Cleaning the rest of the house

 Always a long day of work for sure, cleaning the rest of the house - fortunately it is a small two storey carriage home so not as much work as it might sound but still enough for a 79.5 year old for sure. I will begin after breakfast as usual. It does make life easier though to always have the house cleaned up every week; week in and week out. I used to pay my daughters, after I went back to work, to clean the house and do the laundry. Well worth it to me since I was out earning money. I always believed in paying my children for work done. It is good training and does perhaps increase that desire to be independent and earning money one day in a different way than cleaning a house. 

Not a lot of work done yesterday, my eyes still seemed to be a bit tired so I rested them quite a bit and watched a movie on Netflix and did my exercises like running which I still do when I clean the basement. Today I will not run; I will get plenty of exercise doing the cleaning. I also cleared the laneway, patios and porch as there was a small snowfall and it is good to just get it out of the way. We apparently are getting another good snowfall so we will hopefully reach the 1.5 metre standing snow in the backyard by the end of the winter. That means good moisture for the ground. 

I did think about the Blake family yesterday, somehow Pincombe has disappeared into the shadows for the  moment. Resolving that the one group in the FT DNA y-DNA study is Viking along the Normandy coast rewarding as one would expect that there would be a number of placed people in England after the Norman Conquest. But why do we find so many Blake lines in England. Already we have noted that during the 1330s to 1550s when the Emigrant database exists that a number of Blake came from Europe to England - particularly from The Netherlands, different areas of France besides Normandy and Ireland. So rather interesting actually. I have to decide how much effort I will put into the wills that I have transcribed for Wiltshire seeing what kind of family lines emerge from these wills. The same for the wills in Hampshire, Berkshire. Christchurch is in Dorset these days so that brings that largish group of Blake into Dorset when one is examining the records. My interest in the Calne Blake family is fairly low to be honest but I would not be doing proper duty to history if I do not continue with this pursuit of attempting to determine how Richard le Blak fitted into the scheme of Blake in southern England. So many details are available that it just seems like a mistake not to attempt to put them all together. I am considering whether or not I should write an article for the Guild Newsletter on Richard le Blak. That might be a process that could encourage more British Blake descendants to test their y-DNA for the study. I have always been looking at this from my grandfather's viewpoint and he would have loved knowing that his line was very ancient to the British Isles as he had always said it was. But having scientific proof is always so interesting. He did not attach a great deal of interest to the family lore that the Andover Blake family and the Calne Blake family were related perhaps because it was very distant and prior to Nicholas whom he did have a great interest in. That is a thought actually and it has just occurred to me. Perhaps he knew more than I understood as a child of eight years and less. I did try to see if my older brother (he was 2.5 years older than me) remembered what Grandpa had said but his only comment was he tried to stay out of Grandpa's way or he was out in the garden working alongside of him. Grandpa believed in doing one's chores and he would create them if you looked like you had nothing to do! I did sit at his knee for hours those last couple of years listening to him tell me stories about Upper Clatford, Andover and the Blake family. 

Breakfast time, tea is drank. A beautiful morning begins once again and it is dawn. 

I have been avoiding the news to a certain extent; certainly President Trump will protect Israel. The announcement by the Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich that "for every hostage harmed, Israel will take 5% of Gaza" and it is such a good statement. Hamas needs to be put down; any human characteristics they ever had are lost for their barbaric crimes in Israel on the 7th October 2023 continuing right up to the emaciated hostages turned over last week. If those babies still missing are not returned alive and well especially, Hamas should pay dearly for their treatment of all children and infants having taken them hostage in the first place. That is the lowest of low acts against a people to take their children - it is simply beastly.