Santa is on his way

Today was the annual Hyde Park Santa Claus Parade. Although you can't tell it from this picture, there were thousands of Londoners lining the parade route to see Saint Nick.

London has two Santa Clause parades: a city run parade that takes place at night on the city's main downtown street and Hyde Park event that takes place on a Saturday morning in a northwest suburb.

The Hyde Park parade is a community event attracting lots of local participation such as the Western University marching band.

Some prefer to mow and not blow or bag

I find one of the strangest urban practices to be the bagging of fall leaves. I find it downright weird. I didn't do it as a kid and I don't do it now.

My dad was a farmer before his health forced him to quit and move to the city. He taught me that leaves will break down and disappear back into the soil if treated correctly. He called leaves nature's fertilizer. We were poor and my dad was not about to discard free fertilizer.

We had a small, open-topped, caged-off area at the back of our yard, created with a heavy gauge wire mesh. We tossed our raked leaves, along with any grass clippings when we had them, which was rarely, into that cage. The coffee grounds from our percolator, if you have to ask google it, were also dumped there to be mixed with the leaves. The leaves always took longer to decompose than anticipated but they did break down eventually.

The London Free Press reports city leaf collection extended.

Today, I have a different, even easier, approach. I mow them rather than rake them. My electric lawn mower is called a mulcher and does not even have an ejector shoot. Grass clippings and leaves are chopped small and left on the lawn.

When I started writing this post, I realized it was all conjecture. I did a little research. It didn't take long to confirm that dad was onto something. According to the Princeton Primer, the makers of Scotts Miracle Grow have studied this approach and concluded mulched leaves not only provide valuable fertilizer but the mulch does not result in problems with thatch as some have argued.

Whether ground up or piled in a corner, leaves serve as a natural fertilizer and increase the capacity of the yard to absorb rain. The more organic matter a yard contains, the more moisture it can hold, which helps buffer the yard from extremes of rain and drought. A soil rich in organic matter welcomes the rain, which in turn reduces runoff into the streets and, collectively, the amount of flooding downstream.

One doesn't have to be a Princeton grad to understand that when "nature's miraculous trash-free economy is allowed to function, we're spared a big mess in the streets and the considerable municipal cost of hauling, grinding and mechanically turning leaves at a distant composting centre."

Is this an invasive species?

Is this a miscanthus grass species? If it is, then this may well be one of the grasses often found along roadsides and agricultural fields. It is called an invasive species but it didn't invade; it was invited in to be used as a decorative ornamental plant.

Miscanthus grasses are native to Japan, China and Korea. They made the leap to North America near the end of the nineteenth century. Fast growing, the foreign species spreads fast, displacing native plant communities.

The dense, dry stands are highly flammable and have even been spotted in distant California. Just what that state needs: another fire hazard.

And why did I start this post with a question? Because this might also be pampas grass. In some areas, like California, pampas grass, cortaderia selloana, is considered invasive but not in Ontario.

March winds in late November

A special weather statement was issued this morning forecasting wind gusts up to 80 kilometres per hour. Homeowners, outside the city, living in farm homes exposed to the full force of the windy weather could experience gusts as high as 90 km/h. Environment Canada said a sharp cold front would blast the London area Wednesday afternoon.

By mid afternoon the neighbour's flag was flapping wildly in the wind, neighbourhood trees were threatening to topple onto lawns and the air was thick with wind-blown leaves.

The Lego public school

Byron Somerset Public School was opened in the early 1990s. It and the many suburban homes surrounding it were all built on land reclaimed from a former gravel pit. A new school on new land in a new neighbourhood demanded a new look. Byron Somerset got the new look in spades.

My kids went there. It was just a short walk away. Did they like the look? No. The little school, it has less than 400 students, was called The Lego School by the students.

Today, almost three decades later, some of metal panels are badly chipped, some are bent and there are many signs of wear and tear. Still, I must admit, it has aged better than I ever thought it would. It is aging rather gracefully.

Over-the-air television signals facing phase out

When I was a boy all television signals were free, picked up by a rabbit-ear antenna sitting on top of a massive television set filled with tubes. We were only able to view about four channels but three were the American network signals, ABC, CBS and NBC and the fourth was the local CBC outlet.

There are still two tall television towers in London but it is a question as to how much longer these will  remain standing. The one shown was slated to be shut down a couple of years ago. At the last minute, it was given a reprieve.

Cable has replaced rabbit-ears almost everywhere. Television is no longer free. It can cost the better part of a thousand dollars annually. On the plus side there are so many extra cable channels. On the downside who cares as sometimes there's less to watch today with 50 or 60 channels than there was in the past with only four.

Some nights the same program is playing on as many as three channels at the same time. It doesn't take long before one has seen every episode of Frasier, Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory or Modern Family. Other times a Living Dead festival will commandeer one or more channels to present days and days of solid gore. Ugh! The Living Dead is one series that is dead to me.

We get three network news channels: CBC, CNN and FOX. CBC is essentially a loop a lot of the time and some days it can be an awfully small loop. CNN get hung up on a story, for the past few months this has been Trump, and like a dog with bone CNN just won't let it go. Both CBC and CNN can be downright boring on account of the repetition. And watching Fox News is simply bad for my blood pressure. Interestingly enough, repetition with Fox News would not be boring but I might pop a blood vessel as my blood pressure climbed.

So what did we watch on our in-house entertainment centre last night? My wife found Roman Holiday in black and white and starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck showing on TCM, Turner Classic Movies. I can recall watching that film on an old Coronet television set when I was a boy. Of course, Roman Holiday wasn't a classic back then.

Space Scooter sold briefly in Canada

Reportedly, the Space Scooter was developed in the Netherlands, is now sold across Europe and in the States. For the moment, it seems to have been pulled from the Canadian market.

I'm posting this older photo as a follow up to yesterday's submission looking at an Ontario toy store that's expanding across Canada. Mastermind Toys was the only store stocking the Space Scooter a couple of years ago. It's an imaginative toy sold by an imaginative retailer.

Mastermind had a unit available for testing right on the floor. Online retailers can offer a lot but they cannot offer an immediate, hands-on testing experience.

My granddaughter discovered the Space Scooter had no learning curve at all. Rocking the platform came very naturally. She simply got on and took off.

I've often wondered how common these are in the Netherlands. I understand the latest model, the X590, has two speeds and dual brakes. I could see using one of these for neighbourhood shopping runs.

London has two of these toy stores

I used to think selling toys was easy. Then Toys R Us in the States filed for bankruptcy. That was an eye opener. Then the Scholastics chain sold its toy store in London to the Mastermind Toys group. Soon after that the small, locally-owned toy store in North London was sold to Mastermind Toys as well.

A good argument can be made that Toys R Us folded in the U.S. because it was bled dry by its hedgefund owner. Backing up that belief is the fact that Toys R Us is still operating in Canada. The Canadian division was bought by a large, Canadian investor and the stores remained open. Are the stores profitable? I believe so, but stay tuned.

The first Mastermind Toys store opened 35 years ago in Toronto. Within a decade there were about ten more stores scattered across the Toronto area. Today there are stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba as well.

Mastermind Toys is doing more than simply opening new stores to guarantee its survival. It has entered into a partnership with the WE Social Entrepreneurs Initiative. The Mastermind Toys folk have carefully nurtured a reputation for caring for their customers and for the communities in which they operate. And the company likes to brag that it is Canadian—a real plus in today's market place.

Supposedly, American and Canadian builders understand cladding

Look carefully at the above apartment. Note the beige-painted, metal skinned, insulated cladding on the top two floors of most exteriors walls. This exterior, retrofit over-cladding is very common on older mid-rise buildings, usually apartments, in London. The new cladding may be used on the the top floor only or it may extend down six or seven floors or more.

I had never given retrofitted cladding any thought until an architect I know asked why it was there. I shrugged my shoulders. I assumed it was for insulating reasons but, if so, why didn't it extend down the building all the way to the bottom?

Questions about retrofitted exterior cladding on midrise apartment building took on added importance after the Grenfell Tower fire in London, England. The 24-storey building was gutted by a fire that moved rapidly up the building under relatively new retrofitted exterior cladding. At least 72 people, maybe more, died in the resulting inferno.

I am now investigating cladding as it is being used in London. When I have some answers, I'll update this post. It's an interesting story as insulating a building with the addition of exterior cladding is not a simple job as the Grenfell Tower fire demonstrates.

A coarsening of Canadian culture

Back when I was a boy in the '50s, I cannot imagine a restaurant chain promoting a name containing the words "Fat Bastard". Not so today. Apparently this restaurant chain was born in Canada; it's a Canadian concept. And it's a Canadian concept the many of us find exceedingly offensive.

Researching this, I came across an article in Now magazine: Fat Bastard Burrito's racy hustle. It said about the company logo at that time:
"Its logo trades on the worst stereotypes about Mexicans. It features a fat man with a mustache and a gold tooth. He's wearing a poncho and a sombrero. And he's riding a donkey while eating a burrito which, for the record, is Tex-Mex cuisine as popularized in North America, not Mexican."

As I write this, I wondered if I was being overly sensitive. I googled it and discovered: research shows that the word "bastard" is generally deemed to be offensive. Criticizing the use of bastard appears to be a safe, conservative position.

OFCOM, the Office of Communications in the U,K. warns regulated broadcasters to stay aware of the 'cumulative effect' of casual swearing. But, you may ask, what is the 'cumulative effect'? These are just words goes the defence.

Casual profanity is rude, its use coarsens society and culture, while the flip side of the coin is that it even ruins the usefulness of swearing itself. A lose-lose proposition.

I still call these 25-cent car washes. Not!

It was when I was a teen that these types of do-it-yourself car washes began appearing. At that time, the mid '60s, these cost 25-cents for five minutes. A friend's father had a car rental business and during the winter we took the rental cars to these to be washed. Working together we would wash each of the small cars within the five minute limit.

These car washes today may look the same as those of old but there are some important differences.

For one thing the dirty water from the washing of cars no longer goes down a storm sewer as it would if you washed your car at home. Using these for washing one's car is easier on the environment.

And today there is not just one hose delivering either a harsh blast of water or soapy water. Today there is also a second hose with a brush at the end. Using the brush dislodges the dirt on a car's finish much better than the hard spray alone. At the end some booths now have a separate third hose to finish the  cleaning.

One other thing has changed as well: the cost. It now costs $3 for five minutes. Pop in five bucks, many booths accept bills, doubles the time.

Icy sidewalks: a winter hazard

A common winter complaint in London is the condition of the sidewalks in the city. It is not uncommon to find a sidewalk unshoveled and lacking both salt and sand. Under the bright fall sunshine, snow melts and then the water freezes. The sidewalks become a threat.

Will the problems clear up as the winter progresses? I wouldn't count on it.

A Beetle facing extinction

It was back in early July when the last of the recent run of VW Beetles rolled off the line in Mexico. Born in 1938, the People's Car may officially be declared dead in 2019. But one never knows the future. Who knows? Maybe it can be brought back from the dead one more time; this time as an electric car. But, don't hold your breath.

The nearby VW dealership, there are two in London, Ontario, has about five Beetles still in stock. One is a convertible. They are all expensive, at least they are expensive to my way of thinking. More than $31,000 for a small, four seater when a much larger Jetta with room for five passengers is thousands less.

My wife loved this little car. She didn't love its big price tag. We drive a Jetta. Bigger, more luggage capacity, even better gas mileage. It's not surprising that many thought of the Beetle as the little car that couldn't, didn't and now is fittingly gone.

Where do businesses locate? Inside or outside the city they serve?

My home was built in the mid 1980s. My wife and I have kept our garage door operating by calling Stewart Overhead Door each time it failed. The repairs were excellent. But after 35 years our door-lift motor finally failed. The bearings were shot and replacement parts no longer available. We had Stewart install a new unit.

What I find most interesting in this story is that we live in the far southwest, right on the edge of the city. Yet the Stewart company is located some kilometres west of our home. Originally the Stewart building was surrounded by farmland and I'm sure there were cost savings linked to locating there. For instance, property taxes were most likely much lower for companies serving city residences but locating outside the city.

The other story I find interesting is how the location of the Stewart building has changed over the years, and all without moving the building one inch. Look carefully at the top left of the posted image. You will see a home. The farmland that once surrounded the company building is disappearing. The city is coming.

Getting cirrus about weather

There are some things that I've learned from the other images submitted to this group; all cities enjoy beautiful clouds. Clouds, such as the cirrus shown, are both unique and found everywhere.

Before posting this I looked up clouds using Google. I'd heard of cirrus clouds but it was only a name to me. No longer. A cirrus cloud is a type of cloud characterized by thin, wispy strands. The name, cirrus, comes from the Latin word meaning ringlet or curling lock of hair.

Cirrus clouds develop above 20,000 feet (6,100 m)—an altitude where low temperatures encourage the forming of tiny ice crystals rather than water droplets.

Typically, the weather is fair when one spots cirrus cloud formations. But one shouldn't count on the fair weather lasting. As sailors often warn, "Mares' tails (cirrus) and mackerel scales (altocumulus) make lofty ships to carry low sails."

I checked the forecast for Sunday: sunny. Hmmm. Makes me wonder what do sailors really know about the weather. In my personal life, I have often found sailors to be nothing more than weather worry-warts.

It's location, location, location.

Clearly this is an old picture. It's not that old, a couple of weeks or so, but I didn't have time to post it earlier. But, I think this is an important post and interesting to folk who love cities. Why? Read on.

The home above is in Old North London. My guess is that it sold for more than a million dollars, much more. It is a fine home. It's a classic and in London in that neighbourhood it is easily worth every penny the buyer paid. But, the important information here is that this home is in London, Ontario, and that it is in the Old North neighbourhood.

If you head south about two hours to the Boston Edison Heritage District in Detroit, you can find comparable homes for much less—15% or more less.

The heritage property shown on the left has gone up in value over the last few years as the City of Detroit has taken steps towards recovery. Yet, this home is still priced less than the home in London.

And it may be location, location, location but the next word is time. The London home has always attracted a good price. Over the past six decades it has steadily appreciated in value. The London home has been not just a fine place to live, to raise a family, it's been a great investment.

Fifty or sixty years ago my guess is the Detroit home was a true bargain. Time has been kind to the Detroit home and its heritage neighbourhood. Both survived a very difficult time for the City of Detroit. A lot of properties didn't.

When I went to art school and university in Detroit many of the vacant lots of today held fine homes that proved to be very poor places to raise a family and were also very poor investments.

When someone tells you that one never loses money buying a home, don't believe 'em. 

There's always enough snow to make a snowman or two

Canadian kids wait patiently all summer and most of the fall for enough snow to make a snowman. When there was still just a dusting of the white stuff, my granddaughters managed to sweep up enough snow for four tiny snowmen.

But my grandkids were not alone. A walk about the neighbourhood found lots and lots of other examples indicating a driven but frustrated snowman builder lived there.

Now, that the drive to make a snowman has been satisfied, the big event the kids are awaiting is the appearance of the "donut" in the centre of our court. When enough snow falls that a snowplow is necessary to clear the road, the plow circles the court piling the plowed snow in the centre of the court. After a heavy snowfall, the donut will tower over the court. It will be seen as a mountain to climb, a castle to defend, a toboggan slide to run and much, much more.

Stay tuned.

It was both a day and a world away

When I was a young man I loved to take my motorcycle and later my Morgan roadster and head south or places as distant as Georgia or even Alabama and Arkansas. I loved the little towns that dotted the route in the '60s. I stayed at hotels that were so ancient that even at that time they were considered heritage buildings. 

Recently, I found this photo from Helena, Georgia. I took it using a Kodak Instamatic, in the '60s. I checked the Net and learned that at least as recently as a few years ago, the Fire Station was still in use. It looked the same except for a coat of white paint. The City Hall seemed to have been moved but the building was still standing in the photo I found. It had had a few changes, the roof line appeared different, but it  was still standing and still in use.

I loved the southern States but I have to admit that I truly appreciated southwestern Ontario on returning from an adventure. I came to think of the States as a land of extremes. Once traveling through Mississippi I discovered a town so poor that it had resorted to hand-painted, four-foot-square, plywood stop signs to control traffic.

Incredible!

And if you're wondering how I linked this image to a southwestern Ontario city, it was easy. Southwestern Ontario is cold for a lot of the year. A great many of us regularly escape the cold to head south and thanks to the Interstate highway system, heading south is easy. I can be in Kentucky in only seven or eight hours. Tennessee may be another four hours and then one has pretty well escaped winter. This picture was taken during one of those escapes.

Tracks in Snow Tell a Fun-filled Story

The tracks in the snow tell a fun-filled story. The smooth area is the result of kids sliding down the gentle, snow-covered grade. To climb the little hill for another run, clearly the kids walked on either side of the strip left smooth by speeding sleds.

It is clear from the many foot tracks that the kids carried their sleds. And although it is not clear from the tracks, I know a little boy with an older sister lives in that home. It's a safe bet the tracks are evidence that those two had a good time playing for quite some time enjoying the snow on a rather cold, wintery afternoon.

And the quiet is the quietness of softly falling snow.

I have no idea what poem this comes from. It was a line in a poem I had to memorize in public school back in the early '50s. I've tried finding the poem by talking with school principals and librarians and the like but no leads.

And the quiet
is the quietness
of softly falling snow.

A glimpse of life in London, Ontario

I like my posts to say something about the city in which I live: London, Ontario. London is smack dab in the middle of snow country and come winter kids start thinking "snow". Two of my granddaughters are excited that the ski hill will be opening in a month and all three of them can't stop talking about making a snowman. Snowperson may be politically correct but the word hasn't gained any traction in my home.

Since there's not enough snow to make a true snowman, a snowman made out of marshmallows had to suffice.

To satisfy their snowman-making urges, Eloise, left, and Isla, right, got down the hot chocolate, some marshmallows, a few pretzel sticks and some candy corn leftover from Halloween along with a tube of chocolate icing.

Soon, their drive to make a snowman was satisfied. But this snowman didn't hang around to slowly melt. He was quickly eaten, and being washed down with hot chocolate was an added bonus.

Paver Pattern

As one member, Kate Mura, pointed out, "What an interesting pattern on the bricks!" Exactly why paving stones cause this pattern to appear as warm sun melts the light covering of snow is a mystery to me.

Paving stones were very popular in London, Ontario, when my suburban neighbourhood was developed. Over the intervening decades many homes have had the stones removed and replaced with concrete.

Paving stones, also known as paving bricks or simply pavers, are still used for sidewalks and driveways but other materials are also often used, such as concrete and asphalt. And instead of using simply using compressed gravel and sand as the supporting base under the bricks, today, a smooth concrete base may be poured first and then the pavers placed on top in an attractive pattern with a little sand between and below them.

First True Snowfall and Not a Dusting

It wasn't much but it was enough to rate as a true snowfall. If your car was parked outside overnight, you had to sweep it off and once cleaned and on the road, drivers found neighbourhood roads slick and slippery. The salt trucks are not out yet apparently. It is only November 8th, after all.

Adding welcome to a cold entrance

The building is fairly new, it replaced an aging facility that has been on the property for year. Located in one of the nicest residential areas in London, old north, it is not surprising that a large part of the building is dedicated to providing residential for seniors.

The sign above the entrance says Advanced followed by Medical Group and Senior Living. I was there to receive treatment for my sun-damaged skin. I arrived with only an address but once there it was clear this place was more than a medical facility. My question was: "How much more?"

The welcoming fall scarecrow was light on the scare but heavy on the welcome. And the large Apple a Day Bistro sign indicated that there was more to this place than medical offices.

When I got home I discovered there are a number of Internet sites related to this place. First, the senior residences are part of The Manor Village chain. It appears there are at least eight of these Aging in Place facilities.

It is said a Dr. M. Garth Mann started The Manor Village Life Centers out of a belief that staying healthy in one's senior years should be easily accomplished without having to leave the area of one's home. His first Manor Village was built for, and inspired by, his mother some 30 years ago. Linking the London Manor Village with a local medical group was an natural fit.

My guess is that lots of folk living in the immediate area take advantage of the Advanced centre. The little bistro fills a neighbourhood need and the walk-in-medical-clinic is a plus for any neighbourhood.

Medical Treatment is Covered; Cosmetic Treatment is not

When one needs medical treatment in London, Ontario, for the most part it is covered by OHIP or the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. (Dental work is not covered.)

I got too much sun as a kid. Not an uncommon story to tell for a senior. How do I know I got too much? Skin cancer.

There are three major types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. Plus, there are other less common types of skin cancers.

My family doctors sent me to a specialist, the specialist took some scrapings and yesterday the results were in. Three areas tested were non-cancerous sun-caused skin blemishes and one was squamous cell carcinoma. It would have been removed immediately if it were not for my pacemaker/ICD. I need another specialist. The vast majority of skin cancers do not spread. Still, waiting another six weeks or more for removal is worrisome.

The other skin blemishes, the non-cancerous ones. were removed with blasts of liquid  nitrogen. The cost? $100 plus $13 sales tax. As the removal was for purely cosmetic reasons, the provincial health insurance plan does not cover the removal. At least, the doctor guarantees his work. If the blasted blemishes return, he will blast them again at no charge.

Will winter be severe? Maybe woolly bear knows.

The banded woolly bear caterpillar is said to forecast the severity of the coming winter. Supposedly, the wider the reddish-brown centre band, the milder the coming winter. Of course, there is a more prosaic explanation; the reddish-brown band simply gets a little wider each time the banded woolly bear molts and these caterpillars can shed their skin about six times before reaching full size.

At this time of year, banded wooly bears are a common sight in London, Ontario. This one was caught crawling over a decorative squash in front of my home on Halloween. The caterpillars are easily spotted crawling over concrete sidewalks or crawling on walls as they seek shelter from the coming winter whether mild or severe.

London, Ontario, has two Costco Wholesale outlets

Costco Wholesale is big. Really big. And very popular. London supports two Costco outlets. From the incredibly busy look of  the Wonderland Road outlet Sunday, it's clear the city needs its two outlets.

I know Costco started in the States and I know it stretches across Canada but what other countries have Costco? Answer: It has over 200 outlets outside the U.S. These included locations in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, France, Iceland, Spain, Taiwan, South Korea and Australia.

But Costco is more than just big and growing. Costco knows how to endear itself to both its employees and its customers and in doing so it locks in support. For instance, the Canadian Costco runs an annual $2500 (Cdn) scholarship competition for its employees and their children. 

The scholarship offer meshes nicely with the carefully nurtured Costco employee-focused reputation. Costco is known for offering fair wages and good benefits to its employees. A fact born out by speaking with some of the London staff. They are very positive about the place. I am more than a little amazed. I didn't expect the reputation to be true.

Costco doesn't carry anywhere near the selection of products carried by competing grocery stores and the like. But what they do carry seems to be of good quality at a fair price. Recently, Costco has been getting heavily into clothing and they are selling such name brands such as Haggar and Nygard. 

I've read stories in business publications questioning this move. Nygard allowing their pants to be sold for $15 and Haggar having shirts going for $20 is good for Costco and its customers but many wonder what is in it for Nygard and Haggar? 

My wife says the Nygard pants she buys from Costco are not available at the Nygard store. The pants are well made, stylish and comfortable but she believes only available at Costco. The  Costco sales appear to increase a brand's name recognition but whether this translates into more sales of the higher priced line is an open question.

And Costco seems to be quick to support local businesses. The Greek style feta cheese sold in the London stores is made in a small town outside of London from a mix of sheep and goat milk. It's a great tasting feta at a good price and locally made. 

These are all smart business moves and from the busy lot, filled with cars and, of course, shoppers, both coming and going, it is clearly a winning strategy as well.

Dahlias fighting Canadian cold, fighting losing battle

The pretty dahlia flowers are not supposed to survive the first heavy frost. Cold Canadian fall nights leave the bright yellow flowers black, along with the green stems and leaves, according to the experts. So how our Dahlias dodged the first frost bullet is a good question but they clearly have. Look carefully at the pedals and you will notice some streaky cold damage but, all things considered, the flowers still look pretty good.

The Dahlias are not the only surprising survivors of the recent cold snap. Our raspberry bushes are still bearing fruit and that fruit is still ripening. But no matter, the Dahlia flowers will soon wilt and the raspberries fall from the bushes. It's inevitable. Snow is in the forecast and the water in our bird bath will soon be ice.

Today is NOT feature-the-colour-brown day

Yesterday members of the Daily City Photo group were asked to feature the colour brown in their November 1st post. While searching for my brown-photo post, I was thinking fall leaves, I saw this red, wet leaf on my paving stone driveway.

The image in my viewfinder said minimalist art and brought to mind the city of Trieste. Why Trieste? Because that's the city Nora Pallavicini calls home. And who is Nora Pallavicini. She is one of my favourite people on the Net. She shoots and shares colourful, simple but sophisticated, images which are often posted as minimalist art.

Nora Pallavicini: click her name, it's a link and scroll her page. Note, Pallavicini doesn't shoot everything she posts. But she does give credit to the artists, and make no mistake, the images she posts are art and the photographers talented individuals.

And if you do visit Pallavicini's page, you might find yourself seduced by a page dedicated to Doors. (Click the word "Doors". This will take you to another amazing page.) I worked for a chief photographer who understood the visual power of doors. The paper would feature a page of doors annually just before Christmas. The seasonal decorations tied the entire page together.

The Doors page features doors from around the world. Some are absolutely incredible. Give it a visit and follow the links you find. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Cheers, Ken!

Theme for the day: Brown (but not a photo of rust)

Fall leaves sitting in fallen water, a sparkling brown mix to all taking the time to notice.