Copilot

 Working with Copilot yesterday was most interesting and I separated my large table into the four grandparent components although I did not do a complete separation as I wanted to see the results. They were pretty much as expected. A good separation with regard to the four names. A reasonable number in each grouping as anticipated. I could sort to get the entire table back into its numerical run and thus reproduce on a grandparent level the original chart. I could have asked Copilot to do that at the end if I so desired. I did not have it place the Knight family into this chart and will need to do that. It always picked up every incidence of Blake as I worked on Blake first (in the Greatgrandparent category). I could have written a python programme as well and will work with that methodology also. Did it save me a lot of time? Probably but the manual items that needed to be done have to be fed in one line at a time although you could do it as a long list of statements at the beginning possibly. Will have to look at that. I do need to do more work with Copilot in this regard. 

A good exercise day with my usual yoga and calisthenics in the morning followed by a run before lunch and then weightlifting in the  afternoon and a lovely walk on the beach after dinner. A most pleasant day although we had a fierce thunder storm later in the evening. 

Sunday and Church is beginning (I ended up switching to the Church online in England as I was not picking up my own Church here). God is with us always waiting and watching for us to do the one item other than loving God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. That other part that Jesus brought to us from God is loving our neighbour as ourself which really is about respect for sure. 

Solitaire puzzles later as the day escapes me today.  

I often do agree with Conrad Black

" Last week ..... we [Conrad Black writing about his conversation shared with his readers that he had with Stephen Jarislowsky]  had a most amicable conversation on the somewhat distressing subject of the current political condition of this country. We agreed that I would write it up. We think our greatest national problems are that governments as a whole employ 4.6-million Canadians, 25 per cent of the entire workforce, an unsustainable burden, and that the first one-third of these people to reach retirement age and full pension eligibility should simply not be replaced. The compensation of the remaining government employees could then be somewhat increased: as in the private sector, fewer, better-paid jobs, with everyone eligible for full pension benefits.

Our second point is that both corporate and income taxes have to be reduced to below United States levels to compete successfully for investment dollars. To be eligible for government assistance, universities must devote themselves to producing a great majority of graduates who will be capable of earning an income in the field of their specialty, and skilled trades should be elevated to the socio-intellectual status of university disciplines: we need plumbers and electricians more than gender studies and decolonization experts. The demarcation of federal and provincial jurisdiction should be clarified, duplication avoided, and Canada should finally become a domestic common market. With reasonable care for the environment, we must exploit and export to the world our natural resources, and outgrow neurotic fixations on fictional climate horror stories. Stephen and I agreed that whoever advances these points will quickly lead this country to the position of admired success in the world that it rightly aspires to and can certainly attain. "

Thank you once again Conrad Black for an exceedingly interesting editorial in the National Post. I could not agree with him  more particularly on the role of trades in our society; their importance is the gift that will bring us to the prosperity that is the promise of Canada. 

Yesterday another busy day and the car is all vacuumed and dusted and the windows shinning. Then we took it through the car wash to complete the task. My husband did all these things in the past and every day one is reminded of how much a part of our lives was lost to us but we remember him every day so he is never forgotten. That was his greatest wish I think because his own father appeared to be forgotten; lost to him when Edward was just two years of age but he lived a full life doing all the things that he wanted to do except for following through on his childhood desire to be a Scientist working in the field of Chemistry. But Edward served his country very well working at CISTI in the National Research Council for thirty years. 

Today is a work day and I do hope to finally get to my file that I want to apply AI to in order to look at some interesting details that I have in the accompanying word files that match up with these particular results in the large excel file. The questions are somewhat jelled in my mind and I am ready to begin this very interesting task. 

A beautiful sunny day full of promise with just a slight breeze in the trees. God is with us always waiting and watching for His world to live the right kind of life. Love they neighbour as thyself. It was all that He asked us to do. The Creator waits for us to do the right thing. 

Solitaire puzzles next.  

 

 

Another sunny day

A beautiful sunny day today and I shall vacuum the car later and the trap for the dryer just to really get summer going. Our car is now seven years old and has less than 33,000 kilometres on it (about  20,500 miles) and my husband put the first 10,000 on in just one year, 8,000 the next year and 5,000 kilometres the year following before he became too ill to drive. Then I went to Florida with my children one time and that was another 6000 kilometres. It took another three years to reach 33,000 kilometres so less than 1000 kilometres per year. Amazing really as it looks almost new but a quick glance tells one that this is a nearly seven year old car. 

I was contemplating how one regards Canada in the world scene. We are different from every other country I think. The original inhabitants being the First Nations and they were mobile except perhaps for the Inuit who lived mostly in the north east of Canada I think (they were probably the first new Colonials for thousands of years as even at this time we can not place a time for arrival of the First Nations here). I must admit the archaeological digs become more and more fascinating as they are uncovered. The mobility for the First Nations was a north to south to north to south movement over the year (I believe a number of the First Nations lived constantly in the south of the North American portion of the continent) for the warmer climes during the long winter and returning to the great hunting, fishing and growing areas in the spring, summer and into fall. That has changed with there being a permanent border now across North America (two actually - Canada/United States and United States/Mexico). However Jay's Treaty 1794 guarantees the right of movement to First Nations between Canada and the United States. Canada does not see its history in quite the same way as other countries in the Western Hemisphere. It is a colonial happening with the intent that the colonialists and the First Nations were using the land in a Canadian way. The Treaties following Confederation in 1867 are similar to the system of land holding in the United Kingdom in that payment was made for the use of lands particularly acquired via the transfer of Rupert's Land to the Dominion of Canada as seen in the Treaties (I am not knowledgeable on these treaties to understand completely how they work). These lands continue to be part of Canada although purchasing in the normal way (again like the system of land holding in the United Kingdom) gave one the right to own it under the law, sell it under the law or pass it on to one's rightful heirs but the land always remains Canadian and can not be taken out of Canada as is claimed by separatist groups. If Canada itself and also the First Nations are willing to sell land (and both must be in agreement) then that is a process but the cost will be in the trillions for any provincial land purchase and probably even into the hundreds of trillions as this land is very profitable. The idea of the Founders of Confederation was to maintain the lands that we call Canada and originally was Turtle Island as named by the First Nations in order to benefit all Canadians. Alberta in particular has the highest salaries overall in Canada so they have done well as immigrants to come to a country mostly empty-handed where they end up having the highest salaries but still the sharing of the wealth in every province is the underpinning of Confederation. Looking at it purely in the humanitarian way one would expect that everyone would benefit from the profits of the lands of Canada. Education is the key in all of this and the more education the better (both trade/technical and academic - I place academic in third these days because our need for trades and technology is much greater than pure academia) everyone is able to utilize the best that this country has to offer. 

This idea that conquering a nation leads to a permanent change in the ownership is false really around the world as most countries with their original hunter gatherer populations are still existing some remaining basically in the same areas when one looks at the Y-DNA that has now been tested around the world (lots of movement in Europe and elsewhere but the persistence of older y-DNA continues). y-DNA predicts that Homo sapiens arose in Africa and moved out sequentially to the Middle East and the possibility that it also moved to the Western Hemisphere is being tossed about once again (perhaps this group was swamped by a much larger group arriving from Asia via the Pacific which is becoming better understood). 

We can only roughly predict what the world looked like during the most advanced Ice Ages which bared islands on both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. If Asians could cross the Pacific which is much wider than the Atlantic thousands and thousands of years ago so could the Atlantic have been crossed. After all there has been known fishing in the Grand Banks area off Newfoundland/Nova Scotia (Canada) from Viking days onward (before 1000 CE). I do find it interesting that Neanderthal and Denisovan are absent in the Americas with the First Nations implying that their presence in the Western Hemisphere may be much further back than has been mentioned. My own lines have principally been in the British Isles in all lines except for Huguenot coming in the late 1400s from France to Somerset but yet we carry both Neanderthal and Denisovan in our autosomal DNA suggesting a European connection so perhaps the dividing line between the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere original Hunter Gather populations is much greater than has been suggested although recent archaeological digs are now hinting at more than 100,000 years ago for the first settlements in the Western Hemisphere which takes us way back before the Last Ice Age and only gradually are we learning more and more about earth and how it existed in those earlier times. Yet another reason to listen carefully to our First Nations who carry those early stories in their story telling and they are very very important for everyone's survival. Listening to my grandfather's stories passed to him by his parents and probably other relatives (he appears to be related to half the people in Upper Clatford in the 1800s!) opened my eyes to so many things. At the time I just listened but then internet became available and I discovered this wasn't just a very elderly person talking it was someone passing on to me the stories of the deep past that were shared by many in the British Isles. 

Looking at my own Blake line stretching back into the Western Hunter Gatherer period in the British Isles and they still persist in the British Isles! That is a personal look at yDNA but I can find other Hunter Gatherer results in the various databases showing that Blake is not the only line that traces back so far into the past in that area of Hampshire which is quite fertile and beautiful to behold. Europe itself has not changed a great deal from a y-DNA viewpoint with many results stretching back through the eons of time showing locations of early Hunter Gatherer presence even today. There is also movement but historically people who move because of friction in their native country often return eventually to that native country when peace returns. Already my autosomal contribution to grandchildren down to 25% or less or slightly more and each generation will cut that finer and finer but they carry the autosomal contribution of two Hunter Gather populations from the Western and the Eastern hemisphere and certainly a huge migrant population autosomal presence in the United States from their grandfather Edward commencing in the early 1600s from The Netherlands/Germany and later France, Sweden and the British Isles. 

A fun time looking at Y-DNA but must get back to working on the things I plan to do today. The British Isles is perhaps like Canada in that movement from the continent to the British Isles particularly England was constant through this Common Era so perhaps Canada will retain its very interesting assortment of individuals particularly from the British Isles/France and later Europe and the rest of the world on into the centuries. But history suggests that many recent colonials return to their original countries over time if they have left because of wars/hard times. But it is this mixing of the autosomal DNA that protects Homo sapiens from abrupt decline which is what happened to the earlier Homo species. Nature will always choose the best route most times or it will abort spontaneously a bad combination but if the best route is the best of two weaknesses then that is a disaster for populations which become too close in cousin-ship to maintain a healthy population. Interesting this was well known to many populations in the past as one notes how they chose their partner to create a family. 

Must do the solitaire puzzles. 

 

 

Cleaning accomplished

Thursday is always a calming day although I did wake up early. The cleaning is all done and my research is ahead of me with four days until cleaning begins again. The routine is interesting and keeps me on track. 

The AI will be interesting working away on my large excel file and today I will split it into the four grandparent lines and see what I can note of interest in the Blake file in particular. There are a couple of old lines in there that are interesting and of greater interest are the Living DNA matches that fit in there as well with people living in the British Isles and Australia as most of these lines are in the United States with early English Colonial ancestry. Linking them to the Andover Blake family is possible in some cases but dependent on other people's trees so will be cautious. 

The weather has been beautiful and pretty much no smoke in the air thus far but it is early so will have to wait and see on that. Generally July can be the worst month for smoke from forest fires but hoping for lots of rain to keep them under control. Some fires are just spontaneous and create situations where some plants can only reproduce during fires which is amazing really. It is preventing the careless fires that we aim towards in particular. 

Perhaps a few walks on the beach if weather permits and today is another mostly cloudy day although the possibility of rain has disappeared. We had a very good rain yesterday.  

The Trans Mountain Pipeline is now running at full capacity (upgraded two years ago). I still wonder if just twinning this pipeline would serve very well in getting crude to tidewater and sales around the world.  There is  money to be made in oil for sure. 

I think Canada is very wise to learn more about drone warfare especially with the three evil satanic countries attacking or simulating attacks on other countries namely the co-operating countries of Russia, Iran (as well as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis) and North Korea (the Evil Three). One never knows when such material will be needed in national defense.  The threats that come out of Russia particularly of using nuclear weapons does make one wonder if there is anyone in that country that can put two words together in a sensible way. Always threatening and yet no one threatens them but they mercilessly attack a smaller country namely Ukraine murdering children, women and men because they are so greedy for land and what that land contains. Of course I know there are responsible people in Russia, Iran and North Korea who do not agree with their dictatorship leaders but they are murdered or destroyed in some way for speaking out. 

Almost half way through June and the summer goes amazingly fast. 

Solitaire puzzles next.  

My favourite cookies

 I now have a package of my favourite cookies in my pantry and they tasted very good. Two years without was a long time as I have eaten them as long as I can remember. They used to be Canadian made but are now made in the United States hence the two year break but I am back to buying them again. I do not drink so am not a part of that particular item. 

Yesterday very busy with cleaning and it was the main floor and the hardest floor this week because it includes vacuuming the stairs. Today the top floor and will start around ten this morning. It should be about 2 hours in total with cleaning the larger bathroom taking up some of that time. Then all done for another week although today I also plan to vacuum out the dryer vent outside and the car. We will be already for summer.  I often hang up the clothes inside for the extra moisture but less so in the summer. It would be nice to hang them outside but the flowers that my daughter is allergic to are all over the place and I would be bringing that pollen in so do not do that anymore. That is the first thing we will look for when we scout out a new house in a couple of years. 

We had salmon last night for dinner and the first solid meat that my daughter has eaten since the oral surgery on her one tooth. Liver pate (especially good from Quebec I must say) has filled the bill for the last five days as well as canned tuna so it was nice to have a piece of fresh salmon poached. It was so tender and flaky and easy to remove any residual bones missed during the deboning. Along with that some noodles with cream cheese and fresh asparagus also poached. An excellent meal for sure and greatly enjoyed - yesterday was a shopping for food day. 

Busy once again with her research and I want to get into my DNA data perhaps a bit this afternoon after cleaning. Along with bringing together all the Blake bits from individual Legacy charts into one chart that is my focus at the moment. Soon I will be able to produce the generational chart and then I will move to Pincombe to do the same. I still have another year and a half before I will publish the two books and will ensure that I proofread the index this time. I did forget with the Siderfin book and eventually will do that but do have some new material to put in anyway unless someone beats me to that!

Staying away from the news for the most part. I am ambivalent about the best route for Canada really. I prefer to see us developing our natural resources more completely and creating new industry to replace what has been lost during sixty years of basically free trade. But I do enjoy the trade that we partake in with different items being sold here that we do not make or grow. I think that is true of all of us here but we were terribly hurt by the suddenness and the cruelty of saying that our economy could just be destroyed and then we would have to become a 51st state. Considering the wonderful friendship that was enjoyed between the United States and Canada over the last more than two hundred years it was sad. Canadians went south in preference for vacations spending billions of dollars and some still do but many are not. But we will see how it all flows over the next couple of months. Personally I have many wonderful cousins in the United States and love them dearly. 

Windows open today for some fresh air and that is pleasant early this morning. The hot sun is gone for the day it appears as it is cloudy but will still be a warm day and perhaps with some rain. Rain is always welcomed and then I do not have to rush out and water the tomatoes!

I actually do not see a problem with Chinese EVs being restricted from entering the United States from Canada. I see them primarily as a car for our youth and really we do not want them to wander so far afield from Canada in their young days. When they are into adulthood and beginning families then they would buy the bigger cars made in North America (ours sold in Canada being made in Canada principally but we do realize that they cross the border several times or more during construction).  It is actually a favour to anxious parents to restrict the youth from crossing the border I suspect. Changing from buying cars from the big three under our present agreements - Ford, General Motors and Stellantis - is unlikely given our tremendous preference for these cars which have been built jointly with the United States in Canada and since the mid 1960s and Mexico since the mid 1990s. I agree with our government that less than 50,000 Chinese EVs is just a drop in the bucket of the number of cars that Canada purchases during a year. The price is right for our youth for sure. 

Fourty two million people is a huge market for any country looking at us to do business. Plus we have huge spaces if countries want to develop their industries and work co-operatively with us to increase their market around the world. From Canada one can ship around the world from our east coast, our northern coast or our west coast so a great advantage for industries looking for more space to increase their sales working co-operatively with us. 

Another beautiful rain storm has begun. Perfect weather for growing crops all across Canada.  

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

Investitute of the new Governor General, 31st Governor General of Canada

 Tradition is so much a part of people's lives really and losing it can really alters one's space and perception of life I think. Rediscovering one's traditions are important if they are lost to them.  Canada, as a country of ten provinces and three territories, has a lot of traditions that are quite beautiful and these traditions include the First Nations, the French Colonials and the English Colonials (although other than the language English, English traditions have disappeared from Canadian life as far as I can tell). The group of Confederation Founders were in somewhat of a panic at the time wanting to create a country as they viewed the growth of the United States to the south of us. We wanted some items particularly (sea to sea to sea was very important) and it was the French Colonials and the English Colonials who created the differences that one sees between the governance of the United States and the governance of Canada. 

Especially important are the moments in our present governance that are created by The First Nations. They take us back as Canadians to the very roots of this land whether we are a First Generation Canadian or have a very deep longstanding generational past in this country now called Canada but originally was called Turtle Island. We (the First Nations, the French Colonials and the English Colonials) were one together during the 1812-1814 war with the United States and it is important that that oneness always be there now. We have, the United States and Canada, been great friends these last over two hundred years). I especially appreciate it that the First Nations are always part of the ceremonial acts of Canada. More First Nations members in the governance would also be excellent so that consultation is always happening at the time of the initiation of new ideas/projects. The concept of a North American market was not ours but rather presented to Canada by the United States and later included Mexico. It has been very beneficial to all three countries for sure and especially I like the Wisconsin cheeses and milk although it is awhile since I have been there (nine years I think). 

Yesterday was busy and I cleaned the basement. Today is the main floor. We also got in a long walk at the beach which was really very nice. My daughter had a long research meeting with her student as well. Her jaw is recovering very nicely and back to work once again. She really only took two days away from her studies which is typical of her actually!  We lead a very quiet life working on our individual projects and that is pretty much the life we have lived, both of us, since she was a young child and was also true of my husband Edward although he was more of a going out to meetings and such sort of person. 

My daughter felt very sorry for the young couple from Church that came to our door years ago now when she learned that they didn't have any children (she was only five years old!). But I took her for a walk a couple of days later and she saw them with another family that had children so I said look they have lots of friends and that made her happy and we went back to being the quiet family we like to be keeping to ourselves. Edward did continue working with his cousin Gordon Riddle (the husband of the young couple that visited us) on the family tree but both of us, my daughter and I, avoided that. 

We were however at Church together and I being volunteer secretary our paths crossed often but soon they did have their family and we definitely gradually moved apart over the next while although I did babysit their dog and their children when they asked (Edward and Gordon still worked together on the Kipp Family Tree on occasion). 

Babysitting is never my thing actually and I avoid it except when needed (partly because I always pick up whatever cold or flu or illness small children have that were left with me (I never thought of wearing a mask and gloves in those days but it would have been a good idea given my fragile health and determination to help in the schools my children were attending!)). A stroll down Memory Lane once again; it is amazing looking backwards over 81 years of life really. I appear to be very healthy and the fragility of my early adulthood has disappeared although I do feel my 80 plus years. 

For the most part I have lived the quiet life I prefer (but always went to all the historical activities and events that my husband Edward asked me to attend with him as well as going to his Church!). Considering I moved to the attic as a young child separating myself from my then four siblings and eventually six siblings that lifestyle is probably not surprising. We did (my siblings and I) play a lot of card games together and board games but I did like the solitude of the attic for sure! Amazingly I was the middle child in the group of seven. 

I worked away on my Great Grandparent data a little just to play with the file which now has  4377 lines in total. Today I may use AI a little to look at this file a little more intently. I may separate it into the four grandparents since that is basically how I will use it anyway. But the original is still safely stored away in case I ever want to look at the original extraction once again. 

An article on wages paid in Canada was quite interesting to read this morning. It is surprising who is making the most money (just on an average basis within each grouping) on a group level but also a very rewarding look because that is really where you would think the best salaries/wages are and it is in working the natural resources. That is our greatest product really our natural resources. Getting them out of the ground is important and selling them beneficial to our present state. But respecting the land always is an important part of all of that. It may seem cumbersome to people but if we do not respect the land then we condemn earth to an unhealthy future. I think that we can get what is needed out of the natural resources to put us on a path that will make it monetarily feasible to move to protection of the environment as we move along but still maintaining a sufficient income to support the population of Canada. 

I understand the desire to have a perfect utopia now but we have to be able to support that utopia without creating a poverty level that can not be sustained by our current GDP.  Hence we need to listen (and discuss) to the suggestions made by those who know this land well, the First Nations. 

Time to play the solitaire games.  

 

 

Lovely music at Church

 The music was lovely at Church yesterday. I do love the organ music. God would be pleased I think that His Church which He created still sings His praises and thanks him for all of His gifts to mankind. 

With all the rain, the lawns and gardens are looking very nice. I pulled some grass out of the front garden bed so that the iris could have more room. Iris is a beautiful plant. My daughter has cut the lawns thus far although I did contemplate hiring a company to cut the lawns and still might do that as the flowers that inflame her asthma will soon be in full bloom as she has to stay away from the yards most of the time although does go out a little with her mask on. Fortunately Petrie Island doesn't have a lot of flowering plants in the areas that we go to for kayaking and walking. 

My daughter's jaw is healing from the dental surgery and soon back to kayaking once again. She is thinking about her four research projects though and items that need doing. Her student is busy working away with her on these projects as well as the other faculty members who are part of these projects. I am lucky to have her as my caretaker for these research times that she spends here. But we chat every day for an hour or so and I consider her as my caretaker year round actually. 

Worked on the book yesterday and in this case the Excel file for the great grandparents. I have looked at 23 and Me, Living DNA, Ancestry and just a quick glance at My Heritage and FT DNA today to ascertain if there are any new large matches. Then ready to go on the charting using all of this data. There is ancient Blake data in the DNA likely caused by two items. Some of the further back matches are in the Knight family where there is endogamy and others are colonial American Blake descendants. Interesting really that these lengths of DNA would be passed down through nine or ten generations but they are common areas which is a marvelous conduit for DNA material down through the ages. 

I also wrote my letter to my older sister and mailed it off. I am trying to keep to sending it on Sunday each week. I wanted to find boxes of cards that had different pictures on them and we are going to go to the Rideau Centre next and perhaps I will find some there. Right now I just have two different cards. I just thought that would be more fun to receive. I am typing the letters though as my hand writing is somewhat hard to read although I did get a letter from my brother in law saying that my sister had read the letter so that is good news. I did take my time hand writing it. But I will stick to typing the rest - just sent the first one like that. I was a visitor at one of the local old age hospitals when I was a teenager and it is lonely for people in these homes if they do not have people close by. My brother in law goes every day he said but still I wanted to send the letters to break up her long day somewhat.  

 Today cleaning the basement and that will begin soon. I will start the Robot around 9:00 a.m. and it runs for about one hour. Does a great job on the rug for sure. 

Beautiful sun today and the tomato plants will likely need water as it is a hot sun although just 17 degrees celsius this morning at the moment  with a high of 26 degrees celsius promised. 

Solitaire puzzles are next.  

Sunday and another rainy day

 Sunday and this past week has flown by. I have forgotten to send my letter to my older sister and will get that done today. A very very busy week has passed but the summer just by its nature is always very busy with going in and out. 

I did complete the Pincombe/Pinkham Newsletter and it needs to go in for review and hope to complete that early in the week. Not much content other than the Bishops Nympton baptisms and marriages. The priests who maintained these registers through the years did a wonderful amount of entry for individual marriages which is very helpful for those searching back in time. 

In the spirit of the moment I am contemplating buying my favourite cookies (made in the United States) as they are still for sale at the store (I do not drink so whether or not alcohol is on the shelves makes no difference to me). I love very crisp cookies about my palm size; my teeth still work very well and have no problem chewing as I also love crusty bread! I used to buy a box a week. I will not buy cheese that is made with anything other than fresh milk. If I cannot tell then I do not buy it. Our Prime Minister said that Canada could help to "Make America Great Again" although personally I have always seen the United States as a great nation and we are a middle sized nation next to them. The individual companies in the United States that went off shore for production are responsible for any loss in jobs in the United States. The economies of all three countries (the United States, Mexico and Canada) have grown over these past decades and the powerhouse of North America is huge and benefits hundreds of thousands in all three countries. We have been at peace on this continent for a very long time and trade flows readily between the three countries. When large corporations chose to take their production off shore they are hurting their country and the people in it. The prices may be cheaper and generally they only destroy local smaller businesses (and are not the good quality that I remember from my youth so do not buy them unless I can not find something made here) and no one truly benefits in North America from companies going off shore only the companies' owners and their shareholders. 

Today I would like to nip into the Blake book and contemplate the starting of the Generational Tree using Legacy as my feeder text. I do have a lot of this information in individual trees. There is a little work hanging - looking at new matches and seeing if I need to add anything to the Great Grandparent Excel file before I set AI loose on it so to speak. I will use a copy of the original file just to protect that file since I will be extracting information from it in a particular fashion but want to preserve the original setup. 

I like the idea of expanding our air force and especially having both the F-35s and the Gripen as our aircraft. The Gripen are perfect in the Arctic where they were created in Sweden for that terrain and temperature variance.  The F-35s will be the larger force as they will be covering the land area from the border with the United States up to the Arctic. Looking once again at the map from the other day:

 

 This is a good map of the Arctic area that is on the Geology.com website ( https://geology.com/world/arctic-ocean-map.shtml ). Although one can only see down to the 60th parallel north the size of Canada in the Islands of the Arctic is smaller than the Northwest Territories. A second map below shows the usual image of Canada and I think perhaps Nunavut is larger than any other province/territory (interesting to see that and if Quebec ever does separate it will become even larger as the First Nations in the top half and more of Quebec wish to be part of Nunavut and not a separate Quebec!).

 

 This map is also from the Geology.com website (https://geology.com/world/canada-satellite-image.shtml). One can readily see why we would need many more F-35s as the land mass of Canada (second largest country in the world) is huge. Each plane offers its unique abilities particularly well to the Canadian archipelago. In total agreement with the Prime Minister on this purchase.

Conrad Black's editorial yesterday was very interesting. His overall view of Canada is well written. 

The map doesn't nearly show all the water in Manitoba as the lakes are not quite correct but the Nelson River is immense and the Red River coming north into Manitoba from Dakota is left off. The South Saskatchewan River is missing as well (only the North Saskatchewan River is shown). Canada has huge fresh water resources. None of the large rivers in Ontario or Quebec are on the map. Should find a better one and will have a look later today. I didn't actually find anything better as others tended to enlarge the northern part of Canada beyond its actual size. Many of them did have the water right though as this was is really bad. 

Solitaire puzzles are next and then back to work for a bit before Church.  

 

 

 

 

 

88,000 new jobs

 That has a good ring to it 88,000 new jobs even though I know it is May and that summer brings in new jobs every year it still has a good sound to the ears. Youth unemployment down nearly 1% so the jobs are not all summer but good to see that down as well. The Conservatives should really spend their time with the youth and get them organized to rethink the job market. Having a degree does not guarantee a job but having a trade does. Personally I equate trades and professions equally because I come from a trades family and I do know what it takes to do the work. There are fantastic tools to work with in the trades and you have to be able to manage on a computer because customers would appreciate seeing visuals on any work done. The presentation by tradesmen and professionals is pretty much the same these days or could be if one is using their training appropriately in order to best sell their suggestions to customers. Computers are very much in vogue in the trades. Trades have all sorts of advantages. The winter can be slower giving you more time with your family especially if your wife is a professional because winter dominates a professional's activities. Lots of other advantages; you may well make more money as a tradesmen these days which is good to see. The work though is like a professional as the hours can be long in seasonal times. Calls in the middle of the night because something has failed are pretty common if your base of customers is industrial/commercial. Going on and on about a possible recession is such a waste of time. The warning that moving to diversified trade would take time seems to have fallen on deaf ears in the Conservative Party. Question Period should not be a constant whine about the slowness of the effort. Get with it Conservatives and let us see that our tax money spent maintaining members of parliament is well spent. I have voted Conservative for most of my life as a voter but I want to see the Conservative Party have a policy other than attacking the government in power. You did not win the election; it was not even close so find a way to convince people that you have our best interests at heart and are not just clinging to a past that is gone. Trade can still exist between Mexico, the United States and Canada but we need to protect ourselves from tariff and tariff has existed between the United States and Canada for a very long time with some products. Obviously we need to diversify softwood lumber, aluminium, steel and even how we make cars in this country. We need our own car manufacturer  or one of the car companies in the United States or anywhere else could incorporate here so that they are building cars for Canadians using Canadian materials (we have lots of it). Wake up Conservatives as that is part of your value in working hard with the people to make a stronger Canada. We can critique the government ourself we do not need you to do that constantly. We are not stupid we can see what is happening. We do not need a constant repetition of it in Question Period. 

 My daughter had some dental surgery so is recovering at home but back to thinking about her research already. AI is the big interest at the moment and for her as well. 

Beautiful rain last night and supposed to continue all weekend which is good news for crops. The heat is great for growing but rain is needed pretty much every couple of days to get the ground watered. The tomato plants are growing slow but sure. No idea if they will produce anything as the walnut tree sucks all the goodness out of the ground far away from where it stands. At the moment it is impossible really to use the old garden in the middle of the yard as it is full of roots. Must get it grassed in one of these days. But at the moment the raspberries are struggling to still produce raspberries and not just weakened stems and berries because of the walnut tree. It is really a weed that tree and is constantly trying to grow new walnut trees in our yard. 

Must get the information from my Bishops Nympton file  into the newsletter and publish it today. The days move by so quickly. but soon back to normal here. 

Talking to my other daughter and she has been busy in the ER these days and her clinics. Medicine is an extremely busy profession these days with not many breaks in the weeks. 

I did make it into the doctor to review my two sets of blood work which were absolutely the same and identical with my blood work of the last ten years since I have kept all of my results other than my lymphocytes which are at 0.8 but both times I was under a good deal of stress which makes my diverticulosis act up and so the lymphocytes at 0.8 tell one that the lymphocytes are working properly and taking care of the diverticulosis. I will have my blood work done again early in the new year. Doing a whole lot of testing for leukopenia seems like a step that I do not yet need to take since all the other blood work is normal. If there is one place I do not want to spend a lot of time it is hospitals. Loved working there for twelve years; wonderful and interesting work but definitely not where I want to spend the days that are left to me in this world. I will leave that to the people with many years ahead of them.  Since I am not prone to sickness it does seem like a stretch to do a lot of testing which is expensive in the medical system and I am nearly 81. We will see what the blood work is like in the new year. I tend to wear a face mask when I am in places with a lot of people and may wear one to the stores when I go which is pretty seldom. One of my least favourite tasks is shopping but I do go to the stores rather than order in so that I can insure that I am buying Canadian in as much as I am able. That is what we are forced to do because of tariff; we must protect our Canadian jobs. It was pleasanter just to buy what you liked but times have changed; we didn't change them but we have to protect our economy from tariff. I miss my favourite cookies which were American made. Very sad about that. 

Baked custard this morning before the heat of the day as that is one of my daughter's favourites and she is on a liquid diet at the moment but with blenders it is so easy to made wonderful drinks and blend everything to make it liquid. My custard has always been a favourite of hers just a simple custard poached in water in the oven for about an hour and always like velvet and so tasty. 

We need the hate attacks on our Jewish Canadian population to stop now and forever. People who can not leave them alone should go; find some other country to live in. It is intolerable that the Jewish people here are being attacked.  

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

 

 

Busy week

 Yesterday was another busy personal day as will today be and not much work accomplished. Not surprising but I do sense that more work time is coming which will be nice for sure. Harder to find that time in the summer months but the lovely walks on the beach are very much worth losing the work time. 

Warm again today but mostly cloudy and must go out and water the tomatoes soon before it gets too hot. Grass all cut last weekend and probably does not  need cutting for another week as we like it to grow long for the bunny to graze on. Why not as he seems to enjoy it. 

God's world still hasn't moved to that plain of peace as we wait patiently for an end to war and lots of discussion in the United Nations. It is really the only way; it worked well during the Cold War for nearly 45 years. But Russia seems unable to accept their boundaries created by their bankruptcy trying to take over Afghanistan in the 1990s and continue in their aggressive taunts threatening everyone with nuclear war. Is it because no one there has an ability to think through what comes out of their mouth? No ideas on that but it needs to end for the good of humanity. We are tired of listening to their threats but we are not an aggressive people and prefer the route of peace. Russia claims all sorts of ridiculous assumptions about NATO and they tried to convince the United States to destroy NATO I think but everything appears to be on that same page once again supporting the efforts of NATO to keep the Russians corralled in their 1990s borders.  Why do the Russian people listen to the ridiculous statements made by their government? One wonders that. 

Pincombe Newsletter mostly written and just have to pull the Bishops Nympton data which I am currently publishing in the newsletter. My Pincombe line was at Bishops Nympton from the late 1500s and continued well into the 1900s. Before that they were at East Buckland and  Filleigh and before that at North Molton and East Buckland. My line, Richard Pincombe, was the fourth son of William Pincombe and Emotte Snow whose family included seven sons and two daughters. My own line used the spelling of Pincomb in England from the 1500s to the mid 1800s and initially here but gradually the surname came to be spelled Pincombe. 

Tariff has raised its ugly head once again as discussions on CUSMA come together. We must continue making ourselves tariff proof as we move ahead in Canada with nearly 90,000 jobs created in May this year. The only way does appear to be totally independent but that is a shame as our trade with so many American States was equally balanced and we are good friends. Personally I do not want cheap cheese made with freeze dried milk mind you the cheeses made in Wisconsin and their milk are absolutely lovely. Wanting to take over our market just doesn't work well but wanting to trade items that we do not have is a great idea and has worked well since we first got into trade deals in the mid 1960s. Primarily with the American car companies at first and gradually increasing in the items that we trade back and forth. We tend to be resource rich and the amount of oil which is purchased by the United States at a discount (we sell the rest to the world at full price) has put the trade slightly out of balance but we could just decrease what we send to them at a discount and sell around the world at full price if that helps the discussions of equal trade. No ideas on that really as I am not involved in that at all nor do I wish to be at nearly 81 years of age. 

The discussion yesterday by the Prime Minister on our AI future was fantastic. Good ideas and the implementation sounds very straightforward. Starting with medicine a good idea as the AI can collect all the information on a patient quickly and have it available especially in the Emergency Room where the lines can be very long. AI can be a powerful tool with the right hands being the recipients of all that information. So much of our medical information is online making that a reasonable proposition as we all have our Health Card numbers attached to all of our information. I do like socialized medicine. In the past it was sort of socialized as the local doctor always had the ear of the local council and funding when needed. It is really just a step up from that original careful dolling out of medical care as needed in a parish. I think it is one of the really great values and there are many more that have come to us because of our religion. The Parish system was the system setup by the Christian Church and if one goes back in time it existed for the Celtic Church allowing quickly when Jesus came amongst us for the Celtic Church to move to the Christian Celtic Church. English records are such that one can follow the story of any recorded village/town/city in England through their records painstakingly recorded through the centuries. 

But for me our Christian Religion is based on the laws which God gave to us initially with the Ten Commandments to Moses and later with the two commandments that Jesus brought to us simplifying how we should live. It is concise and we could all be living that life of "loving our neighbour as ourself" where loving is respecting and then wars would end and the uplifted plain of peace would be ours to have. We still have to be ready as we do not know what is out there in the universe - God said "Be vigilant: as we read Old Testament and New Testament passages. 

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." (1 Peter 5:8, NKJV)
 

Time to do the Solitaire puzzles.  

 

 

 

 

Cleaning accomplished

Cleaning all accomplished and today is technically a research day but will involve some gardening. It needs to also involve the Pincombe Newsletter as it is now day 4 in June and it is three days late although that is more my suggestion to myself then cut in stone. Once I started into writing the books those types of deadlines no longer exist in my mind as I have little to put into them in actuality at this time. 

Sunny days for the last couple of days and the earth is drying up rapidly. Rain predicted for the weekend and it will be very welcomed. The tomato plants still surviving but the lettuce plants were unearthed too early by the rabbit although will check on that today to see if they can be put back into the ground once again.  

The company that tore up all the grounds last year has been busy repairing the lawns which is good to see. The new system is in and working the same as the old although more efficient for the system I would suspect since the earlier system went in fifty years ago! Our hydro though has always been good here even during the dreadful ice storm in 1998/1999 which certainly put Ottawa on the map and the entire area was coated in a thick layer of ice for about a week and basically shut down. I was working at the hospital at that time so continued to go into work on an altered bus schedule which got you there quite efficiently actually. To show the power of nature the bus was heading down one street and a large branch came away and banged against the windshield and cracked it . The driver managed that so very well one scarcely noticed that it had happened aside from the huge bang. 

Another very very warm day likely although just 19 degrees celsius and sunny at the moment.  The predicted high is 30 degrees celsius. I need to water the tomato plants shortly and the iris I transplanted. 

I can sense our movement closer and closer to the European Union and we are one of the founding members of NATO. We have a lot in common with Europe and they are very interested in maintaining full security in the Arctic and the Arctic nations, Greenland,  the state of Alaska (United States) and Canada have a front line seat on the western section of the Arctic with Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden on the eastern side. The closest reach between Asia and North America is to the north (top) of this particular map although the distance between Svalbard (Norway) and Greenland is a several times greater distance (and the closest distance between Europe and North America). One can see the tremendous value in the Arctic Ocean as it becomes more navigable to shorten the distance between all of these areas. However it will still have winter limitations. 

 

This is a good map of the Arctic Ocean that is on the Geology.com website ( https://geology.com/world/arctic-ocean-map.shtml ).

The distance between Canada and Europe is considerably less when one looks at Hudson Bay and its access to various water lanes to Europe or for that matter anywhere in the North West Territories. I continue to like the idea of Norway, Germany and Canada having the same submarine fleets making surveillance of this part of the world quite straightforward and well covered by the number of future submarines belonging to the three navies which are all part of NATO. 

NATO is very much on guard in the Arctic. Having so many countries supportive of peace is a comfort after the horrors of the Second World War and the Cold War. We have an opportunity, we in this world, of obtaining peace between all nations using the United Nations as our place to speak. We may not always individually agree with the final opinion sometimes but we want to hear all the opinions and that is important. 

The dream of Port Churchill on Hudson Bay is real and Ontario should really create the port that has been talked about as well. The potential for trade in Europe has increased these last couple of years as we diversify our trade here in Canada. 

Solitaire games are next.   

 

Door bell

The weirdest thing yesterday was my door bell ringing. I never answer it unless I have asked someone to come. I glanced out the window and saw that there was what looked like a chemical fire extinguisher sitting on my porch (since it is hazardous waste I decided to check). I did not particularly want that sitting on my porch. So I opened the door and the individual was standing way back where the tree blocked my view.  I thought  he was asking to cut my lawn but my daughter thought he was asking to collect insects around the outside of the house. I just said no thank you especially as there are three boys across the road that I could ask to cut my lawn. In terms of insects the same ones are around everyone's houses so a weird request actually.  I have no idea who that child was actually. Strange really. 

Another busy cleaning day and all accomplished including four loads of wash. Life can be very busy. One of these days I will get back to my research and I am now two days behind for the Pincombe Newsletter so must work on that today. 

Today the basement cleaning and that will begin soon with the Robot doing its chore on the rugs down there. Looking forward to moving in three years as that appears to be the sort of time line I am looking at these days. I will be 84 and that seems long enough for me to own a house. Especially one that is too big for me with so many people wanting to buy houses that are less expensive. 

The tomato plants are growing nicely and as well as the transplanted Iris. Still more weeding to do and certainly not my favourite task to do. Actually I am coming to actually dislike it. 

CUSMA talks are beginning. Minister LeBlanc is very knowledgeable along with the rest of the team. In general our aims at the moment are heading towards making ourselves tariff proof which we are currently under CUSMA items although tariffs have crept in here and there. As we diversify our trade around the world we will be less incapacitated by tariff which is slowly coming to fruition. It will take time of course since there was very little warning for the tariffs and especially the size of the tariffs.  

Time will tell how long tariff lasts. Will it bring industry back to the United States? No ideas on that. It takes money to set up new businesses and trickle down economics has not worked these past few generations as it was hinted in the 1980s that it would be a great boon for the population (the opposite has occurred with the Stock Market being more important than individual industries as trading in stocks became the way to become rich). But in reality the up and down in the stock market which results in the huge accumulation of wealth by a few mostly in the stock market because of panic selling rather than in the everyday actual work of business. American businesses have reduced production in the United States (blaming the unions for strikes looking for higher wages) and quite a few American businesses went offshore and still are. If the American car industries are crippled in Canada (the solution is really to incorporate here and split from the American company) by tariff and the idea is to try to sell all-American made cars in Canada it will not work. We didn't propose the original car deals and they were presented as a win-win for all three with a North American market but tariffing the cars as they move back and forth in production is no longer a win for Canada as it was presented and will hurt the American car companies in Canada where they have had a monopoly really for the last sixty years. We will buy non-American cars produced here (unless there is an advantage to letting in cars with a tariff imposed supporting other industries in Canada like the 49,000 EVs coming in supporting Saskatchewan exports to the same country) because it employs our people which is really unfortunate as the North American idea was a good one. 

One doesn't need to be part of a huge conglomerate but rather an economic union (the EU is very effective) is much solider and less affected by political differences. We like Canada just as it is actually. We love our First Nations and in reality a lot of us always have; just the people who created the problems in the Residential Schools and probably because they were criminals if they hurt the children in any way and have hopefully all been prosecuted. Greed is a large part of that as well I think and one can see it raising its ugly head in Alberta where a few want all the riches without paying the price for that (Imagine that group in control!). Alberta must be worth at least 30 trillion to buy it and extremely unlikely that the First Nations are interested in being outside of Canada! The ownership is unquestionably the First Nations as established by the Crown (British) and  the United Nations. We (Canada) acquired Rupert's Land with all the treaty rights belonging to the First Nations and we will defend those treaty rights in our courts. The First Nations willingly share with us but quite rightly object when their rights are infringed.

The reality from the trade deals of the last sixty years pointed to a North American market (Mexico, the United States and Canada). If we are then the supply chains created in all three countries  will profit and not be damaged by tariff as is presently happening. The supply chains could convert to non-American car companies that now exist in our country and are slowly coming into our country. Eventually we will move to hybrid cars in general; one can see that coming for sure. Certainly we will continue diversifying our trade around the world because we do not wish to become economically injured by tariff; the logic in that is pretty clear. At 40+ million people we are a huge market. In terms of growth our country continues to grow with births outnumbering deaths and likely to continue that way as we have a large youth population. Proximity plays a big part as well as shipping back and forth across a land border is much cheaper and easier than any other method. Our population comes from all over the world these days so that trading around the world works very well for us as there will be people who want to buy the goods from the areas that they grew up in. As a country our green houses have become big business and supplying ourselves with some fresh food in the winter is now a reality whereas when I was a child 80 years ago all of the fresh food came across the border from the United States for the most part. We have a huge ability to produce electricity making self-sufficiency very doable for Canada.  Trade is a wonderful extra but we can produce what we need in our country. Our NATO partners have been very good to us and we are fortifying the Arctic rapidly to protect our rights in that Arctic zone as it melts. 

Beautiful sun today and just a whisper of wind as God moves through the world watching and waiting for us to do the right thing - love our neighbour as ourself. The sky is absolutely blue and no clouds out of my window. 

Breakfast completed and Solitaire Puzzles to do.  

 

 

 

 

Greed must not predominate in this world

I am not a believer in handing everything to people; they should work hard as it is good for them. I do believe though that greed must disappear from our world for us to reach that higher plain of peace where all survive and people are happy. In the early 1990s life suddenly changed and we welcomed it; many many millions in the world. The Iron Curtain was gone and people could be free once again after fourty five years of being held in bondage. A buffer zone claimed by the country that had maintained that Iron Curtain but buffered against what; no aggression against them appeared during those 45 years or since. The only aggressor was that very country which held the peoples in bondage. When does it end? When does the bombing of innocents in Ukraine stop? Right now it is just hateful revenge because Russia the aggressor can not win the war as they bomb Ukraine day after day. It must stop for peace to come to our world. 

The world is now divided into countries - some large and some smaller and both sizes can live together easily (the European Union is an example of that). That was why we created the United Nations in 1945 and all those freed countries in the 1990s came into the United Nations and now we are settled. The steps to peace are fraught with danger because of greed - greed for land and greed for opinion. We must find that middle plain where all are happy. 

God had a brilliant idea way back in time and we are the result of that brilliance but we must use all of that brain power given to us to create the "Garden of Eden" that once existed at that beginning of this world. Where peace predominates and war disappears. We have no idea how much time has passed on this earth really; just thoughts uncovered by archaeological digs. We do need though to continue being ready to defend ourselves as we have no idea what is out there in the universe; being ready is very important. 

Yesterday a busy cleaning day and it took most of the day as it turned out as windows were washed as well. A thorough cleaning as we enter into summer. The trees are in full leaf now and the canopy above us blocks the stars which is always sad actually but also tells us that summer is coming. 

Today another cleaning day and it is the main floor and likely the windows once again so a long cleaning day but once done we are ready for the long hazy days of summer soon to arrive. 

Thank you God for another beautiful day as my years stretch towards 81. Amazing really; I continue to be surprised to be here to see the 2020s. When I was a child a lot of discussion on the 1920s was still ongoing with older relatives and following that the Great Depression and then the Second World War. I wonder if they thought about the 1920s because it was the last happy moment in their lives until the Second World War was won. I was born just after the Second World War was won and the news reels at the movie theatres showed me the horror of that war but people still thrived and did what they had to do to survive you could see that in the news reels. But what saddened me was the faces on the Jewish children aboard the boats that were turned away. We must never do that to children again. They are not checkers on a board to be moved about to satisfy the horrors like we have been made to watch in Gaza and that was the responsibility of those parents - they could have sent them to safety. How does a baby freeze to death when there are parents there to hold them close and keep them warm (I can never understand that); children are the future and we must protect them for the future.  

Solitaire puzzles are next. The morning moves quickly.  

God in our lives

 Yesterday the winds of God were blowing strongly last night as we walked on the beach. It was wondrous how the clouds turned and the winds flowed forth from the universe pushing us along our path around the beach. We started the path with bright sun on our faces and finished it with the wind at our backs. With such power one imagines that all the world will find their path to follow the words of God - love they neighbour as theyself. We must move forward onto that higher plain of living where love predominates and cruelty disappears from our world. 

Woke in the night and just felt like it was time to write about the experience walking on the beach. It was wondrous after a long heavy day working away cleaning in the kitchen and then gardening outside which all seemed like the kind of things that God would want us to do. We must follow God's teachings to have a better life for all the world. 

If there is only love and not hate then this world could flourish and find paths away from destroying the world to healing the world so that the grandchildren of tomorrow will play on the beaches and run in the grassy fields breathing the fresh air of our youths. 

The Premier of Manitoba, Wab Kinew, brings so much knowledge and good ideas to any discussion. I am happy to see that he and the Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, are talking together on how to resolve differences when really it is just a desire on both of their parts to make both their provinces as effective within Confederation as possible. The discussion by the Western half of Canada on so many issues was wonderful to listen to and absorb. Thank you especially to Wab Kinew who always brings very insightful comments to any discussion.  

Back to bed. I am sleepy once again.  

My daughter (and caretaker) has a bit of surgery this week that will mean a quiet week to follow. She is busy with four research projects but has a student who does some of the work and the student is excellent in her work and completed the ongoing task very well. Training is very very important and one sees it most prominently in the university setting and in the health care setting. Absolutely necessary in these two areas but also in all work really (it would save time if one didn't have to be teaching all the time but the knowledge base needs to be solidified, added to and passed on). One must always be training the new co-workers so that their transition into a job is easier. One should avoid seeing them as competition but rather as a co-manager of the system that is being worked on. Those in the job for a while have good hints to offer and those who are new have newer knowledge from their more recent education to share. AI adds enormously to this task because of the memory banks and recall that AI is able to perform with perfection but does require that managerial hand to keep it on track and doing the work requested without varying from the protocol. When decisions have to be made because of ambiguity then AI must learn to immediately come back for assistance so that garbage in the output is avoided. AI can not judge well between what is pertinent and necessary and correct and what is simply a blimp to be ignored and not collected as part of the output

Haven't looked at the news for a few days other than noting what the Premier of Manitoba and the Premier of Alberta had discussed. I think the meeting of the Western Canadian premiers was an excellent idea. They share the Pacific and the Arctic Oceans and trade routes are opening up making the north so much more feasible for shipping to both Asia and Europe (why does it take so long to get shovels in the ground; pipelines built and sales booming). The Eastern part of Canada from Ontario to the Atlantic and including Nunavut (which has access to the Arctic and the Atlantic). In general the Eastern part of Canada  does not have the reach to the Pacific other than by the Arctic Ocean (no ports on the Pacific). Ontario is particular, although not land-locked by any means as the St Lawrence Seaway runs along the southern border and includes the Great Lakes - Ontario, Erie, Huron and Superior as well as the St Lawrence River and to the west the Ottawa River on the Eastern boundary with Quebec and in the North James Bay and Hudson Bay. The road in Ontario (417 namely (i.e. the Trans Canada Highway)) needs widening from just before Renfrew (unless they have actually moved that along - it took ten years to go from Arnprior nearly to Renfrew! not enough money provided to employ the size of workforce needed to be faster) and mostly to the Manitoba border although there are sections that have been widened. In particular the military widened the road from Pembroke to Petawawa and did a great job and speedy. I rather wonder if the money should be given to the military to do the widening of the Highway all the way to the Manitoba border personally. One could certainly ascribe military activities being enhanced by this road and they have lots of engineers and workers to build the road. I feel as if we wait forever to get that road widened to four lanes because it doesn't go to the Greater Toronto Area. The all  for the Greater Toronto Area mindset must disappear from the minds of the government of Ontario in order for Ontario to flourish. All areas are important and all areas pay taxes. 

Today is cleaning day and it is the top floor and I shall soon do the bathroom and then the vacuuming. The days move quickly especially in the summer months as there is so much to do both inside and out. 

Solitaire games to play.  

 

Sunday and cloudy

 The slight breeze in the trees always makes me think of God all around us watching and waiting for us to do the right thing. To love our neighbour as ourself. Seventeen degrees celsius today and cloudy is the promise of the day thus far. 

Lots to do. Kitchen is slowly getting all washed up from one end to the other. The last of the cupboards are now washed and just have to wash all the dishes that were in those cupboards. They are old style cupboards. Came with the house nearly fifty years ago now. My husband and daughter repainted them a few years ago (like maybe twenty actually or more years ago. They are slowly showing signs of wear here and there. I should paint and perhaps I will. Time will tell. At nearly 81 I find that my time spent on such activities is less and less. I just keep it clean. I will be glad to move as it is too big for me. 

Yesterday I mostly worked at cleaning so not much work done on the genealogical tables. I also need to do some outside work and will try for that today maybe. The FitBit continues to be interesting and Google has pretty much taken over that name as it is their property but I have been using the AI on it a certain amount. I know more about my health and ability than the AI but it has interesting comments that I am thinking about on occasion. I like the FitBit as it tells me how many steps a day that I do which I consider important. We always have to move about; we are meant to do that for our health and welfare. 

Sunday and Church is very soon. The last day of May and it is Trinity Sunday. That begins the Ordinary time that follows until Christ the King Sunday and Advent to follow the next Sunday. It is cyclical the Church Year and as a child it pretty much was how I thought of the year as it passed through each special time.  

The sermon today was timely and captured my thoughts partially. The many names of God on this earth. When the first explorers arrived in what is now Canada they learned that God to the First Nations (Huron Nation) was Gitchi Manitou (Great Spirit in several Algonquian languages). For the First Nations it referred to the Supreme Creator, the Giver of Life  and the Great Mystery which formed the world we live in and all that is in it. As a child I found it extremely exciting to learn about Gitchi Manitou and still do find learning about the First Nations to be a fascinating set of knowledge. Our cultures (mine descendant of many of the ancient peoples of the British Isles (both England, Scotland and Ireland as my DNA shows) went all the way back to the Western Hunter Gatherers who first populated these Isles (8,000 and perhaps as much as 12,000 years earlier than the Common Era we now live in as the ice slowly withdrew from the lands and the First Nations dating back even further in time on this Continent of the Western Hemisphere dating back 13,000 or more years. I felt akin as I learned more and more about the First Nations as my brother's yDNA clearly led us back to those Western Hunter Gatherers. My grandfather Blake always said they had lived in the Andover area for ever because it was so very very long ago. But DNA does tells us we arose in the African Continent (all Homo sapiens) and so we spread out around the world from there. My 3% Denisovan and 2% Neanderthal tell me that in the far past my blood line led back to these earlier Homo species. But the written record only extends so far back and Blake was in Andover in the 1300s but the people of England did not have surnames and so they had to adapt to surnames after the Norman Conquest. The reason for choosing Blake tantalizes me very often; why would one chose a name that so many people carried in Europe and in the British Isles. The reason never to be known by me probably but the logic points to taking the surname of a wife way back in the 1300s and the benefit of doing so huge if I am correct that it was the le Blak family of Rouen, Normandy which came to England in 1274 with permission to set up a market in England (Patent Roll). Such a family exists and are first seen along the coast of Hampshire and later the same name appears on the Pipe Rolls of the Bishopric of Winchester 1301. I must explore the earlier Pipe Rolls which begin in 1208. 

Still cloudy and Church has finished. I was restless but I am like that sometimes. I have a lot of thoughts in my mind these days. 

As a country I remain convinced that we are on the right path. We want to be independent and in charge of our own natural resources. I think it was very cruel at the time when it was suggested that we could be taken over just by ruining our economy. We must not let that happen as we slip into a technical recession (apparently Federal government spending has decreased which is a factor in the lower GDP so not really a recession but rather it is a correction as the Trudeau era saw far too much federal money spent overall). We are diversifying our trade around the world but it will take time.  We must create new industry in Canada. PEI said they need workers because their industries are increasing. Quebec has different customers for their aluminium from around the world. New deals with Quebec in a number of industries. British Columbia is humming with new deals. Manitoba is busy with the upgrading of Port Churchill and other items. Saskatchewan has contracts for so many items. The same with New Brunswick and inklings of ideas for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. In Alberta why not twin the Trans Mountain pipeline as that is a thoroughfare already created and goes directly to tidewater and owned by the people of Canada. But we do need private money to do that. The Territories are actively pursuing new ideas. Ontario needs to do more to create industry but again that is happening here and there but still there is too much time spent on useless items like an airport on Toronto Island. I see no value in that for 90% of people in Ontario. Time for a change but no party/individual is providing us with their concrete ideas to improve the economy in Ontario. Stellantis is developing a number of new models as we await more information on that. 

Time is in our favour and plenty of youth to take up any jobs that are forthcoming. 

Time for lunch; the morning was interesting and always lovely to go to Church.  

Saturday and Sun

 A beautiful day out there and will likely observe mostly from the inside as lots of work to do. Yesterday we cleaned the entire set of kitchen cupboards and re-arranged them. Eliminated a whole lot of plastic dishes that were for the grandchildren but they eat off of regular dishes these days. Slowly down sizing and getting rid of items that I never use anymore. 

Completed the matches and glanced at 23 and Me and My Heritage for new matches that would be interesting for my great grandparent phasing file. Will do Ancestry, Gedmatch, FT DNA  today. 

Tonight is a full moon so can plant next week. The lettuce roots that we planted have new lettuces forming which is always very interesting, the ability of the roots of a lettuce plant being able to recreate the lettuce plant itself is quite fascinating. The bunnies will enjoy the lettuces likely if they let them grow. Weeding to do out there and must put aside some time for that. 

Emptied the pantry and will wash the shelves with bleach and soap to get them ready for another year. I expect to be in this house for just another three years although earlier would be interesting but not practical. Moving twice in three years is too much trouble. 

It will be a time for hard work and re-calibration for Canada as we continue forward into the life that the Fathers of Confederation planned for Canada walking hand in hand with our First Nations. They know the land so much better than we do and we need to listen to their thoughts. Greed must disappear from this land if we all want to be successful in this life (greed destroys; it does not build). The Prime Minister has good plans for Canada and we must help support his ideas as we move forward slowly but surely. Nothing will be fast; it never is. The Conservatives need to concentrate on working with the youth and get them situated into jobs that are needed or they could become entrepreneurs and make me a vacuum cleaner that doesn't sound like a jet engine! After all it is the youth that will still be here voting in the  next election and the ones that follow on into this remarkable century marred by violence which is just greed once again - greed for land and greed for opinion. Every person gets to live unobstructed in this world whether you agree with the opinions that they hold. When opinions do not match God's laws - love they neighbour as thyself - then those people are wrong. God will probably not destroy them as in the Bible times but they rot from within eventually; it does seem to take a long time though. You must live for the good of the many not for the good of the few; the few can not maintain Homo sapiens - look back at what has preceded us and you can see that. No Neanderthals walk the face of this earth, no Denisovans walk the face of this earth and the many that preceded these early peoples known to us by their DNA left behind. 

Moving forward though is the aim as we are now one quarter of the way through this century. I did not expect to even see this century so every day/month/year is a gift of God Almighty and I thank Him for that everyday. At twenty eight years of age, quite ill, I could feel the winds of God pushing me forward and I continue to feel those winds of God swirling around this world as He watches and waits for us to live the life He commanded. 

Antisemitism must disappear from Canada in all its ugly forms. If you cannot live within the laws of this country then go back to where you came from and take your ugly antisemitism with you.  Our Jewish neighbours have every right to live at peace in this country. 

Must get some work done the day moves quickly and just twelve hours to bed time once again! 

Another cloudy day

Yesterday turned out to be a quiet day and not a lot of work done but a pleasant day none the less. Sometimes my days are just full of thinking and that was yesterday. Plus we went to the market and got fresh vegetables and to the grocery store for the remainder. These days I am spending slightly more than $200 per week on all the groceries. We do eat fairly basically preparing all of our meals from basic ingredients. We aim for lots of good protein in every meal - for me because I am old and for my caregiver because she is very active doing lots of good cardio. 

The first workout of the day on my part already completed and was 1 hour and 5 minutes  with a cardio load of 32. Always an interesting workout with light at 43%, moderate at 29%, vigorous at 20% and peak at 8%. A good way for me to start the day and with the AI on FitBit chiming in I have even more interesting insights into how well a workout is going from a cardiovascular point of view. An interesting experience having an AI reviewing my workout actually.  I will see how I like this interesting addition to FitBit. 

I wonder if we will see what happened to Quebec when separatists arrived on the scene half a century ago now and completely destroyed Montreal's place as the economic powerhouse of Canada moving it to Toronto. Quebec has had a hard battle keeping industrial giants in Quebec and the Alberta separatists may well destroy the economy of Alberta if they are not tamed quickly and put to rest. Separatism is a disease in democratic countries where there isn't an obvious prior existence dating back centuries and should not be permitted the sort of headlining that they get. Plus there are still no charges against the individual who posted the voter's list of Alberta quite illegally on the internet. Lots of law suits against his illegal release of names and pertinent information to tame that nuisance and a term in jail would be a good news story for sure. There are no gains in separatism only losses and mostly for the people who get sucked in by their lies. 

Ontario though needs to get moving on creating industry. A Conservative voter myself but we need youth in office with the vigour needed to start new industry in Ontario  instead of spending all the time on a tiny little airport on Toronto Island.

Back to research and writing my books. The days pass so very quickly. Time to do the Solitaire puzzles.  

 

Research day

 Another research day finally and I shall complete the last two matches as I did not do that yesterday. Life has been very very busy. However we have made it over to Petri twice now - me for a walk and my caregiver for a kayak. Research is dominating our days for both of us. 

It was good to have visited my usual doctor and my flareup of diverticulosis (2 lots in the past year) has passed although I will repeat the blood work and probably I will call in and see if I can just get a request sent to the clinic to get that done early in the New Year. Interesting that each time I had blood work followed a flareup in the diverticulosis although not related at all but rather just how life flowed at that time. I had my usual result for white blood cell count but the reduced lymphocyte level to 0.8 from the usual 1.0.  The blood smear was produced from a badly drawn blood work as the technician had moved the needle about needlessly as the blood was flowing likely creating false artifacts and a very very bruised arm. I changed the company for the blood draw for the second time but it also followed a period of flareup. Shall try to pick a calm period in my life if there is one for the next one! Diverticulosis can be a nuisance for sure. 

I do watch my blood work though carefully because I was advised to do so after the birth of my first child and the enormous blood loss that I underwent at that delivery (blood was down to 28 and I had to drink Stout three times a day). For a non drinker of beer in particular and only the occasional glass of wine that was an experience in itself for sure.  But my blood did come back up to the usual level (I was always anemic in my young days; menopause was a great gift for me!) after a month or so of really carefully planned eating plus I was nursing the baby. Cause of the blood loss was a partial placental previa not noted prior to delivery. 

So today it is a research day and perhaps I should get a leap ahead on checking for any new matches in this past month that I have spent working away on the newly discovered matches a month ago just to make sure I am not missing anything interesting. It should be a quick glance. 

I need to do the Pincombe Newsletter as well for the 1st of June. Hard to believe it is nearly June and almost half way through the year. 

Our progress in becoming tariff proof is moving along very well. The purchase of the SAAB airplane for the Arctic is a perfect decision for us because they will be built here by Canadians and they are created and built for the Arctic by Sweden an Arctic nation and another member of NATO. I think it was a wise decision. We still need F-35s of course and have another order ongoing because we also have a large part of our nation that is not Arctic only although we do get long winters but the SAAB can land on quite short runways which is important for us. Plus it helps our GDP and our NATO expenditure. 

Our expenditure is rapidly going to 4% GDP for military which will speed up our path to 5% which is the desired level now in NATO. The north is opening up with climate change and the ability to use our deep ocean ports in the north will be very handy as we diversify our trade around the world. If anyone had said to me that we would be doing this in 2026 back even two years ago I would have doubted it but life flows as it flows and we just have to flow with it. We had no complaints with CUSMA although the extra tariffs which were placed on non-CUSMA goods through the years were surprising. But now we are trading all around the world and our GDP slowly increases. It will take time and once the new pipeline is built to tidewater then that will move quickly. We sell our oil at a discount in CUSMA but full price round the world.  

Part way through my exercise but thought I would put pen to paper so to speak and write down my thoughts as I exercise. There exercise and breakfast completed. Back to work although I need to clean the refrigerator at my next break time.  Never a dull moment for sure. Looking forward to that one room concept; I think my desire to do housecleaning has lessened as I reach 80 years of age. 

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

Attempting to change the Confederation of Canada which first began in 1867 and its gradual assumption and the enactment of treaties with the First Nation for the entire area from east to west through the 1880s/1890s which resulted in Canada from sea to sea to sea (including Rupert's Land) cannot be altered by anyone without the agreement of the First Nations (and that is the entire First Nations of Canada; all of them should have a vote in the lands that are Canada since they are all stakeholders). The founding principles of Canada which were gained over the initial period with regard to the treaties is not changeable at all as far as I am concerned as a voting Canadian. It is the basis on which we, the peoples of Canada at every stage, created Canada. Attempting to alter this was properly understood by the judge ruling on the objection of the First Nations to the entire process of a proposed referendum. Personally I do not believe in separatist referendums in democratic countries where there is no prior by the side requesting such a referendum (separatists are basically small groups of potential dictators and their adherents attempting to take away the rights of the many; it is not democracy at work). There was no Alberta until Canada created Alberta in 1905 as an administrative unit; there were the many First Nations that still occupy their historical areas of Alberta and a whole lot of unceded First Nations land which individuals have been permitted to buy with the understanding that they can own it under the laws of Canada,  sell it, pass it on to their legal heirs but they can not remove it from Canada (if they die without naming heirs then it reverts back to the government of Canada in the case of Alberta it reverts to Alberta as the administrator of the provincial jurisdiction known as Alberta which was created by Canada). Just because the numbers of the First Nations are not as great as the numbers of non First Nations does not alter the founding principles. If people do not like how our nation is formed and managed the door out is always open. I agree with that concept.  

The deal with Germany for low-carbon Canadian LNG is wondrous and congratulations to the Ksi Lisims LNG in British Columbia. We are on our way to being tariff proof as we continue to diversify our trade. Shovels in the ground for the new pipeline to Pacific tidewater are anticipated. One can feel the excitement in the air with all of this good news. 

We have had nearly 20 years of particularly poor government with regard to trade. Although the Harper government came in with a lot of good ideas the economic reality was recession and the reaction of the then Prime Minister was one more of panic than careful reasoning and it intensified as we moved towards 2015 with a number of poor choices including pouring all available money into oil production in Alberta and basically ignoring the rest of the provinces. Although oil is a good product all of Canada has good products and he should have used more measure in his selection of worthy projects (perhaps he could have listened to the advice given at that time instead of making decisions that did not benefit all of Canada). That poor selection continued and worsened under the Trudeau government (although the shut down during COVID was also part of that difficulty) resulting in stagnation in our trade around the world which was mostly not sufficiently explored. Under the Carney government we are seeing much better distribution of the ability of Canada to diversify its trade and create new industry across the entire country. I would like to see my party (the Conservatives) pull themselves together; get out of attack dog mood and get the youth of this country working. They will soon be back in their ridings and could put 100% of their time (which we pay for) into working with the youth instead of attacking the Liberal government constantly. We voters are all adults in the room and we want to see non panicking adults in the House of Commons.  

Basement cleaning day

 Yesterday the  main floor did get cleaned a little later in the day than usual but it is complete except for washing the floors that are linoleum and the stairs which are wooden. Today it is the basement and the Robot is doing its chore. I always check it first now to ensure it is fully charged. That is our duty as the caretaker of robots; to maintain them and keep them well appointed to do the task they are assigned. 

I did glance at the next of the last two matches to do and it is an interesting one mostly because of what is not there.  It only matches my sister and is a good Rawlings matches including at X match at FT DNA but it should also have myself in the one length (there are three interesting lengths in this match). Why am I missing, that is very unusual with FT DNA. Both are original kits with FT DNA Family Finder testing two years apart. But the interesting part is that my kit uploaded from Ancestry does match my sister so it does tell me that there is a difference in the two years with the chip used to test in those time frames. So I do match as proven with the Ancestry (taken into Gedmatch by the owner)  matching the FT DNA result. I will likely complete those two matches today and as I approach the end of the month I will start to think about using CoPilot from my new Microsoft purchase of Microsoft yearly software as I move on from Microsoft 2016. I meant to upgrade it many times but just never got to it. But now the desire to work with AI necessitates my moving on. But first I will check all the databases for anything new in the last month in terms of large matches. 

I can feel a huge cohesion developing in Canada these days as we forge ahead with our Arctic protection with the global warming affecting the accessibility to the many deep water ports in the north that belong to Canada. The ability to alter how trade moves between continents is about to take place. Really it should be a friendlier world with so much to gain from co-operation but rogue nations continue to plague that ability and create difficulties that do not need to exist in the human picture. That they exist pose the greatest threat to humanity yet really. People are too selfish that demonstrate this rogue attitude in the world. It is all about them and nothing about humanity in particular. 

I am slowly getting used to this Google takeover of FitBit which I believe they own in terms of aggressive chatter directed at the user. I have managed myself these 80 years and intend to continue doing so until I cannot. However, it is collecting the data in a way that I used to look at having collected it myself so that is probably handy. We will see but I have no interest in the Premium package as it takes up too much of my time to look at and decide it is interesting. My exercise is done on the fly so to speak. I come to a point where I decide to exercise and prefer that as it doesn't interrupt my day. At the moment I need to get my 250 steps for this hour and will stop and do it and then return to writing my blog.   

So what do I actually hope to create with my large matches file (nearly 4400 lines and includes all of the chromosomes 1 to 23)? The intent is to bring together all of my known information simply drag it into a Legacy chart and then add what I find in terms of known matches and the cousin knowledge unknown matches to see how far back this information can take me. Then all the Blake wills that help to fill in the missing items from the 1400s on will be rolled in to this chart and I will have my genealogical chart from 1400 (or earlier if the material I have warrants their addition) to probably the end of the 1800s and into the early 1900s. My father was born in 1904 and likely I will include him as a child of Samuel George Blake my grandfather born in 1875. That should work for anyone looking at the chart as the census pretty much helps everyone in my Blake line with placing themselves into the correct sibling descent with Samuel or into the John Blake family (baptized 1799) and the father of Edward Blake (born 1845) who was the father of Samuel. I do have known descendants of Thomas (father of John baptized 1799) who was baptized in 1767 and the first generation of this Blake line at Upper Clatford with his father being Joseph Blake (baptized 1730 at Andover) and the son of Thomas Blake (baptized 1709 at Andover) and the son of Thomas Blake (baptized 1685 at Andover) and the son of John Blake (baptized 1649 at Andover) and Elizabeth (unknown) with John being the son of William Blake (baptized 1615 at Andover) and Ann Hellier. William (baptized 1615) was the son of William Blake and Dorothy Madgwick and William was the son of Richard Blake and Jone Blake with this Richard the son of  William Blake and Elizabeth (unknown) and the son of  Nicholas Blake married to Margaret Blake and the wills preceding Nicholas will support this furtherance back in time to Richard Blake and then Robert Blake and potentially the John Blake found at Knights Enham in the early 1300s having likely adopted his wife's surname as his own surname. So an interesting trip for sure. It fits in with what my grandfather told me although this seven year old going on eight but not quite there has a somewhat hazy memory of some of that information prior to Joseph. Forenames all jumbled but Nicholas stood out very prominently. 

Time to check on the vacuum it has had its hour to do the rugs.  

Riding OC-Transpo

 I had a doctor's appointment so took OC-Transpo to the new clinic which is really great actually. A lovely setup I must admit and took in my blood work from the Ontario Health Study to match up with the last blood work. They were the same basically and I think they are pointing to my diverticulosis which flares up every now and again. I have had it for a very very long time so I am used to it and how to manage it. But I wanted to check on my blood work from last summer and did discuss and will do again next February likely which works really well for me. I like my doctor and have been going to the same doctor for about eight to ten years now. She is excellent. Edward really liked her and they got along very well. He listened to her always and followed her advice but his disease was chronic along with the absolute isolation of COVID which proved to be difficult for Edward; he was a real people person but his liver disease eventually resulted in his loss to us which the girls still feel very very much as do I. They miss him and always will. 

Worked on a couple of matches yesterday and one proved to be most interesting as the individual still lives in England and in the general area of my Blake line but reaching back further into the past possibly our most common ancestor is as far back as William Blake and Dorothy Madgwick (my 9x great grandparents).  It is 20 cM and four of the five siblings have that much in common with a number of people but this one individual has a tree with over 12,000 people. My match is about half of the other four siblings as I am a low match for Blake. This is what I am looking for is traceable links back into the Blake family before my line dwindled down to just one child per generation for three generations in the 1700s. Before that the Blake family of Andover was very large and did move away from Andover (quite a few lines). 

A lovely walk at Petri which I greatly enjoyed and went around three times with my FitBit cheering me on but telling me that I should be tired but I am not. I tend to be able to keep going often enough when the FitBit thinks I am tired and my recovery time after stopping is generally very very fast for a nearly 81 year old. But I do do as much as 5x to 6x the amount of so called recommended exercise of 150 minutes of peak a week. I always have as I tend to be very very active. My sleeping pulse runs around 48 bpm. I do not think of myself as an athlete but this is a range achieved by most athletes. 

Today cleaning the main floor and I will be starting soon. It is lovely outside and I have already done 8,800 steps as I got off one block earlier and walked home down the street instead of getting off at the closest corner. My goal per day is 12,000 steps per day although generally I am closer to 15,000 steps per day. I used to be closer to 20,000 per day but decided it was a bit excessive and slowed myself up somewhat when I turned 80 years of age. 

Solitaire puzzles and then cleaning.