The kids appreciate the duck

Condo living is popular in London. The other grandparents of two of my granddaughters live in this complex. They sold a wonderful lakefront home to move here. The lakefront home had clear advantages but it also had one big drawback: it wasn't close to the grandkids.

The grandchildren love the condo. The oval roadway is ideal for practising riding one's first two-wheeler. There's next to no traffic. The only problem for a child of five is finding the right unit when it is time to return home.

Hence, the importance of the black-painted, iron duck. No one else has a black duck displayed on their privacy wall. Thanks to the duck, the kids never have a problem finding their grandparents' unit.

Differentiating the units when viewed from the back can be almost as hard as telling them apart from the front. But, if you are observant, there are clues: gas barbecues, planters, patio furniture and pumpkins at Halloween.

Look for the duck

Condo developments are everywhere in London, Ontario. Often condos like these attract seniors. With bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and living room all on one floor it means there is little need to go up and down stairs. Also, condos like these are compact and that translates into easy to clean and inexpensive to light and heat.

Keeping the design simple and repetitious helps to deliver an attractive selling price. But there can be a downside to the look of the units. Seniors with grandchildren may find the little kids have difficulty telling one unit from another.

Hence the metal duck perched on the privacy wall pictured above. The grandkids look for the black-painted duck and when they spot it they know they have found their grandparents' place.

Tomorrow we'll take a look at what this type of condo looks like at the front and at the rear. You will appreciate why the grandchildren are glad to have the duck.

Columbaria: apartment living for eternity

Room for the living is shrinking. The planet seems be getting smaller. Room for the dead is shrinking too. Housing for both the quick and the dead just keeps going up in price.

Woodland Cemetery doesn't push its clients to choose cremation over traditional burial but the advantages are clearly spelled out: it's less expensive, simpler and saves valuable space. I'd call the columbaria for holding the ashes a green solution but the scatter garden is surely an even greener solution.

 I  haven't gotten the details about the columbaria straight from the folk at the cemetery but these units appear to be like those at other cemeteries. If I'm right, these circular structures come in a variety of standard sizes with each move up in size offering more niches for cremation ashes. Each niche often holds up to two urns. One good sized columbarium may have 84 niches holding as many as 168 cremation urns.

My wife is not keen on the scatter garden. I'm not even sure she would feel comfortable sharing a small niche for eternity. She's a private lady and never liked apartment towers in life. An "apartment tower" for eternity may not be for her. But me, I find the concept appealing. 

I confess, I find the immediate wild debauchery of the scatter garden appealing. And, when my ashes tire of the mixing, I would be off to see the world on a beckoning breeze to become one with the world. All very Zen.

Annie Pixley: Queen of the Victorian Stage

This is a photo of the Fulford - Pixley Mausoleum on the grounds of the Woodland Cemetery in London, Ontario. Annie Pixley was a popular stage actress of the 1870s who won international acclaim for her stage performances. 

After her marriage to fellow actor Robert Fulford, she frequented the London, Ontario, area, spending many summers in Port Stanley and occasionally performing at London's Grand Opera House (now the Grand Theatre). 

In July, 1886, Pixley’s 12 year old son Thomas died of what was then known as "brain fever". He was buried at Woodland Cemetery. Just seven years later, on Nov. 8th, 1893, Annie herself died while visiting relatives in England. 

In memory of his late wife and son, Robert Fulford built the Fulford - Pixley Mausoleum. It was completed in 1897. It is one of the finest funerary monuments in Canada. For more information about Annie Pixley, and about the Mausoleum, follow the link and scroll down to the two-part documentary with local London, Ontario, author and historian Victoria Purcell.

A Silent City

I had no idea that old cemeteries are such interesting places. Woodland Cemetery may be the last resting place for ten of thousands of London and area folk but it is also filled with memories and absolutely great stories. The trick is to uncover these secrets.

Many mausoleums have value as heritage structures. These two handsome mausoleums have been standing here for more than a century. I'm positive these two both have stories to be told. Sadly, I haven't been able to unearth either one.

I did discover that the cemetery has a blog. I found an entry that asked the question: "How can we re-animate Woodland Cemetery?" It went on to say, "Our dead stories don’t have to stay that way." That may be true but you can't prove it by me. When it comes to these two mausoleums the story seems to be "Dead men tell no tales."

In researching this post, I did find one interesting fact: the Victorians engaged in post mortem photography. In other words, the Victorians took pictures of the deceased. The following is from the cemetery blog.

Over a century ago, disease and infection increased death rates. It was common for children to die before turning five. Devastated, parents wanted something tangible to remember their late children. To this end, they employed photographers to capture the dead child's image one last time before burial. 

The children were dressed in their finest attire and were posed carefully to maintain the integrity of their forms. In some cases, an infant would be propped up with a post, or held by their mother who wore a black veil. 

Once the daguerreotype photographs were developed, the artistic photographer would paint eyes onto the child’s eyelids and add some blush tones to their cheeks (colour photography was not widely popular in the 1800s because of its intricate process and high costs). The goal was to make the child appear alive again. 

Though this post-mortem photography process seems morbid today, what with painting eyelids and such, the images brought comfort and closure to those who lost their loved ones back in the 1800s.

Visit Woodland Cemetery To See Some Deer

Woodland Cemetery is deep inside London, Ontario, and yet it the home to numerous deer. Visit the cemetery and see some deer. It never fails. Some days it seems there are at least two  good sized herds living on the grounds.

And these deer are semi-tame. My eight-year-old granddaughter, Eloise, took today's picture using my little Canon point-and-shoot. The deer saw the car stop and immediately, with just a little hesitation, approached us. The young deer had clearly never encountered a hunter.

Woodland Cemetery is a multi-faith cemetery owned and operated by St. Paul Cathedral, the Anglican cathedral in the downtown core of London. Founded in 1879 on the banks of the Thames River, today the grounds have expanded to almost 100 acres and hold more than 50,000 burials.

I  believe being on the banks of the river is important, at least when it comes to the deer. The deer population rises and falls and I think they come and go unnoticed by using the river valley for cover. The river in London is quite shallow, only inches deep in some places with numerous shoals. The Thames River would present no danger to deer on the move.

Roof Top RF Base Stations Everywhere

Look at the top of the apartment building. Do you noticed the array of antennae installed on the highest point of the multistory residential building? I believe this is called an RF Base Station. Google "RF Base Station apartment building" and click on images. You will discover that these installations are common worldwide.

Many people  question the wisdom of putting these towers on residential buildings. They are concerned with people living in such close proximity to a transmitter/receiver of RF (radio-frequency) signals.

Yet, others are ecstatic about such an installation. They claim they live in iPhone heaven. Maybe, maybe not. Others say great reception is not a give; they say it depends upon how the antennae were aimed during installation.

I don't believe these towers are not sitting there gratis. The owner of the building most likely collects a fee for allowing the cell phone company to locate its towers on the apartment roof.

When I researched the question of whether or not these towers are safe, I found lots of scare stories. That said, the Amercian Cancer Society doesn't seem to be too concerned. If you want to worry about RF signals, worry about the cell phone held to your ear and forget about the base station on the roof.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies RF fields as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” This is based on limited evidence of a possible increase in risk for brain tumors among cell phone users.

The IARC also noted that RF field exposure from cell phone base stations (mounted on roofs or towers) is usually less than 1/100^th the exposure to the brain from a cell phones. Should you be worried? For perspective, IARC also classifies coffee as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."

As a flip phone user and only sporadically at that, I am not in the least bit concerned. Now, I'm off for my morning coffee.  ;-)

On a walk, backlit, low-hanging leaves a highlight

For many people around the world, the maple leaf symbolizes Canada. When I was young, many young Canadian travelers identified themselves as Canadian by displaying a Canadian flag stitched to a jacket or possibly a backpack. The Canadian flag sports a stylized red maple leaf on a white background bordered by wide red bars.

Taking an evening stroll in my London neighbourhood, the backlit, screaming bright, red leaves are the highlight of the walk. The tree in front of my home, planted a few years ago by the city, may be a red maple. I say "may be" as there are a number of different maples and telling them apart is not my specialty. I'm Canadian but that doesn't make me a maple leaf expert.

Red maples have green leaves for the majority of the year and then they turn a bright red in the fall. My tree certainly checks that box. But whatever it is, it's beautiful.

Red Light, Green Light: Not a Game

According to a City of London web page, there are almost 280 traffic accidents annually in the city related to running a red light. In an effort to reduce this number, the city has installed red light cameras (RLC) at ten intersections.

Not every car is photographed. Only those cars entering the intersection after the light has turned red. Enter on a red and trigger the RLC system. Some drivers erroneously believe they exempt if they are part of a funeral  procession. Not true.

When a car approaches a monitored intersection, two pictures are taken. The first photo shows the car in question immediately before entering the intersection and the second photo shows the car in the intersection.

According to the city, "Both photographs show a red traffic signal, when the photograph was taken, the length of the amber signal, how long the signal has been red and the speed of the vehicle."


The penalty for being photographed running a red light is similar to the penalty when given a ticket directly. The amount of the fine is the same $325 but being stopped by a police officer results in demerit points as well. There are no demerit points associated with a red light camera ticket. This may be because the red light ticket is issued to the owner of the car. It is not assumed the owner and the driver are the same person.

London: The Forest City

London certainly looks like a Forest City when viewed from the highlands of Byron in the city's south west.

London, Ontario, is called the Forest City. Why? Nitpicking history buffs like to point out it is not because present day London is blanketed with trees. The canopy can be a bit thin in places. No, the nickname has much deeper roots that reach well back into the past.

London arose at the Forks of the Thames surrounded by a dense, virgin forest. It was a city deep in an untouched forest. Whether this is completely true or not is open to argument. Some say there were always open fields and the like in the area and as the city grew the forest shrunk. It is quite possible that some of the forest was chopped down and milled for city housing. The only constant was the name: The Forest City.

Today it  is said, according to the CBC, "For every 1,500 trees that are chopped down annually due to poor health, the city replants 5,000."

An NPO ski hill needs community support

Boler Mountain, the ski hill in London, Ontario, is run as a not-for-profit organization. It qualifies  as an NPO because it was organized for, and it is operated solely for, recreation. Earning shareholders a return on their investment is not one of its goal. Improving the city by providing pleasure for residents is what Boler does and does well.

Years ago I sailed on Lake Huron and a fellow with a large yacht docked near mine was one of the original creator of Boler Mountain. Irish Ferguson was a very successful businessman and he and his friends used their business acumen to successfully create a ski hill for the city. Irish was a man who lived life fully and well. Boler Mountain with its downhill skiing is not the only recreational pursuit that bears his mark in the London area. Irish is one of my personal heroes.

As can be seen by the family name adorning the chairlift, there are lots of folk working to keep the dream of Irish Ferguson and his friends going. When I take my granddaughters to the hill to ski, I see signs everywhere that make it abundantly clear it takes a lot of community-minded folk to keep the Boler Mountain NPO going. I doff my hat, uh, my toque, to these generous people.

Boler Mountain: a not-for-profit ski hill

The chair lifts are still and the open slopes are quiet but thoughts of skiing are in the air at Boler Mountain, London, Ontario. How do I know? Two of my granddaughters ski at Boler. To ensure they are in the classes they wanted, I signed them up and paid all fees weeks ago. It is now mid-October and if you are just starting to think about skiing, you may already be too late for some classes.

If the hill looks small, it's because it is. The vertical  drop at Boler is greater than I thought but it is still only 207-feet at its highest. It seems as if no sooner are you up than you are down. For this reason, Boler has excellent chair lifts to keep lift lines as short as possible. People come to ski, not to line-up. And Boler does its best to deliver.

The best thing about Boler is its location. It is smack dab in the city's west end suburb: Byron. Boler is but minutes from my home. To take my grandkids to a ski hill of any size, I'd have to drive three hours to Blue Mountain. That's a long time for a little kid to patiently sit in the back seat of a small car. We've discussed Blue Mountain but at their age instant gratification wins.

Come to think about, when I consider the ages of the skiiers I see using the little hill, it is pretty clear instant gratification is a strong pull for lots of us.

A dream home embarking on a new adventure

It's an elegant home and a few days after taking this picture a for sale sign went up. It's the end of an era for this home. The couple who had lived here, raised a family here and grew old together here have both departed. It must be time to tie up lose ends for the family and to hand the home over to new owners with new dreams.

On a court overlooking the west end of the city, this home stands proudly in a dream location. The perfect home in the perfect location for nurturing fresh, new, perfect dreams.

Do I live on a woonerf?

This London cul-de-sac is a perfect living yard: woonerf.

After yesterday's post and the comments, I decided to rewrite and re-post the following which looked at suburban street design in London, Ontario, in particular and North American suburbia in general.

It was almost a decade ago that one of the coolest words in urban planning circles was woonerf. According to the local London paper, a woonerf was Dutch for naked street. I preferred an alternate translation: living street.

Woonerfs were streets designed, or redesigned, to force drivers to slow down as they shared the road with cyclists, pedestrians and children. There was no clear division between traffic and pedestrian rights of way in properly designed woonerfs.

Reading this gave me a crazy thought. Maybe I was living on a woonerf. Have North American suburbanites been enjoying their own form of woonerfs for years: Courts, crescents, places and culs-de-sac?

Traffic and kids share my suburban court.

Search the web today and you'll find examples of Dutch woonerfs with gardens and pedestrian seating nestled in among the shrubs and flowers.

These remind me of the court directly above mine and linked to my court by a well-used walkway. (I featured it earlier in the month.)

The first woonerf was in the City of Delft, Netherlands, back in the '60s. In the following decade, the Dutch government set design standards and passed traffic laws regulating woonerfs.

I feel some suburban courts come quite close to meeting the Dutch goals.

Curved streets keep traffic moving slowly

London, Ontario, is considering a speed limit of 40 km/h in residential areas. I find that with the curved streets in my 1980s suburb, I rarely drive faster than 40 km/h. Traffic control was one of the main reason for choosing a street layout other than the more traditional grid layout with parallel streets with numerous right-angle intersections. It seems to have worked, at least where I live in the southwest of the city.

Sand Mountain at Apple Land Station

There are more things to do at Apple Land Station than just pick apples. One of the other activities that excited my granddaughters was the sand mountain. It is said it took 500 dump truck loads of sand to build the huge mound on the grounds of the apple orchard just east of London, Ontario. Kids are encouraged to climb it, roll down it or crawl through the tunnels.

Apple Land Station

It is mid October. It is time to get the apples off the trees and into storage. Some varieties will last for six months when stored in a cool, dark, humidity-controlled room. The last apples from this fall's crop may still be good come mid April of next year.

But apples are not just good for eating. They are also good for picking. Yes, picking apples can be fun. Pick-your-own apple orchards are not as common as they once were but they do still exist. Apple Land Station attracts thousands of Londoners every fall to pick apples, explore two corn mazes, climb a sand "mountain", visit farm animals or simply shop. Fresh baked apple pies are a big seller.

Literally tens of thousands of area folk, often parents with their children, visit Apple Land Station each fall. There are approximately 17 varieties of apples available. Whether you like your apples tart, sweet or tasting of a hint of brown sugar, Apple Land Station has the variety for you.

I must confess: I'd never heard of Apple Land Station. Sunday, my grandchildren introduced me to the place, a place they had visited on school trips.

This is one of two Dream Lottery homes.

Three London, ON, health care foundations, Children's Health Foundation, St. Joseph's Health Care Foundation and London Health Sciences Foundation, will raise and share more than $36 million in net proceeds from this year's Dream Lottery.

The home pictured above is one of two homes to be won. The one above has an appraised value of $1,454,940 while the other home is $1,624,950. The homes are the top prizes in the annual lottery but they are not the only prizes. There are also cars, vacations and lots more to be won. It is no wonder the lottery is a huge support finding solid support in the community.

The cost for a chance to win a Dream Lottery prize it isn't cheap. No surprise here. The minimum fee to play demands buying 2 tickets for $50. Buying more tickets gets you more bang for the buck. 35 tickets are only, did I say only $500.

A brochure for the charity lottery is posted online.

The dream kitchen in a Dream Lottery home.

Shelah's Place: Thank you, Jenny Jones.

The playground is called Shelah's Place but it exists only because of the generosity of Jenny Jones. A London native who went on to have a successful career as a TV talk show host in the States, Jones

invited Londoners to submit ideas that would make a difference in her hometown community. Shelah Brook had the winning vision. Jones supported the project to the tune of $100,000 U.S.—$130,000 Canadian.

The brightly coloured, solidly constructed equipment was supplied by Playworld Systems of Lewisburg, PA, USA.  This is but one of a number of playground equipment suppliers used by the City of London, Ontario. This helps to make each playground throughout the city a little different from all the others.

The majority of playground injuries are a result of a fall on an unforgiving or poorly maintained surface. Shelah's Place is different. It appears to have a poured rubber surface which drains quickly after a rainfall and is durable yet soft and somewhat springy. The cushioning is appreciated when a child falls. And they do fall, even in the best designed playgrounds.

London Fire Hydrants Carry Colour-Coded Discs

According to the local newspaper, The London Free Press, the colour-coded, reflective discs hanging on all fire hydrants in London indicate how how much water a firefighter can expect when attaching a hose to the hydrant. Blue indicates the highest flow rate, 95 litres a second, and red the lowest at less than 31 litres. Green and orange marked hydrants fall in the middle.

A hydrant’s water flow depends on the available pressure, and the size and condition of the water line. While water pressure typically depends on elevation, other factors can affect the flow. Where time counts, this information helps firefighters decide what size of hose and what pump settings to use.

For more info on this, I did a blog post some years ago looking at the shape of the discs. Many believe these discs are shaped like a Maltese Cross. If you are familiar with the Maltese Cross, you will know that this can't be true. The discs are totally the wrong shape: curved and not spikey. Here is a link to my post on the Florian Cross shape used to make these discs and why it is a suitable shape.

The Northern Cardinal: a fequent bird feeder visitor

My granddaughters hang a bird seed bell and within minutes a cardinal has claimed it. The male is the bright red one. The females are a bit more discreet with just a little red edging with a light brown or olive brown overall look.

Cardinals are non migratory; they live all year in the small grove of trees behind my home. It's a good place to live, I'm sure. We not only put out seed, we also have a bird bath. I sometimes feel we are running a retreat for wild birds.

Cardinals, of course, are not the only birds we attract and in the coming weeks I will post more pictures documenting a small selection of the wild life often found in London. Some of our visitors, deer for instance, may be rare in my immediate neighboourhood but there are places in town that I can go and always see, for instance, a small herd of deer.

I apologize for the somewhat contrasty image but my point and shoot with the longest lens doesn't do so well on bright, contrasty days. As a relatively poor, retired, senior Canadian, I cannot afford to dump a working, even poorly, camera and buy a new one.

Closing soon for the season

If the tomatoes look a little rough, it's because these are field tomatoes and just about the last of the year. Greenhouse tomatoes look perfect but are often a bit hard and lacking in an intense tomato flavour. These, on the other hand, are full of flavour, juicy and wonderful on their own or in a salad or just cut into thick discs and placed between slices of fresh baked bread.

Sadly, by Thanksgiving, and the holiday comes earlier in Canada than the U.S., these tomatoes will be finished for the year. Thomas Bros. Farm Market, ten minutes south of London, Ontario, closes immediately after the Thanksgiving holiday this Sunday, October 13th.

Despite what it says on the sign, sweet corn has already disappeared and local strawberries are finding it difficult to ripen. Still, there are bins filled with apple varieties and there are half a dozen or more kinds of squash for sale.

Contemporary modern design is a trend.

Said to be a minimalist's dream, these angular, grey and white condos have a selling price of approximately $725,000. These units are in the west end of London, Ontario, but similar buildings are going up both north and south of this development.

For a look inside one of these units, click the link to the right: Inside Look.

Described as a contemporary, modern design, residences in this vein are being built all over Canada with examples in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. Until I wrote this post, I had no idea this was a trend in residential design.

Monkey Bars: Loved by Kids All Around the World

London, Ontario, is absolutely riddled with parks. Southwest London alone has more than a hundred little parks.Yet, despite the great number of parks, duplication of play equipment is minimal. Swings, slides and monkey bars are the only pieces of equipment to be found in almost every location.

When I was a boy, more then six decades ago, swings, slides and monkey bar were just about it. Everything was made of rolled steel, cast iron, metal chains and large boards. The ground under the pieces of equipment was often paved. Injuries were common

In the mid 1960s, architect Richard Dattner designed the iconic and very popular Adventure Playground. These often looked dangerous but it was that very look that made them safe, or so  the theory went. Kids recognized the dangers and this caused kids to be more cautious.

Three and a half decades later the Adventure Playground fell out of style. The park near my home was once an Adventure Playground. It was demolished around the turn of the century. Why? I was deemed too dangerous.

Which bring us to today's designs, which are interactive and inclusive while encouraging role playing, discovery and critical thinking. Social skills are accented: interaction, sharing, and participation. At least, these are the claims.

Yet despite decades of design improvements, my three granddaughters all gravitate to the swings, slides and monkey bars.

At later date, we will take another look at children's playgrounds. I find it very interesting that equipment designs, driven by an almost universally accepted philosophy of play, are almost the same whether the park is in Canada or Romania.

Condo Infill Units Popular in London, Ont.

It wasn't a large piece of suburban land but that didn't stop a creative developer team from building almost two dozen condo unit. Some folk object to the cookie cutter look of infill projects such as this. To which, I say, humbug. If the cookies are good, a small batch of them is delightful.

Checking the MLS records, I discovered the average selling price in 2017 was $580,500 Cdn. (or about $436,300 U.S. or £354,400 GPD). That was up from $549,800 a year earlier. There were no sales the following year and I didn't see any sales this year. It is safe to say that these units have increased in value.

The exteriors are a mix of stone and brick, inside there are nine and 10 foot ceilings plus some units have vaulted ceilings. At the rear of each unit is a covered rear deck. The units vary in size from 1534 sq. ft to 1844 sq. ft with 7 sizes in between. These units look similar but clearly there are some major differences when it comes to the layouts.

Units such as these are popular with retired folk. Being condos, all exterior work is handled by the condo board. My friends who live in condos appreciate not having to cut grass (as I do). And if the seniors lived in Toronto or had a lakeside home, as two of my friends did, selling and moving to London left them with additional cash when the financial dust from the move had settled.

Is it a residence? ...a commercial property?

One thing is clear: it's big. But what is it that is big? —a home? —a commercial property? At one point my wife and I would have voted for commercial property but that is not the skuttlebutt making the rounds in the neighbourhood.

Rumour has it that this new, and I think very handsome building, is a triplex. Supposedly three beautiful residences have been merged into one glorious building. Parking is underground, there is wheelchair access on the far right side and reportedly the building has an elevator. There is one more juicy rumour: supposedly there is a rooftop pool. I find that easy to believe.

Do you have a gut feeling? Have you seen something similar? If so, what was it? A home?

And thanks to my blog, I have been sent the definitive answers. Click this link and you find answers to the questions being asked: 1218 Riverside Drive Dr.

Chipmunk: a small squirrel, not a cute mouse

A little more than 400,000 folk live in London, Ontario. But that's not the whole story. London, like all cities, shares its space with other animals both big and small. A nearby cemetery is home to dozens of deer, the forested river valley near the university is posted for coyotes and Byron, my neighbourhood, has chipmunks among its rich mix of wildlife.

It's now fall and the chipmunks are preparing for winter. I put out seeds for birds and I also attract chipmunks. They munch away until, with their cheeks are puffed out with seeds, they scamper into the treed area at the back of my lot where they have their extensive burrows.

I used to call chipmunks cute mice but in doing the research for this post I learned I was wrong. Eastern chipmunks, the kind found in London, are small squirrels. I also learned that the goundhogs that frequent my backyard, also called woodchucks, are the biggest members of the squirrel family. Note the damaged bark on the branch behind the chipmunk in my picture. That may well be goundhog damage. Groundhogs eat bark.

Chipmunks will cart away a lot of seeds. If all goes well, they sleep quite lightly during the winter, waking up every few days to feed on some stored seeds. Chipmunks don't have oodles of fat reserves like animals that go into full hibernation. But, if it's a particularly harsh winter period, chipmunks will go into a deep state of torpor with their heart rate falling and their body temperature crashing. If this state lasts too long, the outcome can be poor.

For more info, see:  Penn State article on chipmunks.

Suburbanites like to walk

Generally, suburbia has a reputation for cookie-cutter houses, curved streets and a total lack of neighbourhood shopping. Suburbia is car country; folks don't walk in suburbia or so goes the oft repeated cliché. But it is not true, at least not the part about no one walking.

People walk in my suburban neighbourhood and they walk a lot. It's not the pull of shopping, like downtown, that gets my neighbours out pounding the pavement. Nope. More often than not, it's their dogs. Rain or shine, dogs need to be walked. Although, I must admit, jogging or just walking to get some exercise does come in a close second. And simply going out for a pleasurable stroll is also worth a mention.

So, the next time you hear someone saying that suburbanites never walk anywhere, smile. They walk a lot, at least they do in the Byron neighbourhood in London, Ontario.

Tanker Cars Rolling Through London

This kilometre-plus-long freight train is rolling through London, Ontario, heading for the core of the southwestern Ontario city. From there it will pass through east end residential neighbourhoods before exiting the city.

What makes this train worth noting are all the tanker cars. As you may recall, the horrific train derailment in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in 2013, involved tanker cars carrying crude oil. The fire following the derailment destroyed the town centre leaving 47 dead. If your town has one or more major rail lines traversing densely built-up areas, you should read the BBC report on Lac-Magantic.

Since the Lac-Megantic accident there has been an off-and-on again discussion of creating a bypass to enable freight trains like the one pictured to avoid London's core and its densely populated residential neighbourhoods. But a new route would be exceedingly expensive, not to mention time-consuming. The tracks running straight through London will remain for the foreseeable future.

When I worked at the local paper, The London Free Press, I covered a number of local derailments with some involving tanker cars. Shooting pictures of derailed railroad cars is fraught with danger. Tanker cars can explode and propel the massive, round, metal ends a surprising distance. The ends are the weakest point in a tanker car. I always shot burning cars from the side and with as long a lens as possible. There were good reasons for the homes in the immediate area being evacuated.

Wild Turkeys Spotted in London, Ontario

 

Wild turkeys are back. Unregulated hunting and loss of forest habitat resulted in Ontario being devoid of wild turkey by 1909. I know that I never saw a wild turkey when I was a boy in the 1950s. But that has all changed.

The first wild turkeys of the present reintroduction program were released in March 1984. In the coming years approximately 4,400 wild turkeys were released at 275 various sites across the province.

Wild turkeys are not common in Ontario but there are flocks living in certain parts of the city. This one was spotted deep inside the city on the front lawn of a Riverside Drive home. There are a number of big flocks to be found in the area immediately south of my southwest London home. Every once in awhile we spot a turkey strolling through our backyard. 

For more infor the Ontario Ministry of Resources has posted information online.

Suburban Walkway Joins Two Courts

Suburban residential streets are often said to discourage walking. This isn't true in my immediate Byron neighbourhood. Byron is an older suburban area in southwest London, ON.

Since moving to Byron I've learned to walk a lot and lately biking has entered the picture as well. Why? My granddaughters. We have two parks in our immediate area. And both can be reached by walking on trails that are devoid of car traffic and even sidewalks, for the most part.

My photo today shows the trail at the far end of my court. It leads into a bush and up a hill, ending at an extended, terraced, concrete staircase terminating in the court above mine. At that point, the smallest park is but a short walk away. My granddaughters call this walkway through the woods "going on an adventure."

Note the well trodden pathway. Lots of people take this path, often when walking their dogs.