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We are plunged into despair yet again.

It is this compulsory face mask business that is bugging me. I hate wearing them as my glasses fog up or the material gets in the way of my eyes, I cannot breath properly so am breathing through my mouth, quite heavily and when the weather is hot they are unbearable. I feel really bad for workers in hot kitchens or on hot patios. I just think this policy is crazy. Before they made it a rule I was wearing a mask when needed, like hairdressers, hospitals, etc., but when I could keep my distance (no one is doing that now!!) I would go without.

We just had a message from the church, explaining that we would have to wear a mask during the service and only one person would be allowed to sing. I have decided that I do not want to attend, I cannot see me wearing a mask during the service.

I guess the powers that be finally figured out that keeping everything closed or socially distanced until they find a vaccine is probably not viable financially. Thus if we all wear masks, we can get back to “normal”. Not for me. I shall be self isolating if doing things involves wearing a mask.

Finally the hot dry weather has broken, we had about an inch of heavy rain last night and awoke to grey skies, 20C and more rain. The garden is looking very happy as a result, but much more is needed. Also was attacked by hoards of insects, when I was walking around!

I have been wedding, the rain stopped about 2pm and the temperature started to go up, I was covered in bug spray and quite enjoyed the time i spent pulling up well established weeds and some Lilly of the Valley that was threatening parts of the garden i do not want it in. I know this Lilly is very invasive and hard to get rid of but I love it even though the aroma of the flowers is so short lived in the spring. I remember it being in the garden of the first home i ever lived in, thus I enjoy it.

I came in dripping with sweat, it is humid again now, the temperature reminds me of Bangkok in the rainy season; the rain cools it off for a little and then the steamy heat comes back. Very good for the skin.

Did i mention I finally got my hair cut yesterday? My fringe (Bangs to Canadians, does anyone know why?) was very long and getting on my nerves, not to mention being a bit raggedy. Looks much neater now.

It was made compulsory to wear face masks in public indoor spaces from Tuesday this week. That was in our area. I have worn my face shield before, but apparently this is not considered a good substitute. I was checking out the rules about mask wearing and have decided I would rather not know as their are far too many. I must admit it might make me think twice about going into too many public places, i hate wearing masks and feel i might even give myself Covid 19.

While I hate wearing masks of any kind i will of course comply with the orders or stay home. I have just seen on the news that a group of people in Toronto have been protesting the wearing of masks, i want to make it clear i am not part of that group even though I truly believe if not worn correctly (of course everyone will do that, NOT) they can cause problems in passing on the virus. not to mention the fact people wearing them think it is ok not to social distance.

Did i mention i got a second prize for my Canada Day Lady?

It is still very hot and humid and with no rain as yet, it is beginning to look very dry, please please rain.

The US has now reached 3 million Coronavirus victims, a real surge because a lot of the States reopened too early. The President isn’t’ helping by refusing to wear a mask and encouraging the young to ignore social distancing because they will be ok. Guess what? They are not ok.

It is a tragedy what has happened to Hong Kong. The crack down by China against the pro democracy protesters while not unexpected is something we hoped would not happen. i guess China just cannot deal with Freedom for its people. I hope we can welcome a number of the people here in Canada.

This will connect you to BBC information about a book to be released on 14th July written by Donald Trump’s niece. It sounds very interesting.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53328654?at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D&at_medium=custom7&at_custom2=facebook_page&at_custom3=BBC+News&at_campaign=64&at_custom4=36879188-C120-11EA-9DC7-0C18933C408C&fbclid=IwAR1CYvHkt-mJWisucrZWcPnOgxEn4PPeIyHTN9f_sB3nqwh4UZj-uxYZyHI

Apparently I am late to the game, when the Coronavirus first hit UK it was proposed singing this song while washing your hands was the right amount of time needed;

Ring a Ring of Roses, A Pocket full of Posies, A-tishoo, A-tishoo, We all fall down!

Folklore scholars regard the common belief that this rhyme came about during the plague years with skepticism. For further explanations see Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_a_Ring_o%27_Roses#:~:text=%20%20%20%20%22Ring%20a%20Ring%20o%27,%20Audio%20samples%20Play%20Marlborough%20%28help%C2%B7inf%20…%20

The reason for this title is that I awoke last night with it in my head and it struck me as appropriate as i believed it to be about the great plague of 1665 in England. I have since learned this idea is not true, the theory only raised its head in the mid 20th Century. Still it is a good game.

A lot has happened since I last wrote.

I have been feeling strange about all the changes taking place in our society and after reading an article, in one of the papers, on the w/e I am starting to understand why. When the Coronavirus first hit this country, back in mid March, everything was suddenly shut down. I was completely shocked and this made me very angry, among other emotions. I eventually came to terms with my feelings and arrived at a position where i was reasonably happy and appreciative of my life and my husband. Lately I have enjoyed the improved weather and my garden immensely and even now when it is very hot and dry, I still enjoy going into it. However these changes are taking place all around me some of them i am enjoying but others give me anxiety. I love being able to eat out again in restaurants (patios), being able to visit the dentist is welcome, as is getting my hair cut. But I do not relish the idea of going to an airport, getting on a ‘plane and flying somewhere, even though I would still love to visit places. I expect i will come to terms with these changes, I suspect more are on the way as the wearing of face masks seems to be going to made mandatory all over Ontario. Watch this space.

Happy Canada Day, one and all. It is a little different this year. We usually spend the first part of the day in the local park, Maplewood, with lots of other people. As you can see from the picture above. This year we went to a local café, Geronimo, for breakfast and even though we gate crashed at 9:15 (they opened at 9:30) they welcomed us with their usual goodwill. We bumped into a friend there and were able to enjoy a chat on the patio. On the way home we checked out a house that has a great garden decoration for Canada Day. Here is mine again

The day is beautiful and sunny and has lots of promise. More from me later. Turned out to be very hot and sticky.

Lazed around for awhile and then prepared for our guests, we had pizza and salad, lit a fire and later had fireworks as did a lot of people, we could hear them all around us. Also saw a lot of fireflies.

All in all a pleasant but different Canada Day

Lots of things have been going on. Had a lovely evening with friends on Sat.

We went to church on Sunday, this was the first time we had been to church since15th March 2020. I was a little wary of what it would be like, how would i feel. I have found it very hard to have a meaning full spiritual life while the churches have been closed and i was wondering if I could survive without my faith. I found out that I enjoyed being in church and joining in with the service. We had heard it would be very different with no singing etc. The reality was we had singing, (only five in the choir who social distanced), we had all the readings, Father’s sermon was short but helpful and communion was given as we all left. But this was far better than i had dared to hope for, oh and their were only a handful of people, probably about 30 of us, but we were worshiping together.

Dave and i managed to plant the flowers, we got in the Garden Centre, in the afternoon which was lucky as we had a huge thunder storm in the evening with lots of rain. We are desperate for rain as it has been very hot and dry, it was hot again today.

I managed to get some fireworks this morning, as there are not festivities planned for Wednesday (Canada Day) everyone seems to be buying their own fireworks so places are selling out fast. Dave wasn’t enthusiastic at first but i told him we will celebrate even if we are alone, we always celebrate Canada Day.

As far as the Coronavirus is concerned it hasn’t’ gone away. Canada seems to be doing ok and when an outbreak occurred in the city of Kingston nor far from us, it was quickly dealt with and has not been as bad as it could have been. However the same is not true of the USA. They have been trying to reopen for weeks now and some of the States that did reopen places such as beaches and bars are having to shut down again because the virus has spiked there. Our boarder is still closed and will remain so until 21st July, I hope it is extended beyond that date as the US is showing no sign of taking this virus seriously. The Director of the WHO has announced that the Coronavirus has not by any means been defeated at this time and while some countries have it under control, it is still very much alive and kicking. I have said this all along and it is one of the reasons why i was so angry and upset when all this began. I was well aware that once these restrictions where put in place it would be long time before we could ever remove them. I have come to terms with them to a certain extent, the thing i miss the most is travelling. But that is a subject for another day.

This morning when I was strolling though a local garden center, i had all sorts of ideas for this blog. The garden center is amazing see link https://www.rideauwoodlandramble.com/

My ideas, however, have gone!

Dave and my sister have a found a TV program called Spy in the Wild. It uses animal Robots to spy on other animals and it does seem to be amazing. see link below

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=the+Spy+in+the+Wild&ru=%2fvideos%2fsearch%3fq%3dthe%2bSpy%2bin%

It has been a funny day muggy but little sunshine, storms are forecasted for part of our area. We do need rain. We are to go for dinner to local friends this evening.

Thought I would try and write again today.

It was a good day, Dave and I went for a porch coffee at a friends house this a.m. very pleasant chewing the fat and catching up.

It really is a strange way of life. What did we do before, where we too busy to see friends? It seems now we make time for them more. I still have trouble finishing tasks and have a lot of things I need to get to, but I do not feel as harassed as i have in the past and seem to be able to do things when I feel like it is probably because i do not have anywhere I need to be!

Went shopping and visited a couple of other people on my way home, one of whom has just had a hip operation and the other had just painted the front of their house, by hand. Both doing well.

The weather was pleasant not the boiling temps we had all last week, the humidity has gone for now.

The TV shows seem to have dried up we are now watching documentaries which are ok but I like a good British drama.

Their is talk of a resurgence in the virus in Europe but in Canada it isn’t’ set in stone that we must have a second wave. I suspect a lot of this speculation has to do with the size of our population, perhaps the bigger cities will get a second wave. Trouble is the virus is still out there, thus we seem doomed to keep ourselves isolated. i do not know what to think.

The “Two Michaels” Spavor and Kovrig, Canadians who are being held, in prison on trumped up spy charges, by China in retaliation for us holding Meng Wanzhuo. They are being treated badly in cells with 24hr lighting, no consular services and no family contact. Meng is under house arrest in her luxury home in Vancouver. Trudeau is being urged to free Meng (even though a judge had decided to keep her under house arrest). It is claimed if he does, the Michaels will probably be freed. Trudeau is refusing to do this. It is a terrible tragedy for the families and Canada as a country when we are held hostage by China over this matter. I have every sympathy for Trudeau because he is dammed if he does as well as if he doesn’t.

What is in store for the w/e? I hope to visit a garden center near here, they are having a Canada Day sale and i need to go to a good garden centre a lot of the local ones have sold out of plants, everyone seems to have taken up gardening and a lot of the local plant sales didn’t happen in the spring. Hoping the weather stays like this, it will be good.

As you can see from the photo, I have been busy!

We had the children again last week and what fun we had, it is almost like life is normal again when they are here. We do lots of fun things; explore the aquatic life in the pond, including tiny frogs; cool off in the wading pool, eat snacks out doors, play and read stories as well as this time we watched Wizard o0f Oz, in two sittings. Didn’t see the news all week, we had our own little world going on.

Now it is time to sort out the garden again and catch up with the never ending weeds which are thriving in spite of the almost draught and very hot weather.

It seems the US is going through some tough times when it comes to the Coronavirus. Still no real leadership from the White house so State Governors are leading the fight against it and imposing quarantine measures on certain States. I really do not want to see anyone from US coming into Canada anytime soon. A lot of people still do not get how serious this outbreak is and are not prepared to even consider being a bit carful!

The UK has started a human trial of the Coronavirus vaccine, apparently they are not alone. I shall be first in line for the vaccine when it is available.

Earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico on 23rd June, a friend of mine just returned from there.

Oh No, I have just seen that Photo Radar is coming to school zones in Ottawa, is this the beginning of the end? While i do not condone speeding in these areas, i do value my freedom and view cameras as bad when they are trained on the general public.

At last Tuktoyaktuk, has its own statue. It is known around the world for its beadwork and carving but has always wanted on of its own. Today it has achived its goal.

I am in the second row from front ( a clue is hair bows) above and have not yet acquired my glasses. I am still in touch with 3 of the girls. Where did the years go?

The above title is from the chorus of a song by George Formby “Leaning on a Lamp Post” He accompanied himself on a Ukelele or Banjolele and his light comical songs played in the background of my early childhood. He came from Wigan in Lancashire and had a very distinct accent which he cultivated as part of his act. He was born in 1904 and died in 1961. He was famous for a lot of films he made in the 1930’3/40’s. My mother never really liked him as he often portrayed gormless Lancashire innocents who eventually won the girl! Anyway I couldn’t get that tune out of my head today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTaZTj1a4og

https://genius.com/George-formby-leaning-on-a-lamp-post-lyrics

A reminiscing kind of day! I am in the middle of preparing a vignette for Canada Day to place at the front of our property. I will post a photo of the finished project when it is done.

I have enjoyed all the time i have invested in the flower garden at this strange time in my life.

I started on it back in late March early April, it is divided into two large beds, both have a few bushes in them and they were overrun with weeds. One was really bad, it hadnt’ been weeded for at least 2 years. I felt great when I reached the end of eliminating all those weeds. I put compost on it and finally added a mulch. I also added some flowers. Here is the result:

The other bed I am still working on but it had greatly improved over its usual weedy self. It has a lot of Iris and Day lillies which over the years were allowed to go wild. The weeds get stuck between them all and it becomes very difficult to get the grass out without disturbing the flowers. This year i have been ruthless and dug up a lot of the Iris and lillies. It was time for a change. Although this is still a work in progress, I am very happy with the results thus far:

In other news apparently fidgeting can be good for you, it helps some people to think and can also be beneficial to health. Good i am a chronic fidgeter and cannot stay still to save my life, just as well that then I do not need to.

Paris has returned to normal, or what passes for it today. Street cafes are open and used by lots of people, hair salons are open, Versailles, has reopened. when can we do that here, please sir?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52935145