Last Day of December

A snowy grey day here on the last day of December 2020. I expect that most people are really happy to say goodbye to 2020. I am always excited by the roll over into a new year that is for certain. 2021 has such an interesting ring to it. When I was a child I met someone that my grandmother had struck up an acquaintance  with and she was an ophthalmologist. She told my grandmother (and this in my memory actually perhaps because it was a bit profound to a small child) that I would be blind by the time I was fifty. It is true that my eyes are rather complicated. That was a long time ago that that was said. I was just three years of age and knowledge of eye disease/limitations has grown rapidly. My grandmother was so convinced that her acquaintance was right that she taught me to read; that was how it affected her. She painstakingly taught me the letters of the alphabet and then words and then we started to read. I loved learning to read and became quite accomplished at that at a rather young age. I especially liked to read stories about traveling and far away places. By the time I was ten I was drawing spaceships as I just wanted to travel all over the galaxy. But whatever does that have to do with 2021 coming tomorrow? Nothing really but the end of the year always brings me back to thoughts about my grandmother as she usually had all of us over at some point early in the New Year. She celebrated New Years Day just as her family had in England. It was the only custom that she retained from her twenty years in England before she came to Canada. As soon as the Citizenship Act was passed in 1948 she immediately became a Canadian Citizen. It did not interest her to remain a British Subject. She was such a very interesting person. I was sad to lose her when I was just 21 years of age. The night she died I was sitting with her in the hospital and one of her fingers moved. She had had a stroke and basically was lost to the world on that day but I thought she could still hear me so I was singing one of her favourite songs and talking to her and her finger moved that last night of her life. Was it just an accidental happening? Who knows really but that evening when she died I had the most miraculous happening. I woke at 4:00 am hearing her calling my name but she was in the hospital several miles away from me. When my mother called a little later to tell me that she was gone she told me the story that the nurses told her which was that my grandmother had called out a name just before she passed. Coincidence or reality; does one ever really know but that has stayed with me from that day to this one and always for some reason it comes to mind every once in a while. I know she is with God as she was a very good person; always kind to people and spent many many hours knitting baby sets for baskets for northern communities. As 2020 draws to a close and I can remember my grandmother talking about the Spanish Influenza so that much of what I have said in the past about the Spanish Flu was from her I wonder if I will talk about COVID-19 in the future to some known/or unknown child in my future. I had never thought to live to the age of 75 actually and I have this strong desire to write which may yet come to fruition.

The days fly by and it is almost New Year's Eve Day

I always feel a bit nostalgic at New Years thinking of years past and the years that may come. I permit myself that little bit of license just to dream away for a bit. Generally we are with our children at New Years and that has been the case for many years. This year will be somewhat different as just one of our children will be with us but the others are there in our heart and soul. We will miss being with them as another year comes around. 

What will 2021 bring? I guess for most it is a desire to return to normalcy. I have actually enjoyed all of this at home time and very little shopping. It suits me very well. When I do go shopping it is very precise as I have a list in hand. When I want to shop I generally go to the websites of the establishments I intend to frequent and again my time there is brief and precise but then I have always been like that. I do not like to dawdle around stores. 

For me this part year has been a normalcy for me in many ways. The COVID-19 is just one of those blights that occur in our lives over which we have limited control. It was that way with polio in the 1950s in London, Ontario. Vaccine comes along and one more blight disappears. But Pandemics are to be feared because this one has been so very difficult. Mother Nature does not intend for us to ruin this earth. She will fight back.

Beautiful sunrise

Warm rich yellow orange colours spread across the sky at sunrise this morning. Now an hour later it is still minus 11 degrees celsius and yesterday's snow has mostly disappeared. The ground is frozen solid and awaits a blanket of snow to protect the perennials from this frigid cold. 

Day four of the lockdown here in Ontario. Yesterday's hurried trip to the grocery store happened much later in the day than usual. It was well past dusk before I made it there. The days move much too quickly for me these days. 

Another busy day today as Ed is into ParaMed for a dressing change. I have done the last two dressings and they will do this one. Then I do not know where we go next with that. It has been good to watch how they do this medical work; my time in the hospital was spent in front of a computer for the most part. I did do CPR years ago now but even that knowledge is pretty ancient. Will see what the day brings. 

Entering into the third day of lockdown

 Number three day of lockdown and I must do some grocery shopping today. I will go in the slow time. Ed is still bothered by his back weakness and pain. We are working away at that. Everytime we solve one problem another one pokes up its existence. I was pretty tired all weekend and I suspect this will be another tired week. Once we have the vaccine then I would be comfortable having a Health Worker coming in to help me a couple of times a week. Ed is just too heavy for me to manage by myself. Combined with my daughter we are managing but eventually both of us are going to be very worn down. 

It was a good Christmas though and we managed to make the feast last three days in total with different meals each day all of them selected by Ed. He does love Christmas time with all its festive meals. I did make a pound cake with yeast once again which he is enjoying.

Second day of lockdown

We haven't gone away from our property at all this first and second day of the lockdown. We walked around the back yard this afternoon.  I will stick to my pattern of shopping two days a week when the grocery store is not busy. If I have to go to the drug store then I do that at the same time. 

Have to figure out if we still have our eye appointments as they are before the four week lockdown is completed. 

I see we have our first case of the UK mutation of the COVID-19. I would have been surprised actually to see that it wasn't already all around the world. People are still traveling. We are staying home and not going anywhere.

Another week nearly ended

 Life is moving along so rapidly these days. Another week is nearly done and we are looking at the last week in December. This year of all years is forever seared in our memory. We are locked down now until the 23rd of January. When we once again come out of lockdown (if we do as there is talk of six weeks) the world will be forever changed. We move bravely along this path waiting patiently for our turn for the vaccination against COVID-19 and then we continue much the same way wearing our masks and distancing ourselves until COVID-19 has disappeared from our midst. Then and only then will we know that we have truly vanquished it. That was the way of Smallpox and Polio.

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas

Busy day yesterday

 Yesterday was one of the busiest days I have put in for a while. Three trips to the grocery store before I finally secured a fresh chicken for Christmas. Perhaps next year I will book one! Then off to ParaMed for bandage change and I am about to start doing the changes for two times and then return just to check on the progress. That is working very well. 

Physio for Ed started and muscoskeletal difficulties appear to be the problem which is a relief in some ways but very painful for him. But it is good to get started on that process. He will go once a week and then perhaps twice a week once he is stronger and likely in less pain. 

Five trips out and about is a lot for even me. I was exhausted. Having to help Ed rising up has been a strain on my back and I really felt it yesterday. Today I am minimizing any lifting on my part so that my back has a rest. 

Tomorrow is Christmas. The birth of the Christ Child and the time when I do tend to recall Christmases past. We had huge family Christmas days with all the grandparents, uncle and aunt. My parents also tended to entertain more at that time of the year so the house was always busy; full of the smell of fresh baked goods and savoury meals. My favourite part of the turkey was always the sausage stuffing until I learned to appreciate more solid meat! I loved Christmas; singing at Church and all the family times. I used to tuck myself away in a corner of the living room and watch mostly as I was number 4 child and rather small and skinny when I was young. But it was fun and I often tell my children and grandchildren at Christmas time what life was like in a big family at Christmas. They love those stories. 

Time to do my calisthenics; best medicine for my back actually. That routine set of 20 exercises cover all of the major and minor muscle groups. I fine tuned it through the years so that by the end of the twenty minutes my entire being is refreshed as there is also counting to relax the mind.

Getting ready for Christmas

A small Christmas this year but hopefully next year we can all be together again.  In a way this mucky weather; winter and then thaw, leads us to a less significant Christmas and time will pass and we will forget this long year. To be honest, the year has passed quickly for me. I have enjoyed the hours and hours of solitude. I am sorry that my husband has been in hospital twice but he is getting stronger once again. We are having fabulous meals all cooked from basic ingredients so that we know exactly how much salt is going into my husband's food. It has been interesting reaching back in time and memory as I recall that my grandmother made her pound cakes with yeast not baking power and so I have done the same. It is a very tasty pound cake actually and I highly recommend it. I love a slice of pound cake with butter just as my grandmother used to eat her pound cake (a thin slice lightly buttered!). I liked that as a child and it is by far my favourite cake. I do not like iced cakes that much; they are just too sweet. 

We put up our small wooden tree that we brought back from Germany on one of our European trips. It stands about 30 centimetres high and has four angles that fit together and are then decorated with interesting little handmade decorations. We love that little tree and it is fitting on our small Christmas that we would set this tree up. It reminds us of our trip through Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France a decade ago. It was a fabulous trip and we enjoyed every minute. We were perhaps one of the oldest couples on that trip and a young family was the youngest (a couple with their eight year old daughter). Most of the people were younger and the pace was quicker but we were also younger and did keep up very well. 

Back to getting ready for Christmas.

The first day of the week is always special

I always felt that the first day of the week, Sunday, is special. There is just something magical about waking up on Sunday. A day of promise is how I saw it as a child. A special day that belonged all to me. No school; no dancing lessons and just all that time that belonged mostly to me. I read a lot as a child and also played board games/card games with my siblings. I visited my grandmother often enough on the weekend but not usually on Sunday unless I stayed overnight from Saturday. My uncle used to ask me to stay with my grandmother from quite a young age actually as he and my aunt liked to go to Toronto on Saturday afternoon and come back Sunday night. His store closed at noon on Saturday and he did not open on Sunday. It was also special going to their house as I was the centre of attention which didn't happen in my home. I didn't need to be the centre of attention; it actually rather confused me but I gradually got used to eating dinner on Saturday evening. My uncle would ask me about school and the subjects that I was taking. He was keenly interested and so I would talk about that. He would tell me about his life as a child with my grandmother offering corrections or additional information on occasion. Sometimes he surprised her by the things that he said. He was an interesting person my uncle. 

Tomorrow is Winter Solstice and there is a special gathering managed by the Cathedral Labyrinth Guild. I would like to attend (online) but the evening here can be quite busy as we tend to do things together at that time. We have our busy day and then the evening is when we sit and be together. So we will see.

The Christmas Star

 We have been watching as an event 2000 years ago it is thought by many to have occurred and been the Christmas Star that led the wise men to Jesus.  It is 800 years since the closest visible conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn has been known to have occurred and this year it would be on the 21st of December; the winter solstice. 

Interesting in this year of all years that the conjunction would occur once again. 

Another Sunday tomorrow, the fourth Sunday in Advent and my bulletin is already in my InBox. 

God's blessings on all.

Electric toothbrush

I like the idea of electric toothbrushes but was not having any luck keeping one running well that had batteries. Today I bought one that is rechargeable to try out. I am hoping that it will work well. Manual toothbrushes are okay but I tend to wear one out in just a couple of months. The electric I feel less of a need to press so hard especially as the rotating head does a good job on the teeth as it passes over them. 

Must try and get some work done but I am spending more time with Ed as he can not sit and work at his desk for long periods. We watched the Aeronauts today and that was a really good movie. It was especially interesting to see the views of London in the 1860s. We walked and walked the streets of Old London in 2013 and again in 2016. It was a marvelous experience. Although I have very few London people; I have a lot of material on those few about where they had their shops and where they lived and went to Church. So it was fun to wander about and see all of that. I had not expected to find the streets still intact as they were (certainly the housing was newer) as the area was heavily bombed during World War II.

Christmas is sneaking up on us

Usually this is such a hectic time - getting gifts wrapped, decorating the house. Will do a little decorating but probably not a lot. Ed uses a walker on two floors and I do not want things in the way of that. 

He recovered more than two years ago so that he did not need a walker so I have high hopes that he can do that again. He loves to walk.

Physio and Massage for Ed

 Have been thinking that Ed needs to get back to his physio and massage. Will let the physiotherapist work that one out. We do a lot of walking about the house these days. Once we get our COVID-19 vaccine then we will go back to walking at the Mall. But you just can not really trust people. The other day I was using the hand cleaner at our Metro and a young woman dashed in close to me and without so much as an excuse me was into the store. No waiting in line for her I guess. That can happen at any time and you never know if that person is an asymptomatic carrier. Really very undisciplined of them. I am not in any danger likely from COVID-19 but if I catch it my husband might as well and for him that would be a disaster. 

Time continues forward and I have done almost no decorating for Christmas. Did manage to get gifts fortunately and they are mostly wrapped but no decorations. Must remedy that a little. It will just be our own little group living together that does Christmas this year. We will stick with the guidelines and that does require a lot of discipline. Hopefully everyone will do that although with the cases skyrocketing in the Toronto area obviously some people are just very selfish. 

Still no DNA work done; must get back to that soon. I also have a newsletter to do but can not seem to settle my mind down to that at the moment. 

Still no accomplishment in my phasing work

Although I have not had any time to work on phasing, my time has been well spent. My husband looks stronger. That is more important to me than anything else. I marvel at his perseverance although he says it is because I am like that. I just get up and keep moving. My grandparents were like that. I wonder what they think looking down. They would be sad for me not having my children and grandchildren living near me as we had lived near them. They would think that I live a very lonely life with no family around me; my siblings, nieces and nephews and their children are all elsewhere. They would be sad for me that my husband is ill. Their life was so totally different from mine.  

Their life was organized. I try to keep mine that way but life doesn't actually flow that way anymore. Organization is hard to maintain. There is always something to throw off a schedule. Perhaps that is the charm of modern life; it is always changing. Our experiences are so very different from our grandparents and yet they enjoyed their lives. Interesting to think on that.

The Vaccine has arrived

Nice to see the vaccine has now arrived in Canada. We are likely still looking at another year of wearing masks until the traces of COVID-19 disappear from our air. But it is such a great start to now have the vaccine here and soon into people's arms. 

For just a moment in time way back in the spring it looked like democracy could not survive the onslaught of COVID-19 but in the end the people as a community do know what is best for our generations to move forward. A bit sluggish at times as young adults just didn't have the discipline to stay the course and still do not apparently looking at Toronto area but moving along. Ottawa has done well this past month and we just need to stay the course. For most people a year from now is just a blip in time but for those with chronic illness this is a very fragile time and for them a year from now is an eon. 

Will democracy survive to the south of us? I watch as the events unfold there. I wonder how people can prefer a person who cares not a whit about the average American letting them die by the hundreds of thousands without even trying to stem the flow. Actually making a mockery of wearing a mask. Yet he received over seventy million votes which of course doesn't compare to the other candidate's 80 million votes. How can each state be happy with their votes (some led by republican congresses) and yet people in other states look at them and see fraud. Is there no respect for individual states these days in the United States? The Republican Party is the party that defends State's Rights! Really hard to understand when you are on the outside looking in. Sharing our thousands of miles of border can be a frightening experience when you see people with guns bigger than they are parading down streets. Who needs a gun like that? You can not hunt with it and what other value is there in having long guns? Glad that I turned my revolver in to the police a while ago now. I could never own a gun again watching the dreadful murders that have happened to the south of us and in our own country. 

Dark in the morning

As the longest night approaches; it is now dark in the morning when I awaken. Gray and overcast anyway today but the sun is now up and the new day open us. It is Sunday and I have my Church Bulletin in my inbox. I am enjoying my Church once again and probably I could have been doing this for the past fourty years equally enjoying it. It is a while since I have been out of step with my Church. I think some of my list of wants would be baptism for all comers; no jumping through hoops just welcome people to the altar on one Sunday of the month and bring their babies; children and grownups to be baptized. That is what Jesus would do I am fully convinced. 

I have a few other thoughts which includes the wine in Communion; use the money to buy medicines for countries who do not have the money to do so or will not provide for the poor in their midst. Especially during this pandemic providing vaccine to all is a must. 

I am slowly getting ready for Christmas. I have not really done a good job of it this year. I just couldn't seem to get it all done in my mind. It took me ages to actually observe what I had purchased but keep thinking that next year I will do better with Christmas. We will have a quiet Christmas this year and I am looking forward to that. As time marches forward so will the availability of the vaccine and Canada will be free once again.

The snow is falling

Most of our earlier snowfall has disappeared and today we awoke to a covering of white fluffy snow. Perhaps this snow will stay and winter will begin. It has been fairly cold except for a couple of slightly above zero days (which melted the earlier snow). 

We will likely spend most of our winter indoors this year although on warm days when the sun is beating down in the morning we could go out on the back patio which is protected from the wind and it actually gets quite warm there (say minus a couple instead of 20 below!). Last winter I built up my walking in the back yard after injuring my knee. Eventually I was doing a hundred times around the yard. Perhaps we will do that again this year. 

No work done again although I might get a chance to think more about the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter which was due at the beginning of the month. 

Just completed the first stage of discharge from hospital

When Ed left hospital he needed to have antibiotics by IV for four days. The initial plan was to have a nurse come and do his vitals but no nurse was available. The next step was to use ParaMed which meant driving to the local Medical Centre and having the IV given by one of the nurses at the centre. That was a terrific experience actually. 

Not much work done today

Really did not accomplish any genealogy today. A note from a person writing about the Siderfin Family and I replied. Will have to send some of the information that I have acquired. Time is such a treasure. 

What have I missed?

Realized today that I have not done the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter for this month. Will have to look at this today hopefully. 

Still busy with Ed's recovery as he has to go and have an IV daily for a few days. Working out okay though; took about 1.5 hours yesterday to accomplish that. Also went food shopping; just a small order which took about an hour as I needed to do the drug store as well. 

Time moves quickly these days but slower times are hopefully around the corner.

Whereever do I begin

My husband is home again and we are managing with the help of our daughters. It is nice to see him sitting at his desk once again in his study. He loves that room. It holds all of his family memories and genealogy which has occupied all of his retired time since 2004. He has been thus occupied almost half as long as he worked for the National Research Council. 

I think that my life will made a radical change. I had decided several weeks ago that I should spend the mornings with my husband in our living room talking and watching TV and walking about in between for exercise. For me that is a big change as I always closeted myself with my computer all morning long as my mind is at its best in the mornings; I do creative thinking then. In the afternoon I tend towards repetitive work and then in the evening I seldom work as I am definitely a morning person in spite of my genes saying that I am a night person. 

That means I will not get a lot of work done while we are operating on this new system. I will try but the time available is just so much especially with cooking most items from scratch to avoid salt. It sort of reminds me of our first years together when we spent most of that time together except during classes and lab times. 

A million things to do!

Husband is home again

 We brought Ed home again this evening. It was tiring for him but he is happy to be in his own home again.

Husband is improving

This time I am able to visit my husband in the hospital for one hour on Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday. He is improving but likely will be in hospital for a little longer.

Husband in hospital

My husband is in hospital once again. It is difficult to let a person be cared for by strangers but it had to be for the moment. He may be able to come home tomorrow or Monday. Time will tell. 

Thanksgiving Day

Although Thanksgiving Day is also a holiday here in Canada, the second Monday in October, the American Thanksgiving Day has gone around the world in particular for the day that follows which has become known as Black Friday everywhere. And why is it Black Friday - an interesting and historic mercantile statement. That is the day that businesses' books go into the black (i.e. start making money) and it continues apace until the end of the year. Although totally an American day until lately one sees Black Friday sales around the Globe including here in Canada. 

Traditionally we as a family have spent Thanksgiving together; we used to make the Great Trek to Southwestern Ontario every year to spend Thanksgiving with our families when our parents were still living. This year we did not do Thanksgiving together in the usual way. We did not do birthday parties together really although we did have a present opening session in the backyard earlier in the year but I do not really call that a Birthday Party! Just part of it; perhaps one of the best parts for the receiver but definitely lacks the finesse of a real Birthday Party. This year our Christmas thoughts are slowly scaling back as we realize that once again we must be strong and do this by Skype. My husband's illness makes it particularly poignant. One hopes that everyone will scale back and beat down this pandemic once again. The vaccine is coming; we just need to be patient for a while longer. 

Happy Thanksgiving to America; may the day be all that is possible.

 

To do - 857 Emails

I have 857 Emails in my Inbox. Through the spring and summer into fall I tend not to be speedy in filing my emails into folders. There are some that I want to pay some attention to and others that I will delete but want to have some time to really think about that action. At least it is less than one thousand but it will take me a couple of weeks to clear them out. If anyone has been waiting for a further response to an email that may be forthcoming in December. December tends to be catch-up month for me. It is incredible how fast the past eight months has flown by considering we were on lockdown for some of it and partial lockdown for another month of that time. I do not have a lot of work to show for all of that time because much of it has been spent in looking after my husband. It is a full time job really being a caretaker for someone with his condition. I would say that he is stable but not being a doctor can not really state that as fact. He has good days and bad days in terms of side effects of his condition. But overall his mental attitude has stabilized which is perhaps the most important part of his health anyway. Physio has not happened for a couple of months now. He does benefit from it but the effort is too much at the moment. We continue to work on his exercises at home. Now that we are into winter likely most of our time will be spent inside the house or out on the patio as we keep that cleared. Having the snow removal company is great and we will think about expanding that to shoveling as well as the scraping done by the larger machines. I am strong enough likely to run the snowblower but I am not going to take that on. I would rather do the small amount of shoveling that is left. 

Another snowfall happening again today so our gradual buildup begins although we could still have a thaw time will tell on that. I like the snow though as it helps to control my day in that one cannot garden outside (which is not really my thing anyway); running outside is not overly practical at my age so I do that inside as I have for a number of years anyway and I am not a sun person in terms of spending hours getting a tan so winter suits me just fine!

Cleaning day again today as I did not accomplish as much as I thought I might have yesterday.

A new cousin from Australia

Although I had found a new cousin in Australia a while ago I had not really looked carefully at the data. It is an interesting match that four of my siblings have with this match - 42 centimorgans in one block (plus two of them have a second match). I do not match at all but it is on a chromosome where I am not matching my siblings on my paternal side at all. It does look like a Rawlings match and a return email leaves us with that thought of working on the new match after the New Year. It is amazing to talk about the New Year. It does hold so much hope for the world with three vaccines coming to fruition. 

Good news from our American neighbours with the transition to a new team moving forward. CDC has been so maligned these past couple of years that their advice not to travel during their Thanksgiving festivities has been ignored by over three million thus far as that many have traveled already and the holiday is still two more days. Prayers that COVID-19 will not increase as much as is suggested by the modeling. It will be so nice to have a President who lets CDC do their job and respects them for it. America deserves better for sure. 

We are of course struggling with growing numbers of cases here as this idea that wearing a mask is something that could ever restrict your freedom. If you do not want to wear a mask then stay home; what right does anyone have to subject the people around them to possibility of COVID-19? It is up to all of us to do our part to slow the spread of this disease; protect our hospital infrastructure and our physicians who have to care for the patients therein. There is no freedom for anyone unless all of us have the freedom to clean air. How can people be so ignorant?

Snow Snow Snow !

A lovely covering of snow this morning and our first snow shoveling done by the group that we hired to do that. Yesterday I actually managed a couple of hours phasing DNA results. 

Our Church has now purchased a camera so that the YouTube production is live including the actual service  with continuous image and dialogue. Far superior sound and the camera kept up with the service the entire time. The music was also greatly improved. I can see myself attending this way for a long time. This way perhaps I will never actually move from the Anglican Church; I like my church service and can live with the Book of Alternative Services although I prefer the Book of Common Prayer. But I do not have to be part of the ongoing discussion that I feel could have been avoided many years ago. Sacramental marriage has not existed since the Divorce Act became final and the Anglican Church accepted it. Marriage is a civil affair as it was in the beginning. 

Today more phasing hopefully but first I need to clean the house. Today the top floor gets cleaned and that takes about three hours to four hours for me to accomplish it.  I am somewhat slower these days and I do take a break every hour to hour and a half for at least half of an hour.

Canada-UK Trade Deal

The new Canada-UK Trade Deal was a surprise yesterday. I never had an opinion on Boris Johnson particularly but having COVID-19 changed him. I have no ideas on whether or not the UK should be in the EU or out although I had gotten used to them being part of the EU. Now we are back to that big family idea of the Commonwealth. It is an interesting happening in the midst of a pandemic. I wonder how my cousins are doing in England as well as in the United States. Having met so many people on line and expanded the knowledge of family relations a thousand fold, this pandemic has made me recall all of the many thousands of cousins that I have met. I think we are a lot alike. We liked to chat for a bit and then move on to the next new cousin. Occasionally I revisit someone I have written to long ago but mostly I just keep plunging forward to a new cousin. The Trade Deal reminded me that we are really just one big family all these countries in the commonwealth.

Planning Christmas just in case

We decided to plan Christmas just in case. Setting up the tree and being ready is a good idea. With vaccines being talked about so much next Christmas will be really enjoyed. 

COVID-19 is on the rise and will we have the will to beat it down once again. I have the will and returned to not leaving the house except for food and essential shopping twice a week. So far so good. Masked, washing frequently and aiming  for two metres away from everyone else not in my bubble. Our bubble is pretty small which is lucky for us. 

Just nine days to come in November and December will come and the end of December 2019 is when we heard about the new coronavirus arising. Pandemic was not in anyone's thoughts a year ago but Mother Nature is indisputably the owner of that type of action. We have to live in unison with Mother Nature or face the consequences. The environment continues to be the most important item in our lives. We must live with it and stop destroying it.

COVID-19 and patience, respect and adherence to the rules

COVID-19 is on the march and we have to be vigilant or we will be looking at the same scenario as the United States. It will take patience, respect and adherence to the rules. Walking outside can be a problem as some young people (anyone under 40 is young to me!) are simply not respecting the six feet distance outside although I have to say that many do do so. My husband has a mobility device and he does not move quickly. My husband should wear a mask when walking outside because he simply does not react fast enough to put one on but that is another story. Vaccines should be here by mid to late spring and then just time to let the antibodies build up and we can move back to a more normal life hopefully. Just a few more months to respect the rights of all people; follow the rules and we will be much happier in the long run. I was young once and it is hard to accept the limitations that are needed to protect the vulnerable. I shudder to think of what might happen again in Long Term Care homes if people are not careful. 

Another day of minimal accomplishment with phasing of the DNA but I do have the car vacuumed! That is great news as there was quite a bit of leaf bits in there. Soon the snow will come and leaf bits will be a thing of the past until next year!

Perhaps tomorrow I will accomplish more. Although I see there is a Bible Study with the Labyrinth Group at the Church coming up which I may attend. I do love a good Bible Study. 

Another day and phasing not even touched!

Sometimes it amazes me how much the Daily Bible Reading can capture where I am at in terms of daily thoughts. Today the reading is from 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28:

Final Instructions and Greetings

My friends, we ask you to be thoughtful of your leaders who work hard and tell you how to live for the Lord. Show them great respect and love because of their work. Try to get along with each other. My friends, we beg you to warn anyone who isn’t living right. Encourage anyone who feels left out, help all who are weak, and be patient with everyone. Don’t be hateful to people, just because they are hateful to you. Rather, be good to each other and to everyone else.

Always be joyful and never stop praying. Whatever happens, keep thanking God because of Jesus Christ. This is what God wants you to do.

Don’t turn away God’s Spirit or ignore prophecies. Put everything to the test. Accept what is good and don’t have anything to do with evil.

I pray that God, who gives peace, will make you completely holy. And may your spirit, soul, and body be kept healthy and faultless until our Lord Jesus Christ returns. The one who chose you can be trusted, and he will do this.

Friends, please pray for us.

Give the Lord’s followers a warm greeting.

In the name of the Lord I beg you to read this letter to all his followers.

I pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you!

Last night was Bible Study once again on the book "The Great Spiritual Migration: How the World's Largest Religion is seeking a better way to be Christian."

We were looking at the third Migration - The Missional Migration. On this reading I did have strong opinions. I am very supportive of the writings of the author Brian D. McLaren. I felt that he had really gotten into this idea in a way that was matching my own thoughts of the past thirty five years and where my Anglican Church was heading. It was a slow movement back into more active Anglican Church life for me. I had moved with my United Church husband to his Church as he wanted his children to have that experience in their lives. Personally I think the more ecumenical you are the better you can see the world and so I agreed. A few years in though and I really did have second thoughts about that and stayed home from the United Church this one particular Sunday just to see if that would work better for me. Certainly I found the quiet time in contemplation reading through my Book of Common Prayer the Morning Prayer was much more satisfying to me. I was busy with a two year old and a ten year old plus I had started working once again at home. I worked at home for about fifteen years proofreading and editing mostly scientific journals. It was a comfortable moment in my life as I had a couple of hours just to myself. However my husband found it difficult to manage our two year old and Church Treasurer so I returned once again to help with that and created a two year old Sunday School Class since the numbers warranted a separate class and they were too busy to be in the nursery. Instead I started to go to early service at the local Anglican Church and followed that path until we started to attend the United Church in downtown Ottawa in the mid 90s as the more academic sermons appealed to us and my husband had completed ten years as Treasurer at the local United Church and his fifteen years of singing in the Choir. We are loners, my husband and I, and we did not fit into our age group at the local United Church. To be honest, I am more of a Bible Study and service person in the Church. I was doing World Day of Prayer (and did do that for about a dozen years) plus I was Treasurer for Camp Bitobi (a United Church Camp in the Gatineau Hills). A lot changed suddenly in the mid 90s as I returned to work outside of the home; stepped down from the area World Day of Prayer Committee and Treasurer for Camp Bitobi. I needed time to come up to scratch in the newly computerized world although we had had a computer for over ten years by then. I had not really done very much on it except word processing and excel spreadsheets usually for my husband's volunteer activities and mine. 

In 1995 I started to use email and joined an Anglican Listserv and I found a place for me in the worldwide Anglican Communion. But back to the Daily Bible Reading. In essence this is what the book is about. It is well written. There are parts that I am not in agreement with; I am not one to throw out the familial traditions of the Anglican Church. I learned the Lord's Prayer from my grandfather who took the time to painstakingly teach me the words when I was quite young. I can remember saying the Lord's Prayer over and over again with him. There are parts of the Church that we must bring forward with us as we march into this new world that COVID-19 has created.

Minus ten degrees celsius and winter is coming

Snow in the air yesterday but no accumulation yet. But definitely winter is coming with minus ten degrees celsius last night and still minus six at 06:30. I find this gradual approach to winter here quite pleasant. No sudden heavy snowfalls just a gradual lowering of the temperature as we reach towards the first real snowfalls and winter settles in. The snow gradually builds up and then April the thawing begins which sometimes takes us into early May but most often the snow leaves us sometime in April. My arthritis hates the cold weather but I love it. I love the views from the windows of all that snow; white and fresh for the most part as far as the eye can see. 

Today I have this hope that I can get back to phasing. I would like to accomplish this task before I start the next review! Perhaps, though, this year of COVID-19 will just be continuous from 2020 to 2021 and quite seamless as we live out two years of our lives waiting for a vaccine to be distributed. It will seem odd to go out without a mask eventually. We will have to retrain ourselves to trust the air in the malls and other enclosed spaces. 

Light dusting of snow

There is a light dusting of snow early this morning. Slowly but surely we march onwards towards my favourite season - Winter. The long nights and short days gives me more time to work on my genealogy. Am I interested in genealogy? I sometimes stop and contemplate that one. I do not enjoy it the same way as my husband who has been deeply immersed in his genealogy for our entire marriage (reaching towards 54 and one half years now). He has enjoyed the hunt and the time spent with those who think in a similar fashion. I do not think that I belong to that particular type of genealogist. When my cousin persuaded me to do a profile on my Pincombe family I had not really thought much beyond that to be honest but as I searched to put that together and took my 42 courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, I found that I liked the methodical tracing back. Retiring during that same time period, I switched from how I thought my retirement days would go to a much more rigorous time schedule of completing my courses and producing a family tree that included DNA information. The DNA information for sure drew me in and continues to do so. I can really prove these people are my ancestors and for me that is the most interesting part. All those years in science not wasted at all!

My husband on the other hand has used his DNA results to link his male line (Kipp) back to the 1630s emigrants to New Amsterdam/New Holland and has been most successful. The paper trail is lost in Dutchess County and may or may not be found. Time will tell. His DNA results at Ancestry have proven his fifty years of research to be rigorous which is a plus for any genealogist. For him too, the science aspect has been rather interesting and in his case he has his PhD in Chemistry plus a MLS in Library Science which certainly was a plus as he worked his way through the holdings of many repositories in a systematic and rigorous fashion. 

So that light dusting of snow is very welcomed. It tells us of time becoming much more available to work away on this never ending task. Always around the corner there are new discoveries and some discards as we progress ever so steadily backwards.

How is America doing?

The health care crisis in America is huge. We watch from Canada wondering when it will all end for them (and us for that matter). Just waiting for a vaccine as President Trump proposes will cost hundreds of thousands of lives between then and now. What a frightening thought actually. Following the CDC guidelines would save lives. CDC is starting to speak up more and one hopes that Americans not wearing masks, practising physical distancing and frequent hand washing will do so and help to prevent deaths. 

I am thinking that we might try going back to the mall for our daily walk now that we are out of the restrictions at Level 2  (it is easier for my husband with his mobility device to be on the smooth floors then the sidewalk). It is getting colder as well.

The Environment and our duty

I love Sunday now (actually I love all the days but Sunday is special) and today I was at Church online once again. The You-Tube service is fabulous. Sometimes the connection is lost or poor but just a quick intervention and back again. As a child I loved Sunday, the activity of going to Church then to Sunday School and even back to Evening Service as I grew older became part of my being. I was a very ecumenical person as a child when it was just becoming the new way. Our (Anglican) priest used to exchange pulpits with the Roman Catholic priest from Holy Rosary Catholic Church nearby us. It changed how I thought about the Roman Catholic Church for sure. I no longer saw it as something strange and different but rather a Church very like my own. I attended a Bible Study at Bethel Chapel (Pentecostal I think but I am not very knowledgeable on Protestant Churches) in the pre teen years. When I stayed with my grandmother, aunt and uncle we went to the United Church. But I would say I was always Anglican in my outlook and thinking. But I liked to hear how other people thought about God and Jesus. 

Reading still for the next Bible Study day and we are now into the Missionary Migration. When I first saw the title I was not keen. I no longer think the Christian Church should be actively interfering in other religions that are held by people. Medical missionaries can be an essential part of the health care system of poor countries and talking about God and Jesus as they see it can provide an academic understanding of Christianity. But I no longer believe we should actively try to displace religions that already exist in a culture. No one should; people have a right to their beliefs without interference unless it is a danger to themselves or their children. But the author brought back memories of my mother who was an environmentalist when I was a child in the fifties. She never wasted in my memory; everything had a place where it could be reused and she did that. 

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, petroleum products have a great use in our society that is beneficial but the burning of fossil fuels is a waste. This precious product should still be here for centuries to come not burned up in huge car and truck engines that roar around the streets. Our next car will be electric I hope if we can afford it. Now retired we are limited in what we can buy for sure. Gas guzzlers are much cheaper for that very reason; there is a gain for the wealthy to continue the burning of fossil fuels; they made their wealth that way and they will continue to do so. Am I free of that; no my few investments probably are dependent on that to a certain extent although I hope that some of that investment return is from wind and solar energy. 

We have a duty to the environment; God told us we have dominion over the earth and all that is in it. But what does dominion mean. I think it means that we must protect the earth and everything in it and not waste it. I think that the Church must move to protection of the environment which Pope Francis has done; it is scary to think of alienating wealthy people from the Church but to survive as a people then we must do that. Pope John Paul II attracted me to the Roman Catholic Church but Pope Francis has convinced me that a Church can bring about great change if they wish to move in that direction.

Family History Federation Really Useful Family History Show

I am attending the online History Show for the FHF today. I did a consult with one of their specialists and it was a most interesting visit. I presented my data on Ellen Taylor (my great grandmother and my mtDNA line) and he actually agreed with my thoughts on her parents. Proving it will need a DNA match though and that hasn't happened but maybe one of these days. I have results in so many pots that I may yet be lucky.

COVID-19 in Canada

Our numbers continue to rise albeit much slower than our neighbour to the South but still so many cases. We have not been back to the mall since we saw that couple walking around, man had his mask on and he was carrying his wife's mask and she was smiling away at people. Can you imagine! There is no excuse for having your face uncovered in a mall. What an insult to everyone there. My husband has to use a puffer to keep his lungs clear of sarcoidosis and he wears a mask. People with lung disease wear a mask. What right did that woman have to wander around the mall smiling at everybody and not wearing a mask. None! My rant for the day. Just back from shopping and everyone was wearing their mask and properly.  

We were restricted and the restrictions have eased; back at Level 3 so restaurants etc open although we have not been to a restaurant since the lockdown in March. We will not go again until at least next spring/summer but my husband has a special diet so maybe not again for quite a while. I am sorry about that as my husband really enjoys going out but it isn't going to happen. Coming from a business family I do realize that this is really hard on them although now a days people really like take out so can switch to that.

Covid-19 cases in Canada 282,577 (increase of 5,516 over yesterday), 10,768 deaths (increase of 83 over yesterday) and 226,775 recovered (increase of 3,576 over yesterday). Worldwide we are now at 52,788,524 cases (increase of 556,473 over yesterday), 1,294,028 deaths (increase of 7,760 over yesterday) and 34,181,795 recovered (increase of 189,185 over yesterday). The numbers are tumbling upward at a rate of 1 million every two days. 

Our American neighbours  have 10,637,421 cases (increase of 163,409 over yesterday), 246,291 deaths (increase of 1,870 over yesterday) and 5,858,772 recovered (increase of 28,371 over yesterday). What an awful time they are having. CDC is starting to exert itself more, fear of President Trump is perhaps receding and soon (68 days) President-elect Biden will be in control and with the help of the American people all wearing masks, physically distancing and frequent hand-washing Americans will bring their numbers down. I think that using masks as a political statement is the most criminal thing I have ever seen happen to be honest. President-elect Biden has now been awarded Arizona giving him 290 Electoral College votes so well ahead of the 270 votes that he needs in the Electoral College. Although he will also be tough with regard to trade it will be nice to see the American president caring about his people and not just himself. We (Canada and the United States) share a long border and it has been closed for awhile. That must be very hard on Americans who are so dependent on Canadians coming down to shop and stay.

I do pray that my second cousins in the United States can survive all of this as they are my age (when we visited my Great Aunt Sarah in Elmira NY she did talk about her grandchildren so feel I knew them a little). We have been corresponding.

Theological Migration

This particular section of the Bible Study book did capture my attention. Partly because I migrated a long time ago. As a child I attended Church and Sunday School at my Anglican Church every Sunday with few exceptions other than when I was at my Grandmother's house where we went to the United Church and when we were at the cottage we went to the Anglican Church there. During the week though when I was eight, nine, ten and perhaps a little longer I used to attend on one of the weekdays (I think it might have been Wednesday) Bethel Chapel which was perhaps Pentecostal. My knowledge of protestant churches is somewhat limited. But this Bible Study designed for children was well attended - perhaps as many as thirty children came. I had a Bible of my own and was very adept at finding verses given the name of the book, chapter and verse. I knew my Bible very well (and still like to think that I do) and could rapidly find the verse requested and I think they were called Bible draws or something like that. The prize for the one who found the most verses over a period of time (lost to me now) was a lovely white zippered Bible which I dearly wanted to win and which indeed I did win the year that I was ten. But here at this Bible Study I heard the interpretation of Bible Stories that I knew well that was somewhat different from the interpretation in my own Sunday School/ Church Sermons. Hence at a young age I learned that one could look differently at verses/stories in the Bible particularly in the Old Testament which can be confusing at times. I gradually came to realize that one must not take the old testament literally. One must put different parts together and see the entire picture and very carefully. Can we know God? I am not really sure that we can. I do not think He has ever wished us to know him. He wanted us to obey him; worship him and follow his commandments. But was the Old Testament written only for the Jewish people? Another question I have never quite answered in my mind. Jesus opened the Bible to all so that question is answered for the time after Jesus but not before. Always the question in my mind is "Can we interpret the God of the Old Testament?". What role does He/should He play in our lives? Jesus came to give us a New Covenant and that Covenant was love which I tend to see as respect. The Theological Migration section gets a big check mark from me but I am not entirely in agreement with all of the author's thoughts. My only disagreement is the idea of throwing everything out; we need continuity to preserve all the good that was passed to us by our parents/grandparents with regard to our service to the Church. The Church is not there to serve us but we are here to serve the good work that Jesus came to tell us about and that we should be doing. 

Remembrance Day in Canada

Today, November 11, is Remembrance Day here in Canada and usually I write about my great Uncle Edwin Denner Buller who was in World War I and my father's first cousin Edward Raymond Blake who was shot down over France in World War II. It is 75 years since the end of World War II and my birth; I was born in September after Victory over Japan day and Victory in Europe Day. Born into peacetime but remembering well the footage shown in the movie theatres in my childhood remember the devastation of World War II and in particular the murder of six million Jewish people. The pictures of the Concentration Camps are forever seared into my childhood mind and everytime I heard about people being put into camps that is what I am reminded of and probably will be to the end of my days. Surely we learned from that cruelty that was dealt to the Jewish people (and anyone else who disagreed with the New Order in Germany). 

It is overcast today but unusually warm for a Remembrance Day in Canada. If we were permitted to go to the Service at the War Memorial in Ottawa it would be extremely crowded but we are not. If we go we will be told to move along and not gather in groups. COVID-19 has changed our entire lives for the moment and likely for another year to come. Perhaps next year at Remembrance Day we can once again gather at the War Memorial and leave our poppies on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

No Blog Post Yesterday

Yesterday was a busy day; I was cleaning and I just never did sit down and write a blog post. I was thinking about tribalism and the causes of the First World War. So many Canadians died in the First World War on the fields of battle in France. And then the Second World War which was started by a dictator who dreamed of that country being the greatest in the World. Somewhat shocking those thoughts. I was born at the very end of World War II. But the fears, hopes, dreams, and suffering were part of my growing up years. As children from a young age in school we walked several blocks to a Church near my public school every Remembrance Day. There we heard stories of heroism, death and destruction all because a dictator (not even from the country that he ended up dominating) who claimed that he wanted revenge against those who had defeated this country in the First World War. In reality he just wanted everything for himself - luxury beyond the dreams of most people in the world. Control and absolute rule; they were his desires not the good of the people. I discovered as I vacuumed that the name of the country does not really matter; it was the act that mattered. Trying to control the press and the government by brute force he worked his way towards Chancellor of that country. I do not mention his name because his name should be forever forgotten. 

All dictators should be forever forgotten; their actions remembered for the sin that they were to the world but not their name. Do not give them that luxury in a world that remembers those who do so much for the world.  Let their name be forever struck from this world.

Entering that new week that will lead us onward

For my entire life until the last couple of years, Canada has lived next door to the greatest neighbour in the world. We didn't always agree on every detail but we were supportive of each other. As a country with enormous natural resources far in excess of what we can utilize ourselves we became especially the last thirty to fourty years the storehouse for the massive industrial complex to the south of us. No one really realized how dependent we were on them in terms of finished products until disaster struck in a double thronged approach - the pandemic COVID-19 and a feeling that the present American President hated Canada. COVID-19 is still with us but there is this wonderful early spring before winter has even struck in the air. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris spoke to the American nation last night with a program that was probably listened to around the world. In terms of numbers I expect it was the most listened to set of speeches ever. Normalcy was re-entering into the world and the world can feel a sigh of relief. I expect the Biden-Harris team will be just as protectionist as the present President-Vice President to be honest. But we have learned our lesson and will produce products here in Canada that are vital to our survival and not be dependent on anyone else. 

Prayers that the CDC will finally be allowed to do what they do so very well. Certainly the President-elect will be most supportive of them doing so. The numbers are so large now of new cases in the United States; the death rate horrific. Here we also have people marching against mask-wearing and shut-downs. But the reality is that these processes work and we will just have to continue with both of these processes until a vaccine has taken hold in the population. 

And it is Sunday. My Sunday Service is in my Inbox and I will be off to Church at 10:30 once again all in my own home. A new normalcy which I rather like.

Covid-19 globally

Now that the yard work is done and we are ready for winter, my thoughts go back to COVID-19. Today we go back into Level 3 following our return to Level 2 modified four weeks ago. We are doing better it is said and certainly the number of cases have definitely declined. 

But how is the rest of the world doing. Shockingly the United States now has more than 120,000 cases per day. We are just going into winter and that is certainly not a good thing to have so many cases. The border between Canada and the United States remains closed except for trade back and forth although Canadians can return to Canada and Americans to the United States so long as they quarantine for two weeks. 

Nationally here in Canada we had 4,461 new cases yesterday, 55 deaths and 3,239 recovered. Globally there were 553,272 new cases, 8,111 deaths and 246,378 recovered. The numbers worldwide are at 49,382,879 worldwide, 1,243,789 deaths worldwide and 32,518,778 recovered worldwide. In the United States there are 9,830,895 cases (increase of 131,473 over yesterday), 239,354 deaths (increase of 838 over yesterday) and 5,694,744 recovered (increase of 22,741 over yesterday). I do always comment on our dear neighbours to the south. We have been friends, neighbours and business colleagues for over two hundred years. It is hard to watch them suffer through this and equally hard to watch ourselves do so. 

I was listening to the presumptive President-Elect Joe Biden and he is certainly doing what he said he would do and that is get right in there and work on the pandemic along with his presumptive Vice President Kamala Harris. God Bless America and help her through these times. God Bless Canada too.

Last day of raking

Yesterday ended up being a good day to finish the raking. The Black Walnut tree finally dropped all of its stems and that task was completed after a walk. Glad to see it all done. The rakes are put away until next year. 

Our signs went up for the snow clearing yesterday afternon. We are ready!

Other accomplishments - cleaning the stove and washing. The day flew by once again. 

Bible Study

I am enjoying this Bible Study; I used to lead Bible Studies but it is much more interesting to be part of the group being lead. I do have some strong ideas on how the Church should go just as the book we are studying does. I still firmly believe in some continuity; I do not worship continuity but it is the ideas that were given to us as children by our parents/grandparents on how they see Church in their lives. I come from a strong Service family. Helping out in Church activities is in my blood so that these last twenty years that I have not attended Church that regularly I have felt this disconnect in my life. I reconnected myself with the service that I did in Transcription of early Church records. I was still supplying a service and serving my Church in a very different way. I still feel that way although my transcription level has for the moment plummeted. It takes a lot of time to do transcription. I need to prepare the time so that I have no interruptions for several hours as concentration on the task at hand is of paramount importance. At the moment a myriad of details that need to be managed occupy my day and I do not get to transcription. I would like to return to a set number of hours per day on my transcriptions. I still have about one thousand microfiche that I have never worked on. 

But what do I really mean by continuity; I mean the ability of people to learn from their elders how best to serve the Church. I think the fundamental error that we have these days is the idea that the Church serves us. We are the Church of Jesus Christ on earth; just as he was the servant to many so are we called to service in the Church. I do tithe but that is different from service; that is simply returning to God 10% of what he has given to me. Jesus explained it well I think when the discussion came up about taxes. He didn't mention tithing in that story but he did mention that one renders unto the government what belongs to the government (our income tax; other taxes) and onto God what belongs to God. The idea of tithing is older than Jesus in that Israel's tithing to take care of the Levites (the historical rabbis of the Jewish faith) was 22% and that the Levites than tithed on the behalf of all their people by bringing 10% of the tithe into the in this case synagogue (this is the biblical tithe).  That is how I understand tithing. 

To me service is how we demonstrate our love towards mankind (I am old so I feel quite free to use the expression mankind to recognize everyone - I grew up thinking how unkind the English language was to use the word man as a general term so that males were deprived of their own word and of course female pertains to my sex and is ours exclusively although I do not want to get into all of that as these days the lines have become somewhat blurred). Loving our neighbours as ourselves was the second commandment that Jesus gave to us. We need to look carefully at what Jesus was saying to us. He was saying, I believe, that respect for our neighbours is paramount just as we respect ourselves. To me Respect means love. Love is a very broad term really I believe and a lot of words can be included under its umbrella. 

Enough for now of my thoughts as I really must get some work done. Although today I have already steam cleaned the oven and blanched cauliflower to freeze which was in excess (i.e. no one was eating it). Since cauliflower is not one of my favourites I wasn't helping either! There is however washing to do and then maybe I can settle into a few hours on phasing.

Back into Stage 3

We return to Stage 3 of the COVID-19 levels on the 7th of November. Only 25 new cases yesterday in Ottawa.  Certainly this is not defeated; we must learn to manage it until the vaccines are available sometime next summer. Hopefully the vaccines will lessen a third wave of COVID-19. 

I started a Bible Study two weeks ago today and the first two weeks have been interesting with four more weeks to go (every Wednesday). Why a Bible Study at this time of year? Why not? I had not heard of the book and yet it copies my thoughts but in a much more thorough and succinct way. Perhaps one of the most profound thoughts that I had was that the Church is no longer walking in lock step with the government. I respect our government very much but handing the Residential Schools to the Churches to manage was the worst thing that we ever took on. Managed properly, it might have given a good education to the children. In reality children were abused; their beliefs and traditions scorned and they were not properly taken care of when they were ill. 

I had a good thought on all of this. Let us give them, once completed, the pipeline. They would manage it very well and they have a 50 year plan for how to move us from dependence on oil to green energy. The oil will always be useful and perhaps in years to come we will see plastic houses that are substantial and require less maintenance and last longer. Let us make better use of this priceless resource instead of burning it up in cars. And yes, I also drive a car that uses gas. When I was filling it up yesterday I thought how wonderful it would be to just plug your car in. It was the first time that I had filled a car in probably twenty years plus. Once I went to work at the Hospital I took the bus; my driving to work days were done. When I got to the pump I wasn't close enough so had to move. Then I had chosen a pump where I couldn't pay there but had to go into the store to pay. The what ifs filled my brain as I filled the gas tank which took me a moment to unlock and then to remember to select the grade of gasoline since nothing came out of the hose. Quick study and I was there but it did give me time to think about how much better usage of oil there is really than burning it up in cars and polluting the environment. Lego for one; this marvelous toy needs to be there for many generations of children to come. The inventiveness of children with a box of miscellaneous lego is something to behold. 

This weeks chapter for the Bible study discusses Migration of Christian Beliefs but it is so much more than that. In a way it is a return to "What Would Jesus Do" which has become the fundamental of my beliefs. Although I am an Anglican and I love the traditional service perhaps because for 75 years I have mostly used that service and it reminds me of my grandparents with their thees and thous, I am devoted to that Traditional Service. But I refused to be on any Worship Committee because my way isn't the way of the future; it is just my way. The way of the future is to follow "What Would Jesus Do." This week's chapter did not fail me in that regard. I look forward to this evening's Online Bible Study.

Snow

I woke up to a blanket of snow all over the ground today. Love Winter; welcome snow and welcome to the blue jays feeding at the bird's nest early this morning. Winter has begun in Eastern Canada and likely to prevail until next April. Lots of work time; I have a lot planned. 

An interesting match on Gedmatch yesterday that looks like my Pincombe line. Entered that into the system just before I get back to looking at the 125 new results that I have added from current matches to completed matches. Complete in that I have painted them on DNA Painter where I have subjectively assigned them to one or another of my grandparents based on their matches within my set. I have entered them into my excel database of all my matches by chromosome number and then start of centimorgan match. I have assigned them either with great confidence or semi-confidence to one of my four great grandparents with a few assigned to Unknown classification even if I have painted them into a particular grandparent on DNA Painter (they are easily changed). This is another excel flat file that contains all of the matches that I have located and been able to put into an Excel file - 730 matches in total from 23 and Me, FT DNA, Ancestry via Gedmatch, and My Heritage. I have not yet done anything with Living DNA as we do not have those matches yet. 

I will review Chromosome 1 once again as I have added a number of matches and that will be my starting point. Since I started this yearly reworking of the phasing in February one hopes that I can complete it before it is time to begin again!

May God Bless America

I wish only the best for our neighbours to the south. May God's love shine down upon them and help them to lift the scourge of COVID-19 that has invaded their land.

H11 Newsletter - Volume 4, Issue 4, 2020

The H11 Newsletter, Volume 4, Issue 4, 2020 has been published to the website at FT DNA. I no longer publish the Newsletter in my blog.

The second wave of COVID-19

We are very much into the second wave of COVID-19 here in Canada. My area is back to a modified second stage and given the number of cases lately unlikely to be reinstated to Stage 3 on the 7th of November. You can see it in the stores and malls that we were frequenting. People not wearing masks - not many - but it only takes one super spreader to infect hundreds in one go. Why do people think they are exempt from the rules. The only exemption is to stay out if you are not wearing a mask. It is disrespectful of the people who are shopping in a store. Totally unacceptable. 

There is my rant for the day. We were walking in the mall a week ago and a woman (her husband was carrying her mask) was walking around the mall not wearing a mask. She actually had the nerve to smile. I do not care what you think is your reason for going maskless but it is unacceptable. Lots of people have lung disorders but they are wearing coverings. 

Another beautiful fall day here. The sunrise was cloudy and quiet, no bright red splotches. I love this time of year with its promise of long nights and lots of DNA work to be done.

All Saints Day

I loved to go to Church on All Saints Day when I was young. I even took the morning off of school in high school to go to Church on All Saints Day when it didn't occur on a Sunday or Saturday. To me it was one of those very important days in the Church Year that one should just be there thanking God for all that he has given to us. 

Today it is dawn as I look out of the window at 6:30 a.m. I love the return to Standard Time as well. Really I would like to just stay at Standard Time year round. I do not need Daylight Savings Time. But it is likely to continue as it permits people to have long evenings in the summer and I have to admit our winters are long, cold and dark so perhaps for some that long bright evening in the summer is a welcome respite. 

It is nice that in the midst of our second semi-lockdown here in Ottawa that All Saints Day is actually on a Sunday. At 10:30 am I shall be on You-Tube being part of the Service at the Church. It is enough for me at the moment. Today especially I will remember my brother Doug at prayer time. His was a life of service for sure especially in the Church.

Our yard work is pretty much complete with just the snowfence to go up and cleaning out the gutter on the lower eavestrough. Perhaps we will have the tree out front removed; time will tell. 

October flew by

Hard to believe it is actually the 31st of October. Not a great deal accomplished today. I felt like a day off. We did start up the snow blower and the generator and all is well with those two handy appliances.

My Sunday Service arrived yesterday and will attend Church via you-tube once again. I feel that this is something that I prefer doing and probably will do this for as long as I am provided with the access. 

My husband had a pretty good day; we were out for a walk but by evening he was pretty tired. 

Perhaps tomorrow I will get some genealogy done.

Email from a match

Had a couple of interesting emails from a match that I had noted as likely being from my Welch line. Ann Welch married Henry Christopher Buller in 1837 at Edgbaston, Birmingham, England. She was just 17 and he was a widower and 32 years of age. I certainly do have some exciting ancestors. Ann's parents William Welch and Sarah (Cheatle) Welch were married at Longdon by Lichfield, Staffordshire in 1818. William's parents John Welch and Margaret (Brockhouse) Welch were married 1783 at Rugeley, Staffordshire and they had eleven children. Because this individual has a match in the same area as a descendant of the twin sister of Ann I am highly suspicious that this match is in the Welch-Cheatle line going back. He could be a 4th cousin by the size of the match so sharing 3x great grandparents but I suspect he is likely a fifth cousin so likely back into the Welch-Brockhouse or Cheatle lines. Interesting though that he has lines back into Birmingham in the mid 1800s and earlier. 

Worked a bit on the tree to see if it was an easy path back but probably not.

Today is another cleanup day and then hopefully finished the outside work except for winter stuff but we do have someone to clear the laneway which will make a huge difference. 

My husband

My husband tries so hard to live his life the way he used to and it wears him out. Gradually he is changing to a more relaxed approach to life. He needs to do that to survive I think. When your aim is to live to be 90 then I think you need to modify your life if you have a chronic illness. At 77 he has certainly had a difficult year. But with a lockdown there is the advantage you can not really go anywhere and the pace of life can be quite slow and relaxed. Walking around the house gives me thousands of steps and I just have to encourage him to do the same. He just has to fit into the mold now. 

I remember when I injured my back and it is a while ago now it was extremely frustrating for me to spend all my time standing or lying down. I could also kneel at my computer desk and did do that as well. But gradually I was able to work back into my calisthenics exercises and that helped my back a lot. During the summer though I can not get in all those exercises - there just isn't time! But now that fall is here and I have more time I am back to doing my calisthenics and my back is much better. Really I should do therapy on my back but when I tried to get that done the doctor I had at the time was not helpful. So we moved on from that doctor. It was interesting that after a few weeks of trying to get a referral the office called to set up an appointment for flu shots. We had already gone to the drug store but I reminded the secretary once again that my back was still giving me a great amount of pain and basically she did not care. I am not sure she passed my messages on actually. 

When I injured my knee I was sent off to physio right away which was quite reasonable but I have never again asked about my back. Perhaps I am afraid that there is really something wrong with it that needs an operation and that is just not practical with my husband and my calisthenics keeps it in check for the moment.

But back to my husband, he is busy working on his genealogy and that is really good for him. Plus he has so much material and it would be a pity to lose all of his research. Only he can really organize it so that it can be given to other researchers.

A Dusting of Snow

This morning I was greeted with a dusting of snow over everything. The ethereal beauty of the first snows are breath taking. I love living in a country that has real winter. 

COVID-19 continues to loom over us with increasing numbers. We mustn't let our caution down as we are entering into the most dangerous time of the year for us here in Canada. It is cold here and most things happen indoors where the greatest danger of transmission occurs. 

This year has passed so quickly although I have not accomplished too much. The year began with my recovering from my knee injury and then my husband's condition deteriorated. He remains on the side of life; he would like to live to be 90 and I will try to help him with that; we have been a team like that throughout our 54 year marriage. I tend to be the helper that is for sure but I do not regret taking that on at 20 years of age. Having four brothers and being a middle child perhaps tends to make me be more of a helper than a leader. I spent my young years following my older brothers about much to their dislike on occasion - I can remember being sent home! 

Ed has good days and bad days but he is content to work away on his Kipp and Link family genealogies trying to gather it all up so that it can be passed on to others with his same interest. We spent the first eight years of our marriage collecting information that he knew about whilst his mother was still alive to help with her side of the family. His father died when he was two but his uncle was most helpful with family history. 

I am enjoying the view from my work window. The trees have a lovely covering of white fluffy snow.

Pound Cake

Found an excellent recipe for Pound Cake with a bare minimum of salt (8 mg per slice) so made that today for Ed. He loves cakes, pies and all things dessert wise. We are now making absolutely everything from scratch for him and he is really enjoying his meals again. He misses the salt for sure. 

Ed is busy working on his Kipp collection. I think he should ask Library and Archives Canada if they would like it. The Kipp family were early settlers in Oxford County but also early settlers in British Columbia. He has a lot of pictures that were given to him for the Kipp family book that he wrote 45 years ago. I think he had around 100 printed and they have been gone for a long time. Now the book is in electronic form and much much longer but it contains all of those early pictures of the Kipp family. 

Myself I am working away on phasing my grandparents DNA (actually already phased and I just keep refining it with new matches). The occasional change but for the most part the set of results that I have are pretty settled. I want to move on to my great grandparents. With nearly 1000 matches and about 250 known matches working on great grandparents is doable. 

We are down to the last items to do outside before winter. The air conditioner is now covered for winter. The swing will go in towards the end of the week and the snow fence goes up probably just before the first big snowfall. One last run through the leaves and we will have seven bags for collection. We mulched them this time so they are quite compacted. 

Now we just have to check out the generator and make sure we are ready with that and also the snowblower although we are going to have a company clear the laneway but there are still the two patios to clear.

Grief and aging

Thinking about grief these days and how I have changed through my life. The loss of my grandfather when I was eight was extremely sad for me. I was too young to truly understand but old enough to know that he had died and I was there when he was buried. I saw his open coffin and said goodbye to him but inside I still wanted him to be alive. I grieved him for awhile; perhaps until the next summer when I discovered that if I still did the things that we had done together he still felt close to me because it was the summer when we spent a lot of time together. My grief at his loss was replaced by an awareness of the spirit of my grandfather.

I was twenty one when my grandmother died and married about eight months at the time. I had gone to see her every night at the hospital after her stroke and the night that she died I had been sitting with her and talking to her and her fingers moved and touched mine. I still wonder if I moved mine but I think it was her actually even yet. I was nervous to touch her but then I held her hand for a very long time. She died at 4:00 a.m. that night and it was an eerie thing that I had woken up right at 4:00 because I thought I could hear someone calling my name. She said Elizabeth  with a Birmingham (Brum) accent and I had awoken from a deep sleep. The grief was great but the happening was greater as I just felt as if she was with me now all the time. I learned to live my life with the thought of her being near me but gradually it was only when I was alone that I felt her close. 

I was 53 when my father and oldest brother died and perhaps it was not knowing that my oldest brother was ill until just before he died even though my mother wrote to me often she just never told me until the end was near. My father was 94 and had had a bout of influenza and was not recovering so I did realize that he might not live much longer. We had driven back in early December so that I could visit with my eldest brother and then just on a hunch we went back once again the weekend before my father died in late December. Then my brother died in early January. It was crushing for me at that time to lose them both and yet I was never as close to them as I had been to my two grandparents. Looking back I learned a lot about grief; it is a strange process. The more you grieve at the time of the happening the sooner that you can reach that plateau where they are just there in your mind as you want to remember them. The priest that gave his Eulogy did such a wonderful job; for reasons I do not share with my blog I was overwhelmed to hear someone say so many wonderful things about my Dad. It was a wonderful experience although the grief took a firm hold for a while until I was able to move on from it.

I was 57 when my mother died. I had been to see her in the hospital two weeks earlier and she was so frail (she was almost 85 and a half years old). We chatted for hours although she fell asleep a number of times and was surprised to still see me there when she awoke. As a child I was always rather frightened of her and we never really became close until after my children were born. By then we lived 8 hours away and I did not see her all that often. However, I had a chance to see how she had changed from the mother I knew as a child (she was very well organized and hard working as one might expect with seven children!). With her first grandchild (my older sister's daughter) she was thrilled to be a grandmother but as each new grandchild arrived she became more grandmotherish and my daughters quite adored her. I saw her through their eyes and became closer to her as well. It was sad to have her pass but she was so frail that I wondered how she would ever manage to do the things that she likes to do. My uncle almost immediately took over and called me; wrote to me and asked me to come and so he filled that grief time with memories of how much I had enjoyed having him as an uncle. He passed just a year later and I grieved him too but I was learning to grieve now and I had his wonderful letters and the time that we had spent talking that just seemed to carry me through all of that.

Now I am 75 when my second oldest brother has just passed. He was unwell and the last time I talked to him he was struggling to keep the conversation going. It was too much for him really so I talked about our mutual interest in DNA for a few minutes and then we said goodbye. Hard to believe it was just a few weeks earlier but I was not surprised when my sister called to let me know that he was not doing well and then he passed that evening. I grieve him but he is in a better place; he is with our parents whom he loved deeply. 

But as I have aged beyond 60 I have changed. It is really our duty to do the best that we can with our lives; live the fullest life that we can and to carry the memories of our siblings, parents and grandparents with us. I am so glad that I have written the stories of my parents and grandparents where I knew them (two of my grandparents died before I was born). 

I am about to embark on another course that is offered to Patient Partners. I shall do this in memory of Doug as he certainly suffered a lot of medical difficulties since he had his first heart attack at 39 years of age. Although we grieve in old age we understand the ability of the body to survive or not survive as time passes.

Snow in the forecast

Snow was mentioned last night and by seven am when snow was showing up on Alexa I checked and there it was; just a little white trimming here and there. Snow is the best sign of winter. I await winter with great enthusiasm. 

The new week begins

Sunday again. I have always loved Sundays perhaps for the peace that comes with Sunday; not sure why I just always have. It is minus 2 celsius at 7:49 and soon we return to Standard Time from Daylight Savings Time although there has been an effort this year to retain Daylight Savings. Not sure that is going to happen though. It is nice to come back to standard time when it is dark early in the evening and still dark in the morning. The darkness is comforting in the wintertime. 

Leaves are all gathered up. We will not likely do much more outside work except for our snow fence at the front. Worry Free is going to clear our snow away which will be a nice treat. I am getting too old to clear the ice from the end of the laneway when that happens.

My Church Service is in my Inbox and my week begins once again.

The Black Walnut Leaves have dropped

That really does seem to sound the bell for the winter season coming. The leaves of the Black Walnut tree are pretty much on the ground now. Yesterday we collected the leaves on the ground so today will repeat that effort and then we are pretty much done with that task and winter is welcomed to come any time. There is snow in the forecast for the end of next week just before Hallowe'en. Since we are not celebrating Hallowe'en this year then the snow might as well come. 

COVID-19 is raging to the south of us in the United States. They had over 84,000 cases on Friday; quite frightening actually. Now there is us here in Canada and the cases have been rising but hopefully we can bring them down having returned to a modified second stage. It needs compliance though and that does seem to be lacking somewhat at least in our area and the Toronto area. 

I am hoping that it will come under control and we can have Christmas at least a modified version of Christmas. That would be really nice. 

However, I shall now get into my genealogy once again. We do not go out shopping other than groceries and we could pick them up. We have been going for a walk every day but we may soon just concentrate on doing that very locally. 

Worldwide there are 42,214,376 (increase of 422,610 over yesterday), 1,144,319 deaths (increase of 5,648 over yesterday) and 28,555,103 recovered (increase of 170,214 over yesterday). These are incredible numbers considering where we were in the spring.

The Gospel Reading Matthew 6: 22-34

Verse 34 caught my eye today in the Bible Reading - the one I receive from the Canadian Bible Society is from the Contemporary English Version and reads "Don't worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today." From my Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition we read "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day." It is interesting reading all the different versions of the Bible although my preference remains for the Revised Standard Version. The language in it reminds me of my own grandparents as English has changed even in my lifetime.

In these days of COVID-19 is there perhaps a message for us in those words. It really is necessary for us to concentrate on today; on everyone wearing a mask and washing their hands and keeping a two metre distance. We need to defeat COVID-19 as much as we can as we wait for a vaccine to defeat it.

Another Day has flown by

My Blog just didn't seem to want to be written this morning. The Bible Reading gave me a thought but then I decided not to write that particular one. 

We spent a few hours outside cleaning up the rest of the plants that needed to be cut back, starting to set up the snow fence along one side of the property and getting the garbage ready for tomorrow's pickup. 

Other than that the day went by very quickly and there are just nine days left in October and 16 days remaining of the lockdown so we are almost half-way but the cases continue to climb although not at a rapid rate remaining more or less at the same level - too high. Hopefully two more weeks will have an impact. 

Flu Shots

Yesterday my husband and I got our flu shots. We are ready now for the next onslaught of illness hopefully. Still in modified lockdown until at least the 7th of November. The numbers though are not going down yet but it does take several weeks for the impact of even a partial lockdown to show up plus it needs the compliance of the 20 to 40 year olds who have created this second wave of COVID-19. Discipline. Discipline. Discipline. A large enough fine so that the partying will stop is perhaps the way. Money does talk.

Will of Robert Pincombe, Bishops Nympton, Devon, Probated 27 Oct 1827

The will of Robert Pincombe was dated 19 Apr 1827. Robert was my 3x great grandfather and I did grow up hearing a few stories about him. Not a great deal as he died whilst his children were all still young - only his eldest son Robert was 21 years of age when he died. My ancestor was John (some people have asked me why he was disinherited as he received only 5 shillings) but I think that John inherited from his eldest Uncle (John Pincombe at Molland) so that he did not receive anything else from his father other than the token five shillings which said you are my son and I am remembering you in the will. John was 19 when his father died. My husband and did find his gravestone at Bishops Nympton attached to the Church Wall (exterior) and somewhat hidden behind a Yew Tree. That was a lucky find. My husband was walking along and noticed the stone and moved the tree a little to read it and  noted it said Robert Pincombe died 1827. It immediately caught my attention as I knew that my Robert had died in 1827.

Robert was 52 when he died. That seems very young but at a time when the average age at death was in the late 40s early 50s his age at death was not uncommon. His brothers outlived him by ten to twenty years. His wife had died four years earlier of unknown causes and one of his sons William died two years after his mother. 

The wills for the Exeter Court were all destroyed in WWII so that the original of this will did not survive the bombing but a copy had been placed with Inland Revenue and so this particular copy has survived and I have transcribed it below with the Probate. It is modern English for the most part.

The will of Robert Pincombe:

Recorded: 19 Oct 2011
Source: Inland Revenue Wills - p 885
Place: Bishops Nympton, Devon, England
Type of Record: Will
Dated: 19 Apr 1827 (probated 27 Oct 1827)
Condition: photocopy, bold, modern English writing
Type: three pages - Original will (2 pages) and Probate (1 page)

1 In the name of God, Amen.  I Robert Pincombe of Bishopsnympton
2 in the County of Devon, Yeoman, being infirm in Body but of Sound and disposing
3 Mind Memory and Understanding praised be God for the same do make and ordain
4 this my last Will and Testament in manner and form following, that is to say, First
5 I give and Bequeath unto my Son Robert Pincombe the Sum four pound a year to be
6 paid to him within one year after my Decease, Also I give unto my Daughter Betsy
7 Pincombe the sum of Four pound a year, Also I give unto my son John Pincombe
8 the [sum] of five shillings, Also I give unto my Son Thomas Pincombe the sum of four Pounds a
9 year after he arrive to the Age of Twenty one, Also my Son George Pincombe the sum of four
10 Pounds a Year after he arrive to the Age of twenty one, Also I give unto my Son Richard
11 Pincombe the sum of four Pounds a year after he arrive to the Age of twenty one, Also I
12 give unto my Son Philip Pincombe the sum of four Pounds A year after he arrive to
13 to the age of twenty one my will is that if either of my Children should happen to
14 die under the Age of twenty one Years and unmarried then the Legacy or Legacies of him
15 or her so dying shall be equally Divided between them Survivors And also if my Son
16 Robert Pincombe should die and have a Widow and During her Widowhood to have her
17 husband share out of my Estate or Estates Also I give Devise and Bequeath unto my
 Brother John Pincombe of Molland and William Pincombe of Bishopsnympton and Phillip
18 Routtcliffe of Mary Ansley in this County, Yeomen. All that my said Moiety and Half
19 fendle of West Wood and my Tenement called East Wood also my Leasehold Estate called
20 Park with their and every of their Appurtenances thereto belonging And also my Goods
21 chattels Personal and Testamentary Estate Whatsoever and Wheresoever
22 Robert Pincombe [signed]
 [Page 2]
23 To hold the same unto the said John Pincombe William Pincombe and Phillip Routcliffe
24 their Executors Administrators and Assignes Subject and Charged and chargeable to and with the
25 Payment of all Just Debts and Legacies herebefore given, Also I authorize and Impower my
26 Trust or Trustees to Mortgage or Assigne over my Estate or Estates if required for the
27 better payment of my Debts Also my Will is that after my Debt is all paid that my Children
28 herein before named, that is to say, my son Robert Pincombe Betsy Pincombe Thomas
29 Pincombe George Pincombe Richard Pincombe and Philip Pincombe to have their equal share alike
30 out of my Estate or Estates And lastly I do hereby Nominate Constitute and appoint the said John
31 Pincombe W[illia] Pincombe and Philip Routcliffe Executors in Trust of this my last Will and Testament
32 and Jointly Guardians of my said Children And I do Declare this to be my last Will and
33 Testament In Wittness whereof I have to the first sheet of this my last Will and Testament I have
34 subscribed my name and At this last sheet I have sett my hand and Seal this nineteenth day of
35 April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty seven
36 Robert Pincombe [signed and sealed]
37 Signed Sealed Published and Declared by the above named
38 Robert Pincombe the Testator as and for his last will and testament
39 in the presence of us who at his request and in his presence have
40 subscribed our Names as witnesses thereto
41 John Pincombe [signed]
42 The Mark of Jane X Arnell
43 The Mark of Ann X Arnell
44 W[itnesse]s sig[ned] as A true Copy
45 William Gray [signed and sealed]
 [Page 3]
46 For EXECUTORS
47 John Pincombe of Molland in
48 the County of Devon, Yeoman
49 and Philip Rowcliffe of
50 Mariansleigh in the same
51 County Yeoman
52 Executors in Trust named in the last Will and Testament of
53 Robert Pincombe late of Bishopsnympton
54 in the County of Devon Yeoman deceased
55 who died on the 23rd Day of April 1827
56 make Oath to say that they have made diligent search and
57 due enquiry after, and in respect of the Personal Estate and Effects of the
58 said Deceased, in order to ascertain the full Amount and Value thereof; and
59 that to the best of their knowledge, information, and belief, the whole of
60 the Goods, Chattles, and Credits, of which the said Deceased died, possessed
61 within the Peculiar Jurisdiction of the
62 Bishop of Exeter
63 (exclusive of what the Deceased may have been possessed of, or intitled to
64 as a Trustee for any other Person or Persons, and not beneficially, but
65 including the Leasehold Estates for Years of the Deceased, whether abso-
66 lute or determinable on Lives, and without deducting any thing on account
67 of the Debts due and owing from the Deceased,) are under the Value of
68 One thousand and five hundred pounds
69 John Pincombe [signed]
70 Philip Rowcliffe [signed]
71 Sworn on the Twelfth
72 Day of October 1827 before me
73 Edward Chave Tunsgate

Leaves are falling

I can almost feel the end of the season these days. The leaves are falling. I can hardly wait for them to be all down on the ground. We have too many to just leave there as it would be a soggy mess in the spring. Over the next couple of weeks we will put out about a dozen or so bags of leaves. It keeps people working and hopefully someone buys it for mulch from the city. 

Soon I will be back to genealogy and I must begin to think about what I want to work on. Certainly I need to get the H11 Newsletter written as it is due in another twelve days. It will be short though as I only do a complete listing of all the subhaplogroup subclades once a year. There are a number of new members and by and large most of them still live in Europe and spread across Europe from Ireland to Russia and as far south as the Mediterranean. But the bulk of them are in Central and Western Europe, Scandinavia and Russia/Ukraine/Baltic States. That is still a lot but gradually a picture is emerging as subclades become more and more subdivided and for some lucky people like myself I can tell that my ancient ancestress lived in Ayrshire/Argyllshire Scotland about eight to twelve thousand years ago. Doesn't help me much with the present but it is rather fascinating that my maternal grandmother was born in Birmingham which as the crow flies is not that far from Ayrshire/Argyllshire Scotland.