FAMILY GATHERINGS

             My family background is German except for my mother. Mom had to tough it out at family gatherings because when the family was together, they spoke German. The family was good to her and tried to keep her in the discussion.

            My Grandfather was born in 1864. I was born in 1939. That means that he was 74 when I was born. He was very happy as I was his first grandson. 74 was  quite old to become a Grandpa.

          Here I am when my grandpa sees me for the first time

                Most of the family would get together two or three times a summer. We only lived 8 miles apart but because of transportation and roads we didn't get to Grandma and Grandpas very often.

        Now skip on a few years. At the family gathers the men visited in the living room. The women stayed in the kitchen. The girl grandchildren were nice the little girls. The boy grand children ran all over Grandpa's very neat farm yard. Grandpa was out on the yard with us trying to protect his neat yard from the grandsons who ran all over the place. Grandpa had  special way of piling his would. We would crawl over his neat wood pile and mess it up. He was probably watching us to see that we didn't harm ourselves.

      So I often think about what he thought about his first loving grandson and that grandson who later ran over his neat farm yard.

      Grandpa lived at our house for much if his last ten years.

HAPPY CANADA DAY

     I wish my friends  and readers a Happy Canada Day. I hope that we stay united and work together for the benefit of all.

DOMINION DAY/CANADA DAY

      Wednesday July 1, is our Canada holiday where we celebrate when we became a country. We became an independent country in 1867. Before that we were a colony of the British Empire. The independence was limited. We had many more hoops to jump through before becoming fully independent. Our Supreme court was in Britain. We were still under the Queen. We had to follow British foreign policy.

     Never the less , in 1878 Canada declared July 1  the day to celebrate  our independence. The day was called Dominion Day .We didn't really gain full independence until the 1930's.

    So , we've had  a bit of a change. We now celebrate Canada Day.

   In 1982 we changed the name of the day to Canada Day .

   Canadians celebrate Canada  Day by showing off the many things we can do.

   

BLOG QUESTIONS

           I was prompted by Mr Pudding from Yorkshire Pudding to ask some questions about blogging.

          I asked and I got some great comments on the situation.

           First I had to look back on my follow list. I haven't followed a new blog for maybe 5 years. If I'm going to be an active blogger , maybe I should get busy  and reach out and find some new blogs to follow.

         Many times I have a hard time coming up with topics. I like to have something meaningful to say and try and make it interesting. I find that an idea will pop into my head but by the time I come to write about it, the idea is gone. Maybe I  should write the topics down

      I'm a lazy blogger. I do very little research for any of my posts. I guess that's another thing I could sharpen up on.

    A few months ago I looked in my archives. There was a tremendous difference in my writing and topics at that time.

    So I guess I have to remake myself if I'm going to interact ands communicate with more bloggers

ARE WE SLOWING DOWN ON BLOGGING ?

            Last week Mr Pudding from Yorkshire Pudding lamented that blogging seemed to have slowed down. I have  a similar feeling. People don't seem to be posting as often or commenting as often.

           So this post is an opportunity for me to admit that I'm one of the guilty people who are not posting as often as I used to. I've been running on empty when it comes to topics.  If I don't have anything worth while to say I should say nothing. At least, that's what my Mom used to tell us.

         Summer is a busy time and that interferes with blogging.

        So  I will take Mr Puddings comments to heart and try to pay a little more attention to my blog.

       Some times we have to look at our blog list. I think we would be surprised to see how many people are not blogging anymore.

SOLSTICE AND EQUINOX

      I usually write about the solstice and equinox. I am fascinated   about the position of the sun and length of day. This year  I said ,"I'll skip it."

    Well you may ask why  you're posting now.

    We had a very rainy dark solstice. The usual long evening was  very dark and dull. The sun sets around 10 PM. But this year is was not a pleasant sunny evening at  all.

    We had rain and the cloud above us  would probably have been ten thousand feet.

    So I will take advantage of all the long evenings left . Tonight I went on a three Km walk in pleasant sunshine.

THAT'LL TEACH YA

      Two topics are common on this blog. One topic is everything jack rabbit. The other is the micro Manager.

     Today  both topics are in one.

     I have many blogs and photos of various jack rabbits who visit and reside in my yard. Jack rabbits are active all night and look for a safe place to spend the day. About 50% of the time I have a Jack rabbit in my yard all day so they are easy to watch. 

     Now the Micro Manager is in my house day and night so I see and hear her in action day and night.

     On many topics and issues the micro manager disagrees with me and makes no apology for telling me.

    From time to time the odd jack rabbit misbehaves  and eats some of my plants. They particularly like new plants. Recently I set out tomatoes and corn. So one day I noticed the little corn plants had been given a severe trim.

    So when I reported this to the Micro Manager her reply was, "That'll teach you for encouraging them to be in the yard!"

   This has happened before and the plants survive. Before this I was able to close the back yard. This year I've lost some of the fencing so I can't keep the critters out.