Byron: 3rd in a series

This is a duplex. Did you notice that the garage is attached to the neighbouring home?

There is a lot of talk about building tighter, more compact neighbourhoods. This talk is quickly becoming nothing more than background noise as the city planning department has started a move to get everyone onside for the next expansion of London onto surrounding farmland.

We hate sprawl the London city planners tell us. Then they turn around and argue that in order not to sprawl too much, they will sprawl just a little. Don't they understand: Sprawl is sprawl. (Actually they do. They are not stupid, just sneaky.)

Once the public, the ReThink London members, accept a little sprawl, they will be asked to accept just a little more. After some years have passed, the community will look about and realize that it has been bamboozled and a massive amount of new sprawl surrounds the city.

One answer to sprawl is the building of duplexs and the ones in Byron are a good introduction to how to build duplexs that don't shout "duplex."

Byron: 2nd in a series

When I look at this home I see a maturing of the suburban homes I knew back in the '60s. Builders loved big bay windows at that time. The two smaller windows on both sides, called flankers, often open for ventilation. This bay window has a copper roof which has developed a lovely green patina over time.

The shutters are suburban classics: purely decorative. They clearly have no function other than visually framing the upstairs windows as they are too narrow to protect the windows if they actually could be closed. Because of their purely decorative nature, some people in the neighbourhood have removed the faux shutters that once bordered some of their windows. I think this is sad. The original look of the neighbourhood is being lost. These modified homes are being moved visually from the '80s into today.

This front door has sidelights with glass matching that in the door itself. In Byron this glass is usually decorative with a frosted look or stained glass appearance. This makes the large foyers bright but private.

The home has a lovely front porch. Long and sensibly deep, front porches like this are not uncommon in the area and are often used. That said, I have found in my strolling about the area that even smaller, less traditional porches are also often used by residents. I have a porch just barely big enough for two big chairs and a much smaller child's chair. That porch is often in use.

The garage is on the side of the home and not jutting out in front. Until that late '80s in London, this was the common approach. After that, lots became narrower forcing garages to the front. The so called snout house was born. (I hate the term. It sounds insulting. City planners should never use the term.)

The front yard plantings are almost de rigueur in this neighbourhood. A beautifully maintained front lawn seems to be socially obligatory. A well-tended flower garden, a row or two of bushes, a front yard island, all are almost demanded. These beautifully maintained front yards give this lovely area a park like feel which is much enjoyed by walkers. The neighbourhood is a walking destination in itself and its beauty expands the concept of a walkable neighbourhood.

Tomorrow I will post another picture of a Byron home.

Byron: A London, Ontario, subdivision

I love this modern home with a little balcony off what I assume is the master bedroom.

Subdivision is a dirty word in London, Ontario. I don't know why as most Londoners live in a subdivision.

The local paper likes to talk about London subdivisions as if they were the same as Toronto developments. They aren't. For instance, I can drive downtown in 15 minutes or less at almost any time of day. Heck, once I walked home from downtown London on account of late night car trouble.

Byron, where I live, was an independent little place southwest of the city before it was annexed half a century ago. My subdivision was designed and constructed more than thirty years ago by Eadie and Wilcox, a local developer.

There is a small commercial mall in the north end of the development. Farther north is the old, former core of Byron which is still a commercial hub with a grocery store, liquor store, drug store and more. Immediately to the south of the E and W subdivision is a new and rapidly expanding box store like mall. I can easily walk to all three commercial shopping areas

The street layout is classic North American subdivision with lots of crescents and courts mixed in with the roads. Major traffic carrying streets have sidewalks on both sides, minor traffic carrying streets have a sidewalk on one side and cul-de-sacs with low traffic flows have narrow roadways and no sidewalks at all.

The London planning department makes quite a big deal out of some of the older, heritage subdivisions in town. Wortley Village in Old South comes to mind. There is a move to protect the Wortley Village neighbourhood.

I like old as much as the next person. Yet, I find it sad that we ignore the new in favour of the old. I believe we should respect the whole city. The city planners should strive to protect what is good everywhere in the city and try to ensure that commercial spaces are as dense and productive in new subdivisions as in older, heritage ones.

And so, starting to day, I am going to run some pictures of homes in the Eadie and Wilcox developed subdivision in the south west end of London, Ontario.

Canada Day fireworks in London, Ontario

Monday was Canada Day. When I was a boy it was known as Dominion Day. The name changed in 1983. One thing hasn't changed: the fireworks. Almost every community in Canada annually puts on a large fireworks display every July 1st.

Colourful bursts filled the sky at the Forks of the Thames in downtown London, Ontario, while those in the south west of the city enjoyed fireworks at the Optimist Sports Complex. Thousands of Londoners took advantage of the two shows while still more celebrated with small, private displays held in hundreds of backyards throughout the city.

I thought I had a great spot to photograph the display but when the fireworks started, sometimes with two launch sites active at once, I found some of the bursts were marred by the silhouette of a lamp post. (It's right in the middle of this picture. Notice?)

Most hail I have ever seen fall at one time

The storm clouds were impressive last Sunday. My wife an I watched them roll over the city from the back porch of a condo in the north end of London. The biggest and baddest clouds seemed to be passing over south London, our home. (I took a quick picture as soon as we arrived home.)

When we returned home we discovered the ground around our home deep in hail stones. It was simply amazing. In some places the hail was five inches deep.

Many of our plants were destroyed. Our hostas took an especially hard beating. The next day my granddaughter thought the hostas had been attacked by caterpillars - very voracious caterpillars.

I picked up a few samples of the hail and took a quick picture. As you can see, some of the hail was larger in diametre than an American dime. I'm sure some of the hail, not much but some, was as large as a quarter.

Like I said, this was the worst hail storm that I have personally ever experienced.

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It has been a wet spring.

It has been a wet spring but a bit dry photographically. Heart has been acting up, or more accurately my ICD has been acting up. Three shocks in the past month goes a long way to killing my enthusiasm for getting out and shooting daily pictures.

But I see so many good photos on Google+ that I felt downright inspired. I strolled all the way to my front lawn and found this oh-so-wet hosta.

The London area is well known for its fine farmland and successful agriculture. Everyone is praying that the rain dials back the clouds and storms, letting the sun shine through. Summer is just days away and its time to get down to some serious growing.

The asparagus liked the rain but it is almost done. The strawberry patches are just about ready for picking. The berries should be bigger than usual but not as sweet. They will be puffed with water and their flavour diluted. My granddaughter won't care. She'll still love getting out into the pick-your-own fields and filling quart basket after quart basket with the red berries.

Fleetwood Cruize Weekend: come and gone

John heads off in his completely restored Morgan roadster.

Steve Plunkett has again hosted his Fleetwood Cruize event. Plunkett has a large estate in the far west end of London and holds what may be the largest outdoor car show in North America and possibly the world and its held in what may be thought of as his backyard.

The owner of the Morgan spent years restoring his roadster.

The money raised goes to charity and he raises a lot. Plunkett is one cool dude.

The show is just five or ten minutes from my west London home and in past years I have shown my Morgan Plus 4. Not this year.

My heart has been acting up and my ICD has been busy pacing it and shocking it into line. My Morgan is parked for the time being and may be sold.

But my neighbours still got to enjoy the sight of a Morgan, actually two, gracing our suburban streets. Some members of the Morgan Sports Car Club of Canada stopped by to say hello while in the neighbourhood.

Tell me again, Mr. Urban Planner, why shouldn't I like driving?