Snow lovely snow

Two weeks since I went for groceries but I still have my macaroni and cheese I just made for another two days, then frozen cod with sweet potato and peas, chicken stew for three days and frittata for two days and another piece of cod and then there is also canned fish which I can whip into a hot salad or more macaroni and cheese since I am very fond of that. What I run out of eventually is fresh milk, fresh yoghurt and fresh humus but last time there wasn't any 2% milk with a good date so I bought homogenized and I just water that down 1:1 so it lasts twice as long since it had a really good date. This is working out very well. I do not actually like shopping that much but it is nice to have fresh vegetables, fruit and meat once again when I finally do go for groceries. The plight of the people of Gaza in my mind and the memory of the stories my grandfather told me of food shortages in England during the first part of the Second World War. Convoys used to go from Canada with food but the Nazis ruthlessly sunk so many ships headed there. An entire island nation standing alone (with the Empire now Commonwealth) against the Nazis menace. Greed, desire for dominance and annihilation of peoples was their creed as well just like Hamas.

I may hear today about my new referral for my cataract surgery. This has been a very strange experience and hasn't done too much for my thoughts on foreign doctors coming here and working. Probably they are needed in their own countries anyway. We should just have more spaces in our medical schools. There are plenty of applicants. It only takes four years of medical school and then two years for family medicine. We would soon have enough family medicine graduates to have enough doctors; we just need to educate more here and not make some of our students go to other countries to study. Bonuses would go a long way to increase the number of family medicine graduates - they are the only graduates who can go back and do another speciality so they could still follow their dream of a particular specialty later. Since medicine is a necessity the money funding our universities could be redirected to give more to the medical schools where we actually need people and also to community colleges training in trades which are also desperately needed to keep tuition costs down for the students. After all our universities (except for a couple of private ones) are publicly funded by our taxes - they should always be working towards the needs of society. Being a science graduate I do tend to see value in actual products; I consider that we do need arts thinkers but the needs of the economy and the service industry should always be first.

I did work on the Siderfin book yesterday and slowly getting through this 11th generation. I should be close to Thomas today and then I have the work of a Thomas descendant to help me along. Then the 12th generation and that is the last one. My dedication to the revision of the Siderfin book will soon be complete. 

I also had one of my distant cousins visit me yesterday (I do not have any first cousins) to see the books for Westminster Township and London Township. I also have Goodspeed's History of Middlesex and Rosser's Early Settlers plus fiche for London records like wills, burials and some older history books published on early settlers. Hopefully she found some material of value to her. We had a short chat and then I went out and raked up the leaves/stems from the Black Walnut and just in time because it snowed. Beautiful snow but I didn't want the Black Walnut droppings under the snow as they emit a toxin which is bad for the vegetation. But I also wanted it to be dried out somewhat so it was easier to move. Three full bags for garbage this week. This is a tree that hangs over my fence! I just have a maple tree in the back yard. The maple leaves I will put on the gardens and will do that when the snow melts over the next couple of weeks.

Ian White's Psalms playing in the background and is quite lovely. Woke up with a migraine in the night so had a lovely hot cup of Camomile Tea which soothed it along with a cold compress. Off to sleep again and overslept until 7:00 as I usually arise at 6:00. Lots of migraines this past month and a bit. It is my mind over working but with the migraine often comes clarity which is nice. I used to just take medicine for migraine years ago but I did not find that it solved the problem in the long run so went to Yoga, camomile tea and cold compress. Breathing exercises work as well but all of that is  more time consuming than drugs but over time I think it tends to counter what I call a migraine attack. Time is something of which I have a great deal so not a problem.

I was actually not thinking about the world situation which is most dire especially in Gaza and Ukraine but rather about the slowness of my work the past month and a bit. Yesterday was a good working day though and I rather think as this one dissipated rather quickly in the night after my treatment things may be looking up. 

Remembrance Day in two days and I earnestly hope that people will respect that day and let it be for the losses in the First and Second World Wars - as a country we truly lost a huge number of people including all the wounded particularly in the First World War and it is a day for them and for them alone. Personally I do not think that foreign flags should fly on our streets with people parading up and down. Write letters, some people tell their stories on the television but keep the streets free (put them up in your yard if you need the comfort of a foreign flag). I love my English heritage but it isn't appropriate to be always having it in the face of the rest of the people of Canada even if I do have three grandparents and a father all born and raised in England. Canada is a land of First peoples and colonials. We must always work towards being a unified people not driven apart by attachments to foreign places. I do not consider our King to be foreign. Many of the peoples of the world yearn to have such a figure head (for sure Russia is such a place) so I consider us lucky to still have a King to be part of our country. Especially one who has been dedicated to the environment from his teenage years and not afraid even then to speak up about it. He has worked all of his life to improve farming methods and green the economy. The difference visiting the British Isles over the fifteen years that I went there is amazing. Everywhere now there are solar panels; the Irish Sea is full of wind turbines and they are steadily moving forward towards a green environment and I think King Charles has been a lot of that push and Prince William, Prince of Wales continues that push. 

Well onto the day, it is already 1.5 hours later than usual for me.   

Free the hostages Hamas. Time for you to lay down your arms and get out of Gaza so the Gazan people there can get on with their lives and build a country. You have murdered enough of them as Hamas and Hamas alone is responsible for all of these deaths.