If you're seven, you don't travel far for an adventure

My seven-year-old granddaughter likes to go on adventures. You might think adventures are hard to come by in suburbia. Nope. Not if you're seven.

Many suburban streets are linked by pathways. These offer pedestrians a shorter route from street to street when compared to the route cars must take.

At dusk these pathways get quite shadowy as there are often few or even no streetlights. It is at this hour that the pathways become pathways to an adventure. Last night we made the journey one way but it was simply too dark for returning without having one's heart pound right out of one's chest. We took the sidewalk home.

A new, treeless subdivision doesn't stay new or treeless

It doesn't seem all that long ago that my subdivision was a large piece of bare land above a recently closed gravel pit. First came the roads, then the homes but now the area is filled with many tall trees. I look around and realize that my subdivision has matured. Many of the clichés once used to describe it no longer apply.

My lily growers have retired.

I took my granddaughters to the lily gardens. The gardens were gone. The place had closed. The couple who had run the operation for decades had retired. I should not have been surprised but I was. I had check the Internet before making promises to the girls but the Internet can be so out-of-date.

I'm now looking for another place with a great selection of lilies. The garden supply places rarely have more than a dozen choices. My old supplier had more than a hundred and some were awfully unique and truly beautiful.

Oh well, nothing lasts forever.

Horner Lilies: a local supplier of lilies and beauty

If you want lilies, the place to go in the London area is Horner Lilies on the edge of town near suburban Thorndale. Run by the Horner family, there are numerous gardens with more than a hundred different kinds of lilies.

I bought my lilies there and will be going back tomorrow to order some more. I'm taking my granddaughters and encouraging them to pick out a couple each that they can plan and we can all enjoy.

Customers wander the grounds, check out the blooms while noting note of the ones they like the best. On leaving, one orders the plants one wants and then picks up the bulbs ordered come fall.

Inspired by Sheila

I have an artist friend who loves to do paintings of flowers. She doesn't just paint the gorgeous blossoms in fully bloom but she tells the life story of blooms. Look carefully and you will find new buds, growing buds, opening buds, full blooms (often featured) and finally blooms with their petals withered, dead.

When shooting this picture of lilies, which were locally grown and sold by a man and his wife who specialize in growing gorgeous lilies, I included more than I would have if I had not been influenced by my friend and her storytelling approach to flower art.

Capturing action easier today

Years ago I taught up-and-coming journalists how to shoot pictures. Originally the course used film cameras and all the technical stuff was important. With film one didn't know that one had missed the picture until hours after the fact. By the time the film was processed and an image pulled, it was too late for a reshoot in most cases.

Photographers, dependable shooters, were important back then and they were paid well for their talents and technical expertise. Today things are different.

The last time I taught a photo class, I think the group was very disappointed. I was given very little time to teach and so zeroed in on enthusiasm. Journalists no longer had to expend oodles of energy learning the photographic ropes before going out and capturing some damn fine images.

Cameras today, even relatively inexpensive ones like my old Fuji, are capable of grabbing good action when set to automatic. Point and shoot.

Today, where you point your camera is the big deciding factor. To be honest, photography was always about the image—where you pointed your camera—but the technical stuff all too often got in the way.

Today, you can have fun first and learn the technical stuff on the fly. I don't think the budding journalists were impressed. When it came to taking pictures, they did not want to be told to think.

I used to call reporters who took pictures "reluctant." They saw themselves as story tellers and they told their stories with words not with pictures. I wonder if this is changing as newsrooms shrink and staff numbers tighten.

And it's all safer than the traditional play equipment

Traditional playground equipment, such as a swing with a seat made with a heavy, steel-capped wooden plank, is out. Adventure playgrounds pushed the swings, tall slides and simple teeter-totters into the retirement. But then, the injuries mounted and adventure playgrounds were phased out. Totally safe equipment then came into vogue. Boring. And so today, designers are taking another crack at coming up with the ultimate playground equipment.

I have to admit to having had reservations about a lot of the new stuff filling London parks. But, the  more I travel about the city with my granddaughters, the more enthused I am getting. I'll have to go back to last night's park for pictures. It had the weirdest take on a slide ever. It was the reason my granddaughters took me there.

And the equipment comes from all over the world. So far, I've noted stuff from Big Toys of Chattanooga, Tennessee and HAGS of the U.K.

Big Toys: That's the company name and product

Some of the new playground equipment in London is quite imaginative. Now that the playgrounds are open around the city, my granddaughters and I are touring the burg looking for unique installations. The playground pictured features equipment from Big Toys of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

My granddaughters are playing on the Rock 'n Cross, a combination of a multi-rider teeter-totter with a dynamic overhead challenge. Hey, that's the company's description, not mine. I asked my youngest granddaughter how she liked it. "Not too much," she said. She found it a little frightening. The older girl was more positive. The big, high loop with equally-spaced handholds is one of the few monkey bar type installations she can still use. At ten, she now finds her feet drag on the ground most of the time. She also agreed with the company that the movement added an extra challenge.

I cannot help but wonder, what does a piece of equipment like this cost the city? And how long will it last? And are replacement parts easily available? Are the parts expensive? I noticed plastic collars on some of the equipment had grown brittle with time and cracked and chipped.

I'd like to see some research on these types of fancy playground "toys." I'm not convinced that some of these things are worth the cost. The city might be able to buy more equipment and keep more kids occupied if they went with equipment that was a lot less complex.

The wading pool has a long history. Surprising!

The short, twin pillars framing the sidewalk bear a clue to their origin. The one on the left says, "Rotary Club 1928." The one on the right reads "Service Above Self." But why were these placed in this location in Springbank Park some 90 or so years ago? The answer is right there before one's eyes.

The Rotary Club of London donated the funds to build the original Springbank Wading Pool in 1928. Who'd have known the little pool had such a history?

The urban texture is richer today

When I was a boy a lot of the urban landscape was better. For instance, it was easier to get around town, around the county and around the province without a car. We had buses and trolleys in the city, for outside town we had intercity buses and we had frequent passenger trains run by not one but two railroads.

But when it came to food, the old urban landscape of the late '40s and early '50s was pretty dull. If we got a crusty loaf  of white, enriched bread from the bakery, we had something special.

Today my city and my province is no longer as dull. We have oodles of different ethnic groups and with their arrival came new, interesting foods The other night I made my wife a rice and vegetable dish spiced with harissa. My granddaughters call harissa the North African curry.

And the breads that are available today puts a big smile on my face. I've been known to go to the store for some lettuce and come home with five loaves of bread—all different. Today I resisted. I brought home just one extra load: an olive and parmesan focaccia loaf.

Focaccia is a flat, oven-baked, Italian bread similar in style and texture to pizza dough. Focaccia can be served with meals or, and this is one is a favourite, it can be used to make wonderful sandwiches.

There's more to cities than bricks and mortar. There are the residents of the city. And a rich mix of residents makes for a richer, more diverse, more interesting and exciting place to live.

New cable laid by new Canadians/

New cable is being run in my neighbourhood. It is being installed by a crew from Rogers, the telephone and Internet provider. I was curious and tried asking the installers some questions. I didn't get a straight answer from anyone of them and one admitted he didn't speak English and didn't understand what I was asking.

I don't mind that the crew seemed more comfortable talking among themselves in what I assume was Spanish. If I moved to another country, I don't think I'd pick up a new language easily. I'd speak English at every opportunity. I'm just curious.

In Ontario, we take advantage of workers from Central America to pick many of our crops. The hot house area in the far south of the province has a big problem with COVID-19 being transmitted from worker to worker because of the cramped living arrangements that they are given. Some of the farm workers have actually died from the virus.

Are we now bringing in workers from Central America to lay our Internet cable? I'd call around but I don't want to get these fellows in any trouble. Still, this has left me puzzled.

It took time and the London Health Sciences Centre to reach 73

I've reached the ripe, old age of 73. I have now enjoyed all the years promised by God in the Bible. It wasn't easy getting here. About 18 years ago it took a talented surgeon at the controls of a Da Vinci medical robot to repair my leaking mitral valve in my heart. The small, robot "hands" only needed a small entry incision to gain access to my heart. No breastbone splitting for me.

An interesting mix of drugs keep my TIAs in check while not aggravating my micro-bleeding in the brain.

And a pacemaker/ICD unit keeps my heart beating despite my having a one hundred percent heart block. I am now on my second unit.

My granddaughters call me a cyborg as I have both natural and mechanical body parts working together to keep me alive. When we go biking, my inboard computer speeds up my heart and when I lie down at night my pacemaker senses this and goes into sleep mode. My heart rate drops to 50 bpm.

I have been in an American hospital and it was excellent. I cannot say enough good things about the care I received while in Marin General outside San Francisco. That said, I prefer the hospitals here in London. Why? Cost. After just a bit more than a day of care in the U.S. I faced a hospital bill of about $40,000 Canadian. My insurance company tried claiming I was not covered as my heart problem was a pre-existing condition. I was hounded by collection agencies for eight months or so.

In Canada, in London, my medical costs are covered by the government plan. There is no worry about pre-existing conditions or of being dropped from coverage for any reason. And so far the medical care has been excellent. Hey, I'm still here!

Tornado Warning!

Judy and I got two phone calls today from Environment Canada. These calls were to inform us that a tornado warning was in effect for our area. We were advised to head for our basement and stay well clear of windows.

Judy took the advice. Me? I grabbed my camera. The clouds were certainly threatening and the wind got awfully high. It was the wall of water that drove me off the street and into the basement with my wife. I watched the rain approaching and when it hit, it engulfed me, soaked my clothing and caused me to flee for cover.

Was there a tornado? Not that I know of. We did get a third telephone call while hunkered down in the basement. It was the all clear signal. With that the excitement drained from the moment, and not a moment too soon for my wife.

The play areas are open!

Yes, the yellow caution ribbons are gone. Playground equipment out-of-bounds for months is again available to children in London neighbourhoods. And not a minute too soon I might add. Kids need exercise.

Balancing the threat of COVID-19 with the healthy promise of ample outdoor exercise was tough. I'm not sure the right balance was struck but we may have to weigh our options again at some point in the future. This viral battle is not over.

London is entering stage three of the reopening procedure.

People still visited the parks but in small groups or even alone. But today the province declared London to be in Stage Three of the reopening process. Soon small groups will being gathering again in the parks. Large parties, groups of up to fifty will now be allowed. Barbecues and big picnics will soon be common again.

The yellow caution ribbons are being removed from the park equipment and restaurants are now allowed to serve diners inside, and not just on the patio, as long as some degree of social distancing is being observed. Kids will be back in the pools and back using the numerous splash pads found throughout the city.

Parks are coming back to life

The parks in London, Ontario, are slowly filling, life returns, but the activities one sees are heavily influenced by the need to social distance.

Does tumbling, cascading grass make a picture?

The rain was heavy, the wind was strong and the grass growing tall in the wide ledge on the wall, arced downward under the pressure. 

I saw it and thought picture. Others saw it and thought wind-damaged grass. 

Others thought absolutely nothing. 

Hmmm. Some folk have no poetry in their souls. 😊

What DO we the public really know about COVID-19?

The largest neighbourhood park now has a seven or eight foot fence blocking access. Why? I've read reports stating that fomites -- contaminated surfaces -- are not an important source of COVID-19 transmission. Furthermore, bright sunlight and high heat, according to some respected sources, can quickly eliminate the viability of t he virus.

Of course, it is possible that there are so few COVID-19 patients who are known to have caught the virus from a contaminated surface because such a good job has been done at eliminating this threat from our lives. Playgrounds taped off, credit card stations wrapped in clear plastic which is wiped after every use and the list goes on.

After communicating with a chap on this very site, I decided to determine just what I did and didn't know when it comes to COVID-19. I'm certain masks work. I found lots of support in medical journals going back more than a decade.

I'm also certain that COVID-19 is not just like the flu. But there are some great similarities and the flu is a lot more dangerous than many like to believe. There's a reason this old geezer with a failing heart always gets his flu shot. He knows the flu poses a serious health threat to him and his wife. Both diseases leave behind a lot of dead seniors.

The big difference between the flu and COVID-19 is that COVID-19 leaves behind a lot more dead seniors. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, "Doctors and scientists are working to estimate the mortality rate of COVID-19, but at present, it is thought to be substantially higher than that of most strains of the flu. Link: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-disease-2019-vs-the-flu

Note the words, "at present" and "thought to be." By the time I got to the second thing I was sure of, I was beginning to rely on fudging words. I never got to a third item for my list. 

This is a new viral threat. It should come as no surprise that nouveau means there are big gaps in our knowledge. At this time I will wear my mask and hope others do the same, I'll keep my distance, wash my hands and wash and wipe surfaces where possible. I'll follow the suggestions of those in authority and hope, and pray, they are right as they modify their actions based on the latest knowledge.

And I understand that that knowledge indicates we might, just might, open playgrounds to children. Enforced inactivity may be more dangerous to developing children than the threat posed by fomites found in playgrounds. What demanded a fence yesterday may be open to all come tomorrow.

A Segway spotted in the neighbourhood

I didn't know these were still in production, but, according to the young man spotted using one in the neighbourhood, they are! He was canvasing the neighbourhood for a charity and using the Segway to cover more distance than would be possible doing this on foot.

I googled Segway and found: Segway Personal Transporter. Was this a company ahead of its time?

Not a stairway to heaven

Trees, unlike parrots, can be dead, deceased, bereft of life, resting in peace and yet still be full of activity—the life of others, such as birds, insects and fungus animate the dead structure. And so, as the sign explains, the London parks department has trimmed the dead tree on the far left of all large, dangerous branches and has left the massive dead stump to provide wildlife with a habitat in progress.

Behind the tree can be seen the barricaded entrance to a fine staircase leading from the park to the Thames River. It seems the staircase, like the tree, had become a wildlife habitat full of insects and general rot. Unlike the tree it will soon be removed.

At some point, nature will replace the dead tree. It appears, unless the city changes its mind, the once well-used bridge will disappear and never return. Staircases don't grow like trees, one might say.

Long Lens or Lack of Social Distancing?

Are these bathers, enjoying the summer-warm water of Lake Erie, actually as close as this appears? Does this photo show the visual foreshortening effect so commonly encountered when using a long lens or does this image accurately depict a lack of social distancing?

Answer: it's a little bit of both.

Anchored out and yet social distancing not assured

Sunday, my wife and I took a quick trip to Port Stanley. We had to get out of the house. The four walls were closing in.

We found a beach on the east side of the village that we had never visited before. There were lakefront cottages, a popular beach, parking and small yachts anchored immediately off shore. Some of the boats were rafted together, giving the appearance of a breakdown in social distancing. Without actually chatting with the folk on the boats, it's impossible to say whether or not the recreational sailors were thumbing their noses at the guidelines or not.

Yes, London, Ontario, is located on the Thames River.

Years ago I wrote a column for the local paper, The London Free Press. The column was called Celebrate the Thames. At that time, I was told the following story by a local historian who claimed that contrary to popular mythology, a mythology backed up with lots of solid quotes from Simcoe himself, London is NOT the capital of the province because of the Thames River. The fellow was clearly swimming upstream, swimming against the current of public opinion.) 

You see, Londoners believe Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe wanted the capital of Upper Canada to be established at the Forks of the Thames River. And at one point, Simcoe did want this. He formed this dream while still in England, encouraged by maps that indicated the Thames was a mighty river.

Simcoe thought the headwaters of the river ended in the Halton Hills northwest of present day Toronto. But arriving in the area he discovered this was not true. Nor was the river particularly mighty. 

Now, Simcoe fought openly with his boss Lord Dorchester on many matters. But when it came to Simcoe's plans for a capital at the forks, Simcoe quickly and quietly acquiesced to Lord Dorchester and Toronto became the capital. 

The historian believed that Simcoe realized he had been out of touch when it comes to reality and the little, shallow-in-the-summer river. Today the Back to the River folk carry on the tradition of seeing myth rather than reality when it comes to the river. For instance, the group confused a reservoir behind a dam with a river.

Back to the River has become a bit of an ironic name for the group now that the Springbank Dam is out of commission and will likely never be rebuilt. Their grandiose dream for the Forks of the Thames may have gone with the disappearance of the working dam.

Shaw's IS the Home of Ice Cream

Established in 1948, Shaw's is the Home of Ice Cream. Still! This is amazing as Shaw's got out of the direct-to-customer retail dairy-treats business 19 years ago. The operation on the main highway between London and St. Thomas was sold in 2001 to three enterprising sisters who still run the business today.

The girls know how to run a successful operation. They have focused on quality. No fancy digs for them. Just great, traditional ice cream in oodles of flavours. When it comes to shakes, cones and sundaes made with traditional hard ice cream there's not a lot of competition in this area. The two places offering this product are located far enough apart that they do not compete directly. Where they do compete is in the quality arena. And both deliver wonderful, tasty ice cream-based products.

My granddaughters and I like to give our business to both operations.

For ice cream, stand here. Cones mark the spot.

My wife and I escaped the four-walls of our home and headed for the beach, for Port Stanley about forty minutes south of the city on Lake Erie.

On our way home, we stopped at Shaw's Home of Ice Cream. Shaw's has been in the same location since 1948 but it present owners, three sisters, only date from 2001. Today Shaw's sells more than 45 flavours of hard ice cream made at its nearby St. Thomas plant.

Like every other business, Shaw's has marked where one must stand. At Shaw's, ice cream cones mark the spot for social distancing. We ordered two cones. I got pistachio almond and my wife had butterscotch ripple.

A home that is remarkable because it is unremarkable

Walking about my friend's neighbourhood in Stratford, I was struck by the beautiful, oh-so-tidy, heritage homes. I thought they were remarkable: so beautiful, so well-maintained, so clearly loved. And then I realized that what truly made them remarkable was how unremarkable these homes are in much of Canada. Many Canadians live this way and think almost nothing of it.

I was going to say "think nothing of it," but that wouldn't be true. I don't think most of us truly appreciate how lucky we are but we do have an inkling.

Social distancing wildlife

You couldn't get a picture showing all the ducks as there were trees blocking the view, but there were dozens of duck sitting along the river bank and they were all nicely spaced apart. My wife thought it looked like duck-style social distancing. I thought they needed a few more feet of separation and masks but then they are just geese. What can one expect?

The Stratford Normal School

When my wife realized we were looking at the Stratford Normal School, she exclaimed, "That's the school your mom attended, Ken!" My mother, born in the early years of the last century, was one of almost 14,000 students who went on to graduate from the Stratford Normal School. After graduating, my mother landed a position teaching in the far eastern end of the province where she met her future husband, my dad.

This is what the Ontario Heritage Trust has to say about the structure:

In the 1900s, concerns about the quality of rural education prompted the Ontario government to build four new Normal Schools to increase the supply of qualified teachers in the province. The Stratford Normal School prepared its students for conditions in the rural schools that employed most new teachers. It is the only one of the Normal Schools from its era to survive without substantial alteration.

For more pictures and a bit more information read the posting on Canada's Historic Places.

Backyards can make a personal statement

Homes encourage creativity, at least when ownership falls into the right, read creative, hands. I learned this early in life when some art school friends moved into a lovely old mansion in the Boston Edison District of Detroit. Now, I must admit that place was somewhat unique but all homes hold promise.

The other day I spent some time in the oh-so-small backyard of a friend and artist in Stratford. This person has spent a lot of time traveling, especially in Italy. Today she has a little bit of Italy behind her home.

What a wonderful space in which to chat and share a meal with friends. (As a former staff photographer for the local paper, I can tell you that surprising backyards are more common that you might think. The creative use of backyard space is not restricted to the backyards of artists.)

Canada Day!

Today, July 1st, is Canada Day. A good day to post the striking sculpture by Walter Allward created in remembrance of those who fought, many dying, in the First World War.

Allward is also the sculpture who did the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in Vimy, France. He completed the Stratford Cenotaph in 1922 before heading to Vimy to complete his most famous commission.

Stratford is but one of only two small Ontario towns with an Allward-designed war memorial. Often, such memorials feature a famous general. Today, it's clear depicting an historical figure can be fraught with cultural traps.

Allward sidestepped the danger of depicting a person no longer worthy of the honour. The figures on the Stratford cenotaph are symbolic, representing the forces of darkness and the forces of good.

There's a plaque to a long dead Canadian at the site but it's not there in memory of a soldier. The plaque honours Allward by providing details surrounding his life. The late sculptor has become a revered Canadian artist with a large and lasting body of respected work still to be found about the province.