Bonsai

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Posts by Bonsai

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  150

  Start A Butterfly Garden!

  by Bonsai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  time to take a break from debating religion.

  take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

  how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

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  Bonsai

  Kaik, I knew I had seen the Ruby Spice before during my in meanderings in the mountains. Here in Japan we have this plant in tree form. It's called "Ryoubu".　I have always wanted this tree in my garden because all the critters flock to it's sweet smelling flowers, but it doesn't start to flower until it is a mature tree towering over everything. I had no idea there was a shrub form that grew in North America! I checked online and they sell it here as "Amerika-ryoubu". It also has a beautiful pink hybrid called "pink spire". Thanks for the valuable information!

  I also finally found butterfly weed here at a nursery for the first time. It is great for attracting monarchs as both a host plant and a nectar plant.There is a tropical butterfly that uses the milkweed as a host plant. Often times a late summer typhoon will scoop up tropical butterflies from Taiwan and then dump them on Japan where they survive till the frost. Hopefully I can get a few to come to my garden.
  

  
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  150

  Start A Butterfly Garden!

  by Bonsai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  time to take a break from debating religion.

  take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

  how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

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  Bonsai

  Heaven, I've wanted a butterfly house myself, but no one sells them out here. It's fiercely debated on the butterfly forums as to whether they actually work or not, but either way, they look cool and add a fun dimension to the garden. Also they make a neat project to work on with the kids. Those that have seen butterflies overwinter in their butterfly house claim that it should be kept in an area sheltered from the cold winter winds (such as at the base of a tree with low branches).

  If you add one to your garden, let me know if it works!
  
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  150

  Start A Butterfly Garden!

  by Bonsai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  time to take a break from debating religion.

  take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

  how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Bonsai

  Kaik, thanks for the tip about the chaste tree. I planted one in my garden last year and the Papilio xuthus and Papilio Machaon swallowtail butterflies love its flowers!

  Sorry to here about the Gardenias. Their fragrant smell is irreplaceable.

  It seems to be a common theme that several kinds of bees, including honey bees, are disappearing at an alarming rate all over the world. Here in Japan the local specie of honey bee is vanishing, so they tried to replace it with the western honeybee only to find that the western honeybee has no defense against the largest hornet in the world (Vespa Mandarinia) which quickly overwhelms and wipes out entire nests in minutes. The Japanese giant hornet is nasty! It can get up to 6 centimeters in length and one sting can send a person into paralytic shock. Get stung twice by one of these buggers and you're toast. Thankfully they aren't usually aggressive toward humans. We do have to avoid wearing brown or black clothing while in the woods and mountains in the fall, because they will mistake us for their natural enemies (bears) and sting us if we get to close to their nests.
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  150

  Start A Butterfly Garden!

  by Bonsai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  time to take a break from debating religion.

  take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

  how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Bonsai

  Xanthippe, I love Peacocks! Here in Japan they are very rare and only live in high elevation meadows. We have to go south to the Nagano Alps (where they once had the winter olympics) to see them.

  We have two species of aquilegia (also known as Columbine in the U.S.) in Japan. One is blue and the other is a pale yellow.I planted a hybrid last year in a shady area, but the butterflies here showed no interest. Since butterflies are warmed by the sun, they usually visit flowers where there is good sunlight and avoid flowers in the shade.
  

  Astrantia looks like a lovely flower for butterflies, although I have never seen this flower in Asia or North America. I have never seen Teasels either, but they would look lovely in any natural setting.. Teasels remind of Thistles which are absolutely adored by butterflies and bees.

  I planted a bunch of false nettle in my garden to attract the Red Admirals. Their caterpillars are easy to find because they weave together the leaves to make a tent.
  
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  121

  Hey ya'll! My first post. Please help. In need of advice/comfort.

  by Stepford Wife in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey ya'll!

  i have been lurking for years on this site and others but never had the courage to post anything.

  actually i was afraid of posting on an apostate site in the event i was wrong.

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  Bonsai

  Start making friends outside of the religion. You want to provide yourself a support network that will get you through any eventuality. The more meaningful relationships that you have outside tiny JWLand weakens the hold that this religious group has on you.
  
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  33

  whats so bad about believing people go to heaven?

  by sowhatnow in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it occurred to me today, that so often, my mother will make the comment that .

  "those false religions teach that everyone is going to heaven when they die, oh sure, .

  all you have to do is be a good person, and off you go to heaven.

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  Bonsai

  For me, earth is heaven. Such a beautiful place that I want to be on it forever.

  But yeah, like everyone said, it's a matter of exclusivity. The market for heaven is saturated. How many would join if JW was just another religion teaching that we go to heaven? They had to think outside the box to stimulate interest and growth.

  I've always loved the idea of a paradise earth, but without the armageddon stuff. Even as a witness I always fantasized about God educated mankind with kindness and love so that no one would have to die. I surmised that the meek should stay on earth and send all the self righteous hard asses to heaven!
  
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  150

  Start A Butterfly Garden!

  by Bonsai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  time to take a break from debating religion.

  take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

  how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

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  2. 
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  Bonsai

  FindTheLost. Thanks for the idea. Let's make this thread about attracting birds and hummingbirds, too.
• 
  150

  Start A Butterfly Garden!

  by Bonsai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  time to take a break from debating religion.

  take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

  how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

  1. 
  2. 
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  Bonsai

  Good idea John Free. It always seems like Sunday is a sunny day. I don't miss watching a beautiful Sunday pass away from a small window in a kingdom hall, all while being blasted from all the artificial lights in the main room.
  
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  47

  Thought control - sexual fantasizing is wrong - May 2016 Watchtower

  by Listener in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  >>the bible reveals that jehovah issaddened when people pursue a wick-ed course and ‘the inclination of theirthoughts is only bad all the time.’ (readgenesis 6:5, 6.

  ) from this we can per-ceive that sexual fantasizing is wrongbecause it can lead to serious sin that isforbidden in the scriptures and is out ofharmony with jehovah’s way of think-ing.the disciple james wrote: “the wis-dom from above is first of all pure, thenpeaceable, reasonable, ready to obey,full of mercy and good fruits, impar-tial, not hypocritical.” (jas.

  3:17) beingaware of this, we should be moved toreject entertainment that fuels impurethoughts and inclinations.

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  Bonsai

  It's wrong and immoral to fantasize about sexual things! Instead we should fantasize about more mentally healthy topics such as the slaughter of billions, which allows us to live in a perfect world and fertilize our gardens with their dead, bloated bodies while stroking our pet koalas. (shakes head)
  
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  150

  Start A Butterfly Garden!

  by Bonsai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  time to take a break from debating religion.

  take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

  how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Bonsai

  Good point Cofty. I forgot to mention bees as well. It seems that honey bees are on the decline in many countries as well. Creating a little nature oasis for them can only be good in the long run for us humans as well.