Ice storm hits Ont.; Misses London for most part

An ice storm has struck Southwestern, Ontario. A quarter of a million people in the Toronto area alone are without power. Some subway lines are closed. It is a mess. Supposedly it is the worst ice storm to ever hit Toronto.

There was concern in London, two hundred kilometers west of T.O., but London was not hard hit by the storm. By the time I took a picture, much of whatever ice there had been overnight had begun to melt. I was in such a hurry to get off a shot, I didn't use a tripod: A bad decision.

Corrigan School of Irish Dancing Christmas Show

4-year-old Fiona continues dancing as the afternoon comes to an end.

Nice shot but poor quality

Today was the annual Corrigan School of Irish Dancing Christmas Show. Nora Corrigan, the director, performed with Riverdance for five years. Touring and performing for hundreds of thousands around the globe.

Corrigan returned to her hometown of London, Ontario, to teach Irish dance and to pass on her skills to a new generations of Irish dancers.

The event is always well attended. The audience almost fills the Wolf Performance Hall in the Central Library located in downtown London.

The young dancers are amazingly professional.

More pictures from the Santa Claus parade

Here are some more pictures taken at the annual Santa Claus parade held in northwest London. For a little community event, it is quite a lot of fun with lots of involvement by both kids and adults.

Winter has arrived

Snow sits deep on the bird bath in my backyard.

London, Ontario, is located in a long, narrow snow belt runs northwest from the to Lake Huron around Grand Bend and Bayfield. The snow squalls develop over the open water and then dump their snowy load on the London area. The Byron subdivision in the southwest of the city often gets the most snow of any place in town. A recent snow storm left just a few centimeters of snow at the London International Airport but it buried Byron under anywhere from 55 to 75cms of white flakes, depending upon where one lived in the subdivision.

On the upside, and there are lots of upsides to a snowfall, all that snow brings out the good neighbour spirit. The people living across the street dug out the older gentleman living in the home to the west of me. But, the snow was so deep that clearing it left the good Samaritans too tuckered to dig out their own driveway. I lent them my snow blower and soon they had their place completely dug out and mine too.

And the moment my granddaughter arrived, it was time to build a snowman.  She even brought a carrot to use for the snowman's nose.

I like living in the Byron snow belt where winter is a vibrant season filled with unique pleasures.

Santa visits London

Santa waves to children lining Gainsborough Rd. Saturday at the annual parade.

The annual Hyde Park Santa Claus Parade was well attended this year with the temperature climbing above the freezing mark for the Saturday morning event.

The parade, organized by the Hyde Park and District Lions Club and the NorWest Optimists, had some 55 entries this year. The Lion float may have been the crowd-pleasing favourite — not counting Santa, of course.

London has two Santa Claus parades, one is held at night in the core of the city and the other is held a few weeks later but during the day and in a northwest London suburb. Many people that I know prefer the suburban parade.

The event has a nice Christmas feel with a lot of local kids participating. Kids marched, kids played instruments, kids wore costumes and threw candy to other kids — the ones lining the parade route. This event has a great community feel and it is fun.

The Hyde Park Business Association collected winter boots; The NorWest Optimist Soccer Program collected toys. For the first time, canned good were collected, too. Like I said, this event has a community feel.

Many little kids seemed as much in awe of "Wendy" of fast food fame as of Santa Claus himself.

For more on the parade, check The London Free Press  coverage.

Hank Daniszewski, a reporter with years of experience, covered the event for the local paper, both shooting the picture and writing the story. There may be no paper Sunday, but the news story has already been posted to the Net where it can found right now.

Growing season just about done for year

Thomas Brothers Farm Market, south of London on hwy 4

It used to be that my wife and I would drive outside the city to buy fresh Ontario fruits and vegetables. Today we don't have to leave the city. The market we go to has not moved but some years back the city boundaries did. The result is that some stands are now inside the expanding city, some stands have been closed and others have disappeared completely, replaced by housing.

I've watched the loss of precious southwestern Ontario farmland to industry and housing for decades, ever since I was a little boy. The acreage that has disappeared is astronomical. It is equal to the area of the province of Prince Edward Island and then some.

Today we get a lot of our broccoli from California, our asparagus from Peru and our peaches (canned) from South Africa. Peaches are no longer canned in Ontario. The water tables in the agricultural areas of both California and Peru are dropping. The day may well come when many of the areas shipping massive amounts of fresh vegetables today, will be unable to continue tomorrow. Starved for water the distant farmlands will be brown with withered crops.

This is no way to treat our space ship: Space Ship Earth.

I was amazed to find locally grown corn still available at the roadside food market.

New park fails to impress U.S. architect

This little park would benefit from some better planning, a little imagination.

Over the weekend, I took a visiting American architect for a tour of a new development in the southwest London. He had some interesting insights -- insights that should be of interest to those taking part in the ReThink London process.

For one thing, he was not impressed with the large park in the new Talbot Village development. Yes, it did attract kids. Yes, it did provide a place to play. But it could have been so much more. As it is, it is simply an open chunk of land trapped inside a circle of roads. It does feature some playground equipment -- a plus -- but it could have been so much more.

This small park in Montreal is a beauty.

When I was in Montreal recently, I walked to a park near to where I was staying. It was beautiful. Well treed and featuring a large pond fed by a small, rock-edged, meandering stream. A paved path through the park made good use of the little stream.

The park in Montreal was a neighbourhood focal point. The surrounding homes all faced the park unlike this new park in London. The London park seems ignored. Almost forgotten by those living nearby.

Think of the squares of Savannah, Georgia, or The Green in Dover, Delaware. For inspiration, Londoners actually need look no farther than the city's own Victoria Park in the city core. I am not suggesting that a small suburban park needs to be as grand as the large park in the core. I am only suggesting a small neighbourhood park can easily be more than what has been delivered in southwest London.

Both the Montreal park and the homes nearby benefit from their interaction.