In general my best working time is in the winter due to the outside needing to be managed - that is the best I am accomplishing is managing. Every year I look out the window these past couple of years and I am totally overwhelmed by the view that comes to me. I am not a gardener; I actually, without Edward, have almost no interest in gardening. However, my caretaker daughter who is my caretaker whether she is 1600 kilometres away or with me doing her summer research or other times in the year when she comes to celebrate Christmas, is the one that rather drives this notion of managing the yard. The lawns get cut thanks to my daughter, weeding and planting happens. One wonders how one can be a caretaker 1600 kilometres away and it is a matter of spending a little time each day, which she does, talking to me and asking about my day. I appreciate it and she is doing a great job at it for sure. When she retires she will come back and take over. I look forward to that day and do manage all the indoor stuff all year round so that is always ready when she returns.
In terms of work; I did manage a couple more matches yesterday bringing me down to four matches to do. Will I get any done today? No, I have agreed to take apart the closet in the lower hall so that the washing of the winter coats can not proceed (I can just put on a couple of sweaters and I do have a nylon rain suit which is quite warm with lots of clothes on under it). So my time today will be spent working on that closet; reorganizing it for the summer.
Yesterday I sort of met my new neighbour although I think it is possible this neighbour has been there for quite a while but I am seldom outside until summer and then minimal. I offered this length of fencing for the other front side of the lot as it keeps people out of that garden in front of the house next door and have left it with the neighbour to decide whether they want to put it in (it is complete with a length of fence and two support poles). I just simply can not put that in and I have no idea how to find someone to do that. It is quite heavy and solid metal (the other side has been up for maybe ten years now). I just happened to be shopping one day and found the matching fence length and supports so bought them.
As always the Prime Minister has everything in hand and his broadcast from the Library of Parliament was especially interesting yesterday. We are moving forward slowly but surely. Our military is getting lovely new equipment and lots of new recruits. The Arctic is in good hands with the Nordic countries as we meet and discuss the safety of the North. There are many countries involved including Greenland and we will continue to upgrade defence in that area of the world. Every province gets visited pretty much by the Prime Minister as he talks to the Premiers to make sure that everything is moving smoothly on all of these new ventures. Affordability is also something that he feels strongly about and I would really like to see these members of parliament back into their ridings encouraging the youth to look at what is needed and available because the market is glutted with university graduates but the need in the trades is huge. I am not finding the discussions by the Leader of the Opposition to be particularly meaningful in this time when we need all hands on deck getting the youth employed; making ourselves tariff proof by diversifying trade around the world. We can still trade with our good friends, in my case cousins, and neighbours to the south (it is very practical for both of us as we share a huge land border, and even the water borders are readily navigable) but we need to increase our diversification of trading partners to minimize the effects of tariff on us.
I still feel that the First Nations should be front and centre in all negotiations that involve the land particularly. It is after all their land as agreed in the various treaties. Land ownership is a simple thing for colonials (anyone who isn't First Nations). You can buy land providing it is in agreement with the treaties and own it and pass it on to your descendants or sell it but you can not take it out of Canada. The First Nations take great care of Canada and I respect their knowledge of this land that they have lived in for thousands of years. The idea that just because we, the colonials, outnumber them, does not really give us the power to make changes in those original agreements (democracy generally rules but not in the case of original agreements). We have benefited enormously from these natural resources that lie in the land and so should the First Nations. I do not sense any tendency towards their dictating to us but rather that the need to consult must always be front and center and the best time is when the discussions are occurring. The best thing is having First Nations be part of the governance and Manitoba continues to be an excellent example. We are much stronger together when all the people of Canada are on the same page with regard to the lands of Canada and its natural resources. We just have to work on the viability of working those natural resources and getting them to market. We can only become much more environmental when we have the money to do it.
Time for solitaire puzzles. Breakfast too is on my mind and then working on the closet.
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