Looks like rain

 Definitely looks like rain today but is meant to be somewhat sunny this morning. Middle of July already (in four days) and the month has passed quickly. I always find July to be tiring for the heavy work in the outside but I look forward to those long nights and the research time so it keeps me pulling weeds; I love Canada with all its varied seasons but then my roots are deep into the soil for sure as I reach towards 78. My grandmother was still busy in her garden at this age; not quite so much walking as she did when she was just a couple of years younger. Too much garden work but that was her love - her garden was the centre of her life along with all the beautiful baby sets she knitted and crocheted to send to the hospitals in the north for newborn First Nations babies. The colours were lovely, I can remember them spread out on the bed before they were packed. Each set separately in its own papers. An equal number for boys an equal number for girls (pink and blue) and then the same number in yellow and green. All carefully knitted in beautiful patterns. I copied that when my own were born knitting them lovely little sweaters. But I have never done knitting to give away except once. A chosen child and none the less a new member of a family. My paternal grandmother was half chosen I always thought as her step-father was not her own father but when her mother married she left her grandparent's home and became part of her mother's new family. It is a lovely story but no one told it to me until just a few years ago when I met (online) some of my father's cousins descendants. If she had lived we would have all loved her dearly I am sure - there is a picture of her when she was perhaps in her mid 40s holding the daughter of her brother-in-law. She looks so happy and the little girl has been brought from Toronto to London to protect her from an epidemic of polio. 

A brief glance at Siderfin yesterday but most of the day was spent cleaning the top floor and main floor of the house. Luckily it is small and I have now lived here for over fourty five years. There were no trees first of all and now we are shrouded by trees; I love it actually but for many of those early years there were just the young saplings in the front and the trees we planted in the back as did a lot of other people. Now the trees are huge and the shade is pleasant although not really friendly to growing gardens but that is okay; I am not a gardener. I would be quite happy with just lawn out there. But the lettuce, onions and radishes have been nice and the tomatoes, peppers, beans are busy setting and the carrots are growing rapidly now. It is more fun than anything else - watching them grow but also a lot of work. But as we stretch towards the middle of July then August comes closer and that signals the look forward to Fall and all that research time. I love the winter. This year if the snow comes early then we will be out there skiing. 

We completed another of our list of ten things to accomplish this year (year ends in December) and that makes two items; we will probably get another three or four done in the summer and then we work at that again in December but I will have time to organize that look from September to November. I do need to downsize; the need most apparent when I see the dust in the closets. Less dust is good. 

Sweden into NATO at last and hope for Ukraine - more munitions to assist them in their rightful pursuit of freedom from imperialistic aggression. Take your time; time is on your side. You have also lost so many brave young soldiers in the cause. We wanted no war; that was why we created the United Nations. We want no war; that is why we created NATO and NORAD for our defense. Imperialism is dead it doesn't belong in a modern world. Only one country has broken that rule of no-imperialism since then and one wonders why. Certainly the world has tried to bring Russia out of that archaic imperialism of centuries past - greed for land that is not theirs; helping them develop industries and inviting them to be part of everything. Nazis though just want and will do whatever it takes to get it so containing Russia is the necessary but sad step for sure. Are all the Russians left in the country Nazis? one wonders. The acts of Hitler and his enablers loom large in our  minds - the chaos, the death, the destruction caused and occurring during the Second World War. The graves of our Canadian heroes dot the landscapes of France and here in Canada. The graveyards of France so neatly maintained but there is an echoing sadness as one reads the stones - so young, so young. Forever emblazoned in my memory are the rows and rows of stones for those heroes that we saw in our travels in France; our youth.

On to the day, breakfast next and then cleaning the basement. I really do have a clean basement and it is so much emptier than it was. Probably only one third of the floor space is occupied. I do like a basement that can be utilized - it is an excellent exercise room with a treadmill, weights, a circle for running and lots of other exercise equipment; the exercise bicycle is on the main floor by the television. My FitBit is always on my arm and I try to do a minimum of 12 thousand steps per day but generally I am well in excess of that. In the winter I tend to get closer to twenty thousand per day but the summer is complicated and I do get fewer steps but probably work harder in the long run but a lot of it is on my hands and knees in the garden so no steps.