Where the sidewalk ends

Click on image, enlarge, read the sign.

I changed this post after hearing from a reader. I'd forgotten the children's book, Where the sidewalk ends, by Shel Silverstein. They wrote to say I'd found the place made famous by Silverstein in his book and in his poem of the same name.

How I forgot the late Shel Silverstein's book and poem, it a question. He is one of my favourite children's book authors. I'll have to go to Chapters for a couple of his efforts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where the Sidewalk Ends 

by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

Storm-water pond

It was barely daybreak when I drove by the new subdivision separated from a major thoroughfare by a wet storm-water pond. These ponds retain rainwater and act to prevent flooding. For more information on these ponds, which are very numerous in London, read the story in The London Free Press.

The growing city

New commercial additions are clearly in the offing.

Construction continues.

On land that was open farmland when I moved to London, a massive shopping district is taking shape in southwest London, Ontario. The plan is to make Wonderland Road a major and welcoming entrance to the growing city.

The major gateway I can see but the welcoming part may be a stretch --- unless rows of fairly standard box stores with acres of black asphalt is your idea of welcoming.

Still, it is a clean, modern area offering everything from groceries to banking to eye care and much more. Like an ice cream? It's here. Looking for wine? Or beer? Yes, these stores are here, too.

This area offered the city a wonderful chance to showcase the city's planning department. If the city was going for the gold, someone fumbled it, in my opinion.

It's a good shopping area but very, very ordinary. It lacks magic.