I have completed to the end of Genesis Chapter 21

 Time has passed so quickly and if one recorded all the births and the deaths one could know that but I am not sure that is what I am to learn whilst I re-read the Bible. I think it is the birth of Abram and then his son Isaac that is monumental in the Chapters of Genesis I have just read. Abram now Abraham is one of the great patriarchs of the Church to this day and is a patriarch in all three of the Great Religions of the World - Christianity, Islam and Judaism. As I read through these many chapters this morning it is the Tower of Babel that stands out for me as well. That always intrigued me as a child because at that point I had never heard anyone speak any language other than English. This was before television and in London, Ontario I was far away from the French language in Quebec or the First Nations and Inuit languages but that would change quickly as time passed. In eighty years our lives have changed so very very much. 

We were just recovering from the Second World War when I was a young child. My first real memory of my family is my older brothers pretending to be airplanes flying into Berlin to save the city from starvation as the Soviet Union had cut off access by land. Berlin was a divided city following the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences with governance by France, United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union and already the bleak time ahead of us as the Iron Curtain tumbled down, which was created by the Soviet Union, was being discussed. We were listening to the radio and my grandfather, father, mother and siblings were all in the room. It was a tense time so is perhaps why it is my earliest memory. 

Does this lead my mind forward because that is what I am looking for I think. I seemed to be needing some special thinking these days and I have no idea why. But the reading is calming me because it tells of that deep past that is the ancestry of every Homo sapiens walking the face of the earth today. These written words date back a long way in time and Sodom and Gomorrah stand out for all time as the Creator's words with regard to how we live our life. We must show love for our neighbour which really means respect. 

It leads me to NATO in my thoughts as this organization has grown from its earliest roots  that fateful date 4 April 1949. It was and continues as a mutual defense alliance to defend our way of life from the Soviet expansion after Stalin had promised to withdraw the Soviet Union troops from the occupied areas of Eastern Europe. The founding members had three goals - deter Soviet expansion, foster collective security and promote European stability. And that is where my thoughts remain with this ongoing illegal war between Ukraine and Russia which Russia started. NATO has never been involved in aggression and that is not its mandate. The desire to protect children was the thought in my mind through these past couple of years but one realizes there is no protection for the children of the world where the laws of the Creator are not followed namely love one's neighbour as oneself. 

The Bible doesn't explain any of that to me in these early chapters but is really a collection of thoughts and details of happenings that were important to the peoples of the time at that time which is why they were written down. The Creator God no longer walked with man at the time of writing as far as we know and the need to remember all of this was important to the people who recorded it. Sort of like my grandfather passing on stories to me that I now recall because they were repeated to me time and time again. Why didn't he write it all down? One wonders that now but I think about my grandfather and I was a young child capable of memorizing great amounts as he had learned because we had such a close relationship and he enjoyed teaching me so many things. Would his writing have persisted was possibly the thought in his mind so he fell back on the usual mode of passage of information in the time that he lived although lots of books had been written but I was only a young child just eight years of age when he died. He chose well really as my mind was capable of pulling back all those stories from the hidden spots in my brain and I did share them in my recorded stories in files because that is the way and  they are backed up. Will they exist? I am not sure that matters because I have shared them in my blog which appear to be read by thousands although it has been suggested to me they are just bots reading. However the comments which I receive but do not publish suggest that real people do read this blog. 

I will continue with my reading until I reach the end of Revelations. I am a fast reader and sometimes as I read I wonder should I record that? But the actuality is the Bible is the most read book in the world so why would I record other than what God sent Jesus to tell us - to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength,  and love our neighbour as ourself. It is a while since I read the Bible although I read the Bible Reading of the day and until yesterday pretty much every day for many years. I can remember when I was ill after my first child was born that I was re-reading the Bible, my new Bible that I bought not long after I came out of the hospital. That is a vague memory as I had been very very ill but it also could be I used my Bible I won at a Bible Challenge for being the first to find so many verses when I was eight years old and first went to Bethel Chapel as they had a Bible study for children after school which I finally persuaded my parents to let me attend after they discussed it with our priest. The priest said let her go and follow her interests. 

Cloudy today and it is Sunday and I will try to attend my Church online and if not there are other services online or I can just read through the Service as I have it at hand.  

Tea all drank and must do my solitaire puzzles. 

I am able to be at my Church today and it is a special service - National Indigenous Day of  Prayer which is dedicated to the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

Re-reading the Bible

 When I am doing my morning run in the basement these days I watch YouTube and the last few days I have been watching readings of Books of the Bible. In my mind, I feel I have not been reading enough but I could not decide what to read as I do read all day long more or less but my mind was searching for what I wanted to read especially. I have read the Bible before and parts of it are known very well to me but this is a different sort of feeling. I feel the need to re-read the Bible in light of the changes in our world both environmental, political and social. These changes have occurred particularly in the last two decades. Thinking about it I believe this desire to read the Bible once again goes back to the Crimea being taken from Ukraine by Russia back in 2014. I have felt somewhat compelled to write about both Russia's war on Ukraine and the attack on Israel by Hamas over the past few years. They are happenings that have created the world we are now living in - it is like a world out of control seeking to find that steady spot that was there in the early 1990s but we need to make it a better world; a safer world and a world ready to face the future - I feel as if we are sinking into the past. 

I believe the answer lies in the Bible which is the oldest collection of history of our world known to us. So yesterday I started reading Genesis with the experience of 80 plus years of living. Raised Anglican and I have worshiped Anglican most of my days (except for a brief period when I was a Volunteer Secretary and later other volunteer items like Adult Bible Studies at Edward's United Church). I did become distanced from my Anglican church during the conversations on the Residential Schools as I could see no value in the process that was being followed. When my Anglican Church accepted their responsibility with the problems in the Residential Schools which were under their care I found myself feeling once again a closeness to my Anglican Church. During the early part of our marriage we went to Edward's United Church and I went solo to early Communion at my childhood Anglican Church and joined my father who was a weekly attendant at the early service. Edward and I were both happy with my decision although we had always agreed that we would raise our children in the United Church and for a number of years we did attend the United Church as a family when we moved to where we are currently living. Edward was very involved singing in the Choir for about fifteen years and Treasurer for ten years. A chance mention in the bulletin of our local United Church took us to a lecture series during the regular service at Dominion Chalmers downtown and it was a time that Edward was feeling the loss of his only sibling (his older brother) and the rapidly declining health of his mother. His conversations after Church on Sunday with this learned Early Testament scholar who was also a United Church Minister helped him on his path. However this minister retired and a large change in the ministry resulted in Edward deciding to go to my Anglican Church since I had spent nearly twenty years at his Church. 

As I reflect on my Bible reading, I find myself thinking that the answers to so many questions that persist and puzzle many of us in the world today are in the Bible. Hence I began as I did as a child many many years ago reading Genesis (my latest Bible is the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, 1971). Although initially I was raised with the Revised King James Version I moved to this new Bible in the 1970s. In a way my religious life was unchanged from childhood as I had attended the Anglican church with my parents and siblings and the United Church with my grandmother, uncle and aunt as a child when I was at their home. 

I think the other incident that brought me to this was a storm the other day where lightning struck a tree next door and took it down. It stood right next to the wooden fence and yet it never touched it. The lightning cut it into two well down into the trunk (the tree was two stories high) but both sides fell the other way and yet it leaned towards the fence; its branches constantly touching it. It was weird but the storm was heavy and full of hail the size of peas. I looked at that tree and thought about that tree and finally it was cut off and moved away. 

So part of my day will be reading the Bible instead of the Bible Verses that come to me through the email. I feel the need to do a Bible Study for me pursuing answers to what is happening in the world. They will be my own thoughts and I may or may not share them over the months it will take me to once again read from Genesis to Revelations. 

Yesterday I reached the story of Noah in my reading and contemplated the role of Homo sapiens in our world as mentioned in these early Chapters of Genesis. 

Today I will continue with my reading. These first chapters encapsulate eons of time and give us a picture of the Creator God of many if not all of the religions of the World (my knowledge of other than the Christian and Judaism is weak). My Anglicanism was learned mostly at home to be honest from my grandfather and father although the priest at my Church at that time was Father Abraham and his booming voice from the pulpit still comes back to me on occasion. I did go to Sunday School all of my childhood until I began to sing in the Church Choir when I was eleven but it was the sermons of our priest that provided my learning as a child. To me the early chapters of the Bible tells us the stories that were passed down by word of mouth over eons of time. The Anglican Church has a deep past in the British Isles although the Christian Church of England dates from before 314 AD and was preceded by the Celtic Church in England and back into the shadows of time immemorial. 

The weather here is pretty normal for this time of year, still pleasant most of the time and rainy - June is like that and will continue like that to the end of the month and then July tends towards hot and dry. The more moisture the better and except for the hail, the crops are probably doing well.  The tree still mystifies me as I glance at it lying waiting to be picked up in the front yard of the house next door. I wonder if they will pick it up unorganized as it is - we will see as this is a new company doing the recycling and usually one has to bag the small things and tie up the big lengths of branches. 

I also realize that in my blogs I refer to First Nations but I am not entirely correct as my thinking includes both the Inuit and the Metis but in reality First Nations does only refer to the First Nations themselves who have been in the Western Hemisphere from time immemorial with the Inuit arriving about 5000 years ago I believe and the Metis are descendant of the first colonials and many of the First Nations. Just to clarify that and I will try to be more specific in the future.  At nearly 81 though I will probably not entirely succeed but will try.

 

 

Rain again but the ground can still absorb a lot more

Another rainy day with thunder storms expected and the sky looks very cloudy. Just  17 degrees celsius this morning. Friday as well and this will be a good working day. I tend to find that Thursday is not a day of big accomplishment although we made a few decisions on the house layout that we will follow through with the next couple of weeks. It will make working easier. 

 Contacted the Chilliwack Archives and they will take the box of BC Kipp material so will get started on preparing that material for shipment to them. Although Edward and I worked together quite a bit on genealogy I do not know anything about the Kipp family, do not actually know any members of the Kipp family other than Edward's nieces and wanted to ensure that this material was not lost as the year's pass. I will ask the Archives if instead of discarding any duplicates that they have in their collection they could ask the members of the family that have donated to their archives in Chilliwack (who still live there) if they would like any of the items that are duplicated in their holdings. 

One other item to prepare this summer is the Allen material which Edward took to Gravenhurst back in 2019 when he went to meet with some of his cousins. It was a long trip and the first time that I had even been driving in this area north of North Bay. We did take a bus trip that ended in Moose Factory and included a train ride back in 2011 which we greatly enjoyed but other than that our time in Northern Ontario was principally in the Wawa area and further west and north from there canoeing in the backwoods in our early twenties primarily. 

Just noting as I brought my tea up that this was the tenth time that I climbed up and down the stairs today already. I also did my usual yoga and calisthenics for an hour first thing with a cardio load of 35. Already 3000 steps on the FitBit so 1/4 of the way to my goal of 12,000 although generally I run higher than that around 15,000 steps per day.  I am trying to review what I have done on a regular basis to keep my memory in the present very active. I suspect that might be why older people remember things better from long ago than the present items simply because their active memory in the present just isn't utilized as much as when you were younger. 

I was always taught to be respectful of our politicians as they give up  their private life (and I certainly relish mine and protect it as much as I can) to work for Canada. I am getting tired of the constant criticism which is actually becoming quite unjustified in the current political climate. This picking apart of every word expressed is becoming quite boring and useless. 

We must be patient; it takes time to create and we must be ready to grab all the possibilities to make Canada the country that the founders wanted and planned for in the 1860s-1910s. Their ideas were huge and they paid off and now it is our turn to make the same sacrifices to bring to fruition the promise of Canada. We do not have to be lesser than what we can be; but it will take time and sacrifice. We have lived through two World Wars that decimated our young people but yet we managed to continue to grow and prosper and we still can especially as our youth is straining at the yoke to be that powerhouse of the future. 

So today continuing with my work project as I did not actually touch that yesterday. We went shopping and the day disappeared rapidly but there is now 6 metres of linen towelling to turn into eight tea towels and will get that going. All that needs to be done is the hemming and the sewing machine is waiting. I made tea towels from this very same linen toweling 50 plus years ago and the last of the dozen are pretty thin and really only good for rags one might say. It will be nice to have new tea towels. They will shrink when they are washed and will take a few washings to make them really useable. But it will be fun to do. 

I wondered if we would find tea toweling and there was actually quite a bit of choice. Not cheap by any means as it is now $19.00 a metre and I vaguely recall 29 cents a yard way back in those days. I made a dozen then and there are two left. 

Drinking tea and solitaire puzzles to do.  

 

 

Equal treatment in Canada

 The Editorial "Alberta just wants equal treatment in Canada" was an interesting read. With the highest salaries in Canada it will be hard for Alberta to be equal in terms of overall wealth (they are wealthier and do not pay the high Provincial Income Taxes that are paid in other provinces or the extra Health Tax which we pay in Ontario). In terms of representation in Parliament, Ontario continues to be the most under represented in Parliament. I still think the original idea of the founders to think in terms of region (the Senate is based on this principle) has merit. Each region has specific interests and when the Western Premiers gathered to meet I thought that is really a good idea. They are a large region land wise and potential untapped value in these areas is huge so looking towards the future as a co-operating group is a really good idea. Alberta and Saskatchewan are basically landlocked areas depending on passage to the east through Manitoba but also through the Northwest Territories or to the west through British Columbia but also the Yukon with its access to the Arctic Ocean. So the co-operation between the western provinces/territories is really very important (which the Founders clearly noted and planned for in the original drawing up of borders in the Prairie provinces). In the east we have my province Ontario with its huge population, Toronto forms the centre in terms of business (used to be Montreal but talks of separation caused that city to lose hugely at the time as the race to be in Toronto began and is still ongoing). Toronto is ideally placed within Canada with its access to the Great Lakes that can take it west to Thunder Bay (and we await the Trans Canada being widened!) or east to the Atlantic via the St Lawrence Seaway which we built ourselves in the 1950s as the Americans were not interested in building that with us; for a small country we have pulled our weight on this continent quite remarkably until the mid 1960s which was a mistake that we are rectifying. You can tell we are moving back into that direction because of the heavy use of the Bridge between the United States and Canada at Sarnia since the bridge at Detroit/Windsor has been inadequate for quite a while. Hence Canadian taxes paid to build the new bridge at Detroit/Windsor in its entirety (using 50% Canadian and 50% American materials) so that there was better access between the two highways for the truckers and they shouldn't have to make that huge detour all the way to Sarnia to go back and forth. Sharing the tolls with Michigan once the bridge is repaid to Canadian taxes is a good sharing between two friendly nations - the benefits huge for the population of Michigan. The needs of the many always outweigh the needs of the few because trickle down economics is a failed idea. It takes one back to the Dark Ages in the history of Homo sapiens in the Eastern Hemisphere. 

But I digress from Alberta. Certainly as a Canadian and an Ontarian I appreciate Alberta very much. The founders knew very well what they were acquiring with the acquisition of Rupert's Land and did due diligence in seeing that the original inhabitants (First Nations) were properly recompensed then and into the future. Billions of dollars have been poured into Alberta (particularly during the Great Depression as well as the explorations to use the oil in the oilsands) from Canadian taxes and Canada deserves to be recompensed in a reasonable way for that huge expense (the value of Alberta must be 30 trillion and likely more to purchase).  Since this is about Alberta I will not dwell on the other regions of Canada which include Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and the Maritime Canada (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island which were joined by Newfoundland in 1949 when they joined Confederation and we linked Labrador with the new province). Each region has its own specific needs and one must always bear in mind that Quebec using the French language has been a challenge within Confederation however the use of the French language and culture has expanded far beyond the borders of Quebec and other provinces are now officially bilingual. It has enlarged our intelligence speaking two languages for sure. 

So yes we appreciate Alberta within Confederation; we are not jealous that you have the highest salaries in Canada. After all in Ontario we have lived in the shadow of Toronto all of my life where if it involved Toronto it got done and if it didn't then you waited and tried to work Toronto into the estimate! I lived in London until I was thirty and when we moved to Ottawa 51 years ago one could see how much that city has suffered from inadequate funding because it wasn't Toronto. The 416 was basically a two lane terror trip home for many many years having already driven the 401 for most of the way from London to Ottawa until finally a Premier from the north changed that and we have a four lane highway 416)! However that Toronto centralization is changing a little perhaps as I see the mine in the north that has been wanting to happen is going to happen at long last after more than two decades and the road apparently is finally going to be built according to Premier Ford. Thank you. 

So yes we want to see Alberta prosperous and will continue to pour money into future projects from the taxes of all the people of Canada. Just wanted to write that down in case anyone doubted how much Alberta is appreciated within Confederation. But personally if the First Nations are not satisfied with events in Canada then I think that is wrong; they have been at our side from the earliest days helping to make Canada great and we should respect their knowledge of the land. Am I descendant of the First Nations, no I am not simply an appreciative Canadian noting the great contributions that have been made by the First Nations and continue to be made. Helping them to re-establish their villages/towns with the same excellent conditions which we enjoy in our cities/towns/villages is very important. We were meant to walk together in this country just as Tecumseh walked (read that as worked together) with Brock to save Canada more than 200 years ago. 

As for Senate representation that is purely decorative but helpful on a regional basis which was the whole purpose of the Senate - to keep everybody happy within Confederation. With proposed unbalanced number of senators in the Western Region we might miss seeing something needed/revised in one of the four provinces or two territories. The presence of six senators in each of these four provinces is essential in order to know what is happening in these provinces. The Senate is large enough unless one is adding for the Territories. The voting in the Senate is not really consequential because eventually when the regions are satisfied with bills then the vote of the House of Commons will prevail. At the moment I do see Yukon and the Northwest Territories very under represented considering the role these two territories will play in the expansion of trade by Canada and the desire to work the valuable deposits within these areas over the next decades.  

Not what I planned to write at all. Today is a work day and will run my Copilot program to look at the Blake matches. Should be interesting. One item to note is that the files which Copilot produced for me had stripped out the formatting that I had in the Excel document.  Now that isn't a big deal as I can just put it back in by column but it is interesting to note that. Plus the file that was produced was out of order but I had a column which lets me restore the original order. Little items that are not consequential but would require me to have extra lines in the program in order to have the perfect file that I now have. The tradeoff though is excellent as producing the files myself would have required my writing a python program which takes time and has to be trialed taking up even more time. Eventually AI will have protocols perhaps that can be readily called upon but will probably always need the human eye to regard the file and ensure that what one has thought will be produced is produced. 

Like the advance into the computer age (I was into computers back in the mid 60s and watched as the world caught up) saving money wise/time wise is unlikely. What was promised as a time saver was certainly not that as the size of companies swelled in order to make use of all the advantages of computers. I think the same will be true of AI in the long run and sudden changes will be upsetting to the systematic flow of work in industries that try to convert overnight. 

 Solitaire puzzles are next. 

Another busy cleaning day

 The second day of cleaning completely accomplished and just the basement remains and will soon start the Robot vacuuming the rug. It is a nice way to finish the three day cleaning spree! The time commitment is just two hours at the most - one hour is done by the Robot although I have to prepare the area for the Robot to run effectively which takes maybe ten minutes. 

I finished looking at the four files created by Copilot and they are in good shape. The next step I will probably take on Thursday - my first working day of the week. Copilot will look at each of the files that are referred to by the Blake file it created just by matching the name on the file and the name in the file that it created. Within those files are lists of relatives in common/Matches and I will make a list of what to look for and then Copilot will make a complete list of those names along with a list of the matches that have those names in common. I should get a list of people who match within Blake and a list of people who match within Knight as well as a list of people who are matching Blake/Knight because I did not separate them. I will not have any decision made by the Copilot on this last group because it will be confusing and hence I will do that split although I could supply enough information for Copilot to do it there is a possibility of junk emerging so will avoid that. The human input is still more valuable in this case that the input from Copilot. 

The comparisons between "common areas" will also be made by me because that is indirectly what I am looking for in these sorts - matches deep into the past that take me back to Blake lines in Andover although few people do have that in their tree but some do. The 1700s was particularly small in my Blake line with Thomas Blake (born in the 1680s marrying in the early 1700s and having just one son Thomas and this son Thomas marrying in the late 1720s and having two sons but only one survived infancy and that was Joseph baptized in Andover in 1730 and marrying in Upper Clatford in the late 1750s. He married Joanna King of Upper Clatford and they had three sons. The second eldest died as a child (around the same time as Joseph) leaving the eldest son William who lived in Andover in the latter part of the 1700s and does not appear to have any children and the youngest son Thomas (born posthumously about five months after his father died) who married Sarah Coleman in the early 1790s in Upper Clatford. This very weak line in the 1700s is replaced by a very large line in the 1800s and up to the present. This Blake family of Andover/Upper Clatford is related to the Blake family at Abbotts Ann and I would like to determine the cousinship. I do know they are related through the King family because Joanna King's sister Mary King was married to John Blake, malster, Abbots Ann and all of this is mentioned in John's will in 1796. My thought is that John Blake of Abbotts Ann is descendant of John Blake of Andover who married Elizabeth (unknown) in the late 1670s and was the father of the ancestor of John Blake of Abbotts Ann and Thomas Blake mentioned above (born in the 1680s at Andover). This would make Thomas Blake who is mentioned in John Blake's will of 1796 likely 1st cousins ?x removed. I have yet to find anyone who descends from John Blake and Elizabeth (unknown) with a reliable tree other than my own line. A lot of people have these individuals in their trees but the link is questionable that they are using although by atDNA they are matching me (generally at least three of four siblings or more)! The fun is in the chase as always and as it turns out I do not have a lot of investment in the result other than curiosity. 

It is perhaps being Canadian that I do not particularly get excited about any of my ancestral lines. They are interesting even fascinating given my small footprint on this continent with my father born in England and coming to Canada with his parents as a child in 1913. Then my mother's father's mother was my first Canadian born in Upper Canada in 1839. Grace Gray (my great grandmother) was a first cousin to Sir John Carling heavily involved in politics in Ontario (was Upper Canada) initially and then into federal politics and was Minister of Agriculture hence the naming of the now torn down Agricultural Building and Carling Avenue. This area will now be part of the new Ottawa Hospital - Civic Campus (where I actually worked at the existing campus for six years). So first generation Canadian on my father's side and fourth generation Canadian on my mother's side and I was born before "Canadian citizenship" was created on the 1st of January 1947 so grandfathered to Canadian Citizen all on my own which I always found quite exciting actually. 

Why ever do I spend so much time on this? George DeKay is mostly responsible but there was a tug on my senses after my mother passed away which was a year earlier than George asking me to do a Pincombe Profile for the book he was publishing. My mother knew that I was so into DNA as a child in the late 1950s - found it so exciting and studied Chemistry with that on my backplate at all times. She reminded me of that in the late 1990s as she was going to the Family History Library and looking up items and wanted me to use this new thought that was breaking into genealogy with yDNA studies. I explained that we would need to test my uncle for that and that thinking was in the works but he passed away in 2003 (however a cousin of his did test for me) but I digress. 

The two elements came together with George DeKay asking for the Pincombe Profile and my mother's letters and discussions with me in that regard pushed me into doing the Pincombe Profile, joining the Guild of one-name Studies and reviewing what had been done with yDNA by Sorenson in the 1990s and early 2000s. As it turned out a known Pincombe cousin in Australia had tested his yDNA and I contacted him and an in-between person wrote back (perhaps that cousin had passed away no ideas on that as the writer didn't say that).  It was sort of weird so I just used his results comparing them to my uncle's cousin and they were a match and I just moved forward with the Guild study of Pincombe and Siderfin at that time. 

Who would of ever guessed that I would be so deeply into genetic genealogy at this time in my life! I had always said that when I retired I was going to knit baby outfits and sew clothes for packages going to the First Nations Reserves in my old age as my grandmother had done in her old age. I haven't sewed or knitted very much since I got into my course work at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies and graduated with my PLCGS in 2007 in English and Canadian studies. Funny in retrospect as I continue down this path really with my mother at my side leading me onward. Then my grandfather's memories came into play as I took on the Blake study in 2011 after giving the Siderfin study to a cousin in England as he wanted to pursue it and he was much closer to the repositories than I was in 2010! So Grandpa's stories of his Blake line tumbled out of my brain and I was into Blake and Pincombe pretty much 100% from 2011 on. I continue there actually. 

At 81 nearly I had thought myself to be winding down and I have quite a bit done with that but the intent is to publish all of this on Pincombe and Blake in the next two years and then move forward into Buller and Rawlings my other grandparents to publish their information - the Rawlings because my cousin John Rawlins sent me all his research perhaps thinking I have come to the thought in retrospect that he thought I would write a book. Amazing really as I go down memory lane  - I am beginning to think that is a habit of over 80 year olds.

Must do the solitaire puzzles, tea all drank.  

 

 

Now that I am approaching 81

My only true experiences with old age consist of my grandfather, my grandmother and the visiting that I did as a teenager at a local nursing home. When my parents were in their 80s/90s I was far away and only seeing them a couple of times a year so did not really have a glimpse of their aging outside of a large family picture as many people were there whenever I was. 

My grandfather was basically a very healthy person although he did on occasion smoke a pipe. But throughout his 70s he continued to work on a very light schedule helping my father in his business. He maintained the supplies keeping them well ordered and ready for use on a daily basis. He read a lot as he borrowed books from the library or purchased them. He walked a lot as he never did learn to drive; it didn't interest him. His stroke was sudden and he passed away about three months later. During that three month period I can remember he slept a lot in a chair during the day. He could still walk about but less capable. His mind still pretty good actually as I can remember him repeating stories he had told me before and they were the same basically. His diet tended towards beef and potatoes and I would have said a high cholesterol diet on his part. This was the early 50s. 

My grandmother was similar a very healthy person except for having a slight tendency towards epilepsy which was controlled by drugs which she did not like to take. So a seizure would mean taking them for a bit and then stopping. That did not particularly seem to affect her overall health as I recall. She walked a great deal; she gardened a rather large plot which included tomato plants for her son's store. Her flowers were absolutely beautiful. She was less of a talker with regard to family but occasional stories did slip out. Most of her spare time when she wasn't helping her son with his store was spent knitting and crocheting baby outfits for bales to the North for the Salvation Army. She continued to be very nimble with her fingers pretty much up to the stroke that she had. Again she had a high cholesterol diet that I can remember very well probably because I was not a meat eater as a young person and still only eat what I need to be healthy sticking to chicken and fish which was not the case for either of my grandparents. This was the mid 60s.

The effect of cholesterol on them was perhaps partially controlled by their very active walking life styles. 

The nursing homes tended to be younger people in their late 60s and early 70s. People did not live a long time in many cases when I was a teenager. A few years after retirement for many of them. So interesting reflecting on that. I did learn that it is better to eat chicken and fish certainly by noting the effects of red meat on one's health. I also learned that constant exercise is very necessary all of your life. This was the early 60s.

An interesting thought for the day as we made a delicious meatloaf last night consisting of half ground pork and half ground beef. It made a large meatloaf which I will eat sparsely; just a narrow slice but it does taste quite good because it is also full of vegetables (2 cups of diced onion, pepper and carrot cooked in butter and cooled and then added to the meat mixture with 2 eggs, 1 cup of rolled oats, spices, herbs, garlic and hand mixed to produce a lovely loaf in a glass loaf pan. Then cooked at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours along with baked potatoes and baked squash. Overall a very healthy dinner especially if you are light on the meat but a good restorative meal if you are recovering from a bit or dental surgery and a good meat to start with in recovery stages as chicken and fish (other than poached salmon) are not necessarily easy to chew. 

Today I am cleaning the top floor and will begin around 10 washing the bathroom first and then vacuuming and dusting and should be finished around 1 hopefully. Yesterday seemed like an enormous task but I did a few extra items so I will keep it easy for this session. 

A beautiful sunny day and it is back up to 16 degrees celsius after a low of 10 degrees celsius. I must fertilize the tomato plants today as they are growing very well but fertilizing them is a good plan. 

Never a dull moment and solitaire games are next.  

Peace

 Peace is a beautiful word and what God wants for us. Jesus brought us the two commandments by which we should live - Love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and love our neighbour as ourself. Living these two commandments could bring us to that uplifted plain of peace where all live a good life. Greed and envy must disappear from our world.  When they do the world will be a better place in which to live. 

Tough times continue in Canada and will for a while yet as our diversification of trade around the world takes hold. There are increases in jobs being created and we just have to wait. The Baby Boomers have had an entire lifetime worked around them and now they need to tighten up and help the economy to survive by spending locally instead of flying all over the place and enjoying themselves all the time. Life was easier for the Baby Boomers than it is for subsequent generations in so many ways. Attending university was so much easier and less costly and the dreaded compulsory Departamental Examinations became nonexistent in the later 60s (after I wrote them actually because I was two years ahead of my age group!). Life was handed to the Baby Boomers on a platter and they need to do the same for the generations that are following them. This diversification of trade is sixty years coming and should have been the practice of all Canadian governments prior to this one but it wasn't and we are paying the price.  We will continue to pay that price until we are on solider financial ground. 

Sad for Michigan because they were meant to split the tolls with Canada from the new bridge following the repayment to Canadian taxes as the people of Canada actually paid to build the new bridge. It would be a good bonus for Michigan and its people all that toll  money coming in to support all sorts of special projects or even just usual items like sports for children, better facilities in schools and all that sort of thing. Strange to continue to use such an old bridge especially for all these trucks when there is a bridge that is brand new (built equally with both Canadian and American steel and other products) with better access to the main highways. This new bridge has been talked about for years because the old one is just that - very heavily used and getting very old. Likely people will still use the old bridge but the truckers deserve to have a new bridge which is easier to access from the main highways and so modern. Truckers are the great heroes of people as they drive long hours; many miles to transport goods from coast to coast and back again. Ever increasing amounts of goods travel by truck all over North America. 

Worked the Pincombe file yesterday and it took only about 30 minutes to add in the Gray. Thinking of Michigan I have a lot of cousins who still live in Michigan that are descendant of the Pincombe Family. I still think that hand adding the known greatgrandparent is perhaps the better way so as not to create any confusion in the instructions to Copilot. Plus it lets me look at them in a global way as I entered them one after another without really regarding them beyond putting them into the table. The real challenge is coming where the work that I have done on the individual files will be used to help to look at matches that are totally unknown to me but share pertinent matches. That is very time consuming to do one by one but Copilot will be able to, without bias, pull out the information and produce lists that will be very productive. 

Today is cleaning day and it will be the main floor. I borrowed my sewing machine back from my daughter to make some new tea towels. The ones I have date back at least fifty years. Amazing they have lasted so long but I did make about twenty of them I think and there are three left that still have some cloth to dry dishes coming out of the dishwasher. Dishwashers have certainly made tea towels less of a necessity. 

Continuing to work on the phasing of great grandparents and creating the genealogical charts for the Blake book high on the agenda for my work time. 

Cloudy today and cooler just 15 degrees celsius - a normal June for sure. Tea brewing and solitaire puzzles to do. 

   

 

 

 

 

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.