What a wonderful look out of the window. There are beautiful yellow blossoms capturing the eye today on this dark rainy day. The colours move around the garden as one set of perennials after another give forth their beautiful blossoms as the days pass from spring into summer. All of this rain this year has been great as the grass is growing quickly in the bare spots. This year we will water in the dry days of July. The black walnut tree has now crossed over more than half of my window view almost blocking my view of our maple tree at the back of the yard. The maple tree next door on the other side pretty much obliterates the sky on that side. Possibly in just another couple of years the trees will block out most of the sun except for directly down on the yard just around the house. The tree in the front of the yard pretty much covers all of the sky out there. It is a less dense foliage though and the grass generally remains green under it with some watering in the dry spells. The front garden had beautiful white blooms the past couple of weeks but they are dying down now and I will trim them off. The hostas will start to bloom next and the starry solomon seal blooms all summer but is a quieter bloom and less ostentatious except when you are up close to it. The lily of the valley has all passed its bloom height now. I did not plant any annuals except we will do our sunflowers this week. There are fifty plus of them so hopefully a lot of them will survive. The daisies are starting to think about creating buds but it will be a while before they bloom.
The end of June already. The past six weeks have passed quickly as we continue our downsizing. Another dump day is planned and that should pretty much eliminate most of the things that we will not use in terms of building materials. The flag pole will go this time as it is now in three pieces and transportable. Also the antenna pole is ready to go and it will just fit in the car. My husband did enjoy his ham radio for quite a few years.
Today I will spend some time on the Kipp Newsletter planning out the various sections.
H11 Newsletter will wait for Russia to stop their illegal war in Ukraine. As the days pass I find the things being said by them to justify the war in Ukraine are more and more disgusting. Prayers as always for Ukraine. Scum does always rise to the top but once it is skimmed off then Russia will be free. But the skimming must be done by the people of Russia who surely are tired of what is being done in their name - the murder of innocents.
Thinking about Edward today as I contemplate his Celebration of Life in early August. I would say that he did all that he wanted to do in life and actually far more than he ever thought he would on a personal level. On a scholastic/business level he would have liked to continue with scientific research but the times dictated that he would spend his working life at CISTI which he also loved and for whom other than the occasional thought of what might have been it was a very satisfying work experience. His seventeen years of retirement he gloried in as we traveled from place to place. He wanted to travel about again and again. But on a personal level his involvement with the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) Ottawa Branch was one of his great treasures. He loved that organization (now Ontario Ancestors) and spent a huge amount of time doing various jobs for the group. It was his inner self doing community service to his country which he loved. As I mull that thought around, I am reminded that we never once in our youthful days in London, Ontario attended the OGS there. His involvement with genealogy was purely personal and the collections he made that he did not keep he gave to his friend Ed Phelps at Western University. It wasn't until we came to where we presently live and started attending the United Church here that he struck up a friendship with one of his cousins from the area where he was born and grew up that an interest in being part of the OGS Ottawa Branch emerged. His cousin suggested going to the OGS Ottawa Branch meeting way back in 1980 or 1981 (can not remember the exact date) and a love for this organization was born and he seldom missed a meeting. (I do not remember how often his cousin and he went together.) Gordon had an interest in his mother's family which was Kipp and I think she was descendant of the Richard Kipp family (Richard being one of Benjamin Kipp's older brothers (Edward's great grandfather)). The Kipp family is an interesting one. The records for Edward's line as follows: (Isaac Kipp was his 2x great grandfather born 1 Nov 1764 in New York State. He married Hannah Meed/Mead 29 Aug 1790 also in New York State (both records have not yet been verified for location)). These two notations were in the Kipp Family Bible which belonged to the Richard Kipp family. I was avoiding genealogy in those days as much as I could as it did not interest me overly (it took DNA and one of my cousins to bring me to genealogy much later in 2003). I honestly thought I knew everything about my families although I did help find the records for a 50th Wedding Anniversary binder for my parents and did discover that the records for my paternal grandmother appeared to be difficult to locate as we could not find them at that time. I did discover her surprising story much later around 2006 but that is my story and not the Kipp.
Edward continued with the OGS until his death and indeed he continues to receive many emails on his email account about the OGS meetings and other items. I did not renew the membership that he kept for me but want to donate to the maintenance of the library in his name. Initially I thought I would do that on the date of his death but I think now I will do that donation on the anniversary of our marriage each year which is in the fall at the beginning of September.
I didn't realize until a couple of years ago that Gordon Riddle had passed away in 2013. He and Edward continued with a few emails back and forth over the years. I remember they shared the respective births of their first grandchild in one set of emails. A wonderful event for both of them I noted reading the email which Edward shared with me.
Just a little more than a month to the Celebration of Edward's life and I was reading that a lot of people have done the same waiting for a time to celebrate the lives lost during the past couple of years. Somehow he just felt so much closer to us while we have kept his Urn with us these past near 14 months. We have not had to give him up quite so quickly as the past demanded although in many cultures (particularly Chinese) families keep the Urns in a special place in their home for ever. That to me is such a fitting memorial for one's family members. To always be able to visit with them and sit and remember them knowing that they are just there within that beautiful Urn that has been selected to hold them into eternity although their spirit is now free to join with all the spirit world around us.
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