to it on YouTube read by the great British actor Sir David Suchet.  It would be a well spent and sobering 24 minutes.

My Garden in May

Once I'd finished writing my final lesson on Jeremiah, I headed for my garden.  The warm dry weather this month has been great for the entire garden.

Many more Marigold and Zinnia seeds were planted than last year.  Flowers will attract more pollinators.. Calibrachoa (a favorite of Nancy's) and Lobelia went into two hanging pots for her for Mother's Day. I planted some Nasturtium and Sunflower seeds Jean passed on from one of her neighbors. I've sprayed my 13 pepper plants, mostly in 5-gallon buckets, with Neem oil because I've seen some leaf damage. I filled a large newly built 5" high raised bed with dirt from our 1992-93 house construction, mixed with a bag of steer manure blend, and added 100+ green onions I'd started earlier, and Iris rhizomes I'd kept in a box too long.  The Iris half of the bed also received my bulb onion starts.  I also planted additional pots of green onions. On the 27th, I finally spotted the hardneck garlic scapes that I will need to clip off in June before they flower.  See the picture below.	Eight Russet seed potatoes went into my last two 7-gallon grow bags on May 12th.  Valerie helped plant these and helped gather redwood mulch to cover them.  We saw their first tiny leaves poke above the soil on the 27th.  The eight grow bags of Yukon Gold potatoes are doing very well.  By mid-month, I had 24 tomatoes planted, seven in pots and 17 in the ground.  Five more are in quart-sized pots to replace any that don't transplant well.  I had no "hardening off" or sunburn problems this year.  The twelve along my east-west wire trellis got my own compost.  Those in pots are thriving.  I'm adding more "brown" (cardboard and newspaper) to my compost bin for next year. My Aster plant and two Phlox perennials from last year came back strong, as did two store-bought Lavender plants and two more I grew from their cuttings.  I separated the Aster stalks and replanted all of them in two larger pots.	Mid-month I counted over 125 containers growing something in the south yard.  Some, like the Cucumbers and Sunflowers, will get transplanted into the ground. I transplanted many of my strawberry plants from their pots and last year's bed to a new 11" high raised bed next to my garlic bed.  The original strawberry bed still has some plants in it, and they will spread.  I made the raised bed from balcony boards that we have replaced. Additional pots of Parsley and Basil have been started. The warm days in mid-May encouraged me to start my cucumbers from seeds saved from last year.  I need to learn to like cucumbers.  They'll get planted along their trellis in June. Blackberries, Raspberries, and Blueberries get little attention other than watering. I added Cilantro and still more Basil later in the month. At the end of the month, I finally took down the large long-dead Cascara tree back in our wooded quarter with my mini-chainsaw.
Only one pepper didn't transplant successfully. The balcony view of the garden in May.   Eight Yukon Gold and two Russet potato grow bags.   A "Music" hardneck garlic scape.   Early Girl tomatoes doing well.   Lots of strawberries in their own raised bed.

Mother's Day
at Susan's

Sunday, May 14th was a hot day.  Eight kids and 14 adults arrived for a Mother's Day celebration that doubled as a birthday party for Susan.

Susan invited friends from Creekside Church, and both Georgia and Julie made it.  Julie had just returned from a very long Mediterranean cruise that had her visiting many countries.

Nancy was happy to present the new big tablecloth she'd sewn for Susan. 
It is covered with images of musical instruments.

A May AquaSox Double Header 
 
Randy bought a pair of tickets for the Everett AquaSox game on Friday afternoon May 5th.  But the game was rained out, and I was happy I learned that before I drove north.  Our tickets were good for the double header the next day.  This worked great since the family went to visit the Pastricks in Lake Stevens that Saturday.

I joined Randy for an early 3:00 PM dinner at McDonalds before we went to the stadium.  Two seven-inning games were scheduled to make up for the rain out the day before.   We enjoyed the first game that Everett won 7-2 over the Tri-City Dust Devils.  Randy had to attend an 8:00 PM church meeting and I only stayed through the first two innings of the late game. 
I'm glad I didn't stay until its end since Everett lost the second game 1-2. 

I especially enjoyed watching a game which featured the new pitch clock.  Quick seven inning games seem just the right length!

Grandkids Corner
 
These first pictures were taken on our May 6th visit with the Pastricks.  My job was simple enough – take pictures, hold babies, play with the older kids, and otherwise relax.  Annie dealt with feeding and diapering and Nancy cleaned in the kitchen.  We were there to let Alicia and Richard focus on tasks free from kids.
 
I was happy to see Vivienne's new glasses.  They seemed to allow her to interact with her surroundings much better. 
 
Alicia says Corvin still asks for "Grandpa" nearly every day.

On Thursday the 11th, I had a grandpa day with all of my grandsons down south.  In the morning, I played with Reuben and Jonny while Cynthia took Isaac to her Bible study, her parents both being back east with her brother's family.  I drove up SR-18 to Covington, shopped at Walmart, and spent the afternoon with Galen.  On the way home, I bought a few Russet seed potatoes and Mother's Day flowers at Carpinito Brothers to plant for Nancy.
 
On the 19th, I drove Thomas and the girls down to Auburn.  Thomas went larping for the weekend with Nathanael and the girls played with their Sleight cousins.

I love the picture of Valerie and Grandpa both asleep in the Uncle Jack chair.

Charis: "Art is my life!"  (5/29/23) [From Frozen, Kristoff saying, "It's a palace made of ice. Ice is my life!"]

We harvested 24 garlic scapes on the 31st. We'll check for the rest in a few days.

Bits and Pieces 

What a surprise to hear from West Seattle teammate Kirk Hendrickson.  We were on the Cross Country and Track teams together.  He was in the class of '72.  He went on to earn his BS in Chemical Engineering from the UW and had a career with Weyerhaeuser in Oregon.  He emailed me after he saw the picture of Randy and me in the alumni Chinook newspaper out this month.  Kirk ran #3 on our Metro League Southern Division Championships team in 1971 that took 1st place.  I finished in 11th place and 5th for our team in 1971, my junior year.  I took 2nd in that 7-school race (49 runners) my senior year.

My quote for June, the song Portrait of My Love, was chosen because I was listening to KIXI 880 AM, instead of my usual 710 AM sports channel, on a drive home from Home Depot.  That song came on and it had an emotional impact on me.  I've been singing it all month.

Shadow turned up her nose at the new COSTCO cat food, but otherwise, she seems to be going strong.

While I have more yard work than I have time to complete, I started re-potting bulbs and adding flower seeds to the pots on the north side of the house.  I taught Charis what it means to "amend" the soil.  She actually said filling pots with soil was very fun!

My Quote from May

"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad.

If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."

Abraham Lincoln's Lyceum Address was delivered to the
Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois on January 27, 1838, titled "The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions".