I have been drifting; time to get organized

I always have these moments when I just seem to be drifting along and part of that is being tired. I have been working harder than usual and it saps my mental strength as well as my physical strength. But the gardens are mostly in now and the work load will be easier - mostly watering if we do not get enough rain. I always feel a sense of drifting when that happens. I do not appear to be accomplishing as much as I want and the piles start to appear. So today is a pile elimination day along with cleaning. I managed to forget to clean yesterday. 

Less attention to the great outside world and more attention to the piles. The good news though is the grass is growing in the front yard by the street edge. I am glad to see that and hope to keep encouraging it. I have also let some of the wild flowers grow in the grass. It is more colourful that way and gives the bees a chance to survive and rebuild their colonies. We cut it longer these days and I rather like the look. More like a meadow  than a manicured lawn. It appeals to my sense of how the world needs to go. Less manicured and more careful to protect the world that we have been given to nurture and preserve. 

Prayers for Ukraine are always ongoing in my mind. The European Union is doing the best that they can do. That so many countries can come together and oppose this slaughter of innocents in Ukraine is a marvelous happening. My admiration for Russian achievement has taken an enormous hit the last three months and will continue to do so. The peoples of Russia have a right to a better life than they are given. The wonder of the 1990s when the shackles fell off has been replaced by heavy restriction and life in a country that limits personal freedom and the ability to improve ones life it would appear looking in from the outside. It is a sad end to a communist experience that when compared to China falls short of improving the life of the vast majority of the Russian people in favour of benefiting only the Russian oligarchs which include Putin and his enablers. I think if we just do not buy any of the products that eventually come from the areas of Ukraine that Russia has stolen then we are helping Ukraine on into the future. Make it impossible for Russia to benefit from this land steal and that would help to pay Russia back for their inexcusable horror that they have put onto the Ukraine people and the world that cares about Ukraine. Regard that area as a wasteland not fit to produce items for resale in the world until the land returns to Ukraine.  Russia can never justify what they have done in Ukraine. It is a sin and one of the seven deadly sins of the Christian Church - greed.

Second last day of May

 So much done and so much to do. That seems like my life at the moment. It is a good thing perhaps but I am into this quiet state where I just want to live a very quiet life and get as much done as possible. The stacks are in front of me. I think that is a virtue of moving about from place to place as I do. I think I enjoy the change in my life and it isn't that different from when Edward would move us about from place to place seeking his ancestors. Then I would have piles as I worked away at my many projects trying to tie up loose ends before another repository or cemetery trip or a trip to his (and mine if it was England) homelands. How he loved all those trips after making the first overseas trip. I think living here in North America all of our lives going to Europe is an eye opener for us. This is where (in Ed's case) all of his lines for the most part came from the 1620s on to the American Colonies and then he did have a couple who came directly to Canada but most came in those early early days of the American and Dutch Colonies. He loved to think about them living in these what seemed back in the late 1900s such old cities on Long Island, in Manhattan, in Connecticut, in Rhode Island and we were on Block Island where his Rathburn family came and Boston and so many other places. We visited them all. Some of his earliest Dutch people were in Fort Orange (Albany) and New Amsterdam (New York) with his English colonial ancestors coming mostly in the 1630s. 

Then my oldest daughter and I went to Rome in 2001 and that was old. The ruins there are magnificent. I can never quite decide whether I prefer the ruins of Rome to the repaired and refitted buildings of England/Scotland and Ireland (and they do a wonderful job as I did not realize that some had been ruins!). Both are so appealing in their way. But my daughter and I also went to London, England on that trip and spent our days wandering about the City of London. I did try to persuade Edward to come but my oldest daughter was in transition between a computer science career and returning to do her masters/PhD. So when Edward said no she said yes and so we were off. We spent four months learning Italian (she is really good at languages) and when we arrived she spoke in Italian all the day and I mumbled away although some of my Italian was pretty good just not that much. But I made up for that in London as I can understand a lot of the different accents and words still used in England because three of my grandparents were born and lived in England into their 20s and 30s. My father was born there. But it was the oldness of Europe that I was talking about and Edward was surprised by how old Europe was still. Having two World Wars there had destroyed so much and yet so much remained. COVID squashed his dream of going to Holland and Germany although we were in parts of Germany (along the Rhine) twice. He also wanted to take the entire Rhine tour with Viking but we did do part of it. It was exciting for him to see how people lived in that area along the Rhine because his Palatine ancestors had come along that route to America. Going to Ile de Re was also exciting because his Huguenot ancestors lived there before they came to Staten Island New York. We actually visited the exact area where his Huguenot ancestors lived in St Martin. 

But it is the workload that remains with me that I am contemplating. I want to organize all of the items that we will take to his eldest niece. She will treasure her grandmother's things as she grew up in her home. They were Edward's memories of his mother but we only saw her on regular visits every three months or so as the girls grew up so they are not attached to all of these things whereas his niece grew up there and her children as well so they will have a good home. There is a lot of material. It will fill the back of the van for sure. There are so many pictures and they will treasure them as they are of their family. Edward was an avid photographer and he has many many pictures of them through the years. And all those dishes. It will be nice to see them have a home instead of being in boxes. Edward used to take them out and look at them but they were never part of our living space really. They were his childhood home memories. 

I think he was sorry that he sold the house that he grew up in after all. In 2000 he wasn't contemplating retirement at that time but by 2004 he was retired. Funny how life flows. He never really said he wished he kept his home but it was in his mind towards the end of his life sometimes as he would talk about his home. Something he didn't really do much through the years. 

So I am looking at my piles and this week (with just the bedding plants to put in the ground) I shall work away at the piles. I have a whole month to prepare the next issue of the Blake newsletter. I have some ideas on the discussion topic and a lot of material stored away for that one.

Consequences

Another Sunday and war still rages in Ukraine with no end in sight. Putin suggestion for peace on his terms - remove the sanctions. Peace is a beautiful word; one that as a child I learned to love that word. It meant an end to all of the horrific things that had happened in a war that ended just weeks before I was born. There were consequences for some after that war and so there should have been. Some people had rejoined the animal kingdom and lost the right to be called men. They were hunted mercilessly and punished for their criminal acts and so they should have been. Were there also women; I do not remember that.

For Putin and his enablers there must also be consequences but we need to stop the killing of innocent people. The ignorance of Putin still amazes me. In this modern world I thought it was just half-crazed people who sought out violence as a way to express their frustration. To have the leader of a country; trusted by his people stoop to such despicable acts is hard to believe in a modern world. His own young men he has used as cannon fodder and doesn't even bother taking back their bodies so that their families can bury their loved ones whom they believed were fighting to support Russia. Little did they know that fifth columnists in Ukraine were undermining the government there and creating a situation all to make a land grab. How many of those people will now become rich on the spoils. Just a few likely the rest will have to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure of the land that they are trying to steal from Ukraine. Like the dictators of old, Putin and his enablers will benefit and the ordinary Russian will have to bury their young and gain nothing. They have lost their children; lost their freedom of the press and lost access to the rest of the world for the moment except the enablers of Russian atrocity - their despicable acts will go down in history and never be forgotten. They have become the new Nazis, the new Hitler and his enablers. 

There must be consequences but time will tell on that story. Putin thinks we fear a third world war; he misunderstands us we respect the world too much to destroy the time that is left on it. The opportunity to restore the world lies ahead and he is a very ignorant person. Treat people properly instead of the maniacal war that has been created by Putin and his enablers all for a land grab; all for greed.

Church today and prayers for Ukraine as always. We will pray for the lost soldiers from Russia at a later date when Putin and enablers are gone. For they too were victims of a despotic monster with the exception of those convicted of heinous acts of violence. They will be remembered for their heinous crimes against Ukraine.

And the rain continues

Rainy times are the best grass growing time especially if it is a little cool. This is pretty normal weather for us this time of year - cool around 15 degrees and wet. We will plant some of the garden today. We have cleared away a spot for the carrots (grown for the bunnies which I would rather not enjoy in our backyard but they get fed next door so probably not going to change for quite a while) behind the raspberries which we cleared away yesterday. It might work although we will fence in the lettuces. We are ready to plant the upper part of the garden which is above the raspberries. Next year we will clear away more of the raspberries but it is a heavy task. The front patch of the raspberries are relatively new and hardier. They can stay in the middle of the garden. 

Sunflowers are growing in the mini greenhouse and we will plant them out the second week of June likely. So this weekend green onions, two kinds of lettuce, spinach and dill in the main garden. Leaving the half of the garden under the black walnut tree for sunflowers and gladiolus. Then the peppers and some tomato plants for the back of the house which was generally flowers but does have some perennials (early spring) and then the rest of the tomatoes along the side. That just leaves the spot for the parsley plants we are growing and some lettuce plants which I need to buy. The basil will go in on the other side in the shade as it gets sunburned. 

Did some weeding yesterday to get the large weeds out so that the perennials have room to thrive. Will leave the dandelions and smaller weeds to help replenish the soil. We have seven bags of black earth that we will put on the vegetable gardens covering up that low cover of weed and helping to replenish the soil. We are doing restorative gardening and will see how that works out. 

Lots of work on the Pincombe Newsletter and likely the main article is now complete for this issue. I am splitting it into parts because there is so much material and collecting it will take time. The next issue will have part 2 of the South Molton Pincombe family. I need to check the census to see if there are still Pincombe families there in the 1800s. My own line continued at Bishops Nympton into the 1900s although my 2x great grandfather John Pincombe son of Robert Pincombe of Park, East Week and West Week emigrated to Canada in 1850/51 (they arrived at the Port of New York in January of 1851 having left from Plymouth in November 1850). From there they continued into New York State to Genesee, Upper State New York where his brother Robert lived at that time and then into Canada (Westminster Township now part of London, Ontario) where they continue to live (some of their descendants that is). We did visit Bishops Nympton in 2008 which was an interesting experience. At that time it was 158 years since my 2x great grandfather had left (he was farming and living at Gatcombe in Molland at that time but had been born at Bishops Nympton). This was a farm that had been occupied by the Pincombe family since the 1600s at least when he sold the leases (it appeared to always be a John Pincombe living there and before my John it was his Uncle John (his father Robert's eldest brother). I have now completed publishing the baptisms that I had transcribed for Landkey so will move on to the marriages next. I only purchased the early records as my interest in the area quite evaporates after 1850 but taking on the one-name study I did purchase the entire set of Parish Records for Bishops Nympton. At some point I may purchase the others to bring them up to the present but that is a little far fetched at the moment but one never knows what will happen in the time to come. 

The wind is blowing in the trees and it makes me think of God all around us, watching and wondering how his human race are doing. He does not interfere in our lives any longer but I believe he still watches especially when the wind is blowing through the trees. He doesn't control that wind the earth has evolved because of us and we must live with the result of any changes we have placed on the world. But mostly we must learn to live in peace and harmony; that was what Jesus wanted for us.

Working on the Pincombe Newsletter

 Yesterday was a day of good accomplishment on the Pincombe Newsletter. I do think though that looking at the South Molton branch of the Pincombe family will be a continuing article. Working my way through the fiche is going to be time consuming. My eyes do not appear to be as strong as they used to be reading fiche. Perhaps I am getting old! But at nearly 77 my ability to quickly read the tiny print is becoming problematic and I can only do a bit at a time. However the fiche do not begin until 1602 nor do the Bishops Transcripts making the task of looking at South Molton in the 1500s very difficult other than the tax records which is really only looking at perhaps 10 to 20 percent of the population not sure on that. However the 1600s is the time period that I am curious about as it appears that the family that bore the coat of arms for the Pincombe family did move to Poughill and another Pincombe family from North Molton moved to South Molton. The move to Poughill date is unknown to me at this time but the parish registers show the baptisms for the North Molton family in South Molton. All very interesting for sure but which family acquired the family lore of the Pincombe family of South Molton being the founders of the Pincombe family later found in Barnstaple and Bideford. The Poughill Pincombe family eventually daughtered out and the Gertrude Pyncombe Trust was established eventually with a large part of that family's estate going to charity. 

I also managed to move another twelve raspberry seedlings to another location in the yard. I want to continue moving the seedlings so that we can prepare the garden for planting this next week. Gardening is certainly a never ending adventure although the grass has quite surprised me with its resilience. Last summer I just didn't water when we were in drought and I really thought the lawn might not recover. However there are patches that need repair in the back lawn but they are gradually filling in. Time will tell but this year I will water for sure.

Ukraine and rare-metal resources

One item that is most interesting the area in which all of this fighting is occurring in Ukraine (the Donbas) is also the home to the largest  rare-metal resources in Europe. Now it is even easier to understand the greed for land that is being shown to us in this Russian invasion of Ukraine. All they want is the land and the treasures. The Soviet Union sent Russian people into these countries to live in the areas with the richest sources of particular items perhaps and now these fifth columnists have done their job and created havoc so that the Russians under Putin have become the Nazis of old as their greed for land becomes more and more apparent. They just keep sending young Russian men to die as cannon fodder struggling forward to take the treasures that lie in these areas. 

When does it end? This greed that people have. Share the resources; bring in minimum income so that everyone on the face of the earth can live without fear of poverty. Live the simple life that Jesus taught us. 

Looking ahead what do we see. We see Russia with its fairly mixed population but basically an Eastern European population and a West Asian population. We see China with its mostly Asian and particularly Chinese population (in many ways it is a purist state although there are a fair number of people whose DNA is slightly different from the bulk of the population that is Chinese). Between the two of them and the countries that support them we can see a good sized portion of the World Island as it has been called since it is the largest landmass in the world. Hitler had an entire ministry devoted to looking at the World Island (the Western Hemisphere was less interesting to him perhaps because he knew less about it). But his ministry pinpointed the areas that were most supportive (ie rich natural resources) of the Nazi Empire he planned to build.

Is Ukraine just a feint. An attempt to waste as much western European resource as possible before pulling out all the stops and accomplishing the perhaps initial plans of Putin to link Crimea with Russia. It has backfired on him in some ways as it has exposed an even greater danger of Russia attempting to take all of the southern part of Ukraine around the Black Sea and link to the break away republic in Moldavia where they already have 1500 Russian soldiers stationed. Some people are like Trump in Europe and dream of being dictators and are perhaps counted on by Russia to create some disunity in Europe (which they have done). Dictatorship, to the dictator and his enablers, sounds like such a marvelous life of wealth and power and some people get sucked into it. But most dictators end up dead fortunately for the world as they become more and more greedy as time passes. 

I do think Ukraine is somewhat like England (supported by the Commonwealth/Empire) fighting on bravely alone against the Nazis (the Russians have now become this group of greedy people). Then you have the OPEC countries waiting with baited breath for war to break out so they can make even more money (that has been the case for the last two World Wars) so they sit silently on the sidelines waiting. They do not care who wins; it is just all about money. 

So they do not really hate democracy and quite likely they enjoy it because of all the squabbles from which they think they are safe. They just bring in their military and enforce whatever rules they want. What causes wars is land greed and it has been that way since man/woman first left the caves and started to carve out territory for themselves. Democracy is an easy target to fixate on because, of all the types of government, it depends upon people behaving in a humanitarian way towards their neighbours and supporting those in the democracy who are not able to fend for themselves but rely on the government to do that. The other cause we will likely see in the future is race purism once again - although DNA does tell us that we are 99% alike. The Pandemic verified that as it raced around the world infecting every area of it equally.

So as my mother said about the leadup to the Second World War; the waiting time begins. The ball is in motion and sides are beginning to form. It is immature that even in 2022 people do not respect human life or the planet and think only of land greed.

Rabbits apparently really like grass seed

Watched last evening at dusk as the local rabbit was eating my grass seed. Hopefully I put enough down that there will still be grass to grow. It is interesting actually being able to look at the street in front of me as the truck is, for the moment, not parked in front of my house. As I said I do not have a problem with it being there in general but wheels on grass that I am trying to grow didn't work for me so I am glad that my request was honoured eventually. 

Yesterday was weeding and my neighbour has taken the table saw which is great. It is heavy and occupied part of the garage so another huge item gone. This will be a downsizing summer which we hope will end with a minimal amount of belongings in the house. Just enough for us to manage our lives and we are all minimalists so that really works. I have given away so much now mostly to the Salvation Army which I hope has benefited from all of that material at resale.  It was all good stuff but I just do not have any need for it and I continue to aim for my one room concept although a little larger than that for a while but for myself everything that I need I want to fit into one room. 

Today it is raining so I shall don my rain suit and move more raspberry seedlings. It is so much easier to garden in the rain. A lot less work in terms of digging and no watering to do. Gardening is not my favourite task as I often say but the products of gardening are quite nice - the primroses continue to bloom and they are lovely - five different colours of primrose and they are gradually creating daughter colonies which is rather nice. 

Perhaps some work today; that hasn't happened yet all week as we were busy cleaning and then gardening but the plastic shed is now back in its box and the patio is clear once again. The garage is somewhat full but the next task is to empty the shed and redo it with the bookcases from the garage and eliminating all the surplus that is in there. Lengths of wood, old doors and all that type of thing that my husband was sure to keep in case it was needed by him at some future date. I have a lot of that kind of material. I think that is when I do feel sad again at his loss; he intended to live forever and he does in our hearts. We wish that it could be so but acceptance is coming slowly but surely as we have no choice on that. 

A few new members of the H11 study and I must get them assigned to their subclade (FT DNA does the assigning actually but I have a secret set of subclades that I do put them into). They can see these people that match them even more closely on their websites so nothing new in that but the compilation is rather interesting each February. Still praying that the war will be a thing of the past by the 1st of August and that Putin and his thugs are gone from the life of Russia. It is so sad to see people treated that way; not being able to see what is happening around the world and particularly where their sons/brothers/fathers are dying in an illegal war which Putin started to eliminate Nazis he says. Nazis are land stealers so he is the Nazi and one would hope that he practises what he preaches and eliminates the Nazis in his government along with himself from the life of Russia so that those people can have a better life. 

China in the news today and their security package for a group of ten nearby island governments. Does China want peace in the world so that their economy can prosper? One watches and listens trying not to be distracted by "fake news" or "alarmist views" although slightly different they have the same effect. Peace is the important thing; not killing of innocent civilians in order to steal land. Russia's blockade of the ports preventing dry food crops from leaving the Ukraine ports drives up the price of goods so that they can replenish their treasury with their own grain products at higher prices. Will time ever erode greed? it was greed that caused the Second World War and greed continues even knowing what happened in that war. China experienced the Second World War as well and had to move their industrial base to the west away from their coast in order to arm themselves and eventually push the Nazis (for the people who attacked them also wanted land) away from their country. For them too it was a long grueling battle to rid themselves of the conquering armies. But for plucky England with the help of her Commonwealth/Empire the Nazis would have overrun everything in 1940 - that was a vicious year until the USA declared war in December 1941. All greed for land no wonder it is one of the worst sins of the Catholic Church. We have known for thousands of years that greed is so destructive. Then there is revenge and Russian leaders appear to carry their revenge for ever instead of taking the high road of Christianity (which they claim to be - Christian) and moving on to a better life for all.

Growing grass

Sometimes I wonder is it the sign of the times or just silliness. My front lawn has needed some grass growing for a bit along the front edge. Everyone probably has the same problem with all the salt and the metre high or more snow hills at the end of our property that faces the road. Combine that with having one person constantly park this enormous truck in front of my property most nights and many days that completely takes up the spot because the truck is so big. I have only complained twice about this practice because I really do not care if he parks his truck there but when I need it moved I would appreciate that happening. Once it was parked part way across my laneway so that I could not drive out but it was a pretty blustery day and I simply put a note on their windshield to let them know they were blocking my laneway. That has not happened again. Yesterday I asked his mother if she could have the truck moved off of my grass as the wheels were over the kerb. I received no answer. Mind you I was asking from across the street but the distance isn't that great so I know she heard me. I was tired having raked my lawn preparing it for some black earth and grass seed. I wanted to do it right to the edge and have the job done. The truck is still on my grass but I have spread the black earth and added grass seed and soaked it last night. I will put up a fence when he moves it today - at least hopefully he will move it today. Ottawa has had such a bad time this past week with the hydro failure but we have had ours back for a couple of days now. I just do not want to create trouble but I would appreciate at least not having truck wheels on my lawn which I am trying to grow as winter is now over. 

Yesterday was pretty much cleaning, yard work and not much else. Although I do always play my solitaire games and a new addition is quite nice. You can earn double points if you do extra games and of course I could not resist that. Solitaire is a fun game and even better on the computer. 

Today I might get to the Pincombe Newsletter once again. I have downloaded quite a few records but South Molton does not have a surplus in records. I do have the fiche though and will take the time to read through them myself from 1601 (they begin late) until 1700. 

A beautiful day today but started out at 7 degrees celsius. More yard work and just a little of the basement left to clean. We will transplant more raspberry plants to the back of the yard and one other spot that could have raspberries. Then we can start to prepare the ground for carrots, green onions, lettuces, parsley and spinach. I will wait until the full moon's likely frost night and then plant the tomatoes and peppers. The sunflowers are growing nicely in the mini greenhouse as well as the parsley and basil. The carrots will be at the back of the raspberries and will be principally for the little animals that frequent our yard. They generally stay away from the top of the yard where we are regularly and keep to the back and eat away at whatever we grow there. 

The waiting game in the illegal Russian War against Ukraine continues. One would wish it was over before too many more people have to die. The escalation of the war is dangerous for mankind for sure - people would not have to think about economies because there will not be a world for that to happen on in a nuclear war. I was glad that George Soros spoke up about the war. We should not fear Putin - he lives in a past that thought only of revenge. For most of us and I think it includes China; we want peace and a good life for the people of the world. Stealing land was the nazi way and Putin and his thugs need to look at themselves to see the new nazis of the world.

Continuing to get ready for the gardening season and cleaning

 Cleaning and gardening are the two work efforts in my day this time of year. I would like to do more work on my projects but that cannot happen as long as there is gardening and cleaning to do. That is the way that the days in the spring flow but they do lead to quieter times come July and August. 

Another cloudy day and we are meant to have rain at some point in the next couple of days. There are still a lot of people without hydro but our hydro is holding for which we are most thankful. All of our lines are underground so once any connection to the main grid is solved we are generally back up and running. But we are a well treed city and the wind was such that many of them broke off or came down severing the power lines. But the weather is mostly warm enough (nine degrees celsius this morning) that the heat doesn't come on anyway and the air conditioning doesn't run. We are thinking again about a Generac as these storms are becoming more frequent. But our hydro failures are still few and far between so time will tell on that. 

Yesterday I moved a dozen raspberry plants and will water them again today just to keep them coming along. There are many many seedlings so can replace anything that did not transplant well. We will get soil today and can repair the winter damage to the front lawn as we already bought a large bag of grass seed. I pulled the big weeds where the tomatoes and peppers are going and they can soon go into the ground although will wait until the next frost is past (likely early June). Once we have cleared more of the raspberry plants then we can plant the lettuce, carrots and green onions. 

All of the hosta plants are now up (a couple at the very back of the house are always slower but they to have broken through and growing rapidly). We have mostly hosta now and other perennials. I will get some flowers but we are growing sunflowers in a greenhouse type contraption so will wait on that for a bit. There are 52 sunflower peat pots but will let them grow much bigger before we plant them as the rabbits will eat them. May fence some of them to protect them. 

The front yard I have broken up the soil (not turned) and left some of the smaller weed cover to enrich the soil as we are doing restorative gardening. All of those plants are up and look quite healthy this year. Not weeding heavily last year may pay off yet. The grass cut very well and looks much better than I thought that it would. There is some repair to be done and we have lots of grass seed to work on that. I picked up two large bundles of broken branches (mostly dead branches) that have come down from the huge maple tree at the back. The hedges look good as well even where someone took out the fences. That has repaired itself somewhat. We have tried new plants but they do not survive. I planted some raspberry canes there so will see if they survive. They are quite hardy those raspberries. They grow together with conifers in the wild so maybe the answer. Time will tell. 

As the world continues to watch the war in Ukraine I wonder about China and its thoughts on all of this and where it will stand as Russia continues to attack Ukraine civilians. It is like the Iron Curtain coming down again. Revenge is all that Russia thinks about it would appear. But what are they revenging? After all the "west" as Putin refers to us flew millions of tons of equipment and food into Russia to help them fight the Nazis in the Second World War. Ukraine helped to hold the Nazis off to let Russia get stronger. One wonders why Putin and his thugs would throw away all the goodwill that has grown in the last thirty years. I also wonder if he is actually ill or faking it so that people stop trying to assassinate him - I am really curious about that. Is it that Russia will revert to Communism once again? They were not successful with it the first time and their people suffered badly at the end of all of that. Once people have tasted freedom can one then put them back into Communism? Are Putin and his thugs willing to put into place a communism government that actually helps the people of Russia? All questions in my mind to be sure.

8 degrees celsius with lots of sun

 A beautiful day today although just 8 degrees celsius but will probably warm up somewhat. Today I shall watch Church on YouTube since I missed it yesterday. Our hydro coming back so soon was such a surprise but all of our lines are underground here and perhaps our loss was because of the lines down further out along the highway and when that was reconciled we were back on. 

The beauty of the earth is before us and we must do all that we can to protect it. Following Jesus' new commandment to love God with all of our heart and soul and to love our neighbour as ourself is I am beginning to think one of the most profound statements of the ages above everything else that has been said which was the intention at the time. It is only when we care about those around us that we become the people that God meant us to be. I am thinking more about that these days perhaps because of Russia's illegal war against Ukraine where they are literally murdering civilians all the time with no regard for them. They claim to be a Christian country but they are barbaric and putting them back behind their borders should be the aim of every sane person in the world. They have threatened us with nuclear weapons and unless they can prove themselves fit to care for these arms perhaps they should themselves consider disarming themselves if they actually care about the world. They are not fit to manage an arsenal which could protect the world from unseen enemies outside of the world. Using them in the world is suicide for the entire world and they do not have the right to destroy what God has given to all of us. 

Prayers as always for Ukraine and that they will be able to throw off this yoke of oppression with the help of the countries of the world that have come forward to help stop Russia. There is no intrusion into Russia (have they noticed that). We are not trying to destroy Russia as they are destroying Ukraine. Russia is a country of the world that has done wonderful things in the past but what they are doing now is absolutely insane. Russian people need to stop Putin and his thugs before they destroy all of us and themselves.

Today I continue working on the Pincombe Newsletter. I also want to move raspberry plants so that we can bring in the bag of dirt and plant our garden. The raspberries quickly reproduce but one can easily cut away each of the new plants and replant them. They do very well and I have a couple of spots that could have raspberries in them as I am not going to plant that many annuals. Raspberries make beautiful cover and they are tasty when they are ripe with fruit.

Hydro power lost during the storm and now back on 22 hours later

I missed Church today but it is on YouTube so will watch it tomorrow. I did consider going but they were asking people not to travel and I had no idea on what a trip in along the highway would be like as there were wires down so decided to stay home. About half of a million people without hydro, 200 hydro poles down and many trees. The house across the road has siding ripped off all along one side. They appeared to be the only people with damage. 

 A nice sized match with a known third cousin which is always great. I could tell right away that she was related to my maternal grandmother. but does not share my grandmother's mtDNA. 

The day proved to be pretty busy even without hydro and it was a cool night so the air conditioner wasn't needed anyway. It was a very heavy storm though and we will hear if there were actual touchdowns of tornados. Tornados have become commoner in this area the last few years.  The rain was so heavy that it covered the street running away to the sewer catchment basins. 

I got through some paperwork that I have meant to look at so good use of the time.

Gardening begins

The lawns are all cut now but did not dig out the dandelions so they will come back up again and the bees will have a chance. I did dig out the thistles however as they are painful to touch and step on in bare feet. The lawns look surprisingly good. I will get a load of topsoil to build up the lawn at the front where it is not growing quite as well as the rest of the front lawn. Not going to do much new with the flower beds out front as they have a number of perennials that pretty much take up all the space there. I will likely cultivate it a little just to aerate the soil. The lily of the valley is quite beautiful and the scent is getting stronger daily. 

The back lawn also came up quite nicely. There are a few spots that need fresh topsoil and grass seed and will do that at the same time as the front. We got our tomato and pepper plants and a tray to grow the sunflower seeds, herbs to start them for transfer to the gardens after the first of June. The hedges have grown nicely as well. Our maple tree is now huge. It started to grow at the front of the yard a year or so after we moved here and then when it was about four years old we moved it to the back of the yard where it has been ever since and now 44 years later it is huge. It is home to many birds that come and feed at the feeder at the front of the yard. We are doing restorative gardening this year and will not turn the soil but rather add topsoil and plant our plants and pull out any large weeds that dwarf our plants that we want to grow. I will probably buy some bedding flowers to give some colour to the backyard through the summer although again there are a lot of perennials. 

Still a lot to do. I want to empty the gardening shed and see if anyone wants some of the materials in there and will then shift everything that was in the temporary shed this past winter into the permanent shed. We will put the car in the garage again next winter just to make it easier to clear the laneway as a company does that for me. A few minor repairs this year and perhaps next year will repave the laneway although it still doesn't look too bad. 

Perhaps some time today on the Pincombe Newsletter as there are just ten days left to the month. The Pincombe family is quite interesting and especially I have actually walked in the village they lived in for five hundred years. Saw Park farm where my 3x great grandparents Robert Pincombe and Elizabeth Rowcliffe lived with their eight children. Robert was the son of John Pincombe and Mary Charly/Charlie and their grandchildren moved all over the world - Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States and South Africa.  Amazing really and I have been in touch with a number of the descendants through the matching of DNA on every database. 

Prayers for Ukraine as always. It is so foreign to think that there is a war ongoing in Europe. World War II was definitely meant to end all of that and it is only Russia that wants to upset that wonderful peace that we had. They completely lack respect for the rest of the world. I am proud of Finland for taking the same stance as we ourselves took at the end of the Second World War when we said no nuclear warheads on Canadian soil. There are more than enough of them in various arsenals around the world we do not want them on our soil either. Russia's Putin and his thugs have decided to turn Russia into a pariah nation and we will regard Russia as such until she leaves Ukraine and restores Ukraine to pre-2014 boundaries and keeps out of Ukraine politics.

Finding it hard to look at the H11 project

I continue finding it very difficult to look at the H11 project. It saddens me this illegal war that Russia has created in Ukraine. It is H11 people fighting H11 people likely as there is a large percentage of H11 in both of these countries. I remember when I was a child all the talk of a new era as Europe rebuilt in the 1940s/1950s/1960s. It took a long time to erase all the war damage from all those countries. Germany mentioned that they were still finding bombs from the Second World War and it is over 80 years since that started now. In another three years it will be 80 years since it ended. I was born after the war but my childhood was full of news reels at the shows (which I went to every Saturday with my grandfather and brothers (and likely my sister when I was quite young as she is six years older than me)) showing bombed out England and Europe (Europe includes Russia as there is both a European Russia and an Asian Russia). The saddest pictures were of the Concentration Camps where so many Jewish people were put to death. One of my father's friends during his years of working (he ran his own company) was Jewish and I think that actually knowing someone that was Jewish made it all the more meaningful to me as a child. It wasn't just a distant happening to people I did not know. But the talk was often upbeat discussing the New Era that was coming to us although there was always that tension of the Iron Curtain that Russia had drawn across the map of Europe. Why did Russia do that? I think I always heard that Russia had this need of a buffer zone between themselves and the West. I never understood it because we, the West, flew tons and tons of military equipment and food into Russia to help them fight the Nazis during the Second World War. Being a Christian Nation one would have thought that they understood why at the end of the war we then helped in the recovery effort to bring all those countries and their peoples back to a living standard that would support good will in the world. Russia was bent on revenge. So much so that even when German Reunification was proposed they opposed it. But the difference for the people in Eastern Germany (the Russian sector) and Western Germany (the British, American and French sectors) was unbelievable. Western Germany was modern and Eastern Germany had barely moved out of the end of the Second World War. Revenge doesn't work although every one is tempted to revenge the ills against them for sure. Moving on and ignoring the people who do wrong unless they have broken laws (and unfortunately inciting people to do wrong for you is still very difficult to prove and get a conviction) is still the better way. The high road that Jesus took led him to fulfilling his legacy in the world and is always the case for those who carry the standard of truth and love. So we took the high road and brought Europe back (and of course they worked very hard as well) and the Iron Curtain descended. It would appear that Putin liked that Iron Curtain and wants to bring it back. There will always be an excuse for each time he and this thugs infringe on another's country's liberty but it is a lie. It is barbaric and mediaeval. We live in the modern century and probably have far more to worry about as we make ourselves more and more visible in the universe. If homo sapiens can arise on earth then other forms of life or homo sapiens itself can arise on another planet and we may need to defend ourselves from outside of our world. We always need to be ready not fighting amongst ourselves. 

I love democracy but not everyone sees it the same way as I do. I know that. Communism had much promise in Karl Marx's writings but Russia did not follow the strict writings and allowed oligarchs to dominate their economy so that the masses of the people did not benefit like they have in China. We do have these two large countries to look at from outside and see the results of a Communist government in them. Russia is basically a dictatorship kept in place by the thugs of the dictator Putin. China continues as a Communist government but their people are more respected although also are restricted like Russia in hearing the actual news of the world. I do find it exciting that China is in space and doing marvelous things and sharing them with all of us. Space is the New Frontier for sure. 

My next project is the Pincombe Newsletter due the first of June and it will be on time. I will also get back to the Siderfin Book revision but it is gardening time and parts of each of my days will go towards the yard and getting it fixed up. Last summer I accomplished very little as I look about. Really I was just going through life and not really living life. This year I shall do better but it is the first time on my own really in my entire life as an adult without my husband. I can see the benefit of living on one's own before marriage now but that wasn't actually the lifestyle then anyway. Life is always changing in some ways and it does often seem like an improvement on the time before. 

I wish that Russia would simply leave Ukraine and let the Ukrainians solve their own differences in some of these areas that are contested. Russia has murdered thousands of civilians in the Ukraine and injured even more. Russia has no right to be there with their soldiers, their guns, their tanks, their bombs. Crimea should again be part of the Ukraine because of the illegal war that Russia has waged. There has to be punishment for what they have done. I think the loss of their veto in the United Nations Security Council would be a sign that they have been wrong (they earned that veto along with the other countries that fought and defeated the Nazis). Putting the Crimea back into Ukraine would be a second punishment for their illegal war against Ukraine. The Russian people need to decide though about Putin although replacing him as their head of state does sound like a good idea given what he has done in Ukraine and releasing political prisoners from jail would allow their form of government to once again continue. Perhaps most importantly those Russians placed in these former Iron Curtain countries should now make a decision on whether they accept the government of the country that they are currently said to be part of and if not they should be expelled and hopefully Russia will take them back as the Soviet Union placed them in these countries during the Iron Curtain era. They should not be permitted to be fifth columnists in these countries causing trouble that results in death and destruction. That sounds like a good set of punishments for the illegal war which Russia is waging against Ukraine.

Change in Lifestyle

 Every few months I undergo a change in lifestyle from being a grandmother/mother to being a mother only. It takes me a couple of days to adjust plus I still am a grandmother for part of the week as my youngest grandson comes to stay for a couple of days for his therapy as he has autism. He is doing well but along with the autism he has speech difficulties which are also improving. He is a happy child though and loves his computer which he works away on whenever he has time. I taught him to use powerpoint and word and he enjoys those programs very much but mostly he likes games and I can understand that as I begin each day with my Microsoft Solitaire and then during the day I play a few more games in my quiet times. But it lets me spend time with each of my daughters which is wonderful. I did not see them that often as Edward had so many things he was involved in and wanted to do that kept us wandering about the countryside every month and into the United States several times a year. Plus we did travel to Europe. All of this quiet time is now with me and I am glad that Edward got to do all of his traveling when he did because he found it difficult to do that anyway when COVID restricted us to home along with the rest of Canada. 

The rules are lifted now but I would say more than 50% of people still wear masks in stores and other places where people gather. It is nice not to have colds although I was not a cold prone person particularly. 

The best thing about COVID was Church on YouTube and it continues. It is wondrous that now we can tell anyone in the world about Jesus and they can choose whether or not to learn about him just by selecting or not selecting Church on YouTube. The worst thing about COVID time was losing Edward and the horrific deaths that occurred in the Nursing Homes/Long Term Care Homes here in Canada. It was so very sad. It was something my husband feared and so he too struggled to stay with us so that he would not be alone. Although it was very hard for my oldest daughter and I to manage him we are so very glad that we did. The PSWs the last couple of months were very handy and the home nurse visits we were most thankful for and it is now over a year since all of that. The first nine or ten months after Edward passed from us behind the veil that separates death from life were a blur for me but I blogged pretty much every day. It will be a long time before I reread any of that I suspect. We were heartbroken to lose him but God in His Wisdom provided us with many thoughts passed down through the Holy Bible to help us to adjust to life without Edward knowing he is with His Heavenly Father and his own Father once again. 

Today is hopefully a gardening day but does look like rain so maybe not. Time will tell. I started the Pincombe Newsletter yesterday and I think switching from Richard Pincombe (circa latter part of the 1500s) of Filleigh, East Buckland and Bishops Nympton to John Pincombe (circa early 1500s) of South Molton is a good plan. Dr. Joe Flood's talk at BIFHSGO convinced me that I really needed to deal with the Pincombe family in Barnstaple and all that I really know about one line of Pincombe there was that they changed their name back to the mother's maiden name of COAD which is Joe's one name study. He wrote me several years ago about the PINCOMBE study that I was running and did I know about this particular family that matched the Pincombe yDNA study and I immediately wrote back and asked him to tell the testers (two of them) to join the Pincombe project and indeed they matched my cousins very well in the study. Joe had some theories on the Pincombe family that they could have come from Cornwall which didn't quite mix with my thoughts that they came to North Molton from Pencombe in Herefordshire (the Pencombe spelling was used by early family members along with Pyncombe and Pincombe). It is time to look at that now for sure and I have the time to do that which was always a problem before. I just never had enough time as Edward liked me to help him with his projects and they tended to take top priority. 

I am also into collecting up all of Edward's mother's things to give to her eldest granddaughter - my eldest daughter thought that was a good idea and I agree. We will ask them to meet us halfway across the province and transfer everything to them. There is a lot actually. Edward had all of her dishes and a large Hope Chest that was hers at marriage (and where he discovered his treasure of a picture of his father, mother, older brother and himself as a young child in his father's arms). There are many pictures of the family which are all scanned so will pass the printed copies (mostly framed) to her for her family. So far there are about four boxes along with the Hope Chest and another large bin. The dishes will probably be five or six boxes as well. It will certainly fill our car so will have to warn her that there is a lot coming. We still have our Memorial Room for Edward with his favourite flowers that he tended with the rubber trees being about 30 years old now. I work on his computer in there when I am doing anything on his research. 

Past the middle of May now and we are hoping to do Edward's Celebration of Life in July. I have written a rough draft of his Eulogy and will keep on improving on that.

Denisovan - new find in a cave in Laos

I find the Denisovan species to be quite fascinating as we (one of my brothers and myself) show a higher percentage of Denisovan (3.5%) than Neanderthal (2%) when tested in the National Genographic Project. Since I am confident that this is on my mother's line going back as it is my H11 mtDNA that wintered during the Last Glacial Maximum at Ukraina Ice Refuge. Of course that is just the female line going back through my maternal grandmother and then her mother etc etc. But it does tend to quite fascinate me and I avidly read all articles that pertain to this Denisovan species. The Denisovan species is said to have lived around 130,000 years ago and initially any fossils have been found in the Denisova cave in Siberia's Altai Mountains in Russia. However, genetic evidence mentioned in this latest article on MSN places this species much further south in the area of the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Australia. The article expresses the thought that the Denisovan species may have met with modern humans (Homo sapiens) in southeastern Asia and in this case the Cave known as Cobra Cave about 260 kilometres north of the capital of Laos namely Vientiane. The study is being conducted at CNRS, the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the University of Bordeaux. The study was published in Nature Communications. 

MSN: A tooth found in a cave in Laos is revealing more about the mysterious Denisovans - https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/a-tooth-found-in-a-cave-in-laos-is-revealing-more-about-the-mysterious-denisovans/ar-AAXnPrR?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=92083830967e4880bae240a2aa0ee40b

I shall share this with the H11 group once this illegal war against Ukraine started by Russia is over. It was interesting  reading through the article. I shall try to get the original to read. It is interesting understanding our very ancient roots actually. If I am right and it is my maternal mtDNA that demonstrates the Denisovan genetic traits, it will be an interesting trip back in time for anyone also sharing a percentage of Denisovan genetics. That we, as a family, have both Neanderthal and Denisovan is probably common for particular areas but it would appear to be people who wintered at Ukraina during the Last Glacial Maximum and spread out from there into Russia and down towards India and then across Doggerland into the Scandinavian Peninsula, Europe proper and the British Isles. Perhaps a PhD project one day. I had thought about doing my PhD but I never went back after all and not likely to do that now. Life is really much too busy for me to stop and take courses and write a thesis!

Mariupol defenders have laid down their arms and are in Russian custody. I pray that they will be properly treated as they were fighting for their country and have willingly laid down arms and given Russia the victory in this one city that they have craved from the beginning of their illegal war. The people of Mariupol have fought the good fight and I know that if God did take sides he would be on their side. The Russian Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church has called this a war against the right of people to express themselves as gay, lesbian or other but we do not get to decide that as a people. People have a right to their personality and it is so much safer for the world if they are allowed to do so. Having to hide personalities makes it much more likely that people will be injured in one way or another. That is why I was attacked with a knife because two women needed to protect the fact that they had a lesbian relationship. I was helping a person my age to move out of their apartment as she was staying just for the summer when I was attacked with a knife by one of them along with a barrage of threats. It was a frightening experience for an 18 year old for sure and took me a while to move forward in my life but I did eventually. That shouldn't have been necessary though; people should be permitted to express their personality so long as no one is injured in any way. 

Another day and it will be a busy one. The sun is shinning boldly and brightly. Lawns to be trimmed and garden plants to buy to get ready for the season.

Its Tuesday and lots of rain has fallen which is good news

Just a little bit more cleaning to do and I can move on to my one name studies and start thinking about the Pincombe Newsletter. I do think I will look at the South Molton Pincombe family to see what I can find. My eyes feel somewhat rested again as that will also entail going into the records online plus what I have acquired through the years on this particular line. 

I have a few new H11 members of the study group and will assign them to their particular subclade. I am so hoping that all has settled by August so that I can publish the newsletter once again. Looking out my window these days the backyard is covered by trees now. They all touch each other especially with this fresh rain. I think my view of the sky will soon be obliterated by tree leaves in the summer. The yard has changed a great deal in 45 years of living in this house. It started out as full sun pretty much and now it is approaching full shade. It is hard to garden in full shade for sure. But on the other hand gardening is not really my thing so I guess it will work in the long run for me. It is just a matter of keeping it tamed. 

Prayers for Ukraine as always. The news does seem to be better coming out of this war zone these days in terms of Ukraine throwing out the Russians from their country. Russia is complaining now that the money that they have in reserve in the banks in Europe should not be used to rebuild Ukraine. It is an argument that would not hold much water with people other than Russians I suspect. One cannot invade a country; destroy their infrastructure and not expect repercussions. It is sad really as the people of Russia (who do not support this war) should surely not have to suffer. 

Moving forward into the day. The world outside my window looked very calm at 6:00 am this morning.  The birds were busy as were the squirrels. The rabbits appear to have disappeared for the moment but the dogs were here for a few days and that does tend to discourage them from running in the yard.

Day 3 of cleaning

Into Day 3 of cleaning and we had a hydro failure first thing this morning. However, restored by a little after 9:00 so good news on that front. It is amazing how used to hydro one gets so that the loss of it does leave one a bit at loose ends although did accomplish a few tasks including a 45 minute walk. 

Nothing done on my one name studies the last few days. The Siderfin book waits for me as well. I should get back to doing some of that by the end of this week. It is going to be a very busy week. 

The hot weather has brought on the dandelions and having embraced them years ago I will now let them grow and cut around them. The bees need all the help that they can get. A lot of garden work to do and I will be working on that tomorrow on until garbage day as I want to have a few bags of garden waste out there. I have a huge bundle already of branches that came down from the trees all winter. Gardening is a never ending task and one that isn't top of my list but of necessity it sometimes literally has to be top of the list even if my mind can think of lots of other things to do. 

Prayers that Russia pulls back out of Ukraine and leaves them alone. Lets them get back to rebuilding and certainly Russia should provide money for that as part of the penalty for attacking Ukraine in an illegal war. There should be a list of items that can become standard for aggressor countries to inflict on them a reminder that war is off limits to our modern world.  

Keep supplying Ukraine with weaponry to fight back the Russian Nazis because that is what they are - greedy land grabbing murdering Nazis. The Russian people can prove that a lie by getting rid of Putin and his thugs but I do realize that it is not going to be easy. 

I hope to soon see our new fighter jets in the sky and our new ships in the oceans. The liberals need to stay the course on this as they too are at fault for not maintaining our military with good equipment. We need it just for our normal lives and not just for wartime. 

 

Sunday again and my garden calls me

It is Sunday again and Church on You-Tube. I shall try and go to the Church this week to see the Columbarium once again and try to plan for Edward's Celebration of Life. It is time that he had a resting spot aside from being with us. It has been wonderful to be able to give him another year plus traveling about with us from his home he loved to the cottage he only saw in pictures and his grandchildren's home which he also loved where I have lived for part of this past year. In my mind, he was still part of everything but he was so tired at the end of his life and now he should have peace amongst the music of the cathedral and singing which he loved. Although deeply rooted in United Church tradition, his love of music was all encompassing. I can not think of any music that he did not find enjoyable. The rhythm of music was like the blood beating through  his veins - he loved every beat. When I die then my children can choose to have his choice of Beechwood Cemetery or mine of the Columbarium. The rites of death are for the living really; to cement those wonderful memories and put them in a place where they can be enjoyed into the future. 

The gardens are actually not in bad shape except I still need to do some cutting down on one side. The raspberries need to be pruned. The lawns cut but I am going to let the dandelions bloom for longer to help the bees. We need a year where we provide the bees with as much non-interference as possible to see if they can regenerate their colonies. We are doing restorative gardening this year (i.e. we will not turn the soil). We will cover the gardening area with fresh soil and plant. We can then just pull up the big weeds and let everything grow. Hopefully I will still recognize lettuce, spinach and green onions! The peppers and tomato plants just go into the ground and let the weeds thrive with them. And we will water this year. 

The lawns will grow long this year to give all the weeds in there a chance as well to produce flowers for the bees. The elderberries I transplanted have survived the winter and we will see how they do. The primroses are beautiful this year. All of the plants are up although a couple of the old hosta plants do not look as hardy this year. Sunflower seeds to plant and I need to get peat planters for them to get them started above ground where the rabbits can not get at them. 

 I think Canada being part of the Commonwealth is a wonderful part of Canada. But I am 100% British descent and so grew up with stories about the Royal Family that have kept me solidly in support of the Queen as our Head of State and I do think that Charles will make an excellent King and William to follow him as King. I hope that Charles only serves for as long as he has good health and that he plans a retirement for himself while he is still healthy as he loves his gardens. William will make an excellent King as well and with three children the Royal Family is in a healthy position. It is the continuity that they bring to the task that most interests me but I am 100% British descent. In a vote I would vote to maintain the Monarch as our Head of State but whatever is decided then I go with the majority having been born and raised in Canada; I am Canadian first.

Prayers for Ukraine as always. Sometimes I feel as if the world is coming together. Even North Korea is responding these days and if they let us help them with COVID then perhaps that is the way forward for better relations there. China would probably be the ones to help them. But all of us can help. 

Russia pulling back from Kharkiv and one would pray that they pull right out of Ukraine. The firepower which Ukraine has could easily desolate all sorts of Russian lands next to them but they do not do that. Surely the Russian people can see that Ukraine has a right to exist, a right to freedom. It is like Russia never moved beyond WWII in their thinking. Revenge Revenge Revenge is all that they think about. No one wants their lands; they are all theirs. I can speak to that since I live in the same type of land with its huge boreal forests and winter six months of the year and more further north. Getting people to come here other than close to the USA border is impossible; they do not want to live in the cold and the ice. No one wants your land. Take better care of it yourself and let all the people of Russia benefit from its riches instead of just the oligarchs. The leaders of Russia rob and cheat their own people and lie to them about the war that Russia started in Ukraine.

Surely Russia has better things to do than threaten people and carry out an illegal war in Ukraine

 I would have thought a country like Russia with so much land and so much talent could find better things to do than attack its neighbour. It is what you do in the future that counts the past is the past (Ukraine has done nothing to Russia in her past and especially during the Second World War they helped to slow down the Nazi advance on Moscow). As a 76 year old I am very much a believer in that idea. Russia can not now undo all of the harm, devastation and murder that it has done in Ukraine but you could now withdraw and try to make amends by helping them to rebuild (give them money) and a lot of apologies. In the future keep your military inside of your borders unless you are asked (or you volunteer) to serve in one of the United Nations special forces to help keep the peace. One thing Russia should definitely lose is the "veto" which she received in the UN Security Council. She could still keep her permanent seat. But there must be consequences for her actions these past seventy plus days.

I suppose Russian news you think it is a joke to tell your people how many seconds it takes for one of your armed ICBMs to reach the capital cities of countries but have you thought about how fast ICBMs would come back to you. The instant you fire then everyone knows and guess what happens. It is called World War III and no body wins; even the earth loses as it explodes into a million/billion/trillion pieces to float around the galaxy as asteroids.

Get a grip on yourselves in Russia; start to be men instead of two year olds demanding what isn't theirs to have. You had so much potential after WWII but you cast it away seeking revenge; pure revenge. We the other countries that fought Hitler and his thugs could have done that but we took the high road that Jesus pointed out to us. Forgive and forget; move on and make a better life than what was there before. You did do some great things like putting the first person into space; I applauded you for that way back in the 50s when I was still a child. You did great work in science; I read some of your papers when I studied Chemistry. What happened to all that promise? Lost to greed. Do not let the greedy in your country ruin your country. Move on to a peaceful life; make use of all the gifts that your lands give to you. Create industries that benefit your people not just the oligarchs. Bring people up to a good life; that was the promise of communism but you failed; do not fail again. A better life for the Russian people is what you want but bombing European capitals or anywhere else doesn't give you that.  It means Armageddon.

it feels medieval

The illegal war that Russia is waging against Ukraine feels medieval. There is no reason for it but greed for land. Russia has more land than any country in the world. But they stab their neighbour in the back and try to steal more having already taken the Crimea from them. Why did we not react then one might ask. The main reason was the welcome given by the Crimean people and the world was not yet ready. We didn't want to believe perhaps. But covid changed us. We became used to sudden death on a huge scale. We learned to fight again. 

Then Russia attacked Ukraine for no reason that would stand up to the rule of law. Rather they broke the law because they are greedy. It has nothing to do with NATO. Russia tried to destroy NATO between 2016 and 2020 and Putin thought he had weakened it. 

But attacking Ukraine galvanized  NATO and proved that such an organization needs to exist. Russia showed non-aligned countries they needed  protection from Russia. Now Russia whines just like Hitler during the waiting time before WWII. And so we wait and see. A talk between President Zelensky and President Putin would certainly be very interesting. The world should be their audience.

Cleaning day 2

My second cleaning day and I do enjoy cleaning. There is a very rewarding feeling to cleaning. It is also something I have done all my life. The repetitive task gives meaning to one's life and good exercise.

This is the waiting time as the world wonders when Russia will leave Ukraine alone. Russia has hardened Nato and made it stronger. The leader of Hungary should remember the pact between Hitler and Stalin and how that ended.

Armageddon  sits in the wings. Time for the Russian people to rid themselves of ruinous leaders.

Rejoin the world  Russia where we talk and discuss .  Retreat from your illegal war against Ukraine. NATO is not an aggressive organization. It us purely defensive. Puttin and his thugs make people feel unsafe. Hence they seek safety. One look at Ukraine and one can understand that.

It is God's Planet after all

Since God has been invoked in this war against Ukraine perhaps remembering that it is God's Planet after all should bring an end to the war. Devastation is being committed in Ukraine and the peoples of the world who depend on the grains of food produced in Ukraine; sitting in silos waiting to be exported in Ukraine; do need to have that food. Perhaps the easiest way to create an exit to the war is to remember that it is God's planet after all and feeding his people was always uppermost in Hisì⁹ mind throughout the Bible. In the New Testament uppermost in the mind of Jesus was the New Covenant to love God with all of our might and to love our neighbour's as ourselves. It really is time to lay down the arms of war and pick up the tools of peace and once again let Ukraine do what she does to help feed the peoples of the world. The fields need to be planted not fought over. Russian soldiers need to go home. President Putin stop sending the youth of Russia to the battlefields to die. They need to go back and produce the crops also needed for the peoples of the world. In a war there are no winners; everyone loses but having the ability to step back takes a man. 

Retirement

When I retired at the end of 2007 it was actually earlier than I planned. Edward had retired in 2004 so had been retired for three years at that time and he wanted me to retire so I decided to do so. He was busy with his interests in genealogy and especially the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Ancestors (was Ontario Genealogical Society). I knew that wasn't going to be how I spent all of my time but I had picked up an interest in DNA and after testing myself and one brother, I was into all of that information. Building trees I only do as a necessity on rare occasions when I am trying to discover a match usually because someone has written to me about a mutual match. I am not really a genealogist unless one considers DNA studies to be genealogy and now fifteen years later one doesn't really do genealogy unless one does DNA so it has come full circle. 

But thinking about Edward's interest in genealogy. He always was interested as long as I knew him. As soon as we had a car we were off to repositories as he tried to learn more about his 2x great grandfather Isaac Kipp. Alas even with 50+ years of work he was not able to unleash the information on Isaac's parents but DNA led him back in time to the Kip family of New Amsterdam now New York. We mostly worked on our own in those early days. Ed visited with cousins and friends in the area where he grew up (Princeton and Burford) when we still lived in southwestern Ontario. But we never got into genealogical societies or anything; we did belong to the Royal Astronomical Society which we both really enjoyed. He was busy working on his PhD when we first married and on weekends we used to drive about to farm auctions and discover old books and things. A number of these items we did pass on to Ed Phelps at UWO who was an historian and Edward struck up a friendship with him. He had a few ideas for Edward on how to pursue his Kipp ancestor and we did follow those ideas (at least he did and I just came along for the ride!). 

When we first came to Ottawa, we joined the Ottawa Field Naturalists and went for many walks on the weekend with this group along with my attending the Anglican Church nearby. Edward spent time at the Family History Library. Then when we bought a house, he wanted to go to his own Church which is the United Church and there was a new small one in the area. We talked about it a bit and then I agreed to go as a family because that is the way I think it should go. There he met up with a cousin Gordon Riddle and they started to attend the Ottawa Branch OGS as it was known then. Not sure how long they went together but both were very interested in their mutual Kipp ancestor. Edward however stayed with that group the rest of his life - he loved going and being part of the meetings. He also researched his Link line which led to his United Empire Loyalist  ancestor and became active in that group. He and another member created bus trips into the Mohawk Valley and down the Hudson River which became one of his retirement activities and it took up a lot of time planning, doing trial runs and then the actual weekend adventure. Again I came along for the ride and helped out where I could. 

As that wound down, I was able to persuade him to fly to Europe and that took a very long time. I first started looking at that when he finished his PhD in 1970 as I said wouldn't it be fun just to backpack around Europe for a couple of months. He said no he needed to get a job and work and so we did. Finally we got to Europe in 2008 (first stop my cousins in England). The first trip did it and we went back every other year and sometimes adjacent years. That was so lucky. Edward was retired seventeen years before he passed away and got in most of the traveling that he wanted to do - trips to Germany and Holland just could not happen with COVID. 

In the meantime I was working away on my DNA and had convinced another three siblings to test. I had reams of data now and have spent the time organizing it into useful form and phasing my grandparent's DNA. I also am a member of the Guild of one-name studies looking at my parent's surnames - Blake and Pincombe. I had become interested in their surnames and even went so far as to look them up in a book at the library way back in my mid-teens. But I never really thought about any of that until my Gray family cousin asked me to write a profile for a local history book he was editing in 2003. Long story short ending as I did take it on along with 42 courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies and with the help of mutual cousins. It is in print lacking just one surname as I should have called George instead of emailing to let him know I had the proofs for the parents of my 2x great grandmother Elizabeth Rew married to John Pincombe. I do prefer the written word to the spoken!

So now I continue working away on Edward's studies to get them sorted out and distributed and published where it suits. I am also continuing with my newsletters in the days that God has given me to live on this earth. I am looking forward to writing up my H11 newsletter once again. Hopefully that will be sooner as one prays that the war in the Ukraine will be gone by August when the next issue is due. I remember my ten year plan when I was in my late 60s which saw me winding down with my one name studies as I approached 80 but at nearly 77 I seem to have acquired a new momentum with my research and taking on the project of revision of published books from a century ago. The DNA of course is always developing as more and more people test out of curiosity or because it is part of their genealogical pursuits. I guess for as long as this brain keeps clicking away I will continue with my studies although my time has become less my own as I work through Edward's material. 

Some days I feel as if I have spent my entire day chatting as I respond to various emails and so the mental health people 's thoughts that one must have social interactions is fulfilled to abundance. 

I think though one of the most important items in retirement is exercise and I do have my minimum four exercise sessions a day - weight lifting, running, calisthenics and walking. That generally gives me 18,000 steps per day and about 150 minutes of exercise activity that shows up on my FitBit. The fourty minutes of running generally extends to about twice that once the summer comes as I run morning and night then. The cleaning also occupies a number of hours in each week and lots of good exercise there. Then there is gardening (not a favourite pursuit of mine) and I will try to keep up Edward's gardens. They will be scaled back though as I do not really enjoy gardening as he did but I do enjoy eating the lettuce, spinach, green onions, tomatoes and peppers that we tend to grow. The flowers are nice as well and I must plant some annuals this year. I found four packages of sunflower seeds and will get them started shortly. We generally have frost in late May and so will not set them out until early June. 

I am also starting to think about Edward's Celebration of Life and interment service. It will be just our very close family. That was really what we preferred; just our very small group. Edward was always so busy with his activities that we treasured the times that we had together as a family and saying goodbye should also be a small group for us.

Does a new day dawn today?

Is this the beginning of a new era? Are we embarking on a brave new world so to speak? Freedom is the cry but the only true freedom is the one that respects the people around us - that is always the limitation on freedom. It should be.  

Yesterday I worked on My Heritage cluster matches once again. I am slowly putting together a system that lets me link the five sets of results together and mark the matches with a cluster number. Having worked through one set I had a few ideas on how to do that most readily. I have not yet decided if I will continue looking at all the matches working my way down from the highest matches - I reached page 5 of the first set of matches and that page continues to have a few now that I would add to my matches list. 

Another beautiful May day in the offing but it is also bug season and the black flies are abundant given the perfect storm of wetlands, running water and heat. One can not outrun these little black flies!

VE day in Europe

 Although in Canada VE day was not celebrated as it was in Europe, we too carried the loss of thousands of military as a result of WWII. I can remember growing up in the 40s and 50s and seeing all of the reminders of WWII on the newsreels at the theatres. The bombed out shells of buildings; the desperate look on people's faces as they looked at the landscape around them. The horrific scences at the Concentration Camps where millions of Jews were put to death. Seeing the bombed out shells of buildings and that desperate look on people's faces in the Ukraine is a horrible reminder of what war does to people and the Ukrainians have borne the brunt of all of this and it still rages on. And perhaps most frightening people (including children) have been said to have been taken forcefully to Russia. There is no promise of a stop in the speech given by President Putin in Red Square in Moscow. Is it because he was not a young child in the 50s and does not really know how everyone suffered because of WWII? All those brave Russian soldiers who fought so hard in WWII are being dishonoured now by this illegal war against Ukraine being waged by Russia and where thousands are dying  and millions displaced.

No one wants to attack Russia; we want you to stop attacking Ukraine. The motherland of Russia is sacred to you and I understand that. My grandfather loved his country - England - with all his heart. That deep love of country is important as it keeps us working and helping within our own country to keep it safe for the generations to follow. But attacking Ukraine as Russia did is detrimental to that peace. The guarantees that you say you asked for meant leaving other countries within NATO without a protection that they needed to have. After all as WWII wound down the Russian armies took over much of Eastern Europe and it took those countries (also sovereign nations who love their motherlands as well) years to throw off the yoke of Soviet oppression of their rights and liberties. They too feared you just as you say you feared NATO. Perhaps out of all that fear peace can be found and the Russian armies can retreat back into Russia and leave the Ukrainians to sort out their own difficulties. 

Russian people who were sent to these various countries in Eastern Europe, if they do not wish to be part of those countries, can surely return to their homelands. But breaking up a country now whose borders are guaranteed by the United Nations should not be a possibility unless a vote is held that is supervised by the United Nations and that should now include the Crimea where a vote could be held as well so that these peoples have a right to their direction without fear of an army. Withdraw back into Russia and let the world heal once again. Forgiveness did come to countries after WWII and it can come again but we must have peace in our world. We must be ready, as we embark into space, to protect the world and not have it ripped apart by war. But perhaps most importantly the rule of law must prevail. Our Prime Minister was condemned as being not democratic for invoking the Emergencies Act when a protest in Ottawa became a siege and it became necessary to forcefully remove the protesters. It is necessary on occasion to protect the rule of law but one can return to that pleasant time once again when the problem is resolved. No one group of people should ever be allowed to destroy the peace of the majority. The United Nations needs more powers to prevent and halt war. But we always need to be ready to defend ourselves as a world as we do not know what lies ahead especially as we become more visible in the Universe. 

I see the Taliban is using the cover of war to again restrict women. Do they not realize that women raise the next generation and not letting them attain their potential injures a society?

Church today as I missed yesterday. YouTube is such a wonderful addition to our lives.

Back from a weekend at the cottage

 A beautiful weekend at the cottage and May has been lovely thus far. Snow still hangs in the background as a possibility but hopefully we will have a snow free May this year. The temperature was lovely and the water felt reasonable and if I was younger I would have gone swimming. It was 60 degrees Fahrenheit or about 16 degrees celsius. It would have been cold and my arthritis has been making itself more and more felt these days. But it did look very inviting. 

Played soccer and that was a lot of fun so lots of outdoor time. Did not do any work as I do not take anything with me to work on. I did complete a book of crossword puzzles this time. I like Sudoku the best but I also enjoy crossword puzzles. 

World news I did not hear very much but like everyone else I am curious what will be said tomorrow at the Victory Day Parade in Moscow. I used to enjoy watching their parades on the television. The people always looked so attentive and interested in their country. I of course tire of all the ammunition that we have to watch pass by as our parades when I was a child featured the people who served rather than the objects of war that are produced. My grandfather always had a lot of respect for Russia although did not particularly care for their communist regime at the time. They fought hard against the Nazis and suffered a lot of losses for that. But especially I liked the stories about their first person in space and the pictures. I was proud for them that they put a person into space. The joint project has been a sign that people with different governments can get along on such important projects. I do hope that the Space Program does not become a calamity of the illegal invasion of Russia into Ukraine.

Intrigued by the Cluster matches

 Along with cleaning yesterday, I found myself intrigued by the Cluster matches. I really have not looked a lot at my My Heritage matches. It was the last test that I did but with the new software on DNA Painter I found myself curious about all of these matches in clusters. I think some of the clusters can readily be combined but will contemplate that at a later date. There are a lot of Buller families in New Zealand along with Pincombe and Rawlings. Not a lot of Blake families there; most of my closest relatives remain in England. The Buller, Pincombe and Rawlings are fourth cousins or more going back to my 3s and 4x great grandparents. But some may be closer going back to the 2x great grandparents but I couldn't spot it earlier when I took a look at some of these matches. Their trees are not complete enough likely because I have such long generations and these matches are third cousins once, twice or three times removed. My father was over fourty when I was born, his father was in his late 20s when my father was born and my grandfather's father was 30 when my grandfather was born and my 2x great grandfather was 48 when my great grandfather was born and that is just the Blake line. All of my grandparents were born 1872, 1875, 1876 and 1886 respectively. Even though I am 76 that is quite a spread in years and it continues thus back in time. 

Dusting today and working away on the cluster matches. I need to keep downloading baptisms, marriages and deaths for Siderfins but my eyes needed a rest from the registers for a couple of days. I can not proceed further without more information on the fourth generation. 

One wonders when it will end in Ukraine - it is dreadful what is happening there. It is barbaric and not the kind of life that one envisions for the twenty first century. We need to move on beyond such barbarism.  This world has evolved because people's right to choose has always been possible by simply moving on but the world is now all divided up and moving on is not as easy as it once was. There are so many billions of people  to be accommodated that loose canons like Putin and his thugs need to be eliminated unless they will back off and conform to the new normal. If you want people to be part of your group you need to be nice to them; not attack them militarily.

A very productive day yesterday

 I had planned a day of cleaning and working in some DNA extraction as well. On both items I managed to get quite a bit done. All of the vacuuming that I had planned to do and some dusting of baseboards that lie hidden behind couches and things which I move to vacuum. Needless to say I do not do all of my exercise as well just my running and walking!

The DNA extraction for My Heritage was begun and it is going to be slow going. I worked on one of my siblings accounts and went from the highest match downwards only reaching 42 cM after working all day and adding perhaps ten new matches and deleting perhaps eight from the list leaving me with about 44 to check out in that account. I decided to just read my way through the matches from highest matches down and that worked very well. Perhaps I will carry on with that process today as I do the scrubbing. I generally do three days of cleaning. 

I also listened to the Leeds method of DNA extraction which was most interesting. I did try it a couple of years ago and got the expected result but I had never really gone beyond looking at the 2nd and 3rd cousin so this time I added my 452 matches from Ancestry to an Excel file and worked my way down. I have done about 50 matches thus far and have just three added colours where the ancestral line is know to me but the actual MRCA I have not yet really looked at. It is interesting to do that. A number of the people who have tested at Ancestry have taken their results into FT DNA or My Heritage. All in all an interesting day; DNA is the main driver of my interest in family research both in my one name studies of Blake and Pincombe and my personal family studies. 

The H11 is sitting waiting for the end of the war which Russia illegally is waging again the Ukraine; its neighbour and cousin. I find that I do not want to write anything about it until all of this is over and hopefully soon. History will condemn Russia and her people if they do not soon stop. Much of the world continues to condemn Russia but as always there are people/countries who will sell to anyone just to make money. Respect for borders and people is much more important than making money illicitly and one hopes that in the long run they will also suffer for their failure to bring Russia to account for their illegal war. The punishment will surely be a return of the Crimea to Ukraine along with all the other territory under question. If Russians placed in the Ukraine during the Soviet era do not like it then they have the option of going back to Russia and living with those murders.

A number of items - Siderfin family, Ancestry matches and cleaning once again

 I continued with the Siderfin book yesterday. Nothing actually written but lots of time in the registers. This will be a slow process as I will be looking around the Luxborough area for the entries. 

I went into ancestry and discovered another 14 matches over the four accounts and extracted them into my database. A couple of them were large and easily placed into the respective four lines of my grandparents. It is quite a while since I have written to anyone that is a match to me. I am not really into trees and on ancestry one cannot see the numerical value of the match in terms of chromosome. The trees can be interesting though and I was tempted to write to one individual as they had traced back to the wrong line in their family but probably they will discover that on their own. I need to put all my time into my own research for a bit. Then I will organize my time around publishing Edward's work and my own. It is three more months though until the next issue of the Kipp Newsletter so will use my time carefully until then. 

Cleaning days begin once again - it is a nice way to plan my week actually so that everything gets done. 

I may do a little work on the My Heritage matches today. I haven't looked at Living DNA for awhile. I should do that as well. I have had emails from people asking how they fit into my family. I generally respond that I do not do research for people. Once there are chromosome results on that account I could give a clearer answer likely. Most of my cousins continue to live in the British Isles which isn't surprising as three of my grandparents were born and lived in England into adulthood and my father was born there. But a number of fourth cousins and greater do live in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States and of course Canada where I live. 

Read an article which was explaining why Russia felt this was a legal war. Fear of NATO is misplaced especially given that Finland and Sweden no longer feel their neutrality will be respected and are opting to join NATO. Russia has to make itself liked by its neighbours and then they will find a more willing population around them. The idea that "everyone wants a bit of Russia" is perhaps the most insane thing I have ever heard. Russia has lots of boreal forest and long winters and I can assure you that most people do not want to live in Russia. Given the state of the government in Russia I would also say that most people would not want to be a part of that either. No free press; no democracy; no right to protest why would anyone want to live there except for that one item that I understand - the desire to live in one's country of family origin - my grandfather was like that. At the moment Russians are attacking and killing people in Ukraine with no justification and only because they are greedy and want the land. Anything else said by them is just simply fake news to justify their greed. They already stole the Crimea which was permitted to happen partly because the people did welcome them. But will they still as this war continues on and everyone in these areas is having their homes destroyed and their relatives murdered by the Russian military?

Siderfin Book and the fourth generation

 I got back to work on the Siderfin Book and working on the fourth generation. I decided to review the Luxborough Parish Registers and downloaded perhaps another thirty pages with Siderfin entries. There do not appear to be a lot of baptisms which was surprising and perhaps they were baptizing elsewhere. I will do a search for Siderfin in the areas around Luxborough as I know my family was at Selworthy and area. The distance between Luxborough and Selworthy by road is 17.9 kilometres and would be shorter on foot or by horse for sure. The distance passes through Timberscombe and Minehead. My line was also at Wootton Courtney which is just 9.7 kilometres and that is a fairly straight path which also passes through Timberscombe but not as far north as Minehead. 

The fourth generation is quite large and will take a while to sort through and I will look at Ancestry, Find My Past and My Heritage records to see what I can find. The registers for Luxborough are in rough shape at the beginning but by the middle of the 1600s they are quite legible for the most part. I still need to look at Wootton Courtney and Selworthy and eventually Minehead as they were also there. 

The next newsletter is for the Pincombe-Pinkham one name study and I am tempted to see what I can find out about the Pincombe family that lived at South Molton. They appear by the charts prepared by the earlier researchers to have daughtered out. This family first used the Pincombe crest and it was not picked up by anyone in later years as far as I can determine from afar. But it has been said by family lore (not mine) that the Barnstaple Pincombe family were descendant of the South Molton family. I have no ideas on that and it might be interesting to look at the John Pincombe family there as they left wills and there are some property records that might aid in that research proposal. The Siderfin family married into my Pincombe family when Elizabeth Rew (daughter of John Rew and Elizabeth Siderfin married 30 Jan 1792 at Selworthy) married John Pincombe at Bishops Nympton 9 Jan 1834. 

In the meantime the world waits to see what happens to the Ukraine. The EU is becoming tired of Russia and its claims on Ukraine territory - an oil embargo is such a perfect idea. During the Soviet-US Cold War era, many people were moved from Russia into the countries behind the so-called Iron Current. That doesn't make the areas they now occupy Russian they are simply transplants who should either adjust to living in the country they are in or go back to Russia. Crimea belongs to Ukraine as well and should be returned to the Ukraine. Russia is the new Nazi regime with their greed for land that isn't theirs and their atrocities committed against the Ukraine population. One prays that the Russian people will throw off the Nazi leadership in their country and come back to where they were part of the world's economy. It was interesting as a child watching as the language changed and people better understood the Nazi leadership in Germany during the Second World War and before. Greed is a terrible thing; that is why it is one of the seven dreadful sins. The sins being committed in the name of Russia are mounting rapidly. But the greed probably only lies in the upper echelons of power in Russia but time will tell on that score. Do the Russian people want a better life as part of the world or do they want to be scorned and hated for what is happening in the Ukraine in their name?

Rain in May means spring flowers will become much thicker and more abundant

January's snows

February's thaws

March's winds

April's showers

May's flowers

Which isn't always the way that it goes here in Canada as the snow of January tends to stick around into April with the thaws in March although we do get rain and snow in April but the flowers they manage to poke their heads through the March snows and give us some lovely colours from March on. One can feel spring coming because those brave flowers poke their heads up on a bright sunny March day. 

The EU leaders are meeting to talk about an oil embargo - wonderful news. It is spring in Europe; the oil is needed for their factories but they will find a way I am sure. Russia must get out of Ukraine. That kind of life belongs to the past and should stay there. Murdering defenceless women and children is a disgrace that will blemish the Russian people for a generation or more. To actually think that they are denazifying a people is incongruous with what is going on. How can they believe such lies. Russians have become the Nazis of former days - people who think that might is right and land is there for them to have. They are plundering another country; a greedy land grab. Whose land will be next - where are all the places that Russians were sent to by the Soviet Union. Check your borders and the citizens within your borders. Russia has given us no choice. The world must protect itself from Russia - arm Ukraine; send them everything they need to cast out the Nazis of Russia. 

I feel sad not to have written up my H11 Newsletter. I just found that I could not write a friendly newsletter when some of the H11 people of Ukraine may be murdered already and others remain under threat of being murdered by possibly H11 Russians. It is abhorrent to kill one's own kin. Jesus said Love they neighbour as theyself; they are breaking the second commandment of the new Covenant Jesus made for us with God. 

Yesterday I extracted all of the matches from the Cluster files on My Heritage. About 250 new matches that I have not really looked at. I will not keep them all likely as I do have a size limit that I work with these days - matches of less than 20 cM I tend not to keep unless there is something unusual that catches my attention (like I can actually see where we are related in terms of family names). That is one length must be about 20 cM so it will eliminate as much as 50% of them. Even if there are two lengths and they add up to 20 cM I still do not keep them but having the Clusters reminds me that there are a number of people matching us in that area.