A trip to the grocery store

 Years ago when I bought the groceries during my stay at home/work at home interval I used to take the children with me after school. They were great helpers and I was especially conscious of teaching my youngest to read the labels although my older daughter also did so. They were quick and could find items faster than I could because my vision was definitely limited back in those days plus I was proofreading/copyediting eight to ten hours per day so eyes were tired very often. 

I enter the store and take my Moi card over and collect the special items of the day. I could do that earlier but they make it easy to just do it there. Then I start into the vegetables and fruits where I collect as much as 1/3 of what I am going to buy. Then over to the cheese and humus (one of each) and then off to the bread (one or two) and then pick up a bag of mixed nuts (once a month as I eat them every morning) on the way to the cereal aisle which I skip if I already have enough (I eat three different kinds of cereal - three kinds of granola, loose oats in a bag you cook, Shredded wheat (small biscuits)) so I do not always have to buy that and then I just skip through the next aisle as I do not buy sweetened fruits or cookies or even crackers and then I pass by the alcohol as I do not buy that and soft drink as I seldom buy that either. The next aisle has nuts (unsalted in bags) and cranberry juice (my one exception to a high sugar drink). I do shop that aisle every week. That brings me around to the baking aisle and also canned fish and some canned/bottled vegetable. Usually I do not need anything but this past week I got a can of salmon. That brings me to the frozen aisle where I have plenty in the freezer because I do not eat a lot of it so maybe buy one bag every couple weeks of something that has gone low. That is it for the rows as I seldom buy cans of anything and seldom eat pasta so I am headed to the milk where I buy 0% because I come from a high-cholesterol family. Then yoghurt, eggs, butter/margarine (avocado) (if needed) and cottage cheese (1%).  Now back to the meat counter where I buy chicken (8 thighs every other week) and salmon. That is it and I am done and this week coming I shall go through the self checkout. The only time I really need help is if I have forgotten how to charge up something in the vegetable/fruit area which is by weight. So no prepared foods, no cold cuts (I only like jellied tongue particularly and noticed the last time I had it; I wasn't really interested), no manufactured food. I prefer the raw product. 

I still remember the disappointment when I bought my favourite cookies (used to be made in Canada and now made in the United States) and I could not eat them after two years they were too sweet. No thank you. The only cake/cookie type item I have is my home-made banana bread with margarine (avocado) or butter once a day and it has probably  2 tsp of brown sugar in every slice (I do slice it thin so it lasts a week). Very tasty.

I realized yesterday that my grocery buying had become very much like  a military drill. When my daughters were with me and/or my husband it was a much longer process because of the reading probably and my husband definitely had a sweet tooth. I used to bake a lot but decided that it was healthier for him that I did not do so much baking. Then he would debate what to buy at the store and would put it back if I didn't agree to at least eat one of the items in the box. So depending on what his weight was like I either agreed to eat a piece or said I didn't want that this week! The girls were picky, they didn't eat a lot of processed foods either so that was handy. But whether you buy basic ingredients or manufactured food they are both expensive these days.

 

Collections from yesterday

 Henry V - 1413-1422

 William Blake, New Sarum, Wiltshire, yeoman 23 Feb 1419

 Andrew Blake, Lewes, Kent, 24 May 1413

 Richard Blake, London, witness to will, Sep 1414

William Blake, New Sarum, Wiltshire, yeoman, 23 Oct 1418 

John Blake, London,  27 Aug 1413 

 Henry VI - 1422-1461

 William Blake, New Sarum, Wiltshire, 20 Nov 1423

 Richard Blake, haberdassher, London, 1 Feb 1436/1437

William Blake (deceased), Blakwelle Hay, Essex, 13 Feb  1439

 Geoffrey Blake, St Olave, Suthwerk, Surrey, Witness to quit claim, 11 Feb 1446

 John Blake, London, citizen, 10 Sep 1442

William Blake, Haberdassher, 21 Dec 1448 

Edmund Blake, St Augustine, Bristol (King requesting maintenance for this individual and his wife)16 Oct 1449 

 Thomas Blake, London, Salter 13 Mar 1454

 Robert Blake (deceased), Blakemore, Wiltshire, (election to replace as verderer), 13 May 1450

Edmund Blake London, Kine's esquire, clerk, overseer of works,  9 Jun 1453

Edmund Blake, Simon Blake, Essex, execute quit claim, 4 July 1455

 Sir William Blake, Winchester, Hampshire, Provost of College of St Elizabeth by Wolvesey, 4 May 1455

 John Blake, New Sarum, Wiltshire, witness (along with John Walop), 29 Apr 1455

 Geoffrey Blake, Bandon, Surrey, release of quitclaim, 11 Mar 1455

 Henry VII - 1485-1509

Richard Blak, Wodchurch, Kent,  husbandman, 19 Nov 1486

Checked for Pencomb in Henry VII. 

  Richard II - 1377-1399

 Ralph Blak, Iwhurst, East Sussex, 10 Sep 1377

 John Blake, Devon, 18 Mar 1378

 John Blake, London, 10 June 1380

John Blake, King's clerk, 20 Aug Westminster, 1380

 Nicholas Blake, the elder, London, 2 Apr 1380

Not completed, need to finish  and will fill this in later today.

Yesterday was  also grocery day and as usual my list is very short and precise although it generally does cost $100 except the second week of chicken and then it is higher one week and lower the next as I buy 8 and only eat 4 a week in my chicken stews. I think I will try to check out myself again although I am rather slow doing it but I noticed no one was there when I went through with the clerk so I think from now on I will do that as there was a lineup with the clerk. I think that will work. Plus there is a clerk to help if you can not find the price. 

Overall a busy day with research reading and recording, exercises - running but will do weight lifting today as I get lots of weight lifting with my groceries yesterday!

 I also found the Veterans Legion for this area and donated to them through Canada Helps. They did 10X better since I usually only tap $10. I will do that instead of worrying about finding one with a tap as my poppy is a more permanent one with a plastic clip in the middle and will probably last me for years. Plus at Canada Helps you pay for the cost of donating which saves all the money for the agency you are donating to. Again in memory of my husband Edward although I could think of doing that for my great uncle Edwin Buller who served in the First World War and lived to be 84 back in 1973. He was a real favourite of ours - we had many many great aunts and uncles. I remember when we got to Paris the first time and I could see why he said that Paris was a beautiful city. He was wounded and sent back to England to recover and then on to Canada but he returned to work after recovery and worked until he was 68 I think. Never once did he mention the battles in France but rather told us about the beautiful things he saw in France. His father, my great grandfather Edwin Denner Buller served in the First Boer War as a medic and was wounded about a year later I think and sent home to recover in England which he did. 

I did get an email from the Ottawa Hospital with a 2X offer by an individual with a donation but I think I might still wait and see if there is a 3X offer closer to Christmas; that was last year although I shall contemplate it. I will continue with my $1000 donation in Edward's memory. Hospitals are an absolute necessity and we need good ones but I do not plan to ever be in one again. Likely my Sleep Apnea will take me home to the ones who loved me. The afterlife (Heaven as we refer to it) is so very different from the life you live on earth I believe. In the afterlife you get to see once again those wonderful grandparents of your youth and the two grandparents I never saw but heard so much about. In my 82nd year I thank my grandparents every day (and my parents) for all those stories of their youth, their childhood and their parents and ancestors known to them. I thank God for giving us this beautiful world in which we live. 

Forward and onward, solitaire puzzles (hopefully although I think I did a Sudoku last night so they are probably working as Microsoft was having problems. I do not use Word until I get to actually working on the book copy. I do use Excel a lot but at the moment I am just recording a list on my blog. Most of my time is spent preparing and then I move to the manuscript. Copilot I am not using at the moment;  but hopefully they will be up tomorrow. If not next week - no rush gives me more time to prepare. 

Breakfast soon.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research Day and continuing Calendar of Close Rolls

Thank you God for another beautiful sunny day and 0 degrees celsius. Winter is here just hasn't snowed yet. We will enjoy the crisp fresh air. The starkness of Fall always surprises me because it follows the beauty of summer and yet when those empty branches are covered with beautiful white snow it has an ethereal look that is almost more beautiful than  the colours of summer. It is stunning and so white and expansive. But I live in a country which traditionally is covered with snow up to six months of the year. 

Back into the times of the Henrys in England and see what I can learn about the presence of Blake across the counties of England. I know they are there in London both in a government capacity and in business, they are in the Midlands and the same and gradually they are into the Hampshire/Wiltshire area but still in Hampshire they appear to be solely in the  Southampton area. I think these Blakes are Norman Blakes coming across from Rouen to set up markets in England possibly to acquire wool and dominate the wool market; no idea on that but certainly the Blake family of Rouen was involved in the wool trade. 

The Chapter I already wrote on the Le Blak family of Rouen will need some tweaking with the new information although nothing changes for how I see that family evolving in England. I am just trying to resolve why the wills of the Blake family in Speen, Berkshire mentions the Blake family in Andover and vice versa in the mid 1500s. Along with that why does a Western Hunter Gatherer descendant take on the surname Blake at Andover (Enham to be exact). Does it matter really? It becomes more of a query because my grandfather (whose grandsons carry the Western Hunter Gatherer haplogroup) talked about Nicholas Blake who left his will in 1547 at Old Hall, Enham and the Blake family was talking about him in the latter part of the 1800s. American Blake descendants were looking for their ancestral home and Horatio Gates Somerby gave them one which was fraudulent. Stealing one's ancestry should really be a crime but doesn't become one until money changes hands. One can not promise information and then provide fraudulent news. 

The truth will always set you free I think myself. Although it was not Horatio Gates Somerby who published these fraudulent Blake books publicly. They were done as private printing and perhaps it was justified in his mind that he was making people happy; no idea on that. The books were published after he passed away. But fraudulence is fraudulence and one has to thank Paul Reed, an American genealogist, for pointing out the discrepancy which was always obvious but one just had to look in the right place. 

 So the trek continues on Blake and will until my document arrives - an Inheritance Dispute in the Pincombe family of South Molton. Mind you as this is most interesting working through the Close Rolls I suspect when the document arrives I will start transcribing it and not refer to it until I have completed that task unless it proves to be absolutely fascinating and I feel the need to relate it to the blog and discuss it with the AI. Saturday likely will be my day to discuss the Close Rolls and all the other material I have collected up for the first three generations of the Blake family at Andover. We will see what kind of holes can be poked into my argument and what sorts of research paths might be interesting. I already have a few thoughts just to really shake the apple tree with regard to some of my research information thus far. 

Exercises all completed and another good day. One hour of exercise first thing which was a cardio load of  33 and represents 4% of my weekly cardio.  It required 20% less of my energy to do the exercises than it was using the last few days. One can measure the extent of one's heavier cardio commitment perhaps caused by stress which was brought to my attention by the AI when I was still using that coaching ability. It was handy to know but eventually I found it to be more than I wanted to hear all the time. I am not an athlete - just an ordinary person getting my exercise. I did find the Coach very interesting and helpful. Just took up too much time. It depends on what you want to hear in your day. But interesting my exercise first thing in the morning represents 28% of my weekly cardio exercise commitment. My running on my non cleaning days is another big factor which is offset by my work load when I am cleaning and not quite equal as the running does give me a higher cardio load overall since cleaning does not equal running!

Another Remembrance Day yesterday and as all the days we remember those who protected us with the strength of their youth and when their strength was taken from them threw that torch to the youth of tomorrow to hold high the truths that freedom is always better than tyranny. Democracy can be messy as one sorts through where one puts the money to get the biggest support for the masses. The masses are important because they do the work - they troop out to work every day and do the jobs that those who are in authority do not do but they are not so much the risk takers that those in authority are. The buy off is always there - the workers and the bosses. When they work together they can do anything when they are abrasive then the ability to work can be less efficient which is bad coming from a family that owned a small family business. Decisions have to made that best suit the climate of the work times and productivity - we are always victims of productivity unfortunately both the workers and management. But they can not survive without each other.  

Breakfast soon and solitaire puzzles next.  

Remembering my Great Uncle Edwin Denner Buller

 Edwin served in the 18th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force and served in France. He was my maternal grandmother's brother and lived in London, Ontario when I was a child. I knew him very well and if you asked him about World War I he would talk about Paris and how beautiful it was. He never really talked about the war. Born in Aston near Birmingham, England in 1888, he came to Canada in 1905 and was the first of this family of five children all of whom eventually came to Canada. 

He had twelve nieces and nephews living in Canada and the United States. Edwin is my only close  Canadian Veteran of the Armed Forces. 

Remembering my Great Uncle on this Remembrance Day along with all of the others who served during the wars in which Canada fought the Boer War, World War I and World War II, the Korean War, The Cold War, and The War in Afghanistan. 

As a child we would walk in a double line to the local Church near Tecumseh Avenue Public School year after year if November 11 was on a school day, classroom after classroom and remember all those who had died in the two World Wars. May we remember them and cherish them forever. 

Fifteen Psalms left to read

 How beautiful the Psalms are. The  Bible the most read book in the world when I was young and possibly still not sure I have not googled that. Just fifteen Psalms left to read and then Proverbs. I also love Proverbs; the meanings within are so wondrous. 

Yesterday was a busy day and the main floor is all clean. Today the top floor and then finished for another week and tomorrow begins the Research week. I am pretty much ready now to spend a bit of time with the AI going over the items that I have brought together for our discussion and will listen to the constructive comments that the AI is likely to make with regard to my first three generations at Andover of the Blake family. This is the first time that I will mention that I am postulating a new person into this family (I did do it several times with Siderfin, one in particular, but had a little more parish register evidence for that). For this one I only have three families in the third generation living at Enham talking about the same people it appears but one husband is missing. I have postulated Robert (son of Robert (will dates 1521) who would have died before his father. The names of Robert's grandchildren fit so very well into the picture but the three families are all different. Usually it takes about half of an hour to review and comment and then a few more exchanges of thoughts result from ideas put forward and then a plan is devised for moving forward. I do enjoy working with the AI that is for sure. The plan is a combination of my thoughts and the thoughts of the AI. 

I was reading an online story about AI becoming a friend of people instead of a real companion. I do not think I would ever consider the AI as other than a consultant but it was interesting. Certainly the AI is very helpful; very polite, and very complimentary in a discussion. Sort of, I guess, the perfect friend. But I was surprised to see someone write about the AI as their companion. 

 It is absolutely amazing though to now live most of my life without glasses (just reading glasses on the computer or a book). I wore glasses for more than 78 years of my life and when I went for the eye checkup the Optometrist suggested that I might want to try Progressives which would mean wearing glasses all the time again but I said not unless I need them; I have gotten used to the bugs flying into the eyes, and the wind blowing in the eyes. It is wondrous; the way God made us for sure but the corrections are good to as I would never have been able to read without glasses. Cataract Surgery is a great happening in my life for sure. A bit expensive because I had to go private to get a precise set of dates for the surgery when my daughter was here to be with me all the time. I was right about that I could barely see and the whiteness blinded me for a couple of days. Not complaining as my other daughter said I either fit into the system or have to pay for it! Having worked in the hospital system I understand just how costly all of these systems are and we have to manage them carefully. 

I notice that senior citizens are being discussed from the perspective of how much OAS is costing. I still think a lot could be saved if OAS and CPP are just rolled together thus eliminating two sets of bookkeeping (it can easily be done even to those of us who are retired - it is a fixed sum). In essence I am not working (I am in my 82nd year) but I am literally paying enough tax to cover my OAS and part of another persons. I worked most of my life (12 years old when I first worked for my father) before I retired at 63 so paid into the system all of that time. I think something needs to happen to reduce the cost of supporting the system. Definitely a means test needs to be done every year to ascertain eligibility for GIS. If OAS just becomes the baseline for CPP and one's work effort through the years builds the value in CPP then we eliminate one entire section because OAS becomes minimum CPP. Eliminating the cost of managing OAS will reduce the overall cost of government. Perhaps to receive GIS individuals should actually do items like working at elections (we are paying people to help at elections) to reduce some of the costs in government. I waited for over twenty minutes in line for the municipal elections because the voter at the desk took all that time to collect their ballot (one worker at a desk could be three or four and speed up the line). I know I do not work but my time is worth something to me. I wanted to get back home to work on my books. I could work though if the necessity ever arose but at the moment I would just be taking a job from someone else as there are not enough jobs right now. 

My Sleep Apnea does wake me up in the night but at least it wasn't a nightmare that woke me up this time! They come and they go but in my 82nd year I just go with the flow for sure. It is the gasp of air that one can hear and feel as one awakens that alerts me to my Sleep Apnea. Back to sleep; the night is young. But again going to bed at 9 means that an hour up in the middle of the night is really nothing. Just a chance to get in a bit of walking. 

H11 Newsletter published but did not appear to be visible on the website. Will check on it today later.  Personally it no longer adds much to the project with the new mitochondrial tree which is vastly superior because you work within your own project area to see your matches readily. If this doesn't come up properly then I will just discontinue this Newsletter. I could comment in the shared section of the website with the members when questions arise. I do not generally do that but leave it as a place where individuals can communicate with each other. This is the tenth year of this Newsletter. It has been a very interesting ten years working on H11. 

Thank you God for another beautiful day in your world. Just 1 degree celsius this morning and sunny. One of these days we will wake up to a snowy world. I think this is the latest that I remember not having snow but often we had snow in the London area earlier because of lake effect snow.  

My life was very busy when my daughters were young with volunteer secretary at the Church and working full time proofreading and copyediting at home basically. It was good when they finally hired someone at Church. I always remember though Jamie Goss who was the minister when my youngest was small and I was still a volunteer. He was coming to my house to get the bulletin notices as I always typed them up for him and she said to me. Why is that man sick? At that time I did not know that he had a terminal cancer although when she mentioned it I noted that he did not look quite as healthy as he could be but he was quite heavy and that isn't always good for people but he was so young; younger than my husband and about my age I think. Years later when she became a doctor that memory came back to me and I marveled at it actually. What an acute child to notice as he did come week after week. She was maybe still three; hard to remember but I think she was off to 4 year old kindergarten the next year. Just a quirk of fate probably she was much too young to realize that he was ill (although her dad could have said it when she was listening; she was a good listener just thought of that). 

I just now realized that I could never have been a good visual physician although certainly medical testing would have been a skill in abundance. My thoughts of going to Africa to do medicine stayed with me for quite a while but when my children were born I could sense God all around me; that this was my calling and especially when I had my bout of mental illness/physical breakdown/nervous breakdown God was there pushing me to go back to my daughter. My greatest fear was of someone trying to hurt my child and my having perhaps to kill someone. But God was telling me to go back and back I went because my place was with my baby and like the animals in the wild defend that child even if it meant another would lose their life. God is with us always until death and we rejoin our beloved grandparents/parents/siblings and husband in the great heavens that surround us. Death marches onwards and the path towards it leads to our beloved families. 

But my sight such as it was did  not reveal so much detail about people as I can see now. Indeed I could never have described the woman who attacked me with a knife and left it to the girl I was helping to move and the person who came with her  to call the police. After all you can not attack people with a knife and my jacket had the mark of that knife; just tiny but still there. Years later my brother in law said it was never reported. I was right in my estimate that my making friends was very dubious when I was a child; I did not understand people that well and really did not enjoy it anyway. My mother though always encouraged me to do that because her experiences with friends were absolutely wonderful. I occasionally took a chance but prefer my own time. I already had six siblings that I knew well. 

An individual at university asked me to stay with her when she was going to be alone for a week in the spring I think. I had to have some dental work  on the day I was going there and it was something difficult that left me very uncomfortable. So I did stay the one day but the next day I said I had to go home because I wasn't comfortable and I did. I did try to be kind to this person and was her matron of honour (she didn't have any siblings) at her wedding but time passed and my children always came first and I didn't discover her letters until later that arrived (not sure why) but I just didn't answer them then as it was a bit of time later. I am sure she had a lovely life with her family somewhere I completely lost touch with her. But it was sort of an awakening for me that if I ever moved out of my parent's house I would want an apartment on my own. Not for any particular reason but I preferred not to have to share the space around me 100% when I am praying or contemplating or whatever. 

It did take Edward quite a while to persuade me to go out with him that is for sure but he was persistent and then we married and we were married for 54.5 years.  I think I was surprised when I agreed but we had a great deal in common a love of science, astronomy, the outdoors, canoeing and the list is long. I do enjoy history I just wasn't ready in those early years to think about genealogy as it reminded me of my beloved grandparents at that time. I prayed for them every day but it would take a nudge from my cousin George DeKay to send me off on that particular journey when I was nearly 60 years of age. 

Cleaning in process and the last floor. Somehow I feel content to have said what it was that sent me into hospital so many years ago. The psychiatrist was right when he said that this was something that I had to do myself and I could not do it there in the hospital he could see that and so he told me that I had it within me to go forward and on into life; to work this out. I did.

I really realized that I had succeeded when my older daughter was hit with a tree branch whilst a group were out running; the boys involved were standing there and I believe egging the one boy on to hit her deliberately. It took all of my concentration and control not to do anything except to say call the police. The school did handle it and very well but why that happened. I have no idea but it shaped her for sure in life and took away that sense of belonging and ability to be part of something for quite a while. Going to High School at Gloucester was a great thing for her as they did have a Gifted Program but I had those teachers telling me she would have a better schooling at the High School most of the children went to. But my daughter wanted to go to Gloucester and I said to leave her alone as she was going to Gloucester. A four track high school at that time offering all sorts of lovely courses and she did a few of the trades type of courses which she loved. Her teacher in Computer Science at High School let her teach a few classes and that gave her a direction. High School was simply lovely for her thank goodness.  

It still does horrify me somewhat that my medical information was discussed and known when I moved here and so many people appeared to be aware of more information than I had but Edward did tell me that people make up stories and not to worry about it (there are some gaps in my life). We had a great marriage; the kind we wanted and Edward loved his independence as he got used to going to events and things on his own. 

On to cleaning and then back to the Calendar of Close Rolls. Thank you God for all that you do. The world is a wonderful place that You created. All that we need now is for everyone to follow Your rules, they are simple - Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself.