Fireworks in the sky

 I guess someone up the block decided to have fireworks last night; the fireworks for the National Display here in Ottawa were cancelled due to the heavy thunder and lightning storms that we had yesterday. The rain came down in sheets it was so heavy. 

I completed Leviticus today and I perhaps read it this time with more understanding than the last. These were the rules given to the peoples of Israel through Moses. The Israelites whom God brought out of Egypt from their bondage there. To be the people of God, close to Him and His most trusted people the rules that are followed in the 27 Chapters of Leviticus are many and the punishments for not doing so extremely severe. 

Discipline was a very important part of every day when I was a child at school. The rules were kept without deviation and one simply followed them exactly and precisely. You just knew which line was yours and where you were in that line. The world had just been through a terrible World War; the second in the 1900s. Both terrible wars of loss; loss of life, loss of property; loss of health so many losses and even when I worked at the Post Office one could still see those losses in the 1970s with the Stenographic group in the middle of the large working room who did the tasks required by the other workers in the offices around them. Many of them were maimed by that war but each day they came. Some still shell-shocked and feeble but they too came day after day. Computers were coming though and the members of the Stenographic Pool were reaching retirement age and rest and I moved on to raise our eldest daughter born during this time period. 

That is what I understand reading Leviticus. It was discipline on how to live within the close shadow of God. History records the life of the people of Israel and these Old Testament books have been handed down from a long time ago  and then recorded by scribes and then rewritten many times by scribes as the centuries passed. This history of Homo sapiens as known to mankind was written down and carefully preserved by the Israeli people. Archaeology verifies these stories many times over but the experience of my childhood with my grandfather (and grandmother to a certain extent) telling me the stories of their time and the stories told to them by their ancestors tells me that real stories can be passed down through the centuries virtually intact. 

When I first started thinking about all of these stories and decided to google them I was amazed to see in print exactly what I remembered being said to me and for me that was over sixty years ago and for my grandfather who was seventy eight when he died his discussions included great grandparents born over two hundred years ago. The one I am thinking of was Charles Butt baptized 25 Dec 1801 at Winterborne Stickland, Dorset, England. My grandfather went to his 80th birthday party in Dorset as a young child and remembered seeing all of his many cousins, aunts and uncles. Charles was a Wesleyan Preacher although he lived and died as an Anglican in the Church of England. Always fascinated me that information about Charles. But Grandpa said he loved to talk and he talked about so many things but especially the Church and how one lives ones life within the Church of England. So did Grandpa!

Main floor all cleaned yesterday and today is the basement and I shall soon begin. 

Solitaire puzzles first.  

The strictness of God's laws in Leviticus

 Perhaps the one verse that really stood out in my mind was in Chapter 20 where God is speaking to the people of Israel through Moses and he says in verse 26: "You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine." Earlier in Chapter 19, verse 18, the Lord says to Moses to tell His people: "..... you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord." The path that the Israeli people had to follow as they made their way with the Lord in front of them as a cloud by day and a fire by night was very strict and the laws of God and they were many had to be obeyed at all times. 

Tomorrow I will complete the reading of Leviticus moving on to the chapter Numbers. As I look back over a lifetime it is a long time since I have read all the books of the Bible one after the other. I have been reading the daily Bible verses for a long time now but actually reading the Bible page by page is a better way I think. 

Today is Cleaning day two and it is the main floor. We have now completed the changes upstairs so that each of us has a room for our desks and materials to do our work but away from our own sleeping areas. I think that works very well and just happens to also be practical in this house as it has four bedrooms. Although quite small in actual square footage the division into rooms lends itself to taking advantage of the ability to separate one's work from one's sleeping. 

When we move I shall probably work in the kitchen or part of the living room as we intend to buy a smaller house. That will not be for a few years though so will take this opportunity to begin the downsizing which I need to do to move. 

Probably not much work done today as I am doing a slightly more thorough cleaning which takes up more of the day. Worthwhile for sure in the long run. We are having a warm spell for this week and then perhaps cooling again although it is July now and Canada Day and generally July is hot and dry. 

Solitaire puzzles next and then the cleaning.  

 

The rules of God in Leviticus

  In order to live and work with God, the Israelites had to follow all the rules precisely and exactly. But most importantly they must never forget that it was God that brought them out of  bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land. Every day every hour their obedience to God was under constant scrutiny and it must be perfect or they would be punished. Leviticus is a very difficult book of the Bible. Jude, the brother of Jesus Christ, although he called himself a bond slave of his brother, said that Jesus came to earth to be the Saviour of all mankind. We just had to follow the two commandments always - love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. Then the world would find peace; but is that my interpretation that the world would find peace. I am searching for that as I re-read the Bible. 

Usually Monday is a cleaning day but we were off to deliver late birthday presents and go swimming. It was a lovely gentle day for me. Being 80 plus has given me a different perspective on life. I am gentler as a person although my hermit tendencies are even stronger. It is rare for me to ever answer the door unless I am expecting someone. I discovered it had become rare when I did actually answer it the other day rather than never. But I suspect it will go back to never again. 

We also did something we do not generally do as we picked up our dinner at the grocery store. A lovely dinner of roast chicken, potatoes and salads was enjoyed by us a bit late but enjoyable none the less.  Usually we prepare everything pretty much from scratch but yesterday was an exception. 

Today I clean and it is the top floor and I have done a little of the preparation to get that done. I will clean the bathroom first and that is very soon after I finish my blog likely although I may play a couple of solitaire games first. There are always five of them and I do the hardest one first of all and then I have a fixed order that I follow always ending with Spider unless it is the hardest one. I love doing Spider solitaire game the best of all. 

I went out first thing and watered the tomato plants and it is to be another very hot day and the flowers are now on all of the plants. We will see if they produce fruit as the land is not strong after 50 years of growing. Vegetable crops are especially hard on the land leaching out all the vitamins and minerals in the land. But this land has been allowed to be fallow for two years and perhaps it will have regained some of its strength plus we do fertilize the plants twice after planting and at planting so we will see how well the plants do. 

I wrote my sister a letter and will send that off later today. I think she is quite attentive still and my father lived to be 94 years and perhaps she will also live a very long life although being bedridden was undesirable to both my father and I am sure my sister. She will try likely to walk again after two surgeries on broken hip joints (both joints). It is eight years now since we were face to face but I do not see myself traveling so far away in my 80s unless I am with my children. 

The time moves onward and I must make accomplishments as the day will move on quickly and be much hotter.  

Leviticus- Worship, atonement and consecration

 Reading the first six chapters of Leviticus and it brings back memories of what is allowed and what is not allowed except I was raised Christian so only heard that expressed as what the people of Israel had to do to be able to be close to God and to live in His presence. For God was with the people of Israel as a cloud by day and fire by night. Always with them; God wanted the world to know that He was the only God.  God brought the Israeli people out of slavery and bondage in Egypt and back to the Promised Land where the bones of their forefather Jacob had been taken four hundred years or more earlier after he died in Egypt. This total surrender by the people of Israel to God's commands was their way forward into time so long ago now but they did it and brought to us now in the present the Old Testament so that we too can learn the history of Homo sapiens with respect to our God. 

Perhaps it is being Christian that I interpret all of this in the fashion that I do. Still in the back of my brain are my grandfather's stories about the early peoples in England being one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. The Western Hunter Gatherer DNA that my brothers carry is ancient to the British Isles and indeed other old family names in the Andover to Basingstoke area of Hampshire also carry Western Hunter Gatherer DNA which is fascinating and one can think that the depth of their habitation in this area is known by family lore as being ancient to this land. What is ancient to the British Isles. The British Isles was covered by ice likely to a depth of 1 kilometer during the Last Ice Age so nothing likely lived on the British Isles prior to that date but one is left to wonder did those Hunter Gatherers retreat to the south during the Ice Age and then return home as it receded thousands of years later. There is much to learn in the archaeological digs of the British Isles. Why do we carry (my siblings and I) both Neanderthal (2%) and Denisovan (3%)  DNA material from these two earlier groups of Homo? What is it telling us? Many carry these two in varying amounts. But primarily all of my autosomal lines are ancient to the British Isles - one line back in the late 1400s came to Dunster, Somerset from France (Huguenot). 

Tomorrow I continue reading Leviticus which I always consider to be one of the most difficult chapters in the Bible perhaps because we are learning about communion with God and how it is achieved. No ideas on that really as it belongs to the past; a very long time ago and Jesus came to bring an easier shorter list of commandments - love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. That way wars can end and the world can find that peaceful plain where all prosper and evil is gone. He is the God of the Jews, of the Christians and of the Muslims and they are the only religions that I know and primarily I am familiar with the Christian religion principally. 

Yesterday was a moving day as we shifted work desks about to make our task of working much easier and even streamlined. I need to downsize and it has taken me five years to accept that I need to downsize and this summer will see me send material that belongs to the Kipp family and it will be in the Archives where anyone can look at it or use it. I also sent links to Edward's work online and anyone can download that. It is his gift to the Kipp family of which he was a member. I suppose in my mind I kept thinking maybe one of his own would contact me and say we want all that material. But no one did and so I must make the move forward to place it where it can be seen. I am also thinking of now getting rid of my Fiche Reader back to the OGS where it belongs and the fiche will go to the Anglican Church Archives which I set up a number of years ago as at the time of purchase from various repositories in England I agreed to place the material in an appropriate place which the Anglican Church Archives at my church is certainly appropriate. They already have a number of holdings. I will check to make sure they still want them. Each move forward brings me closer to my one room theory of how I eventually need to live. 

My grandfather would have loved all this knowledge. He loved to read and the same for my grandmother. Both encouraged me to read and to write and to learn as much as I could. 

Solitaire puzzles next.  

Prayers continuing for the people of Venezuela

 Prayers for those injured and trapped following the earthquakes in Venezuela. May God be with them.

Read the remainder of the Chapter of Exodus. The Israelites have annoyed God but Moses has been able to convince God not to punish them severely for making a golden calf and worshiping it as a God claiming that it brought them out of Egypt. God commanded that they create a place of worship for God and that they consecrate Aaron and the sons of Aaron as a perpetual priesthood. All this is done and they did not move from where they were camped all of this time. Then God entered the completed Tabernacle as a cloud and when He was in the Tabernacle no one could enter nor could they move forward on their way to the Promised Land. When God was not in the Tabernacle then He would be again ahead of them as they moved forward towards the Promised Land. The rules that the people of Israel must follow are very strict. The next Chapter is Leviticus and I will read part of that chapter tomorrow. The word of God preserved by the peoples of Israel and passed down through the ages to us in the present. 

Working on the Probate list for wills probated at Winchester that I collected as images from the Family History Library a few years ago (it is a secondary record as it was prepared in the present by individuals). I have all of these wills for the most part and many of them are transcribed.  All Andover and area wills have been transcribed. I returned to the early pages I glanced at the other day and the Blake mentions were all for Boldre, Hampshire. This is in the New Forest/Christchurch area of Hampshire. The first entry at Enham in the Andover area was for Robert in 1522 and for Richard also in 1522 but Richard is recorded several items further down from Robert. There is an entry for Matilda Blake at Enham in 1525 and for Johanna Blake at Enham in 1527 (her will has Jone Blake as her name within the body of the will). There is a Johanna Blake at Winton (Winchester) in 1534 (again quite a bit to the south of Andover in Hampshire). Robertus at Enham in 1542. At Quarley Henricus Blake and Agnes Blake in 1546 (this is closer to the Wiltshire border and to the south west of Andover). Checking the location for all records on these pages Enham only refers to Blake thus far in this probate list. Walterus Blake and Robertus Blake at Christchurch in 1547. In 1558 at Christchurch Richardus Blake. A Johannis Blake in 1558 at Alden (sp). Johanna Blake in 1563 at Alton. In 1565 Richardus Blake at Christchurch. In 1568 Willimus Blake at Brading (Brading is on the Isle of Wight about 10 kilometres to the east of Newport (west part of the Island). In 1569 Willimus Blake at Limington. In 1570 Johannes Blake at Limington. Gilbertus Blake in 1575 at Quarlie (9 kilometres west of Andover). Augustine Blake in 1578 at West Titherlie (near the Wiltshire border but to the south of Andover (opposite Salisbury). In 1593 at Ellingham (New Forest, Hampshire area)  Michael Blake. In 1593 Thomas Blake at Boldre. In 1593 Johnannes Blake Senior at Penton Mewsie (about 3 kilometres northwest of Andover) . In 1601 Robertus Blake at Enham. Dorothie Blake widow at Bishops Waltham (about 15 kilometres southeast of Winchester) in 1602. The place Enham only occurs with Blake is this particular transcription. 

Searching the National Archives of the UK Wills there are seventeen wills with Enham as the place. The Kingsmill family were at Enham between the 1670s and 1730s, the Coxe family was at Enham in 1577 and will download this will to have a look at it. James Blake was the last Blake, as far as I can tell thus far, to be on the property at Enham  with his will probated 1734. One will was for a Nicholas Dickocks a tailor at Knight Enham. William Woodman is a husbandman at Knights Enham with his will probated in 1656. The remainder are later in time after the probate of James Blake's will in 1734 living at Knight Enham. The will of Nicholas Blake of Enham was probated in 1547 and he is the known son of Jone (Johanna Blake) who left her will as a widow in 1527. 

A little work on the genealogical chart in Legacy completed yesterday. Soon I shall start to make time for Pincombe in the work week. I am at the same place really with regard to writing. However I have more of a Pincombe tree completed from the 1700s on. 

Sunday today and off to Church at 10:30 online. 

Tea all drank and solitaire puzzles to do.