The lockdown continues

No shopping. No dining. Even going to the park is frowned upon. But kids just gotta get outside and my youngest granddaughter did just that. She went sledding on the small slope across from our London home.

She had fun and I got tested. Now, I am sure I do not have osteoporosis. Despite my age, my bones are fine. The slope was damn slippery, and yes that is the correct use of the word damn. Down I went. Spread-eagled. A slow check of all my limbs revealed nothing amiss. No broken bones. I got a pass.

Immediately afterwards I got a hot chocolate. My granddaughter didn't think I should play any longer on the hill. I take too many risks. I could get hurt. She took me home.

How do you spell optimism? B-O-L-E-R M-T

 

How do you spell optimism? Me, I spell it B-o-l-e-r M-o-u-n-t-a-i-n. Why? The province is in the middle of an almost complete lockdown to check the soaring number of covid-19 cases and what is Boler Mountain doing? Making snow. Boler believes it will open soon and the staff is busy making snow in order to be ready for the anticipated crowds of mask-wearing skiers.

Yup. That's optimism.

Tracks in the snow confirm wildlife lives in the city

 

Huge expanses of unbroken snow don't last long in the city. And no it's not kids playing in the snow who are leaving the tracks. It's wildlife. Getting about in winter can be hard for small animals, especially when the snow is deep. So, the first animal to pass makes the path and the following critters deepen and widen the now preferred route.

Sadly, our natural world is shrinking. According to the BBC, "Wildlife populations have fallen by more than two-thirds in less than 50 years." The tracks, so common in the wild sections of the city, are signs of hope alerting us to the fact that we share our world.

A Blanket of Snow Keeps Burrows Warm

 

Under all that snow there's life. Lot's of life. Squirrels, rabbits possibly even a fox or two. And of course there are birds. All are protected from the harshest cold by the warm blanket of snow. It insulates and keeps the cold arctic wind at bay. It even provides clean water for the wintering wildlife.

How do we know for certain that there is life under the deep snow and sagging tree limbs? Footprints. Lots and lots of footprints left by little animals scampering here and scampering there.

Neighbours Sharing Culture and Cookies at Christmas

Canada is a land of immigrants. Even families like mine with supposedly deep family roots going back decades, even centuries, are relative newcomers, Unless you are an indigenous Canadian, you are a newbie.

At Christmas one of our neighbours, a lovely lady originally from Turkey, makes baklava and shares it with friends and relatives. This year she sent her daughter to our home with a plate of Turkish sweets.

Baklava is the sweet on the right. It is made from thin layers of phyllo pastry separated by coarsely chopped nuts in a thick syrup with a honey-base. I'm not sure what is on the left but it might be maamoul, a type of date-filled cookie. Our neighbour's version is coated with icing sugar and flaked coconut.

Is baklava a Turkish dessert? Today yes but it may have originated in Greece. At least, that is the story according to many Greeks. But keep digging and you will find claims piled on claims until, if you dig deep enough and go back far enough, you might find your search ending in Assyria in the 8th century B.C.

As for the maamoul, it may have originated with the Phoenicians although the Egyptians often take credit.

What can we learn from a plate of cookies? Well, that our world is place in flux. What you consider "your culture" may just be "something borrowed."

Covid moves turkey pick-up outdoors

 

The local turkey farm is not selling the number of turkeys it usually does at Christmas. With the provincial government asking folk not to meet at Christmas, the turkey farm had an unprecedented number of turkey order cancellations. 

My wife didn't cancel. The family running the turkey farm were appreciative. At pick-up we found the turkeys being held outside for pick-up. When my wife asked if her turkey could be halved as she no longer needed such a large turkey. 

Our turkey may not have been cancelled but our family Christmas dinner has been. The turkey was quickly halved at no charge: "Merry Christmas!"

Cold cameras lead to cool photos

 

I left my camera bag in the trunk of my car and I left my car outside. Oops! When the grandkids started decorating the Christmas tree I retrieved my camera to get some shots of the decorations. Oops again! Taken into the warm, somewhat humid home, the lens fogged up. 

But the images shot with the fogged lens were inspiring. I shot numerous pictures. I even carefully blew warm, moist breath on the lens to enhance the foggy quality. I shared the results with my granddaughters and actually accented the soft final images with photo software. The lesson? Go with the flow.

Creative at Christmas

 

The decorations are simple but imaginative. My wife was the first to remark on the creative Christmas look of a neighbour's twin garage doors. When my granddaughters also mentioned how cool the neighbour's house looked, it was time to get out the camera. As I took the photo, passing motorists honked their approval.

RM Sotheby's Auto Show

 

In just days it will be Christmas and then New Year's. It will be 2021. Or will it be 2020 take two? It doesn't seem like this year ever got off the ground. It was a bit of a non event. Car shows, like the RM Sotheby's show held annually outside Chatham, about an hour southwest of London, were cancelled. One word explains why: covid.

One word explains why 2021 will not be a repeat of this year: vaccine. Science to the rescue.

Once a force in the London, Ontario, business community

 

Supertest service stations were a fixture across southwestern Ontario when I was a boy but the company's reach went right across the province. Headquartered in London, it operated from 1923 to 1973. In 1971 it was aquired by BP Canada and after two years the name was dropped.

There are a number of Londoners with extensive collections of historical photos documenting London over the years. Today's image is from one of those collections.

Six days till Christmas and no snow

 

Six days till Christmas and there is almost no snow to be seen. Will it be a white Christmas? Maybe not. Snow is in the forecasts but so is warmish, for winter, weather. And come Wednesday it is supposed to be not only above freezing but rain is forecast. 

But, if we have to have a green Christmas, this might be the right year. Thanks to Covid-19 we may not have children for Christmas either. The number of ill folk is climbing in the province. Business are going into lock down, my wife had her hair appointment canceled.

If we get together at all at Christmas it will be a Christmas dominated by masks and social distancing.

Why just here? Why just this section of power line?

Yes, I know. It's an old, well-told story: why birds sit on power lines. I've been told the lines are slightly warmer than other surfaces in the winter. This warmth, from the passing electricity, makes the lines a favourite perch. 

But I have another question: why did the birds pick these three power lines. No bird perched on the wires to the other side of the wooden poles. Not a one.

 And if one looks about, one immediately notices that there are no birds, not a one, perched on any of surrounding lines -- and there are a lot!

Hoping for a summer like those remembered

 

The summer of 2020 will go down for our family as the non-summer summer. Lockdowns, closures, masks and distancing. Not the words one usually associates with summer. Heck, even the playgrounds were closed, wrapped in cautioning yellow tape. 

With a second vaccine now being given to Canadians eager to put an end to the pandemic, a better summer, a more traditional summer, a summer saturated with family fun is now waiting in the wings, ready to make its appearance.

Until then, we have our memories.

Building under construction collapses; 2 killed.

 

Last September I took a picture of a small, apartment building under construction. The elevator shafts were in and they appeared as concrete towers looking almost like giant works of sculptural art.

Sadly, today the construction has been put on hold. Why? A partial building collapse left two people dead and injured five others. An investigation is underway. According to The London Free Press, our local paper, a partner in apartment building that collapsed had lost his licence to build new homes for sale in London.

Elegant home; elegant seasonal decorations

 

Once can only see this home from the roadway and it is quite the distance from the roadway to the home. In other words, one doesn't get a detailed view of this place from the roadway. It does appear to be a fine, somewhat sprawling, home with a four car garage off to the side and possibly some residential space above the garage as well.

Its grey stone exterior gives it an elegant feel. Now, with the Christmas Season getting into full swing, elegant light-grey wire deer have made their appearance on the grounds around the home and garage. All so very, very classy.

Some of the best farmland in Canada

The farmland surrounding London is often some of the very best farmland in the entire country. But soon this land to the northwest of the city will be sprouting homes rather than crops. The soil is rich with good depth. And the growing season in the London area is almost the longest in the country. Yet the urban sprawl continues.

Who recalls the numbers racket? Irish Sweepstakes?

When I was a boy we often heard talk of the numbers racket. It was mob run we were told. According to the New York Times: About half of the wagered money was returned as prize money to the lucky players who “hit the number.”

When it came to lotteries, the big one was the Irish Sweepstakes. The state run lottery was played around the world but it derived more revenue from the United States than from any other country, and this despite all the tickets sold being illegally.

I haven't heard of the numbers racket in years. Perhaps it is still played in big cities, I don't know. The Irish Sweepstakes is gone. It was replaced decades ago by a lottery. I believe it was also replaced by legal competition. 

Governments around the world have made lotteries, once illegal, big money makers for the governments. I read that the mafia was more generous when it came to returning money to the players than the governments. From what I could determine online, this is often not true. Governments are fairly generous with their ill-gotten gains.

The Lotto 649 in Ontario starts at 5 Million. If there is no winner, the price grows with the unrewarded funds being returned to the pot. There are two draws a week. With the prize now at $25 million, it is clear there has not been a winner for sometime. Depending on how you feel like the big pots, you might have preferred the mob's game of chance. The numbers game had smaller prizes and far more winners.

Memories of the past and hope for the future

In previous years London has had two Santa Claus parades. A big one in the core held at night oddly enough and a smaller, somewhat more community-oriented one in a northwest suburb. We never took the grandkids downtown but we never missed the Hyde Park Santa Claus parade. Never. Well, not until this year.

Both parades were canceled: Covid-19. Our grandkids missed the small, suburban parade just a short walk from their home. Area kids were welcome to participate and many did. I had no idea that so many kids would join a marching bank if given a chance.

Banting Broncos is the name under which the students from the area high school, Banting Secondary School, complete. And the teens out marching most likely play their instruments at various sporting events held during the year at the school. I understand the students enjoy being given the chance to play at an event attended by more than just other students. The kids missed the opportunity this year.

The Christmas festival is but a memory this year

The annual seasonal celebration at my granddaughters' public school is but a memory this year. All too sad. The celebration was arranged in such a manner that every child could take part and they all did. It was a fun celebration that brought the school community together. The year Covid-19 has pushed the celebration off the calendar.

Morgans were once common in southwestern Ontario

 

Morgans were once common in southwestern Ontario. In the '50s and into the '70s, these English roadsters were sold by a dealer in Windsor, Ontario, two hours from London. Then the government banned the little cars. The little sports cars did not meet the automobile regulations of the time and they still do meet the regulations today. Buying a new Morgan has been an impossible dream for the many decades now.

Car manufacturing has been important to Ontario and it put a lot of folk in the ranks of the middle class. With extra money to spend, it is not all that surprising that a car like the Morgan would find lots of buyers. Morgans were not cheap but they were affordable.

It was said that there were Morgans in Windsor on a per capita basis than in London, England. And the cars spilled out of Windsor into other communities in southern Ontario. London had its fair share. Even today there are a half dozen or so Morgans running about town each summer.

The green Morgan roadster shown was mine. I drove it for 45 years. It was a fine car. My wife and I drove it across the States twice, the last time in 2010. One often reads that English sports cars were unreliable. Not true. The cars were persnickety. With the right mechanic, a mechanic who understood the car's needs, these cars were very dependable. Heck, when I sold mine, it still had its original transmission, rear suspension, twin S.U. carburetors and more. It was a car that simply wouldn't die -- damn the regulations.

Waiting for the snow

Warm days and wet nights spells green grass. We are now waiting for the snow. Simple Christmas decorations can get lost in the visual clutter when the blanket of white snow is missing.

Salvation Army Village

It's called the Salvation Army Village. Once it had residents. Today it has offices.

The Salvation Army is a Christian church famous for its charity work. Its motto is "Giving Hope Today." Formed in 1865 in London, England, it came to Canada in 1882 and is still a going concern today.

According the the Salvation Army Internet page the Salvation Army London Village has a history going back to 1954. Originally it was a Children’s Village with six cottages providing accommodation for orphaned children. With the increasing use of foster care, the Village slowly changed its purpose.

With the closure of institutional facilities for people with developmental disabilities, in 1973 the Village began operating services dedicated to helping such children. This led to a Community Living program which was operated by the Village throughout London starting in 1989 and running for more than a decade.

Today the residents are gone. In the summer there may be day camps held on the grounds. The cottages on the circle are now offices used by various charitable organizations.

The wooden nativity scene on display at The Village today looks as if it has a long history. One doesn't see many like it in the city today. Although one gets the feeling that displays like this were quite common at one time. This display is a trip into the past.

Do apartment blocks have to be so massive?

Do apartment blocks have to be so massive? I wonder. When I was a boy we had two and three floor walk-ups here and there about the neighbourhood. These structures blended easily into the urban fabric. Plus, sometimes the apartments inside had floor plans reminiscent of a small home with large kitchens and two and three bedrooms.

In Paris most of the older apartment blocks are, I believe, no more than six floors. I understand that some city planners argue phenomenal urban density can be obtained by building rows of six floor apartment blocks similar to the ones in Paris rather that staggering tall apartment towers about the subdivision.

Personally, I am not against massive apartment buildings but I do wish the units inside offered floor space in keeping with the apparent size of the building.

Stink bugs shelter in homes for winter

Stink bugs are a common pest in London homes this winter. Many London homes, including ours, have a real infestation. Somehow the little bugs are working their way through the exterior walls and finding their way inside. In our case, the bugs are appearing in our kitchen, ugh, and our hallways.

Curious as to why, I googled the problem. I learned the reason I don't recall these pests from my youth is that these little critters are new to London. Called brown marmorated stink bugs, this invasive species is native to Asia. First discovered in the northeastern United States in the early 2000s, now, almost two decades later, they are in southwestern Ontario.

Apparently, they do no damage to one's home. They are only seeking a warm place to hang out until warm weather returns. They don't lay eggs or raise young indoors. Their presence is simply an an annoyance -- unless, one is not careful when grabbing one with a small bundle of bathroom tissue in order to flush it away. Crush the bug and you'll be sorry. Apparently these bugs are appropriately named.

Christmas shopper numbers down

 

The mall, one of London's oldest and largest, was not in the least bit busy the other night. No Christmas shopping crowds in sight. But lots of sign and symbols of the Covid-19 virus responsible for the shopping freeze that has seized so much of the world.

The vaccines cannot come too soon.

t

Comfort food was the topic of the month

 

I understand that comfort food was the topic to be covered on the first of December. Oops! Uh, better late than never?

Both my wife and I must watch our weight. But we both love pasta. We've found that the usual serving amount of 85g of pasta, dry weight prior to boiling, is too much. We have settled on 55g as the perfect amount and this allows the other ingredients to shine.

This lobster pasta is a bit pricey but I call it a restaurant substitution dinner. To the lobster I like to add a vegetable for colour, texture and flavour. This time, as you can see, I added big pieces of asparagus and chunks of mushroom. To give this a bit of a sauce, about 60g of soft goat cheese has been stirred into the mix and all has been topped with some grated Parmesan immediately before serving.

For medical reasons, I am only allowed the occasional small glass of wine. For a dinner like this I usually allow myself a small glass of white wine.

Some things don't change. Virus on no virus.

Holding a door is technically wrong but we do it!

I've noticed that holding the door for others is so ingrained in most of us that this is one habit that has persevered despite the virus. Enter the store and start down an aisle and if someone enters the aisle from the other end the approaching customer may well stop and retreat. A lot of folk try always to keep a safe distance from others, strangers especially. 

Line up at the check out and everyone is standing on a big, brightly coloured sticker. Each sticker is six plus feet away from the next closest sticker. I say six plus because in Canada many of the stickers are a full two metres apart and two metres translates into almost six feet seven inches in Imperial measure.

Holding a door breaks the distance rule. Oh well, I think it's worth it. Hey, the doors are often outside, it is only a moments long violation and we are wearing masks. 😊

Six feet apart is? Better than six feet under?

At one time London, Ontario, had quite the number of book stores. Many had been around for decades. I believe today the city is down to one chain, Indigo, with two locations. But it is a good chain, well-run and a fine place to shop for Christmas gifts.

When the young lady approached, yes Indigo has staff, what a concept, and asked if she could help I was all "yes you can!" You can help me get not a book but a picture—a picture that conveys the mood of the city today. And the young lady with her message-bearing shirt was perfect. (I cropped the shirt when taking the picture. I'm left to wonder how the message ends.)

Masks and social distancing are rules of the day and it seems that everyone is following these rules. One hears of some resistance but I have to say that I have not encountered any as of late. Some folk grumble but as long as they grumble in a muffled manner from behind a mask, I'm O.K. with their complaining.

Possibly one of the last warm fall days

Sunday was a wonderfully warm fall day in London and our street and any place where one could walk was packed with people, many wearing masks. Days like this are becoming less and less frequent as December approaches.

Computers bring the world inside

I've been trying to show my granddaughters how computers can bring the world inside. I've told them about the City Daily Photo group and how I've learned so much about St. Louis in the States, Antigua in Guatemala, Mumbai in India and the list goes on: England, Bulgaria, Italy . . . Posters may have noticed that I have shared some of the work found here on my personal FB page. My friends and relatives need to see something positive at this time in their lives.

My oldest nephew took a bus up a narrow mountain road to Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes. I showed him how I used Google Street Views to wander the ruins: Machu Picchu.

So, last night my youngest granddaughter took me on a tour, a tour of her iPad apps. We were able to visit interactive fantasy lands and she was delighted. She also liked the idea of the picture of her working on her iPad and so she cooperated in making the posted image. She stayed focused, kept playing but kept rather still. Why? Because of the slow shutter speed, she'd tell you.

Soft window light and lots of it best for food pictures

 

I see food pictures posted in Facebook and Twitter now and then. All too often these pictures are terrible. They most certainly do not make one want to sample the dish. The big mistake is light. The photographer uses room lights to illuminate the dish, like fluorescents or LEDs, or they blast a strobe straight at the plate. 

For good, sometimes great, pictures of food simply use window light. You want soft window light and not harsh, full on sunlight. And it is nice if the ceiling in the room is a good, clean white. It is the white ceiling that is reflected in the cutlery. 

The middle of the day is best. The light is stronger. Put off your shoot to evening and you may well not have adequate light. It most cases I prefer a small aperture to that I can use a small f/stop like f/11 or f/16. But, if necessary, one can work with shallow depth of field as long as the colour is accurately mouthwatering.

I used this technique to shoot food shots for many publications. I never had a photo rejected.

And what food is shown? This is the lunch my wife served her neighbourhood lady friends who stopped by to help her make Christmas cookies. All the ladies wore masks and staked out their own corner of the kitchen in which to work. It was a Covid-19 aware day.

I remember when air was free

When I was a boy air for one's tires was free and available at almost every gas station. Not today. Today air is at least a buck, if it is available at all. Out on the highway, the four-lane roadway linking London to Toronto and the rest of the province, one can pay for air with a credit card or debit card if one doesn't have a loonie and two quarters handy. That's right, air is a buck and a half at the rest-stop beside the freeway.

A loonie is the name Canadians have given their one dollar coin. The coin carries the raised image of a loon on one side, hence the nickname. There's another thing that has changed. When I was boy we had dollar bills. But bills were expensive and they wore out quickly. 

The one dollar coins costs more initially but they last forever. But time is still hard on money, coin or bill, it loses value over time. For this reason, among others, the metal coins are being superseded by plastic: credit cards and debit cards.

Snow plus warmish day equals fog: advection fog

It snowed the other day. The ground was still deep in snow early this morning. But come mid-day, a warm breeze from the south began melting the snow and soon thick fog covered the ground.

This is called Advection Fog: It forms when a warm, moist wind from the south encounters snow covered ground. This contact between warm air and cold, moist ground causes the air to become cool, saturated with moisture and fog is formed.

Is this Vietnamese folk art

 

If you want an amazing bronze or marble sculpture then Asia is the area to look. Craft shops throughout Southeast Asia crank out replicas of famous Western sculptures in big and small sizes and everything in between.

That said, these ceramic pieces in the window of an area body shop operated by a couple who once lived in Vietnam bear no resemblance to much art found in the West. There is rolly-polly buddha feel to these ceramic cat pieces.

Are these art? I'm sure a lot of folk would argue these cats are not art. I'm not so sure. There is a clear aesthetic at work here. But, one thing that I think we can all agree on is that these cats are visually fun.

Why immigrants are good

It has been years since my body man and his wife lived in Vietnam. It was the country of his birth. But, Canada got lucky and the oh-so-talented Vietnamese gentleman took his wife and moved to Canada. Here, he and his wife have run a small but successful body shop and outside the business they have raised a son and a daughter.

The other day my wife got struck exiting a parking lot. The accident wasn't her fault but in Ontario we have a no-fault approach to accident repair. The accident was credited to the other driver; he will see his insurance rates climb. But the repairs for the damage are being covered by each of our insurance companies. Each insurance company covers their own client. That's where the no-fault comes into play.

So, our car goes into the body shop for a time-out where it gets to hob knob with other cars in for repairs, such as this bright, red muscle car being given a second crack at life. I'm in awe of body shop craftsman. I kept the car of my youth, a Morgan Plus Four, for forty-five years thanks to fine body shop experts and talented mechanics. These people give a whole extra dimension to the concept of "to recycle."

Second snowfall of season

Today the second snowfall of the season hit London. Kids were out with sleds, other children were busy making snowmen and housebound pets were out frolicking in the cold, white magic.

Farhi: a name frequently encountered in Ontario

The former Bell Building in downtown London, Ontario, now bears the Farhi name like so many hundreds of other buildings in more than 35 municipalities across the province. One cannot miss a Farhi owned building or plot of land, Shmuel Farhi plasters all he owns with his name writ large.

Built with bricks and mortar and code

Today our civilization is built not with just brick and mortar but also with code. We no longer rely as much on machines with carefully meshing gears but more and more we rely on computers with carefully meshing code.

The image today was created by my seven-year-old granddaughter. She used her iPad running a favourite app plus my white, blue-striped shirt. She moved the camera lens over my shirt, watched the resulting image on the screen and when she liked where it was going she fine-tuned the image, did a screen-grab and sent the file to my computer using wifi and Facebook Messenger. 

Is this art? What do you think?

A complete car once cost less than a set of tires today

Reportedly, the first VW beetle sold in the States back in 1949 went for $800. I can recall buying a bug for something in the neighbourhood of $1600 a few decades later. I  needed a dependable car for my first job as a photographer at a daily paper. 

Today the bug is out of production. The last cars sold at the London dealerships for something in order of $35,000 Canadian. Yes, today a set of tires with rims can cost more than an entire car once cost. A great example of the power of inflation, yes?

Despite the cold and wind, outside is a good place to be.

Today was chilly and the wind drove the cold right through one's coat. Still, for the little kids on the street, it was still a good day for playing outside. If truth be told. there are not many days when it is not good to play outside. So grab a hoola-hoop and play.

Christmas cookie making in a time of COVID-19

Suburbs are not cold, impersonal places. Suburbs are filled with people. This should not come as a surprise. And people are gregarious. They like to get together. And they do.

Each fall some of the ladies on my court get together to do some Christmas baking. It was tough this year. COVID-19 made the ladies think twice. But their group is small, only three ladies, and all agreed to wear face masks. The province advises no more than four at such a gathering.

Despite the cold fall weather, windows were left open around the home and cool air moved constantly through the stove-hot kitchen. Much of the time, the ladies practised social distancing. And masks were worn constantly.

At the end of a long, private drive, another Hall's Mills home

There are not many homes in the Hall's Mills neighbourhood, and there seem to a fair number of empty lots, all this would work to make this an enviable place for one's new home if it were not for one thing: water. Flood water to be exact. Hall's Mills was established before there were municipal laws restricting the erecting of buildings on flood plain lands.

Existing buildings are permitted to remain and these buildings can benefit from minor renovations, alterations or additions as long as everything is done with the approval of council in cooperation with the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority.

Clearly modifying the homes in Hall's Mills is difficult. I understand some homes have been purchased by the city, rented out briefly and then demolished. It appears more than the nearby river is out to sweep Hall's Mills away. 

For all these reasons, a visit to Hall's Mills is a trip back in time. The homes appear very much as they did when built, sometime more than a hundred years ago.

Hall's Mills homes may go back to before 1900

Hall's Mills is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in London, located in the west end of the city, immediately to the south of the Thames River. There are not all that many homes in Hall's Mills and as homes come down it is very difficult to get permission to rebuild. This is flood plain.

When I worked at the paper, I had to enter one of the Hall's Mills homes while on an assignment. The home showed clear signs of flood damage. The floors thick, wood plank flooring was heaved and uneven. The owner told me the home had come through so many floods that they no longer knew the exact number of times the plane had been inundated.

The home pictured, is on a slope leading to land above the flood plain. But, this home may still be on the flood plain as the brick work at the bottom of the home has the look of something added to repair flood damage. If I ever get up the nerve, maybe next spring, I'll knock on the door and make some polite inquiries.

Hall's Mills on Thames River floodplain

It was almost two hundred years ago that Cyrenius Hall, born in New Hampshire in 1788, bought the small gristmill and dam across the Thames River. Despite his Yankee roots, Hall worked for the British forces during the War of 1812. Later, Hall added a distillery and tannery to the mill complex. Owing to his many enterprises, the area became known as Hall's Mills and the area still carries the name today. The mill and dam though are both now gone.

Hall sold the gristmill in 1848 and just in time as severe flooding along the Thames River damaged both the dam and the mill in 1851. The mill was repaired, changed hands a number of times and was slowly enlarged until by the early 1870s it was a full two storeys high and producing 100 bushels a day.

In 1883, the Thames River flooded again, severeing damaged the mill. It was repaired with improvements but a fire in 1907 closed the mill temporarily. Once more, it was rebuilt and operated for another couple of decades before be closed and dismantled. The remains were carried away in the Thames River flood of 1937.

COVID-19 has put so much on hold

There are a lot of activities. like this now suspended karate class, that have either been cancelled or severely curtailed thanks to COVID-19. And sadly, it may get worse before it gets better. 

The Province of Ontario has unveiled a new COVID-19 modelling that indicates the province could face 6,500 new cases daily by the middle of December if no new measures are taken. A vaccine cannot come soon enough.

Danger Lurks

It looks quiet, safe, inviting, a good place to stroll with your significant other. Well, it is and it isn't. Do you see the patched sidewalk concrete? The patches are there because the sidewalk heaves in the spring as the spring thaw arrives. And the heaved sidewalk can catch a foot, causing the walker to fall, and to fall hard on solid concrete.

The city knows of the danger and regularly grinds down the ridges. But each winter the sidewalk heaves again. Eventually the city rips out the damaged concrete and replaces it with a new, fresh, smooth sidewalk. Tripping threat eliminated, at least temporarily.

One is left to wonder why, in a city with relatively mild winters, this problem is so common. Does the city put in sidewalks on the cheap, scrimping on the a deep, solid foundation on which the concrete surface sits?

CC-130J flyovers on Remembrance Day

Newspaper photographers are rather amazing. They shoot fashion, food and sports, or course, but their core calling is shooting news. They document life. It is important to note, they make artsy decisions with every photo they take and sometimes, especially with news moments, these decisions must be made in an instant. As can be seen from this image by Mike Hensen of The London Free Press, the seasoned news shooter found the angle to tell the story. This is not always an easy feat.

Hensen's photo shows CC-130J Hercules from RCAF Trenton performing  flyover at the London, Ontario, Remembrance Day ceremony at the downtown cenotaph. See how Mike Hensen tweeted this image and another on Twitter.