Sunday, May 15, 2022

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.

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