predicament

 

I will keep this post short.

I did do four drawings this week.

Now where to keep them, that i can find them again?

3 of those  4 lichen are very common, hard to put a number to it as in how pounds per acre, maybe one pound each per acre in my woods. And hey we do not know their names for certain. 

But i wasn't going to write much. This afternoon i will try again to delete a few hundreds of emails.

I am ashamed to say that my presence on the Internet is too much.

A few years ago i was pointed out a server farm, i do not understand it all,  but if they put one such farm here in front of my house, no ounce of lichen be left.

And yes everything we post on the Internet has to be stored somewhere.

Happy deleting!

What do you keep and what  do you delete and when, do you have a system?

If you want to torture me

 Have me stand up in front of my computer.

No worries i have learned meditation, so i am sure with that i will manage. But lucky for me nobody is suggesting to me to stand in front of my screen.

And many people might like it, i have always observed when I am with people, standing, talking, i will squat or find a stump to sit on, most  people it seems to me remain standing. I do not know why  i always find that hard.

But that is not my point here today. I was doing a few google searches on how much activity our body ideally needs.

And as with google these days, the first  some 30.000 searches are what 'they' (whoever they are) want us to hear.  Still i was surprised that nobody seemingly touches the 8 hour day in the office. Well i did read  that one should alternate sitting with standing up.  To me that is a cruel joke. For older people and children activity is preferred, but adults can be healthy and certainly wealthy behind the computer 10 hours a day. I read limit your free time use to 2 hours behind the screen. (after the 8 hours that is)

Sorry, i do not buy it.

And yes i have fallen for computer too. ( i don't have a cellphone, but to me that is included, same same)

 When we raised our son i do believe that the skype call with my parents once a month made him love his grandparents and all the relatives that came with it. But i realize now he also loves his English relatives ( my husband's side) Once in his young life i took him to his English relatives, and he loves these  lovely people equally so. He even visited  the relatives in Darlington, something I never did. ( my husband does not travel that far, period) So out the door goes that bonding happened through skype.

And then there is my story with my wildflowers. OMG i learned  soooo much through this computer. It all axellerated big time when inaturalist.ca started working for me.(2018, i tried back in 2015 but no one looked at the Yukon yet) thank thank you inaturalist people i am forever grateful)

But even that i do wonder now.  I have been studying widflowers for a long time,  before, in summers in the hills in winters in books . I did feel probably in 2017 i had come to a plateau. So i invited my big hero Bruce Bennett to come on a hike with me, so i could point my finger and he would know the name. It was a big deal for me, Bruce is way up there, a professional, i just a hobbyist. But it worked. and still does, although now we both  also have a big presence on inaturalist. In person we see each other still maybe twice a year.

But really if from my first hike with Bruce, if no computer had taken it's place in my learning. I might have started an herbarium. Bruce's is B.A.B.Y. if you are interested. 

I did a little bit of flower pressing before 2015, but it was more for art. Now i do not want to start a herbarium, but i do want  develop my skills as an artist drawing plants, the way the Jepson University in California still does.

And i could start today,  i doubt if i find a wildflower but i will find a lichen, or a moss. I think i will pick a lichen, lichens tend to show their one authentic self all the time summer and winter, mosses more like plants having multiply personalities.

where to go?

 Ha! I still have not found my groove here how to write about life, what to write and how to write it.

Where to go? With my walks it is easy, i always know where to go and when i don't know, i love wandering. That is the afternoon.  In the morning my husband is in charge and it is always the same walk. Yesterday afternoon i went to the mountain, and i reached it, and climbed up it a bit. I had planned this for a few days,  the weather was finally right. Glorious snow and sunshine, and the pussy willows are blooming up there.

See, and now i have trouble here, well you do not see it, but i am typing away, deleting typing deleting.

I am somewhat lost i suppose.  It is the general idea i get from the state of the world.  Yesterday we watched  you tube videos recommended by the writer of the  Interim blog ( thanks Sabine)

The video we watched was very artfully done, gave an interesting view. And i would say, his view. What i did agree with is that it seems many of us are a bit lost. We do not know where to go.

So many things come to mind, health care, technology, climate change, wars. I don't know about you but  nowhere do i see a real ideology.

I do have many pet peeves related to life in general.  I think.

I will try to make a list sometime on paper, i am old school many ways, list work better for me with pen and paper.

One of my pet peeves is: too many people have jobs mainly working on computers maybe i mentioned it before, please forgive me if i repeat myself, i will make that list so i can work with that list, cross things out that i did blabber about.

When I work on  the computer here now. To me when i type here, it is only about ideas, but nothing is really done, the house is not cleaned, i am not staying physically fit, my husband is not cared for, no socks are being darned, who does the oil change on the car? whatever. In society if most people work on computers is the work being done to maintain this beautiful society? And what do we teach our kids? As all we do is with technology,  what do they learn?

Starting up this blog again, I wanted ideas indeed, but ideas for action. Action to maintain this beautiful plateau we have reached. You and i we have reached a plateau; we do have warmth, clothing, shelter and food and love even. I do not want more stuff. I do not want more, more, more, more doctor appointments, live longer, more haircuts and this list can go on..

My vision is; to stop right here and maintain what we have and  than truly take care of people who don't have it as good as i do. Instead of  drinking coffee while a i type here. Coffee that people slave for,  is it possible for me to pay all involved as much as i would work for. To me fair wages ,another pet peeve of mine, is a farce. People from South America are still apparently trying to come in to the States and Canada looking for a better life. When they would get 30 dollars an hour would they still want to come here?

And if you make more then 30 dollars and hour, get out of here, you make way too much money, it is not sustainable . Is what i think.

 

blogging

  I am sorry for my connections here that are NOT blogspot.com, i will delete them. As in  an attempt to always keep things simple. It is not that i do not like the other platforms, or even want to promote blogspot, haha that feels like a joke. But It is just that  i happen to be on blogspot, and no need to change things. That simplicity i think that is a bit of a character trait of mine.

It is like; that i throw out some stuff, bring something to the freestore, before i take something home with me. The freestore the  only store i set foot in beside the grocery store and oh yes the refillery.

Let's not talking about my housekeeping, i make more mess then i clean up. Well i clean on the surface but not enough beyond that. That reminds me, i will get out the broom at yoga's next wednesday. People there keep it fairly clean, no one get's paid for that, -we use we clean-. So i noticed the stairs is getting quite dirty/dusty woodchips etc. So my turn to clean up.

Haha me always wondering who i am, you could also see that as a joke. I am sitting here typing, half dressed for the outdoors, because my husband 13 years my senior is slower.

I still a fast 62 year old.

Yesterday i developed a stomach ache. Last time i had a stomach ache was in the ten hour flight to Holland,  on my last time 2019. I don't like flying, especially not long distance . Maybe partly because i seem unable to hide how i feel. The stewardess on that flight noticed my discomfort, it must read clearly on my face, my teachers,  my mother always said, how when i was happy i was totally happy  and when i was not, i was totally not. 

The stewardess quietly brought me a hot water bottle, to hold against my stomach, It does puzzle me how she knew. That bottle was a heaven send and she and i had never exchanged more then  a few words.

Those kind of people make the world a good place to be!

But me this character thing of mine, whatever you call it, i don't even know if the two are the same.  What i was trying to tell. Yesterday i started to feel nauseated in the afternoon sometime. At six when the sun was still bright and shining happily . I thought i climb up the hill here, and let that sun nourish me, a 15 min walk.  When i cam back my best friend phoned and i told her; not feeling good. And after the call. I just drop to the floor. haha no nothing super bad, but it is this thing that i  am not able to pretend ( for better or worse) I crawl to the bathroom,  to slap some toothpaste through my mouth, drop my clothes along the way, crawl to bed, and go to sleep curled up in fetal position. There was some conversation with the husband. I assume it is hard to understand for the bystander to see someone in such a pathetical state.  After a bit of fussing on my part i fell asleep,

And woke up good as ever this morning at 7 am, no later, or earlier then normal. Nothing nothing wrong with me.

Happy as ever.

my father's grandmother

 I always find the male line in ancestry a bit useless, because  who knows who the father was. But that is not fair of me, because when  that man raised that kid, even when it was not biologically his, the raising of a child might still be  the biggest deal of the bargain. 

That i have become my mother probably has little to do with that fact that i was her biological  child, but more with the fact she was my primary role model.

Yet to look at biology so to speak is interesting too, to see a strong  resemblance in a child you birthed but never raised,

I did ask my sister, Anke, who does pa look like , the Zuiderends or the Romeins (his mother's side) or the Keijzers? My sister did not know. That i  physically look like my pa, no doubt about it. And i look  like my mother too for that matter. 

So Anke told  me an interesting story; recently people found a skull in the area where we grew up, This skull apparently was dated to the 1100 's. and the DNA confirmed it to be a Zuiderent.  Zuiderent the last name of my paternal grandmother's  mother. And Anke's say looking around town you could actually see who looked like the ...  ( what is the word)? they made from that skull.

Reading my sisters website in detail about this great grandmother of mine was revealing. It told me a lot about why my grandmother was the way she was. I always thought she came from more money then my mother's family, but now i doubt that. It might just have been that her character formed more royally then my mom's family, who in my minds view were not as arrogant. due to her life! 

Hear this!   

We have come a long way. Life is amazingly good now, All who read this i am sure have ample to be grateful for. I hope this story interests you, and not so much actually, that it  is my great grandmother, but more that  it is All of us, our story.

And thinking of the people in Turkey and Syria,  a  horrific story that is  happening now. Sending them my love.

My great grandmother, that i never even heard of before now;

Elisabeth Zuiderent.

She was, the story goes, born oct 4 1857 in Heerjansdam.

She married in Maasland May 18 1882 to Christiaan Romein

She gave birth to her first child in 1884  Pietertje, Pietertje lived 8 month

In 1888 she gave birth to her 4 th child, the first one that lived beyond infancy.

In all  according to what was recorded, Elisabeth gave birth to 13 children, only 5 lived to become an adult. and yes my dear grandma was the youngest and the only girl. And she the only one who reached 80, She died when she was 88.

No wonder she was a bit of a queen! 

I know somebody said this before me,  but i don't know who. We are the children of survivors!

I have lots of stories about my paternal grandparents, as they lived  right beside us on the farm.

But the surprising thing is, a thing i did not know till now. That i have stuff from her brother Jan, who was close in age to Sientje ( my grandmother)  He died young, and left behind his newly wed wife , Tante Jo,  who never remarried and also became quite old. I would also  spend time in her house, (more memories:)When she died, she left  a treasure of stuff from the turn of the century.

When i think of the beautiful stuff in that house, the beautiful  big garden, i do wonder  if we progressed at all.

What do you think?

The incredible healing power of the body

 10 days ago i  cut my finger. It was, to me, clearly related to a conversation i had just before. Painful stuff. a week later i again happened to be told a painful story, i cut my finger in the same spot, because  acap of dead skin was elevating from the tip of my finger. So! i tell myself  be aware when talking heavy duty life situations.

What does amazes me, how quickly it really healed. In 10 days time  a millimetre thick skin has grown over the wound  ( the wound 5 mm diameter, nothing big ) Normally  with similar cuts, i would keep nicking it, or accidentally ripping of the little cap of partly attached old skin. ( haha i hope i am not grossing you out.) Now it all is totally healed without  any pain  after the second time i cut it . What i am saying it even healed without pain. When there is pain we obviously are still bothering it.

Looking after it my way properly; protecting it, and letting it air at times, put a little homemade cream on it (beeswax, oil and i think arnica something foraged) but no extreme fuss. ...but maybe more fuss then you would? for sure my mom would not have fussed this way, and she was not prone to little accidents. she hardly ever was sick . She never fussed ( haha which also had two sides, but that is another story)

So what is that sweet spot for you? 

Yesterday unrelated to the little cut, I had a wonderful friend,  an ascended master of some type, come over and do a treatment. She gave me an hour plus foot reflexology, and some suggestions from maybe another realm.

 One of them was about digestion, so today i watch how i digest lives events.

hmmm the dog, do you remember the dog? Well the dog is still bothering us.

So what good does come out of all this? like as in digestion in our body, even if you eat hamburgers, white bread and and a sugary desert, some good will be in it.  But yes when that is your constant diet, constipation might be the only possibility of your body trying to deal with it.

I will give due attention to all troubles in my life.

The body, my life will be good/ is good and whole

I do believe in that. It is my experience.. In awe :) 

matriarchy

 I love to read my sister's,  Anke's Geneology, web page.

It does always makes me wonder about matriarchy, to me it seems a better way, if only for the idea that there is a better change we are our mother's children. 

 So here are my mothers

Magtilda van Eijmeren 90

Adriana Dijkshoorn 77

Neeltje Cornelia Groenheijde 97 ( she died when i was around 9 years old)

Maria Bregman 47

Maria van der Ende 83

Maria de Graaff 83  

Maria van der Mark 67 born  12-07-1767 in Schipluiden

Maria van Dorp 76

Aaltje Cornelis dr van den Bosch 70

Judith Symons dr van der Lee

Maertje Claes dr Rodenburch

This post too, i  haven't finished it. but will post as is for now.

What i want to explore with this list are many things, for example:

 All these women, my mothers, lived in an area  with a 30 km or so radius. My father dreamed of  leaving the area, and I and one brother did.. 

And what about their age? what does that tell?

And what about the fact that women in  my society, do not have a last name, really?

What do you question in your ancestry?