Lat Day of May

Hard to believe it is now nearly three months since we shut down here in Canada for COVID-19. Mother Nature is certainly a very powerful element in our lives. She controls the wind, the rain, the seas and everything else therein. We can think that we can control but in reality we cannot. We adapt and perhaps this time adaptation will mean a better environment for everyone. Would it be possible that our skies could remain as clear as they are now or ever better, our seas less polluted giving our children a better chance in their future.

A cold chilly beginning here in Ottawa but the sun is shining brilliantly. The birds have returned in large numbers considering their absence or just small numbers the past few years.

To ride on the Ottawa Light Rail/Bus system you must wear a mask now. We started wearing masks on the 13th of March whenever we went out and about and for the first three weeks we actually did not go much further than our front door. We did have to pick up our groceries kindly delivered by our neighbours; we did have a person come to look at the renovation we need doing to assist my husband and perhaps me one day. But once we started going out on our own again after the three weeks (we had mostly stocked up but needed a few perishables) we wore our masks every day every where. It wasn't thought to be necessary but we felt better to be doing that as our bit to help with COVID-19. As far as we know we have never been exposed to COVID-19; we haven't had it although we have not been tested for it unless my husband was tested during his ten day stay at the hospital in which case he was negative as he continued in the same ward.

It is the silent carriers that are the most dangerous just like typhoid silent carriers, etc. etc. The polite thing is to wear a mask because you could be a silent carrier. That protects the people around you.

A little more gardening today, not too much. It is the Lord's Day.

Crow Family

We have a crow's nest in our back tree. We never had a bird nest there before and to have such a large one is certainly interesting. The young are starting to move around on the grass at the back as they learn to fly. The crows are huge birds and occupy almost the entire bird feeder. Not far from their nest is the cardinal nest that appears every year now on a neighbouring fir tree. I haven't seen their young yet but they are a much smaller bird and likely they are keeping them well hidden because just a few houses away we have acquired a neighbourhood hawk that sails overhead daily.

No rabbits now, the hawk has eliminated them or they are hiding most of the day. That is perhaps a good thing as they nibble away at our garden plants. A little nibbling is fine but an entire family of rabbits can eat a whole garden!

Moving things in the kitchen today as there is a split plug on the other side. We managed to trip the breaker the other day - first time in this house (lived here for 42 years). When we came here there seemed to be so many plugs but life has changed with all sorts of new gadgets - microwave, grill, portable oven and they all need electricity.

Tomorrow we will plant the garden although we are promised our usual below 4 degrees centigrade days in the next week or so. Always a gift in June to have this cooler weather! It does help the new grass to grow for sure but can be a little hard on the bedding plants and the new seedlings but we are late planting so no danger there if frost comes to the main vegetable garden.

COVID-19 is starting to be less in my thoughts. I still always wear a mask when we go out and I wash my hands as soon as we return home. I am still using the lysol wipes on all the purchases that come into the house. There are less than 150 cases in our city area which is slightly over one million. However, one knows that could easily change if we do not continue being vigilant.

I tested 6.1 for glucose fasting (we use Gamma Dyna Care so you can see your results on line) so bought a blood testing kit. My mother in her mid 70s started to test in the above 6.0 for glucose (just very slightly). I think my health is similar to hers and was not surprised. I will keep a check on it and maybe test once a week or so just to establish a baseline. She was always one to communicate with her doctor and was careful to increase her protein and reduce her carbohydrate and that seemed to work well for her. My godmother was a nurse and she used to come by quite often on her way home from the hospital. I actually didn't like doctors as a child and probably not as an adult either. I like to just go in and ask for what I feel I need; I am willing to be corrected if I am wrong but not having the MRI on my knee was annoying I must admit. It is stronger for sure but still doing YOGA I can feel that it is not quite right. It made me dreadfully nervous at first as there was pain there but the physiotherapist kept assuring me that what I was doing wasn't damaging it. Probably he was right but an MRI would have been more assuring. I guess I have trouble understanding why I can not just have an MRI when there was obvious sign of damage on the X-ray and I did ask our doctor for that. I have only been in the hospital to have children and for about two weeks when I had a nervous disorder after trying to go back to work when my first child was born (they thought it was multiple sclerosis). I do not remember being in there at first as my mind was completely absent from reality but after I did realize it and was in therapy sessions I spent all my time listening to other people and not talking so they finally just let me go home when I was once again lucid and able to manage. Perhaps it was some sort of a function of my autism; no ideas on that but I mostly keep to myself and it is nearly thirty eight years since I was in a hospital as a patient.

I worked at the Ottawa Hospital for ten years and found that to be most interesting. Working with doctors gave me a different perspective on medicine and I, of course, have great respect for the medical profession. It is a hard life in many ways. The research areas were my biggest interest although the actual hospital work that I did do including being the Administrative Assistant for the Hematopathology Residency Training Programme was most interesting.

Another day that passed too quickly

Gardening again and perhaps tomorrow we will get the main garden planted and then time will magically appear back in my life schedule!

We were shopping as everything my husband eats now is pretty much made from basic raw ingredients to avoid salt.

Finished working up the last flower bed so that is done for a while hopefully.

Other than that it was just a very busy day.

End of the day

Generally I write my posts at the beginning of the day but this one has moved quickly from the beginning to now near the end of the day. All the dirt is moved now into the gardens or onto the lawns. Most of the bedding plants are planted. The garden will get rotatilled soon and then we will plant the seeds and the remaining bedding plants. This was a day of great accomplishment.

My husband seems a little stronger these days but it will be a while before he regains much of his strength. Perhaps one of his greatest gifts is his ability to keep pushing himself; he just keeps going. It is a good thing; he has generations of ancestors who lived into their late 80s and 90s and he isn't going to give up without a struggle I am happy to say.

We made a saltless meatloaf for dinner tonight. I grew up with no salt in my food so I do not really notice but I think it tasted pretty bland to him but he ate it anyway. It was quite a nice recipe. The meatloaf was extra lean beef and regular minced pork about half and half. Then 3/4 c of oatmeal and 2 large eggs along with a couple of cups of diced onion, carrot, bok choy and garlic cooked in unsalted butter and then added to the mixture. The final cake of meat was quite good and we had roasted vegetables along with that (potatoes, asparagus, cauliflower and peppers). We had a spinach salad with tomatoes and garlic to start which was quite nice (Canadian spinach and tomatoes is always a treat this time of year and our greenhouse industry is growing quickly).  A good meal after a long day working in the garden.

Renovation

Our renovation is moving ahead slowly. Today our renovator is coming to relook at what needs to be done given the change in Ed's health. Hoping that he can get started soon as the handrail is especially needed.

Busy moving earth yesterday and a myriad of other items. Edward wanted to look for more herb plants and that entailed three different stores with my daughter taking him to the fourth store in the afternoon. I was shopped out for sure. I am not much into shopping anyway and an entire morning of shopping is enough to last me for a bit. Although we will likely go to the grocery store today for a few items.

Just half of a bag of earth to move now. My daughter and I will finish that off perhaps tomorrow as today is meant to be a scorcher. With Ed's poor health and my age we move somewhat slower these days.

I realized the other day that I do try very hard not to let my autism run my life. It is actually a good thing probably as autism leaves you less able to determine what people mean when they are saying things to you. I tend to see it all very literally and am shocked sometimes at the things that people say. However, I do not make excuses for people and simply avoid them in the future. It does make for a solitary existence but I am actually happier that way. The 20 plus days in isolation were most welcomed at the beginning of COVID-19 and returning to that state I find to be quite attractive. We have built up a good supply of items now and except for perishable probably can manage six weeks of a lock-down if another one comes. We replenish from the stock but the stock will remain at that level or perhaps even eight weeks would be desirable and will work away at calculating the products needed to reach that point of readiness.

Rain finally

It has been really dry here and finally rain last night. Not a deluge; but a decent amount. We will likely have to continue watering unless the clouds open up today for a good downpour. Our lettuce plants are carefully hidden behind a chicken wire fence so maybe protected from the rabbits. Do not mind sharing but they tend to eat the lot! Peppers growing nice and the tomatoes. Our seeds have still not arrived so hopefully sometime this week.

My husband is doing even better this week. A chat with the Champlain LIN assessment has a physio person coming one of these days to assess what my husband needs to remain in this home. We have already started plans to put in a chair lift and new handrail. Plus he has a physio referral and we have a physio person right down the street (just a few minutes walk). We will get the renovator to look at the bathroom and see if he can add handrails to the bathtub just ensuring good handholds on entering and exiting the bathtub. My husband loves living here and I would like to see him stay so will make whatever changes we need to do. He so enjoys sitting on the swing on the patio and looking at the garden. Then getting up and walking around the yard. He has also done quite a bit of gardening although we do the heavy work. Our yard is a good walk for him at the moment. He is already planning new berry bush purchases so we can enjoy them next year. I actually think that our daughters will keep it as a "vacation home" since where they live now is in vacation country and they come to the city for their breaks. The fenced yard will be great for the children and the dog. There is lots of room with four bedrooms. Really that is what you need in a vacation home! Plus we are just a ten minute walk to the train when it finally comes to Orleans in another couple of years.

COVID-19 still dominates our world and I believe it is with us for quite a while Mother Nature can be cruel on occasion. Globally there are 5,428,605 cases (increase of 117,516 over yesterday), 345,375 deaths (increase of 3,271 over yesterday) and 2,180,016 recovered (increase of 67,818 over yesterday). In Canada we have 84,699 cases (increase of 1,078 over yesterday), 6424 deaths (increase of 69 over yesterday) and 43,998 recovered (increase of 680 over yesterday).

We have lived in this house for over 40 years now; we bought it as a new construction and we are now the people who have lived on this street the longest. We did go up to Chapel Hill to look at houses in the mid 1980s but decided to stay here after all. Our yard is wonderful here and that is the most important part of this property. Not so much what is planted or anything like that but just sitting there at the back of the house and enjoying looking about at the birds in the trees, etc. We could easily do that the rest of our days however long or short they may be. We are having a chair lift put in and other handy devices to help us as we age.

Another day of gardening

Beautiful weather here and the day became a gardening day. We spent three hours outside this morning and have now planted the lettuce and half of the flowers. More later today (the peppers and rest of the flowers) when the sun is less intense. I moved several wheelbarrow loads of dirt to put on the side garden after working that up. I tilled the plot behind the house and that is ready for flowers later. I also tilled the end of one of the other side gardens and we would like to have a whole lot of sunflowers in there. Last year we quite enjoyed having all the birds come to collect the sunflowers from the two plants that we had. The birds do love sunflower seeds especially fresh ones.

Nothing done on the H11 newsletter but hopefully tomorrow. It is Sunday and I do not usually garden on Sunday. I try for a quiet day and there isn't too much left to do on that newsletter. I do a large update once a year and that was the last issue. This issue will be somewhat shorter than that one. Plus I have not seen any updated scientific material on H11.

All of the trees are in leaf now around us. It will make for a pleasant summer to have all of that nice shade at the back of the yard where we placed our large maple tree. The new hedges at the back have done well and throw a large shadow over the area at the back so we could sit out there in the coolness if we so desire. Generally I do not but one never knows perhaps I will this year.

Catching Up and Downsizing

With my husband home I am busy catching up on some things that I have forgotten to do in the outside world. Plus we are downsizing once again. Everything that goes out the door and doesn't return is a good thing. Our children do not want all of this stuff that is for sure. We have enjoyed it so now we do need Diabetes to start picking up once again but I suspect that might be a while.

I have whittled down the books once again and we have about six boxes ready to go. We have given a large number of boxes to the Library at one of the Native Reservations south of us here. Maybe we can find a home for these books there as well. We will see about that. Otherwise Diabetes does pick them up also. We are starting to have empty bookcases which is great news. We still have far too many bookcases and my genealogy takes up a large bookcase which was never meant to happen but I did acquire books over time. I did give a good sized box to the OGS/BIFHSGO Library and as time passes I will give them more if they want them. I have a good collection on British history through the years and did thin it out a little but most of those books I still like to have.

I did not yet get back to my Newsletter. I need a block of time when I am not doing anything else to complete it. Right now the garden needs my time and yesterday I moved about ten wheelbarrow loads of black earth onto the gardens. I need to work all of that in and then we can plant the peppers, tomatoes and romaine lettuce. Our seeds are still absent; Canada Post is delivering them at some point in the hopefully near future. We want to grow an entire row of Sunflowers for the birds to enjoy in the Fall. It was fabulous having a number of cardinals swooping down in eyesight to capture the sunflower seeds last fall. They managed to strip several heads in just a few days.

COVID-19 still with us. All the hype about a vaccine may or may not come to fruition. Time will tell. We have never found a vaccine for the common cold; one of the best known coronaviruses.

Gardening

Now we are into the gardening, moving the rest of the first bag of dirt onto the side gardens and will plant the tomatoes, peppers and romaine seedlings. Still waiting for our seeds to arrive. May plant the onion sets that we have on hand (I bought too many as it turned out) and when the seeds arrive will plant the rest of the onion sets in that seed order.

Have to decide where to plant the zinnias and snapdragons plants. But that isn't a rush nor are the vegetables actually. Frost is still a danger here until early June.

Nice to have my husband home again. He is slowly getting more and more active around the garden. We haven't ventured from home yet together. I am still out and about doing the shopping with my mask on.

Warm air and hopefully it will last for a while. June can be stubborn though with cool days sometimes. The polar vortex can slip down into Ontario and surprise us.

My days have become chaotic and busy. The pleasant routines of the quarantine are gone for a while. I always enjoy the Fall and Winter because I can hibernate once again and work away on my project. Hopefully I can finish the Newsletter soon.

Husband is home again

My husband is now home again as of yesterday. My newsletter did not yet get completed although mostly so. It will take a while for him to be as mobile as he was but he is making a great beginning at that.

Today we moved most of a big bag of dirt onto the front lawn and gardens. The front lawn has needed a refreshment of earth and we will add some seed just to help the grass work its way through the fresh dirt. The garden needed to be worked up after the winter. It is always the last area to be worked on as it is the last spot where the snow stands. However it is several weeks now since the last of the ice melted. Already many of the hosta have worked their way through to the surface and the Starry Solomon Seal is going to have a tremendous summer. The primrose has managed to survive after all and all four different colours are blooming brilliantly.

We had the first asparagus of the year from the Farm. It is absolutely beautiful this year, thick and tasty. I got three batches as we will likely eat it every day for a few days just to savour the goodness of the first vegetables of the land. We wait a long time for our vegetables to come on and these were most delicious.

All in all a good day but we are still living with COVID-19 and no solution yet in sight. The traffic is busier. When I drove to the farm to pick up the asparagus there was probably twice as much traffic as a week ago. I am driving most days these days as it will be awhile before Ed feels up to driving again or even going out shopping. I actually quite enjoy driving.

Newsletters

My newsletters have gone by the board. Today I suddenly remembered that I have not done a newsletter for a while. It is the length of this while that I must now check out. The good news is that I did do the Blake Newsletter in April (somewhat late and it was a collection of blog posts that I did early in the year). I am actually just missing the first of May Newsletter which is the H11 newsletter. I shall set myself the task of completing that one today.

Plants ordered

Today, for the first time in 54 years, I ordered the garden plants online. Usually Ed and I would visit the nursery and pick out our plants and have done that for 54 summers, we will be married 55 years in September. It was a yearly ritual that was rather fun and started out very small in terms of plants and now has returned once again to that somewhat smaller order although much larger than our very first order. The girls joined us and through the years we all journeyed together to pick out plants. Then they grew up and went their own ways and we returned to going to pick out our plants on our own once again. It is an interesting cycle; the cycle of two and then more and then two again.

COVID-19 still with us and the numbers continue to climb 4,635,830 cases globally (increase of 100,878 over yesterday), 311,821 deaths (increase of 4,713 over yesterday) and 1,693,685 recovered (increase of 60,500 over yesterday). In Canada 75,864 cases (increase of 1,251 over yesterday), 5,679 deaths (increase of 117 over yesterday), and 37,819 recovered (increase of 924 over yesterday).

Moving along

My husband is getting better slow but sure. He will be another day in hospital perhaps or more and then home again. When I called him today he sounded much cheerier and our conversation was somewhat shortened as he said he was busy with another item. That sounds more like him and was refreshing to hear actually.

A couple of emails from more cousins in England. I guess the lockdown has more of them looking at their ancestry. My Blake (maiden name) family there is huge and I have corresponded with some of them. Many of them live in the London area and likely do not know each other as each new contact does not mention anyone else! It is funny that I end up speaking to so many via email. That was the case about ten years ago when I first met descendants of all the siblings of my 2x great grandmother Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe on Genes Reunited.

Working on the new matches that I have found and getting them painted and then charted into my excel files and added to my individual chromosome match files. Then I shall return to Chromosome 3 as a number of them were for that chromosome to aid me in figuring out the discrepancy that is appearing. A couple of them I could clearly trace back so I may yet make progress on Chromosome 3. Generally I start with Chromosome 23 and work the other way and it is likely quicker that way as the chromosomes are shorter with fewer crossovers. But I started on 1 and it flowed well and then 2 so decided to go this route this time.

Some days I forget about COVID-19 if I am not out and about. My day just flows along with the things that I do. However, once you decide to go out into the world then you can feel the changes as you don a mask and practice social distancing where ever you are.

Meeting today with hospital group

Edward is managing better and today at 1:00 we meet with the hospitalist, social worker and Ed via Microsoft Teams. We, myself and daughters will be on the call as well. We will learn the next steps in care for him. I am glad his 77th birthday was so much fun albeit all online but he loved seeing the boys and our youngest daughter and son in law and then we ate dinner with our eldest daughter who was self-isolating in the States where she works. Everyone made a cake (so a three cake birthday) and Happy Birthday many times with our youngest grandson leading the way and singing the entire song for his beloved grandfather.

The primrose are blooming. Winter was very hard on these plants much more used to the British Isles climate where it doesn't sit at minus 20 celsius for days with no snow cover. But they have managed to build up their leaves and finally bloom somewhat later than usual. The yellow are abundant, the rose are coming and the white I can see there will be blooms.

There are two large bags of earth in our laneway now. A large portion of one goes to the front yard where it has never been quite the same since it was dug up a couple of times. We will fill that back up and seed it. That will be our first step. Then the rest of the earth goes in the back. First build up the vegetable and flower gardens and then the rest to build up the lawn where it has grown thin since the last time we added earth.

Overall it was a harsh winter; perhaps that is in tune with the harshness of our environment at the moment. COVID-19 is still with us and predicted to be with us for a while. Globally 4,018,342 are infected (increase of 82,514 over yesterday), 278,756 deaths (increase of 4,101 over yesterday), and recovered 1,363,698 (increase of 44,392 over yesterday). In Canada 67,702 infected (increase of 1,268 over yesterday), 4,693 (increase of 124 over yesterday), and 31,249 recovered (increase of 843 over yesterday).

Husband is in hospital

My husband is in the hospital; I was very concerned about him and after calling his liver nurse and other excellent advice I drove him to Emergency at the General Campus where his specialist has her main office. If I call an ambulance then he has to go to the Montfort Hospital. I did manage to get him down the stairs and into the car with quite a bit of effort although he was able to walk with support. He hates my driving though and that is always somewhat critical for him but I got him to direct me which usually works well.

We are all hoping that he recovers well but in the meantime we are getting the railings replaced and a chair lift put in for him. We were in the process of putting in the railings when this occurred so now will also add in the chair lift for greater stability. He doesn't have to use it but it is there if he wants to use it.

He has a lot of genealogy projects still ongoing and his life is very busy. He wants so much to do gardening but I think he will watch as my daughter and I work on the garden. The swing is very comfortable and I want to get a garden seat to put under the tree at the back so that he can walk back and forth to build up his strength.

For various reasons I have been driving about the last couple of months as I hadn't drive for quite a while before that. It is a skill that I need to maintain so must do more of it.

My daughter came out of quarantine yesterday so that makes life a lot easier as she can live here with us as she normally does in the summer doing her research. 

Polar Vortex still with us

Just 1 degree celsius outside at the moment but it is sunny, 13 degrees celsius is promised for later today. Lucky that we did some gardening during that brief "warm" spell that we had a couple of weeks ago. The top of the ground is frozen once again but the flowers are still cheerfully trying to open and share their colours with us.

Yesterday was a day of contemplation and that continues into today. My thoughts not yet ready to put down on paper so to speak.

My oldest daughter comes out of quarantine today and that will be nice - fourteen days is a long time from arriving at the local airport to finally be back in the bosom of your family. She normally lives with us for the summer months and hard to tell that might be a long summer this year well into the fall. Depends on COVID-19. Her teaching has been on-line for quite a while although the occasional on-site class but in general her University does on-line teaching. Makes it easier I expect in farming states to have that kind of access and lets everyone have a chance to go to university. She is eager to get started at gardening but the frozen ground will make that a bit difficult for a little while.

My husband

My husband was too tired yesterday after all to go shopping but I did that instead. He is weakening but his spirit is strong. I have not mentioned that he has sarcoidosis of the lung and liver (confirmed by biopsy) and the drugs have abated it somewhat. He is on a new drug regimen which will hopefully enable him to get some of his strength back.

I haven't heard from the renovation person yet but do dearly want to get the railings in for him. I think we need to look at a chair lift as well. Will see what I can find out about that tomorrow. The midst of a pandemic is a difficult time to make renovations possibly. Not sure how that will work out.

I watched Michelle Obama in "Becoming" this evening with Edward. I am not that much in to looking at American politics but she did a wonderful summary of her life in the White House; her upbringing and how she brought that with her to the White House and it was an excellent movie.

Another night under the polar vortex and then it looks to be improving.

Shopping day

We will go out early to shop today. Just a couple of quick trips every ten days or so keeps us stocked up. My husband has been feeling less than well the last week or so but yesterday he was feeling a little better. He likes to get out and it is good for him to do so.

He misses the hustle and bustle of his life before illness befell him. Now that the garden centres are open we will go there one of these days to get our bedding plants. He likes to look them all over before buying.

We need to replace our lavender plants; winter was hard on them. The weather was too cold before the snow cover and that often happens here. We used to grow roses but finally stopped as they were just constantly having to be replaced. A wild rose known as the Loyalist Rose does quite well though.

Another day in the sequel of COVID-19 and it is with us for quite a while I suspect. Perhaps not in control of our lives as it is at the moment; but still with us. China has another spate of cases just to show us what is ahead even after opening up. Patient 0 really does need to be found and then Patient 1, 2, 3, 4 and perhaps as high as Patient 50 to give us a clearer picture of this virus. That is really the fair way to look at any catastrophe like this.

Polar Vortex came visiting

Even snow was mentioned with the polar vortex but we escaped unscathed except for it being somewhat colder than a few days ago. Looks cold out there. The daffodils are still flowering but the tulips are keeping their petals closed up today. Maybe later we will see the large red tulip open when the warm sun hits the petals. It is minus 2 degrees celsius with a high of plus 5 degrees celsius. But by Wednesday we are looking at the possibility of plus 13 degrees celsius.

Snow does come in May sometimes and there were a few flakes just to tease us I guess. The tree buds are struggling to open on our large maple tree at the back of the yard. Ed and our daughters planted that tree 37 years ago from a small sapling that we found in the yard. It is now quite huge and we have had it trimmed so that it is a beautiful maple shape. It is right at the back of the yard and aids in cushioning the traffic from the road along with the thick hedge and the length of the yard. We can sit out on the patio and not really notice the cars going by. At the moment there are few going by anyway. It is still strange to look out at 7:00 am and not see any cars on the road. It used to be bumper to bumper.

I have been cleaning and the basement is done with a good sized pile of items that will go to Diabetes when they do their pickups again. Emptying the basement is a necessity eventually as condos do not have basements! But we are still here and perhaps for a while yet. Although I am not a gardener I do not mind doing the work as it is refreshing to get away from the computer and work with the soil. I even like cutting grass. The steady walk around the yard in a logical fashion suits my brain. It gives me time to contemplate the ancestors and whether I am pursuing in a rational way the peoples of my past.

COVID-19 is still with us and for quite a while yet. We learned yesterday that the White House in America carefully tests everyone and does contact tracing within their select group. I always thought of the White House as this special place where an individual much beloved by the people would rationally and painstakingly take care of America for all Americans. Of course, it is necessary to protect the President and his Cabinet just as we do here in Canada.

Globally there are 3,935,828 confirmed cases of COVID-19 (increase of 90,221 over yesterday), 274,655 deaths (increase of 5,091 over yesterday) and 1,319,306 recovered (increase of 36,376 over yesterday). In Canada there are 66,434 confirmed cases (increase of 1,512 over yesterday), 4,569 deaths (increase of 161 over yesterday) and 30,226 recovered (increase of 979 over yesterday). The United States is unbelievable at 1,317,376 cases, 78,200 deaths and thankfully 182,902 recovered.

Renovation

Seems like an odd thing to do perhaps in the midst of a pandemic but one of the posts on our railing has loosened and we have been talking about putting in a second railing on the opposite side of our staircase. Today we had the estimator come in and appraise the situation. We need to take out the old railing along the one side (open half way down to the lower level) and add a second railing to the opposite side (closed all the way). I feel that my husband needs the extra security of two railings coming up and down the stairs (and likely it will not hurt me to have that as well since I have fallen down those stairs many times). My eyesight is not the strongest in the world and I used to miss my step sometimes. I always hold on to the railing these days; I have learned my lesson.

No ideas on how long it will take to do the work in terms of a start date and the time for construction is estimated at six hours.

I still have not completed Chromosome 3 as I found a new match and then started looking at My heritage so that in total I now have another sixteen matches for various chromosomes in my "New Matches" section. I will work my way through them; painting them, adding them to my various excel files before I return once again to Chromosome 3. I do not think I will hear from my new match as he has not checked his account for several months now. It would have been interesting to correspond with him for sure. But I seldom write anyone these days. I have an idea who he is but clarification would be most interesting.

My new information which my seventh cousin sent to me I am still incorporating into that particular family line. The Cobb family is quite interesting and I had taken it back to John Cobb and Sarah Beilby (Bielby). With Sarah's father being a John Beilby (Bielby). John I wasn't entirely sure about as I had noticed the John Cobb baptized at Wawne, East Riding of Yorkshire, son of John Cobb and Lucy Todd. Sarah was baptized at Great Driffield, East Riding of Yorkshire,  6 Nov 1720 father was John Beilby (Bielby) so a date of 10 April 1715 was reasonable. Lucy had been easy to find for my cousin and she was baptized 20 Jul 1694 at Wawne daughter of William Todd and Jane Gibson who were married 4 Dec 1684 at Wawne. Lucy Todd and John Cobb had also married at Wawne 8 Jul 1714. However Sarah Beilby (Bielby) and John Cobb married 14 Nov 1745 at Lund near Beverley. Their daughter Elizabeth was my 3x great grandmother. All the way back to one set of 7x great grandparents in that line. These people appear to have been farmers renting land from the Church mostly.

Busy spell - hard to believe in the midst of a pandemic

I am in the midst of a busy spell. Several emails on my past blogs have given me new information on a couple of Blake lines. I am busy delving into some of this information.

A new match on 23 and Me was also somewhat revealing with regard to of all things Chromosome 3. I did write to the individual but did not hear back. Hopefully I might as it would be rather handy to know more about his line.

Spring weather continues here but we are about to experience a polar vortex for a few days. It will be a chilly couple of spring days with perhaps a glimpse of snow on the weekend. It is still only early May so not a big surprise; it does happen!

The pandemic continues apace. A new discovery in France of the death of an individual in late December now testing positive for COVID-19 (fortunately a sample was kept). There is a need to find patient 0 but this takes its presence in Europe back to early December possibly and with all of the transfer of people back and forth between Europe and North American transmission here as early as then is highly likely. The world is truly linked and this Pandemic shows just how completely this linking has become. The need for monitoring the health of the world is paramount.

We have been watching a series on Netflix on Our Planet which has been most interesting. Prior to that we were watching Pandemic on Netflix which was a real eye opener. I feel sorry for Americans; their President has failed them terribly by his funding cuts to the Centre for Disease Control for the last couple of years. They have really been the backbone of American healthcare for a long time. Our Prime Minister has been outstanding with his handling of the Pandemic and he has left the medical side entirely to the professionals letting them do the task for which they have been trained.

Seventh cousin contact

I had a marvelous email from a seventh cousin in England. He and his wife had visited Lund and Kilnwick in the East Riding of Yorkshire (ERY) and verified all the information on the Cobb family plus more information taking the family back officially another generation. Elizabeth Cobb was my 3x great grandmother married to Robert Gray who was a farmer at Holme in the Wolds, ERY. Their son Robert Gray, junior, was my 2x great grandfather and he emigrated to Canada in the early 1830s with his brother William Gray. I have written quite a bit about Robert in my blogs.

The world is certainly a small place when someone reads my blogs about the Cobb family a couple of thousand miles away and then writes to add to that information. I shall put all the new information into another blog once I have assembled it. One wonders if COVID-19 will have people looking at their genealogy and becoming more involved with genealogy.

My ocular migraines have returned for a bit so I will spend less time on the computer even than I have been spending on it.

Forward into May

I love May Day; we do not celebrate it in the way that it is celebrated in the British Isles here in Canada. But I can remember my grandfather's excitement (and my fathers) talking about May Day Celebrations in the village of Upper Clatford when he was a child (for my father that would have been Eastleigh near Southampton). May Day for me was the start of summer and that was perhaps truer in southwestern Ontario than here in Eastern Ontario; it was more likely to be a very warm sunny day. But this May Day lacked some of that excitement; our world was still pretty much in lockdown but there was a breath of openness coming. Today the garden centres open for curbside pickup. That is a start and perhaps we will take a drive to see what that looks like for Laportes (our favourite Garden Centre). We are definitely moving forward with small steps and that is the best way for sure.

We can get some bedding plants and keep them warm until the ground has warmed up enough to receive them. We have forked the areas where we are going to put pepper and tomato plants. That ground is free running and full of juicy earthworms waiting to do their task. Forking the ground aerates it for them as well.

There are now 3,507,265 (increase of 65,490 over yesterday) cases of COVID-19 worldwide, there have been 247,491 deaths (increase of 3,569 over yesterday) and 1,127,887 have recovered (increase of 30,029 over yesterday). In Canada there have been 59,474 cases (increase of 2,760 over yesterday), 3,682 deaths (increase of 116 over yesterday) and 24,908 recovered (increase of 1,107 over yesterday). But 3.5 million cases is only 0.05% of the world's population; hopefully the unreported is not a large number and we are beginning to peak worldwide but I am not so sure that is the case. the numbers are still increasing rapidly.

When does it all end

I think that might be the mistake people are making thinking about when does it all end. We have to think of it as a beginning. A gradual re-opening of everything that we knew that is good; that benefits society and the world that we live in. I have been quite pleasantly surprised at how well Premier Ford is handling this major crisis in our lives. I have, until the early 2000s voted  conservative. I voted for McGuinty here in Ontario and the initial result was really quite excellent but like most politicians "absolute power corrupts" and so I did become quite disappointed in the long run although some of the laws he enacted and proposals that he made were excellent. But he destroyed the initial run at e-health which was an important program; it should have been assigned to someone who knew what they were doing not a patronage appointment and so it failed at a time when we could have made great inroads into that possibility. Now e-everything is very important. In the long run he failed Ontario and ruined the Liberal party. But still some good things were brought in by Wynn later undone by the present Premier.

But people are sometimes reborn in a real crisis and Premier Ford is one of those people. I do not agree with his thoughts on gun control other than there are better ways to use the money. I think that we do not need guns that rip objects to pieces; you certainly can not hunt with one to put meat on the table for your family. They are useless and the money better given to the poor as Minimum Income a project dear to my heart. Anyone who owns one is denying food to a child as far as I am concerned.

The invention of guns has done nothing for our society and never will.This from a former gun owner (a pistol long since surrendered to the police for destruction) and I continue to stand by that idea. There will never be enough guns to defend us from an external invader. If they can get here from somewhere else out in the galaxy than we are pretty much at their mercy. However, I will listen as guns are defended but not rapid repeating guns in a civilian society; that is just a waste of wind. NO party advocating for such guns in the hands of civilians will ever get my vote. There are too many children butchered by such guns in my lifetime; there are too many adults but especially the murder of children is a heinous crime and anyone doing that should be shot dead with no mercy.

It isn't when it all ends; it is when it all begins. We have an opportunity to begin again and we should seize it with both hands and change our lives for the better.

What will the children want

I find myself pondering what will the children want most when they finally get to live their lives again. Will it be going to school? Will it be the playgrounds? Will it be seeing their friends? Will it be their grandparents, their cousins, their aunts and uncles? No ideas on that really. It will probably be a different combination for every child.

Now that the children have had to give up so much I suspect they will be the driving force behind change. They will not want to repeat this isolation time after time. We need to live in tune with Mother Nature. Mother Nature is always a cruel taskmaster. The hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis testify to that. She molds the earth to her own perfection and will not be moved from that very rapidly.

We had occasion to drive past my grandmother's old house about twenty years ago and I was shocked to see that the grounds were overgrown and the house looked very run down. She must have been weeping in Heaven looking down upon it. Perhaps it was the tears that brought it back because driving by it five years or so ago it was restored to its beauty as I remember it. The lawns carefully trimmed and the house with a fresh coat of paint. I could not see the backyard but likely it was once again a beautiful place. The wildness is Mother Nature at her best I rather think and the crispness, the controlled nature that we put on her is easily overrun and removed by her whenever she has the ability to arise and take charge.

One of the most formidable lines in a show that I can recall is "Nature will find a way" and that was in Jurassic Park. I think it is one of the truest statements in our lives - Mother Nature will always find a way to save herself. As we sit huddled inside wondering when we will emerge again, I suspect we will have to find a way to live with Mother Nature or she will be put us back inside once again. I think the children will understand that better than us likely.

Quarantine

Amazingly I am missing being inside all of the time. I really enjoyed those three weeks when I didn't go anywhere. Looking forward to doing that again! Mind you I would really rather that we didn't have COVID-19. Mother Nature can be cruel.

There are 3,303,296 cases worldwide (increase of 54,274 over yesterday), 235,290 deaths (increase of 4,486 over yesterday) and 1,039,588 recovered (increased of 33,476 over yesterday). Canada now has 55,061 cases (increase of 1,825 over yesterday), 3,391 deaths (increase of 207 over yesterday) and recovered 22,751 (increase of 1,328 over yesterday).