I wonder how long my enthusiasm for cleaning will last! I do enjoy the process of cleaning a house methodically picking up and placing items that have become misplaced during the week but it is hard work and I can see that eventually I will not be able to clean even this smaller house. I find that my mind does, on cleaning day, go back to the house hunting that my husband and daughters engaged in about thirty plus years ago. I am so very thankful that they decided that they liked where they were well enough although just ten years later they did wish that they had moved and had the larger "entertainment" areas that exist in larger homes but then they were grown up and life was moving them onwards so did not talk about that very much. But it left me, in my widowhood, with the home that I loved and could manage and a place for us all to gather together that has the memories of Edward firmly all around us even though we have donated so much of his life to various places to help other people as he was prone to do. Edward loved to help; to be part of so many places. It was just his way and we went along for that ride and it was always interesting; not always fun but life isn't about fun but more about service. That was the way that I was raised with the thought of service to God uppermost in our minds and service to our country coming in a quick second. Our civic duty being a very important part of our being on this planet.
We returned the turbine and I am so in support of our doing that. We must stay in dialogue with the Russians; we must help Ukraine to fight off this evil imperialistic aggression by Russia but always in dialogue hoping that one day this will all end and the world will move forward once again in peace. That isn't to say we should not be ready for war; we should always be ready to defend ourselves from whatever emerges on our world but especially whatever comes to our world. We must be ready to defend ourselves. I am not hearing enough about improvements to our military; to me that is the most important item that should be uppermost in people's minds. We can live in small houses; we can have fewer clothes but we must have a well equipped military. God would want us to defend ourselves from evil; He did not create this world to see it destroyed by greed for land and imperialistic aggression. It shows because imperialism always loses eventually unless it creates instead of being greedy. As countries throw off the yoke of imperialism the ties that were originally imperialistic have turned into lasting friendship as the mother country tries to help those countries become independent prosperous nations. That is important as the world evolves. But imperialism needs to be a thing of the past. When the lines were drawn after World War II and again with the Iron Curtain rising; those lines were meant to be and if you didn't want to be enclosed in those lines you should go where you feel is home not become a fifth columnist in a country destroying the freedom of all the people who live there. Offering easy citizenship in an imperialist country isn't freedom it is just greed for more land and using fear to get it.
Prayers for Ukraine as always.
Moving on to the day. I hope to spend some time on the Pincombe Newsletter today. My eyes are rested once again and I can go back into the Chittlehampton Register to look at the Pincombe entries. The first entry was most fascinating finding the priest recording the first Pincombe marriage as a William Pincombe of Fhilley (Filleigh). Then checking the Protestation Returns and finding that a William Pincombe has signed at Filleigh (and he is Church Warden there) but also a William Pincombe Senior and a William Pincombe Junior have signed at Chittlehampton. Proving that the William Pincombe at Filleigh and the William Pincombe Senior at Chittlehampton may not be an easy task but they are less than 10 kilometres apart and interesting that William Pincombe Junior may be the William Pincombe of Fhilley who married Mary Harvey 26 Sep 1639 in Chittlehampton. The name Pincombe in Devon in the 1500s is found in 29 results and in the 1600s records 449 results. A substantial increase showing a rapidly increasing family (and records of course but between 1500 and 1600 the records are more birth, marriage and burial with some civic records. The number of adult male Pincombes in the 1500s is quite small and eventually I shall have charted all of these records and discussed them in the Pincombe Newsletter but it will take a lot of time and I like to use more than the one data set (I have access to Ancestry, Family Search, Find My Past and My Heritage). My task seems to stretch far into the future and as I said when I turned 70 I can see that by 80 I may be winding down but life changed suddenly for me during COVID. I expected Edward and I to live to an old age together and that we would be helping each other to manage life but now alone I tend to be a reclusive loner and working away on my newsletters is how I would like to spend my widowhood years plus getting Edward's work published. I have set myself a huge goal but I try to take it day by day and just see how it all transpires.
I was so right though in the spring when I said that I might not get back to the Siderfin book until August or later in the Fall. Initially I thought I might be done by August but I have not been able to work on it since the spring. Life has become so very busy.
I have found with the help of the priest a suitable memorial for Edward's Celebration of Life since flowers were already chosen for the Sunday after. I am much happier with the new idea of hymn books. He loved to sing - he was in the Choir at Orleans United for about 16 or 17 years I think it was as well as being Treasurer for ten years. Shortly after we started going to Orleans United Then Convent Glen United I stayed home one Sunday while Edward and our oldest went on their own. Instead I read my Morning Prayer and worked away on my proofreading/copyediting. I found it a very fulfilling day but it was not to be as I had agreed to go as a family to the United Church and my husband and child missed me being with them so I did continue going with them and being Volunteer Secretary for about four or five years I think it was - Joanne Barr was minister (and I did finally remember her surname) and then Jamie Goss was minister and he took over the publication of the Bulletin which was nice actually as my worklife was increasing rapidly and I was finding that more difficult to do as well as my proofreading and copyediting at home. I will eventually investigate a memorial for Edward at Orleans United Church (we gave the large Bible for the altar when our youngest was baptized) but will need to save up for that.
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