Urban landscape owes a lot ot the banks

Opened in 1822, the Bank of Montreal is Canada's oldest bank. If it gets through the covid-19 financial disaster without touching its dividend, it will have gone 198 years without ever being forced to reduce its dividend. An enviable record but one that is not out-of-place in the Canadian banking world.

Buy a home and you may well find yourself dealing with one of Canada's big five banks. Housing and banking is a partnership with deep roots. But any big personal expense may send a Canadian to visit a bank. Banks are seen by many Canadians as almost a friend. Always there offering support in tough times.

But Canadian banks do more than just loan money. For instance, the Bank of Montreal has a very successful ETF investment arm. When a Canadian is born, the little baby may be given an RESP or Registered Education Savings Plan. During one's life, a Canadian may well save for their senior years by putting money aside in an RRSP or Registered Retirement Savings Plan. And when a Canadian dies, it may well be a bank that acts as the executor of the will.

Compared to U.S. banks, in size Canadian banks would be rated among the largest regional banks in the States. With a market capitalization of only $43.4B Cdn., about $32B U.S., BMO is dwarfed by the immense size of big U.S. banks like JP Morgan Chase with a market capitalization of about $336B U.S.

So, why are Canadian banks so successful? Many claim it is because the Canadian banks operate in a highly regulated environment which is much different than that found south of the border. On the surface all the regulations don't seem to work in the Canadian banks' favour. For instance, according to Morningstar the Canadian banks are forced by law to hold more risk on their balance sheets that their U.S. counterparts. But this, some argue, forces Canadian banks to act more fiscally responsibly.

The future of banking in Canada may be different than the history of banking in Canada. U.S. banks are trying to make inroads while Canadian banks are expanding south of the border. How these actions will play out is a big question with the role protectionism will play in the unfolding story an immense grey area.

Canada's banks are part of the fabric of the country

The Bank of Nova Scotia is the third largest Canadian bank with what many say is the largest international presence. The BNS has invested heavily in Latin America.  A move that many see as potentially a negative today.

Lots of Canadian seniors hold Canadian bank stock for the generous and dependable dividends. Those dividends can be very important in retirement. Today the BNS dividend is $3.60 annually resulting in a yield of 6.53% based on the present price of the BNS stock.

Founded in 1832, the BNS has gone 187 years without once missing or even reducing its dividend. In fact, the bank habitually does the reverse; it has increased its dividend in 43 of the last 45 years. Because of losses related to covid-19, it is feared investors will not see a dividend increase for three or four years. On the other hand, the bank promises  it will not cut its dividend. It says it will not break an almost two century long tradition.

Our largest park is now open

London's largest park, Springbank, is now welcoming visitors. The park is not crowded like some that one's reads about on the Internet. It's long trails are being used again but very lightly. Still, it is nice to see. The city is waking up; it is coming out of its covid-19-inflicted stupor.

This raccoon will get its water

I wish I had the pictures to tell the whole story. If you have ever wondered whether or not animals can engage in creative thinking, I have the answer: They can.

The urban raccoon was looking for a drink. The bird bath offered water but it was difficult to reach. After awkwardly drinking while hanging from the bowl for a few minutes, the raccoon climbed a nearby tree, climbed out on a limb over the bird bath and, when well out towards the end of the branch, it sagged and the raccoon hopped down to the bird bath and to the water

Years ago, in the late '60s, I there was a course at the University of Windsor that taught animals were incapable of true thinking. I raised an example of an action similar to this raccoon's, which, by climbing a tree and moving away from the goal (water in the bird bath), seems to be taking an approach requiring creative and not instinctive thinking.

The professor got angry and banished any more questions of that ilk. He used bluster to hide the fact that he had no ready answer: animals might well think and creatively too.

Scooters are for tricks

I believe it was built as a skateboard park but now it's used by young people with scooters. I had no idea that high-flying tricks could be done with scooters but clearly they can. And the nice thing about the park is that it naturally encourages social distancing. Only one athletic scooter trickster is allowed on a ramp at any one time. It's a covid-19 safe activity. Hmmm. Where did I put my scooter?

Keeping our urban world functioning

Keeping an urban region running smoothly is not just about repairing roads and bridges doing all on the taxpayers' dollar. Keeping our stock of residential structures sound is also important and this expense falls on the home owner, as it should.

Our garage door is now approaching 40-years-in-age. It is painted wood not aluminum like those available today. Its motor is new, replaces last fall, and its rollers and seals are replaced when necessary. Four rollers were replaced today and the seal that repels mice was repaired.

I spoke with the repairman from afar. Covid-19 rules of social distancing were in force. I trusted him to do a good job and the company he works for will email me a bill. I will pay it electronically.

It is not often considered but living in a city provides services like garage door maintenance at a very reasonable cost. The business is located no more than ten minutes or so from my home. Travel costs are minimal. Not so if one lives in the country. There are advantages to city living that often go unnoticed.

163 unbroken years of dividends

Canadian banks are amazing. TD Canada Trust has an unbroken record of dividend payments going all the way back to 1857. That's right it has not missed a dividend, or cut the payment, in 163 years. And TD Canada Trust is not the only Canadian bank with bragging rights in the dividend area.

Canada's oldest bank, the Bank of Montreal, hasn't missed a dividend since 1829. That's 191 years! The Bank of Nova Scotia has a record going back almost as far: 1832. The Royal Bank, Canada's biggest bank, can only brag about not missing a dividend payment since 1870 or a mere 150 years.

And Canada's banks are not the only one's with bragging rights when it comes to paying dividends. BCE, also known as Bell Canada, hasn't missed a dividend payment since 1881, which is just a few years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. (An invention that Canadians lay claim to.) The Bell Telephone Company of Canada was incorporated in 1880 and started paying investors a year later.

Will covid-19 put an end to these companies' unbroken run? Not if they can help it. The banks have already stated that if they must they will issue new equity to cover expenses. All banks are stating publicly hat their dividends are safe. And Bell, well it is not known as the stock for widows and orphans for no reason. It's dividend may well be safe, too.

One last note on TD Canada Trust. The TD stands for Toronto-Dominion. That was the name of the bank when I was a boy. The Canada Trust tacked onto the TD came about when TD merged with a London, Ontario, based competitor. Trust companies are not banks but a very smart Londoners figured out that this should not stop trust companies from competing with banks. Canada Trust did was such a great competitor that TD merged with the trust company a few decades ago.

When covid-19 was still off-shore but threatening to invade, I got out of the market. After the virus struck and the stock market crashed, I bought back in but this time I filled my portfolio with dividend paying, oh-so-trustworthy Canadian companies. Banks, utilities, communication businesses and pipelines make up a big part of my investments. I may lose money but my income should be relatively safe.

If these Canadian companies cut, or worse miss, a dividend then we have more to  worry about than the stock market.

Sadly, a covid-19 birthday is very memorable

The excitement began building late last year. Come May Isla would be seven. Mom would rent a room at a party palace. There would be games and pizza and friends, lots and lots of friends. At least once a week the little girl would ask how many weeks until my birthday. It was a long countdown made longer by the unrelenting anticipation.

And then—wham!—the coronavirus: Covid-19. It ended schooling for the year. It brought mom home. It put the grandparents off limits. And the much anticipated seventh birthday bash, it wouldn't happen.

Kids all over the world suffered the same fate when it came to their birthdays. In the covid-19 world, birthdays come and go quietly, not unnoticed but not loudly celebrated either. Isla's grandparents dropped off a gift. She opened it on the driveway. Her grandparents could not enter the home. It was off limits to them. The gift was a kitchen set. Isla quickly carried it into the home. 

No point waiting about. A covid-19 birthday does not have hugs. No kisses. No one, other than mom, dad and her older sister, can get closer to her than six feet. Isolation does not make for great birthdays. All around the world, thousands of kids are learning covid-19 birthdays may not be great but they will be memorable. Unforgettable, in fact.

It would be sad except for the fact that it was a seventh birthday. Seven! Think about it. Turning seven cannot be a bad thing. Never. And then there is that kitchen set.

At the moment, Detroit is infinitly far from London Ontario

When I was a boy in the '50s I lived in Windsor, Ontario. That's the city immediately across the Detroit River from the city of the same name. Crossing the border was easy. A ten-year-old could do it, and a ten-year-old did.

In the '60s and '70s Canadians living near the border, would visit Detroit. It was an exciting city to visit with a rich mix of restaurants, stores and shops, art gallery and a big-city zoo. Back then lots of Londoners made a day trip to the big city and as often as not the big city of choice was Detroit rather than Toronto.

This art work was done in those distant years by Detroit artist Ronald Scarborough. It looks at first glance like a signed and numbered lithograph. On careful inspection one realizes it is a very good half-tone print. This print is from a numbered run of 900 copies.

An unsophisticated Canadian visitor might think they were getting an incredible bargain when buying this Scarborough print for only $10 in a Detroit private gallery. They weren't but they were not getting ripped off either. The price was fair for a mass produced copy. As a halftone and not a lithograph one could say it came from a run of 900 copies and was not part of an edition of 900 prints.

Over the years the private galleries closed. Many of the restaurants closed. Big stores, like Hudson's and Kerr's, and small stores, too, closed. The trip from London to Detroit seemed two hours too long. Today the border at Detroit is closed. The covid-19 virus has put the once grand city of Detroit off limits. And yet, for many, the draw had already become very weak. Many crossed the border only to reach the Interstate and immediately leave the city without stopping to head quickly south.

My Ronald Scarborough print hangs in a front hallway, its white paper slowly turning yellow. The image, like the city it came from, has faded with the passing time.

Self-isolating is not all bad

You say no school to a parent and they tremble with anxiety. No schooling. No learning. How will the kids get by? Say no school to my granddaughters and they hear "hammock."

Although they may not be rushing about in the morning to catch the school bus and then spending all day in a crowded classroom, they are still doing some school work every day via a couple of home computers.

How much are they learning? That is an open question. Their parents are still anxious and the kids are still spending chunks of each spring day enjoying the hammock.

Neighbourhood asparagus stand is open

The land must be valuable. If it were growing new homes rather than shoots of asparagus, I'm sure the owners would be far wealthier.

The family growing and selling the asparagus has been doing this for decades. They've been doing it for so long that their crop is unique. It is an old hybrid no longer commonly grown in the province.

One year the Ontario asparagus crop failed. Rust. There was no locally grown asparagus in the grocery stores. But the little Greenland Asparagus stand had fresh, green spears for sale. Their crop was not the hybrid being attacked. It was not affected by the rust spores floating in the air everywhere in the province.

I worry about the little farm. Finding folk to pick the crop is getting harder and harder with each passing year. I fear that one year it will homes or stores filling the fields and not haphazard rows of an ancient asparagus hybrid.

Normal is looking more normal

The day is warm and London's biggest park, Springbank, had a sprinkling of people engaged in a number of activities: walking, jogging, skateboarding and biking.

Oh, the pandemic is still modifying behaviour. Most people seemed to be giving others a very wide berth. Social distancing was clearly still in force.

And yet, there was a back to normal  feel to the day that may not be bested until a vaccine is released.

Life goes on

I read an article in The Lancet, I believe, that said we should learn from this covid-19 pandemic. We have been taken down by our hubris.What is hubris? Excessive self-confidence. Pride in oneself bordering on defiance of the gods.

We are changing the planet. Modifying the only home we have and we are doing it in way that can only bring disaster. Covid-19 is a window on the future.

I can recall as a small boy worrying that the immense herds of wild animals found in Africa back in the early '50s were threatened. My mom thought I asked too many questions. I thought adults didn't ask enough.

This little wren is living a life modified by the fact it lives in close proximity to us. But, take us away and this little bird's life will go on. It appreciates us but it doesn't need us. But, in a very real sense, we don't fully appreciate nature and the wild world but we need it. And, we need to keep it rich and diverse and somewhat separate. We need to respect the others with whom we share this planet. Wildlife markets are not places of respect.

The lonely tulip. It was missed by the rabbits.

Off with their heads. Or at least, off with the blooms. One lonely tulip stands in my wife's garden. Left intact, so far, by the grazing rabbits. My guess is that come morning it too will be gone. Heck, even I can see it is probably quite delicious, cool in the evening air and covered with moist raindrops. I'm sure it is not only very pretty but yummy as well.

This blossom is a real pistil.

Our Japanese magnolia, which originated in China but that is another story, is finally in full bloom. It blooms a bit later than the the more common, at least in our neighbourhood, pink magnolia.

I love the look of the blossoms but it is the pistil and stamens at the core of the flower that I find most interesting. I understand all magnolias hide treasures like this deep inside the flowers. They all don't look like this but they are all spectacular, especially in close-up photos.

Should puzzles be sanitized? It's a puzzle.

As self-isolation continues, folks in my neighbourhood are facing the challenge of finding interesting things to do. One answer has been jigsaw puzzles. To this end, folk have been passing puzzles from home to home, mom to daughter and friend to friend. But one question keeps me awake at night; can jigsaw puzzle cats carry the coronavirus?

We're told to keep six-feet or more apart. We're told to wear a mask to protect others from our possibly contaminated breathe. We're told to sanitize this and to sanitize that. Should puzzles be sanitized, and if so, how? It would take a long time to wipe a thousand individual puzzle pieces.

It is a puzzle.

Gardening while self-isolating

Our neighbours are putting this time of self-isolation to good use. They are all out working on their yards: fertilizing, weed-pulling, raking and planting.

I was surprised to learn that many of the garden centres are now open. Oh one must line up to get in and the number allowed into the store or the yard is carefully monitored. And there is little spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment purchasing. You must get, get what you came for and leave. If not the folks waiting to enter would wait a long, long time.

It is beginning to look that our urban lifestyle has been changed by this virus. Until there is a vaccine, we may not be living as we did just a few short months ago.

A silver lining

There have been some bad incidents it's true but for the most part the covid-19 pandemic seems to have brought out the best in people. Young couples with families assisting older seniors missing their grandchildren. Shoppers lining up politely and waiting patiently to enter the store and do their shopping. Strollers keeping their distance but still finding it possible to smile and shout a "hello" and "stay safe."

Signs thanking those who are on the frontline working are common. Seeing the good that the pandemic is drawing out of people seems to be a silver lining in this terrible, global disaster.

Our neighbours love Turtle Cookies as a thank you gift

Our neighbours worry about us. I rather wish they'd stop. I'm going stir crazy. We run low on milk and before I can make my escape, a neighbour stops by and asks if we need anything from the store. I haven't been free of the home since late last week. Aaauuuggghhh!

And paying them is difficult. We are not rich but we aren't poor either. Our grocery bill has headed so far south, it may not break into the three digit range. Ridiculous but so caring. It all leaves me smiling (through my clenched teeth).

My wife has worked out a way of saying thank you. She leaves a bag of Turtle Cookies on the porch. The neighbours leave us our groceries and take the Turtle Cookies in return. When done the baked cookies have a round gob of melted dark chocolate on the top of the shell and hidden inside is a square of chocolate and caramel broken off a Hershey's Caramilk bar.

Growing food closer to home

Our food supple chain is breaking down because of the ongoing pressure of covid-19. Before the coronavirus we bought strawberries from California or from Mexico and thought nothing of it. Now, I see those berries with a new and growing appreciation of the complex delivery system that put those berries on my table.

It is mid May and the berries shown have been available since late April in a specialty grocery store in my neighbourhood. What is unique about these berries? Note where these berries are grown: Canada. These are locally grown, greenhouse berries. Despite the snow on the ground, there are locally grown berries on the store shelves.

When I was a boy strawberries were available for about three, maybe four, weeks in late spring. And that was it. When those weeks were gone, strawberries were gone. Not so today. There are now varieties of strawberries called ever-bearing that produce three or more crops annually.  Locally grown field berries are now available from late spring until very early fall.

Thanks to hothouse berries, the growing season is expanding again. Soon, it should be possible to eat locally grown strawberries from April through to early November. And if folk can be persuaded to eat frozen berries at other times, imported fresh berries may become a fading memory or a very expensive, hard-to-find treat.

Mother's Day Meant Too Close for Comfort

It was Mother's Day but getting gifts for mom and grandma was tough. With the gardening centre closed, the two little girls had to settle for gift cards. A bit impersonal but it was the best they could do.

Kisses and hugs for grandma were out. Masks were in. Just getting close enough to hand grandma an envelope seemed wrong. Social distancing demands 2 full metres.

The visit  didn't last long -- if you can call what occurred a visit. How we recover from the tension and the fear of our Covid-19 response is an open question. The self-isolation may end, but Grandma will still worry about the young girls and the girls will still worry about grandma. When will hugs return?

Another self-isolation dinner

Finding pictures is tough when one is self-isolating. The big moment of the day is often dinner. Since restaurants are off our menu, unless we want take out, my wife let's me play "Is this restaurant fare?"

I try my best but the dinners are rarely great. I grumble a lot about my failures. She tells me to lighten up; I'm too harsh a critic of my cooking, she says. Well tonight, thanks to a New York Times recipe, I hit the jackpot. Dinner tonight was restaurant fare. Now, my wife is telling me to stop gloating. She's never happy. Well, not quite true, she was happy with my oh-so-fine dinner and I'm gloating again.

A truly compact car spotted on the court today

A truly compact car was spotted on the court today. It was bright and warm and not weather than encouraged a family to stay indoors or at the least remain on their property. This little boy jumped in his little electric car and, with dad watching from the sidelines, he headed off for some laps on the court.

Rabbits are picky eaters; who'd have thought.

My wife has some flowers blooming in her garden. What a wonderful surprise. Nothing kept the rabbits away from the tulips but apparently primula doesn't need protection from the little furry cuties. Rabbits, we have learned, are not attracted to primula. What a delightful surprise.

Photo of German Cars Recalls French Flag. Oops!

It was time for the winter tires to be switched for the the warm weather rubber. But, because of covid-19, it had to be put off until the first of May.

Today was the day. I drove down to the dealer and found the door closed, locked. A note on the door. Knock, it said.

My service advisor came to the door, I backed up and he came out, arm out-stretched. I tossed him my keys and he took them, told me to come back in an hour and turned and walked away. No customers allowed inside.

I killed the hour looking at cars, new cars, used cars, VWs and Audis. The Audi R8 convertible at $254,000 looked nice but a bit too much car for me. I'd feel guilty behind the wheel. I'd also feel tinges of guilt when I stiffed VW for the car payments.

When the hour was up, I picked up my aging Jetta. Its black paint sparkled. The service department washes every car passing through. I'm not sure everyone can see it but when I look at that car I see a pleasing patina of affordability and I like that look.