We had a lovely afternoon of golfing yesterday - first of the season. Neither of us are avid golfers but for my daughter it is the memory of golfing with her father and for me I enjoy the exercise. I actually am improving steadily. I hit the ball further and better each time that I am out. That doesn't mean my score is excellent; it just means I am improving. Humans are meant to be constantly improving; it is in our genes to keep perfecting our abilities. The sky was a lovely blue with some clouds and the geese were very much in abundance. Often I elected to take the long way on a shot to avoid the geese and goslings on the fairway. It is fun to see the Canada Geese though and their young out enjoying the feeding and the afternoon sun. Pretty well every hole had its own little geese family on the fairway. The geese are smart though they get out of the way.
I did work away on the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter and should have it completed by the weekend. Still no sign of my scanned document but I expect it is in a queue! One does have to wait for queues and I am sure if I asked them they would be very polite and reassuring about the wait and let me know how long but it is not a problem. Perhaps the next newsletter as I rather think it will be an interesting document and I will have learned more Latin by then! and it can wait until then. I should transcribe the will of John Sanders as it could be rather interesting although it is my line only and I am slowly trying to get everything published that I have accumulated as I start to wind down my global research on Pincombe. My direction as I work my way up to 80, God willing, is to write books on the Pencombe, Pincombe, Pinkham family (so a more global look at this family) and the Blake family of Andover, Hampshire, England. I will probably keep my Guild membership so long as I am still productive for Blake and Pincombe. Must finish the Siderfin Book this year for sure and soon back to that!
Today is a gardening day so need to move garden soil to do the regenerative gardening bit and then plant onions, lettuces, spinach, herbs. It will likely take a few hours this afternoon. Then put up the chicken wire fence and remember to water. The ground is certainly dry this year considering the snow cover that we had. The next bit to do is preparing the ground for tomatoes and peppers but they are bedding plants and will wait until after the first of June likely to avoid the late frosts. Again regenerative gardening. I rather like this idea as it does not involve my digging a garden. I am done with digging gardens for sure - much too old.
Our next fun day will be kayaking and once the water level is down sufficiently in the Ottawa River then we will begin. I am still looking for a youth kayak so will do my usual walking until we find one. It will be fun to be out on the water regularly once again and visit with the beavers and other aquatic mammals along the water path. The bird life is also very good at Petrie Island and lots of plant life as well. A great way to spend an hour or two in God's world looking at all that Mother Nature provides. It does make me enjoy summer just a little bit more as I really prefer the winter for its long working hours - I am probably a bit of a work addict - actually I am a complete work addict and merely exchanged my working life for a retired working life. Edward retired in 2004 and wanted me to do the same but it did take another three years to get me to retire as well.
I like working actually and my years at home raising children were spent proofreading copyediting for private printers mostly but a short time for NRC before Prime Minister Mulroney cut proofreaders from the government as his first act of reducing the public service. I applauded Prime Minister Mulroney for his cuts actually even though it meant I had to find a new job. He did great work and was our last great Conservative Prime Minister although Prime Minister Kim Campbell did well but Canadians were very upset by the GST at the time and voted Liberal. Myself I have always thought the GST was one of the best products from the time of Prime Minister Mulroney along with NAFTA - there were growing pains but we are better off because of his policies. Too bad Prime Minister Harper reduced GST by 2% trying to curry favour - we haven't seen a Conservative government since fortunately and may not for a while yet until Progressive Conservatism comes back. Social Conservatism is dead in the water in Canada. Anything that looks like Social Conservatism is dead in the water. Just the mere hint of it same thing. Supporting oil only also dead in the water; Prime Minister Harper nearly destroyed Ontario industry with his preferential treatment of oil but Premier Ford is a Progressive Conservative and it shows in Ontario - needs to speak fluent French though to be Prime Minister. Oil is a great commodity and I support it but it has to pay its own way and its profits need to be for all of Canada - owning the pipeline will be one of the Liberal government's excellent gifts to Canada this time around. Letting the First Nations purchase it and manage it once the work is completed would be a gain as they think in terms of 50 years not the four years that a particular party is in power. I do not want the Conservative Party to sell it (likely at a loss as normal and a good example is their selling the Library at NRC to a private company; Canadians paid for that library and it should be managed by NRC not a private company and it should be freely accessible to the public) so will not be voting that way until the oil pipeline is in safe hands. Another downer for Prime Minister Harper's time in office was muzzling scientists - they should be able to go to conferences around the world. We are not a Communist Country or a Fascist Country. The world only benefits from freedom for scientific endeavours.
The day progresses and I want to work on the Newsletter for a bit but first breakfast. 18 holes of golf certainly requires a lot of energy and at 77 I did manage to find that. One wonders how long I will continue on this earth although I tend to be a take each day as it comes personally. Today is another beauty and the trees are filling out beautifully; I think my sky will be obliterated by the end of the summer this year although can see blue sky through the leaves!
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