Fascinating story about the Altar Stone in the midst of Stonehenge

 We visited Stonehenge twice during our trips to the British Isles. The first time in 2008 and the second in 2016 and both were amazing for different reasons. In 2008 you could get up close to the stones and actually see the Altar Stone but by 2016 you had to follow a path around Stonehenge a bit distant but still you are feeling close up. It gave me a different perspective looking at it from a distance. I especially wanted to see Stonehenge because my father had gone to see Stonehenge when he was just a boy. His mother took him on a family trip to Stonehenge along with other family members. One of my Rawlings cousins sent me a picture from that time period of a group of people waiting at a bus station.

 This is a picture from before the First World War that my cousin's mother had carried in her purse as a memory probably. My father could not remember when he did mention going to Stonehenge other than everyone in the family was going for a trip together (my grandmother and father came to Canada in mid 1913, my grandfather had come earlier to his job in Feb 1913). Is one of those children my father and the woman at the far left sitting down my grandmother? The woman does look like Bessie but it is a long time ago but the Rawlings family was very large and my grandmother had 3 half-siblings and her mother (also a Rawlings) had six siblings and all but two married and had families. I think they were a close family because they still wrote back and forth and I have some of those letters from just before the Second World War. I had mentioned to this cousin who shared the image with me that my father remembered going with the family to see Stonehenge and it was almost immediately that he sent me the picture. Unfortunately when I received it there was no one who could have told me whether it was my father and grandmother on their way to Stonehenge with the family but it was exciting to think about it. Not sure of the location but suspect it might be Ludgershall in Wiltshire. No idea on that. Perhaps I will pursue that thought one day. 

But I am digressing from the story about the Altar Stone and testing that shows it could have come from Northeast Scotland. The Orkneys were also mentioned and we did visit the Orkney Islands and the pictures in the article were an interesting reminder of that trip. 

It was a day of interesting articles as a picture of Kakabeka Falls appeared with a story referring to it as the Niagara Falls of the North (we visited it in 1968 and it was spectacular).  I recognized the picture immediately except for the lovely stairway which must be new since then and a treat to climb these days I suspect. It is 30 kilometres west of the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario on the Kaministiquia River. 

I continued reading Judges and must reflect on the information. I have completed this Book of the Bible and any comment made by me would just be saying what other people say about the Book of Judges. 

Cleaning all accomplished and today it is the main floor. Woke up early and decided to read a bit but Judges is not a book of the Bible that I know very well. I shall have to think about it for awhile. 

Still no work accomplished but that is not unusual in the summer. Still weeding to do outside and will try to accomplish that later in the week. Grass needs to be cut as well. 

We continue as a country to work towards our goal of being an exporter of oil, gas and precious minerals needed by the world. It will make us independent once again. Our military is growing and our defense materials are increasing rapidly as we move forward making ourselves along with the other Arctic countries very defensible. 

I often think of my cousins in the United States and hope that they are managing well. I am not much of a letter writer/emailer as I tend to just work on my projects. 

The warm summer will start to cool off as we enter into the month of August. Hard to believe how fast July has passed.  I always welcome Fall and Winter as I can get back to work once again on my books. 

Solitaire puzzles to do and then back to sleep for a bit.  

 

 

 

Fires still burning all across North America

There are 940 active fires burning in Canada, 489 active fires in the United States (including Alaska),  and 301 active fires in Mexico. The worst area in Central Canada including the Mid North Western United States extends between Northern Minnesota and Northern Ontario through the Lake of the Woods region. The worst area in the United States is the Western part of the country. Global warming is the cause and reducing that needs to be urgent. The average temperature increase in Canada is twice that of the areas south of us and this is also true for Russia which has the same type of boreal forest. The ancient permafrost is melting and that is a huge problem. Interestingly though it does open up the Arctic Ocean for transit making the distance from Canada to Europe/Canada to Asia shorter through the ice free months which are becoming longer and longer. One wonders what the world will be like with the Arctic ice free part of the year. The rain has been very helpful with the smoke. 

I will continue to read Judges but probably not comment on it until I complete the Book. It is a difficult one to read as the Israeli society continues to move away from the strict rules imposed on it by God. Each new judge takes the society further down a destructive path. One still does not get the sense of a prophecy of the Messiah coming to save the people of Israel which appears in later books but rather God is softening slightly towards the plight of the Israelis when they come to him and at least try to follow His commandments but I need to continue reading to understand that. The Judges are Israeli and from one of the twelve tribes of Israel and there are many of them.  

Yesterday I attended Church online and the music was as always absolutely beautiful. My husband loved the music at the Cathedral and I really think that was why he wanted to go there when the new minister came to Dominion Chalmers replacing the older minister. The new minister was interested in a different sort of music. I was happy to be back in my Anglican Church as we were becoming empty nesters gradually although life presented a more interesting life for us as our son in law became part of our house family for a while until they bought a condo and moved on.  I highly recommend that having your children stay at home until they are ready financially to move out into the world. 

Today is cleaning day and it is the top floor and will be one of change as I am moving into the large room with everything just to make my book writing easier and my downsizing of all of Edward's material more top of the mind as I tend to get immersed in my own writing. The success of moving the British Columbia Kipp material to the Chilliwack Archives worked so very well. The material is now available to researchers and many of them live in the British Columbia area including down into the United States and east into Alberta and Saskatchewan. 

Exercises all done and the Cardio Load was 49 and it was one hour and five minutes of exercise. It really is a good start to my day. I have also had a nutritious breakfast - yoghurt, almond granola, mixed nuts and blueberries. Absolutely delicious and energizing. The blog is now written and solitaire puzzles to do.  

Continuing reading Judges

Judges is primarily a book about the individuals who followed Joshua as a leader generally appointed by God but not as effective as Joshua. Israel did not follow the covenant and take over all the lands of the designated Promised Lands. Instead they lived side by side with a number of different kingdoms and over time they forgot the stories of their ancestors and inter married into these other cultures taking up their worship of some gods namely Baal. A number of people became Judges but still the Israelites did not follow the word of God. So God permitted first of all the Midianites to oppress the Israeli people and the Israeli people called out to God to help them and an angel reminded them that they had not continued to honour God for delivering them from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land where they had stopped listening to God and followed the ways of the people who were not Israeli. The Judge appointed by God was Gideon. War followed and the land had rest for forty years with Gideon as their Judge.  But the decay was setting in and Gideon died with the Israelis returning to worshiping other gods namely Baal and forgot God who had rescued the Israeli people from their enemies. God's anger seems to have changed somewhat and He responds when asked to help. I do not believe I ever really understood the Book of Judges. I must read it noticing that the corruption continues and each time it becomes worse. There are many Judges. 

Yesterday was a smoke day and we spent it indoors. It was somewhat visible in the trees but the heavy rain seemed to wash it away. The bad smoke days of a couple of years ago have not returned again because of better management of the forests these past couple of years. The period of dense swirling smoke has certainly diminished. So long as the nations who primarily create the global warming do nothing about it Canada and other northern nations this time of year including Canada, Russia and the State of Alaska (United States) will continue to suffer from lightning strikes that create forest fires because of the very large boreal forests that exist in these countries (that includes the northern states like Minnesota to the south of Canada). However, some countries are working very hard to offset the items that create global warming. But with 555 fires burning in the United States and 658 fires burning in Canada that is a lot of smoke. Also the permafrost is melting at a rapid pace as the northern areas are warming up twice as fast as the rest of the world.  That is bad news. 

Sunday today and Church after a while. I also want to work on the Allen pictures and get them bundled up and sent off to the Allen family which is collecting up all of this material. It would be sad to have these original images lost from the pertinent families. I have given all of my original pictures to my younger sister to retain for the family as she is in an area much closer to everyone. 

Other than that the days move along and work is slowly getting done. 

Solitaire puzzles are next. 

About Global Warming

When I lived in southwestern Ontario I can not remember any alerts for smoke. Even as a young married woman (just 20 years of age) when my husband and I took our canoe up into Northern Ontario throughout the summer months we would still find snow hidden in the crevices protected from the sun. It was always cool at night but now with global warming (Canada is not one of the top ten nations that are considered to be the worst offenders causing global warming) the forest bed is hot and dry and with thousands of lightning strikes we are lucky actually with how few forest fires are burning as the potential is much much higher. The rain today will help to dampen the land and put the fires under control. We have massive forests having traveled in them by canoe and they are all over the northern part of most of the provinces as well as down into the south of many of them;  Canada has the second largest land mass in the world and the maintenance of our forests is high on our agenda but just one large maple tree in my back yard produces enough dead wood/leaves on the ground to fill thirty large recycling bags every summer. One tree and we have billions of them. The rotting dead lumber in the forests enriches the ground and helps to retain the moisture and keep the forest from getting to be too hot in the undergrowth. Nonetheless we do clear large swathes of the forests throughout the summer (good to make pulp with for sure; yet another industry that Canada has). There are fires burning all over North America at the moment but we do have the most forest and Canada is warming up twice as fast as countries further to the south of us because of global warming. But the trees capture carbon and help protect us from global warming; it is a difficult tradeoff actually but we are better off with our forests in this world but perfectly manicured woods are possible in City Parks, built up residential areas and that is why there are so many forest fires burning in Canada, in the United States and in Mexico (all of North America). It is called Global Warming and if one believes the scientists will lead us to a new ice age and then we do not have to worry about Forest Fires! However the last Ice Age likely killed off  Homo neanderthalensis so we continue doing the best we can controlling the fires, helping our neighbours to combat their fires as we are lucky to only have fires in the brief summer period whereas fires to the south of us burn all year round and the smoke travels where it travels (the air streams tend to be out of the southwest and into the northeast so we are not free of smoke either from fires to the south of us when our forest fires are dampened down for the long winter times). 

 Reading the first chapter of Judges and the Israelis continued to take over the Promised Land as God had commanded. Reviewing in my mind the intent of God the Creator throughout these first books of the Bible. There were many gods worshiped on earth by the early peoples but God wanted the people to know that He alone was the True God, the Creator God and He freed the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and brought them back to the Promised Land. The land which Abraham purchased and where Abraham had walked and talked with God and God had told Abraham that He would make a mighty nation of his descendants and they would always live in this Promised Land (Israel). In the second chapter already time has passed and God wants the heathens driven out of the Promised Land as He had made Convenant with Moses and Joshua that that would happen as the Israelis took over the Promised Land. God wanted no craven images of supposed gods/no altars built to celebrate these fake gods in His Holy Land which he had given to the Israelis. I will continue reading and tomorrow will think more on all these chapters. 

Having been raised Anglican I am knowledgeable of these thoughts on the Creator God. They were frightening to me as a child and it is only in my early 80s now that I truly can understand why the Creator God went to such lengths to teach the peoples of Israel, His chosen people how they needed to live in order for Him to live amongst them. Greed has to disappear from our world because it destroys; the desire to take what is not yours has to disappear from this world because it destroys and it was Jesus who brought us that message to encourage us to continue with our closeness to God and His Commandments and Jesus gave us the very basic knowledge that can bring peace to all the peoples of the world - Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbour as yourself (that eliminates greed from our life).  It is greed that destroys the very fabric of life. 

Saturday and it is generally a quiet day as I avoid going anywhere. Today though is a rainy one and the air, although full of smoke, will be cleansed somewhat.  

Woke up early

 Still  need a couple of hours of sleep and will head back soon. Yesterday was good accomplishment as we purchased the lights for the electrician to install next week. That is a relief; life was much easier when lights weren't wired in; you just changed the bulb but my husband always enjoyed the new inventions and so there are wired LED lights. Hopefully all resolved and there are four new lights to install. 

Will read the Judges Book in the Bible later today. I like my brain to be rested so that I do not miss anything. I am into some of the more difficult Books in the Bible. The ones that tell of great sadness for the Israeli people. Because they tried to get along with the peoples who had inhabited the Promised Land before they returned from slavery in Egypt, problems arose. I have sort of forgotten all of the parts of the stories so this refresher will be very much appreciated. Joshua has died and the Israelis are now back in the Promised Land; first purchased by Abraham and then promised to Abraham and his descendants by the Creator God. Man walking with God must have been awesome and the Old Testament does give us a good picture of that life. It was not to last though as God's requirements for living amongst people were very very strict and punishment for not following the rules was swift. 

A little work on the books yesterday as I rechecked the latest matches to see if there was anything interesting and a couple became new files to enter. When I enter them is the question but mostly I am looking at them as supportive of what I already have. The database I have created suits me well and supplies me with the information I was looking for with regard to the deep past. 

Avoiding the news for the most part. Canada has a lot of work to do internally to make ourselves much more independent. We were extremely independent after the Second World War and we must get back to that independence. The Prime Minister has found the right path and all of these other items are just distractions that we have to move past. Whether or not the Gordie Howe Bridge opens is really in the hands of the United States. We are ready to open it and the truckers are probably very thankful to have a new bridge connected to the main highways in both countries available to them. We built it on our own using materials from both countries and workers from each country equally and we voluntarily agreed to share the profits if any once the bridge is paid for and what more can one say.  Profits are always somewhat empirical because the bridge will always need to be maintained and upgraded as needed so one never knows if there will ever really be profits if the bridge is properly maintained to protect the users from the United States and Canada - that is really the most important part for sure. Maintenance is the key really. 

Smoke again tomorrow and heavy rain - a combination that is beneficial certainly to the environment since we have so many lightning strikes on much too dry ground caused by global warming.  Hopefully the rain helps to bring the remaining fires under control. I think we are getting used to being threatened as we just carry on with our lives moving ahead with all of these new ideas to make ourselves a global energy power. The natural resources of Canada are huge as is the land mass. We just have to keep moving forward. Strange that in reality the only country in the last two hundred and fifty years plus that has ever attacked Canada is the United States with the last incursions into Canada made by the Fenians coming up from the United States in the 1870s/1880s. But peace has reigned pretty much solidly since the end of the War of 1812-1814. We generally sit down and talk about it as neighbours. That is what God wants us to do.  

Back to sleep for a few hours and then I will read Judges. I am looking forward to reading Judges as I know that of all the Books in the Old Testament it is one of the hardest ones to read in terms of the content. 

Solitaire puzzles all done as well - they are another calming tool for sure.