Nothing Much To Report

 Spent three hours weeding, watering and trimming before the heat and humidity drove me home.   

Blue Jays split a close fought doubleheader, winning 1-0 and losing   2-1.

Life is good.  Stay well.

Home Children

 The day after I posted the story of my paternal grandmother being a "Home Girl" Maureen offered me a book she had just read, "The Forgotten Home Child" by Genevieve Graham.  Many thanks Maureen!

I have just finished it and have never experienced so many wet faces.  In fictional form it chronicles the typical kinds of lives and treatment these children faced.  Between 1869 and 1948 more than 120,000 children between the ages of three and eighteen were taken from England's streets, orphanages and homes and sent to British colonies (only about 2% were orphans, the rest were given by, or taken from, their families.  It is my understanding that my grandmother's father was sent to the poor house and his daughters were sent away).  Some children did benefit from the scheme but most,  something like 75%, did not.  They were treated like animals, when the real animals were the people who abused them.

Approximately 12% of we Canadians are descended from Home Children.  Which means that about 9% of us have ancestors who were abused by this program.  My brother, sister and I and some cousins and our families, are part of that 9%.

I can only imagine what my grandmother went through, in her early life in England (at that time the child mortality rate in the U.K. was 26%), and then from the age of 12, in Canada.  Gut wrenching!

In a way, it was something like the Residential School program.  Our colonial masters deciding what to do with a lot of inconvenient children.  Both programs were advertised as being for the good of the children, but in reality both were just about money.

In the Residential School situation it was the money that the churches received for "retraining" the Indigenous children.  

In the Home Child situation there were three monetary winners:     

1. The U.K. government who no longer had to provide for the children
2. The Dr. Barnardo Homes who managed the program and got paid for shipping the children out
3. The Canadian farmers and others who benefited from slave labour.  

There were 90,000 losers.

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More medals for Canada.  The women won Soccer gold!  Wonderful!

And, congratulations to Canada's men in the 4 X 100 relay.  Andre DeGrasse moved up two positions in his leg to achieve the bronze medal.  He has appeared in six Olympic events and has won six medals!  Incredible performances.

Tomorrow the Canadian women are appearing in their 4 X 100 final.  Cross our fingers!

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With the temperature at 32C, high humidity and a tender hip (a muscle pull I assume, but getting better) I just worked an hour today.  Watered the baskets and pumpkins, etc. and then cleaned up some trees that David had cut beside one of the ponds and cut the grass where they had been lying.

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Picked up fish and chips from Hutch's - Kathryn and Anna joined us for dinner and cards.  A nice evening.  

They're looking for ways to exercise so Mardi and I are giving them our bicycles (note to Sven: my cycling career is over but I'm still interested in tromping).

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Blue Jays won again - nine runs in the fifth inning!  The Red Sox used a position player to pitch the ninth so they wouldn't wear out a regular pitcher.  The guy pitched blooper balls across the plate at 36 mph - fun to watch (over 95 is more typical).

Life is good.  Stay well.

Olympic Gold

 First item of business is a shoutout to all of our Olympic athletes, winners or losers.  Their devotion to their sport(s) is awesome.  Particular praise for Andre De Grasse for his 200 metre gold medal.  

But, most of all, I am always dumbfounded by the athletes who compete in the Decathlon.  Must have a death wish!  Having said that, sincere congratulations to Damian Warner, Canada's first gold medal winner in the Decathlon.  The world's most complete athlete!

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Yesterday, I mentioned that I might have to enlarge the garden I had just completed.  The following picture shows why.

The shovel indicates how far back the sod would be removed.  As you can see, the mower would be cramped going through the gap and would blow grass cuttings on both areas as it cut around the two gardens.  So, they will be joined (but not until the current high humidity is gone - today was brutal).  It'll end up as a garden that links eleven pine trees.

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Blue Jays won again.  Al Addis has high hopes for the TiCats.  

Life is amazingly good.  Stay well.

Little To Report Barry

 After golfing yesterday I was off to a slow start today, confirming my feeling that two days of golf in a row has become a non-starter for me.  Headed to the greenhouse at 11 a.m. and finished a couple of gardens.

One of them may have to be expanded - looks like there may not be enough room for the mower to get through after I add space around the next tree.  We'll have another look tomorrow.

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Blue Jays held off Cleveland to win again.

Life is good.  Stay well.

Golf

 Back to MontHill today.  Al kept us entertained, much to Ron's chagrin!  But David did his part too.  Witness this challenge.

But the result was pretty amazing.

He got pretty excited about that, so thought he'd try a similar shot again.

The result this time wasn't noteworthy - another tree got in the way, pushing the ball farther off course.

Great weather though.  And we all seem to be improving.  Maybe my four days of golf punishment last week has a bright side to it.

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Blue Jays won.  Life is good.

Stay well.

Old Friends

 Back to our normal routine.  It's Michelle Bullivant's birthday today, the only one we have to celebrate this week.  Best wishes!

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I took Mardi's white Orchid plant to the greenhouse for Sean to nurse back to blooming.  But she still has this beauty, looking good with 37 blooms.

Cut grass for a couple of hours.  Lawns look good.

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We were visited by John and Eric today, stopping in on their way back from Toronto to their home in Wallaceburg.

Mardi first met Eric years ago in the Dominican.  Eric and his partner were in the adjacent unit.

Mardi had made arrangements with her "Secretario", a 12 year old Dominican boy hired for the week, to set up her beach umbrella, chair, etc.  Eric and his partner saw what he had done and signed him up as well.

Eric and Mardi have kept in touch ever since.

Mardi and I stopped in to see Eric and John when they lived in Vancouver, on our trip to see Greg and family.  Nice to see them again.

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Thank goodness women are allowed to participate in the Olympics.  We'd be looking at pitiful results otherwise.

Blue Jays lost, but life is still good.

Stay well.

Home Girls

 There are times when this blog is frivolous and I contemplate relieving my readers of this daily load.  But yesterday it felt very meaningful and I thank Jo-Ann, Barry and Kathy for their contributions to our discussion.

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I'm sure many of us have interesting stories to tell about our family.  Mine relates to my paternal grandmother.

My dad left his Niagara Falls home as a teenager and went to live with his aunt and uncle in Toronto.  I never met my grandparents until I was eight years old, when they held a welcome home party for my uncle who had returned from serving in WW2.

My grandmother was not a loving person, but I didn't find out till years later why that was.  I learned that she had been a "Home Girl", sent to Canada with her sister when she was age 12.  She bounced through nine homes in three years - a terrible childhood, which explained her personality.

Her older sister, 14 at the time of her arrival in Canada, went through 14 homes in two years, but finally was placed in a good one at age 16.  She was very loving and took my dad in.  She died when I was four years old so I have no memory of her, but my uncle Charlie came to visit us on occasion and he was like my dad's father figure.

Compared to what those two young girls went through, and what Barbara and Jo-Ann's ancestors went through, we have it pretty good!

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Changing the theme very slightly, today is our first national (it's been held in some places since the late 1800's) Emancipation Day, celebrating the abolishment of slavery in the British Colonies on August 1, 1834.  Interestingly, Indigenous people were very active in helping escaping slaves from the U.S. move to Canada via the "underground railway".  Not surprising!

Like our Indigenous people, people of colour are still fighting for a better version of equality.

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Happy Emancipation Day!

Blue Jays won again.  Life is good.  

Stay well.