Strathroy City Hall almost hits century mark

 

The current town hall in Strathroy, Ontario  is the fourth for the town. This most recent city hall building was erected in 1928 at a cost of $34, 323. And that was not even a depression number. Makes one wonder what it would have cost if built just four years later.

When its was built, the architectural style was described as combining beauty with utility, reminiscent of a New England style of architecture not found elsewhere in the province. Personally, I think it is no where near as grand as the city halls found in New England and elsewhere in the States.

On the other hand, it does seem to have met the utility demands, being it is still in use today. In a few short years it will be a hundred years old and getting a century of use from any municipal building is awfully good.

Today it's just another home

A photographer with whom I once worked at the daily newspaper in London retired to Strathroy. This beautiful home is located just a few doors down from where my friend lives. I took this picture from my friend's driveway.

It didn't take much searching to discover something on the Web about this large, striking home. The following is from The Strathroy Historical Society Facebook site.

This stately mansion was built by Cyris Bixel in 1889. Cyris moved to Canada from Germany with his father, Matthew and the rest of the Bixel family in 1874. On moving to Strathroy, the Bixels founded the Bixel Brewery and from the size of the home Cyris built it is clear that the brewery was a success.

The home originally had 14 “very large” rooms. There was a drawing room, sitting room, dining room, kitchen, Pantry, china and cutlery room, conservatory, library, front foyer, two bedrooms, and a servant’s bedroom plus two bathrooms. It is surprising that such a large home originally  had only three bedrooms.

After Cyris died in 1895, his wife Emily married Duncan Campbell Ross who went on to become a member of Parliament for the area. In 1922 when Ross was made an Elgin County court judge, he and Emily moved from the grand home but the mansion stayed in the family until 1957. When the place was sold in 1957, the new owners made some changes to home's layout. For instance, the home gained an additional bedroom.

Practical, maybe, but no architectural gem

The new post office in Strathroy looks like so many other post offices in Ontario. The new post office is as ordinary and plain as the former post office was extraordinary and beautiful. The old post office was an architectural gem.

That said, I have had more packages of goods purchased online mailed to me in the past two years than I had in all the previous years of my life. Until relatively recently, other than at Christmas, I simply never mailed a package nor had one mailed to me. I can understand why Canada Post closed so many of its offices both large and small.

But, maybe Canada Post moved too fast. Today I get shirts sent to me directly from L.L. Bean and when I bought a replacement computer the other day I had it mailed to me from the Hewlett Packard offices in Mississauga, outside Toronto, and using Canada Post software I tracked its progress as it wended its way to my home over the course of two days.

I have never used Amazon and I rarely use Fed Ex. When I buy stuff online it usually comes via Canada Post. I wonder if the newish, smaller Canada Post offices will prove to be too small for the increased traffic.

The Old Strathroy Post Office

 

The old Strathroy post office was built in 1889. Although there is still a post office in town, and close to the old one as a matter of fact, the heritage post office with its visually wonderful clock tower is now a restaurant and hotel with eight luxury suites. You can read about it and see more pictures by clicking the LINK.

With covid-19 making shopping in person impossible at times, I am finding I have had to buy a lot online and have it delivered using, you guessed it, the post office. Seems funny that as postal demands increase, the post offices we are left using are much smaller and less spacious than the original post offices that dotted the province. 

If the original, large post offices had been maintained, it is quite possible the old, heritage buildings would be finding their second wind today.

Tape stops caterpillars

 

Masking tape girdles many trees in Southwestern Ontario. It seems the gypsy moth caterpillars are particularly abundant this year. According to many authorities, such as the experts at the University of Wisconsin/Madison, used correctly, bands of tape can reduce the number of caterpillars attacking residential trees.

The university claims homeowners can reduce the number of gypsy moth caterpillars in invading a homeowner's trees by putting up barrier bands of masking tape before the caterpillars start to hatch in mid-May. Caterpillars crawling up the trees get mired down in the tape bands coated with petroleum jelly and die. The bands also keep caterpillars from migrating to other trees or from climbing back up if they fall off the tree (surprisingly common!).

Windmills are big in Ontario

 

From some angles, the electricity generating windmills on the edge of the new subdivision in Strathroy, Ontario, seem to visually dominate the neighbourhood. Under some weather conditions it would not be surprising if the sound of windmills also made the windmills impossible to ignore. Some people contend the noise emitted from these huge installations can be quite irritating, especially to those used to the quiet of the countryside.

But it is not only working windmills that are raising questions. The huge, fiberglass blades are especially difficult to recycle when they are decommissioned on reaching the end of their 25-year
working lives. Disposing of them in a green manner is a problem. Burying them isn't green and
recycling poses s number of problems.

In Rotterdam the problem has been put off for another day as retired blades are put to new, very imaginative, uses. 

The Dutch city has a 1,200sq m children's playground called Wikado, with a slide tower, tunnels, ramps, and slides made from five discarded wind turbine blades.

Ontario's Largest Chain of Cannabis Stores

 

I don't smoke. No cigarettes or other stuff for me. So, after taking a picture of the True North Cannabis Company store in Strathroy, about twenty minutes west of London, I searched the Internet to learn more and I did learn more.The store is part of chain of recreational cannabis retailers.

Apparently four stores opened in March alone, some forty more stores are in the planning stage and the owners of the chain are dreaming of more. One has to wonder what these folk are smoking.

For a 2nd year Victoria Day fireworks cancelled

 

Before the covid-19 pandemic brought almost everything to a grinding halt, the Fanshawe Optimist Club of North London teamed with the Fanshawe Conservation Area to present one of the largest fireworks displays in Southwestern Ontario. 

Traditionally the Victoria Day event gets underway at dusk. This year, with the province of Ontario still in lock-down mode, the fireworks didn't get underway at all.

If you were wondering what Victoria Day celebrates, the answer is right there in the name itself: the birth of Queen Victoria who was born on May 24 back in 1819. In the middle of her reign Victoria Day was declared a holiday by the Canadian federal government in 1845. After the Queen's death in 1901 Canada’s parliament officially declared the holiday Victoria Day. Today the birthday celebration/holiday is only celebrated in Canada and Scotland.

 
Oh, I have a confession, my dramatic shot is complements of Photoshop. I put together a number of shots from a Fanshawe fireworks display from some years ago.

Pick-up and delivery only

 

Covid-19 has put a lot of stores under stress, especially those selling non-essential goods. Neither the Canadian nor provincial government see toy stores as place selling essential goods. Young children with birthdays would dispute this decision as well as a lot of parents.

Toys R Us and its companion store Babies R Us are among the stores that can only move merchandise by mail or by bringing the customer's purchase to the customer's car parked in a designated spot in front of the store. 

Find the toy online, order it and pay for it using PayPal, a credit card or a debit card and the product will be delivered within seven days. No charge for delivery. Not quick enough? If the product is in stock in the local store, customers can pick up their purchase that day. 

Even though many folk in Ontario have now been had the first of their two vaccinations, and the men bringing the goods to the parked cars are most likely also vaccinated, plus the entire process takes place outside, masks are worn by both the store employees and by the customers waiting patiently in their cars.

It's funny. Wearing masks has become so much an expected part of normal interactions between people that continuing to wear masks just seems the right thing to do.

Covid-19 benefited some workers

 

Not everyone suffered financially when covid-19 trimmed the economy, closing hotels and shuttering restaurants without a solid take-out business. Vacations cost money. Dining out is expensive. Even simply shopping for needed day to day stuff like clothing, became next to impossible during the severest covid-19 shutdowns.

So, who did well during these tough times? Home improvement companies. Oh, at first the jobs dried up but that didn't last. After a few months, Canadians cooped up in their homes but still managing to work full-time, found themselves flush with unspent money. Soon Canadians were starting home reno projects put on pause because of covid-19 and even starting some that had not been planned at all.

Canadians are not alone. American home owners are reportedly also spending more than ever on their homes. The reno business made a great recovery in 2020 but in 2021 it has grown red hot. Need a new front door? Order it today and it will be installed some months in the future.

The pandemic has meant big business for the home improvement business.

Does this look like dinner to a rabbit?

Flower gardens and rabbits don't get along, at least from the viewpoint of the gardener. In fact, rabbits can be a problem for home owners and their plants. Period. The rabbits girdle young trees during the winter, removing all the bark circling the bottom of a small, growing tree. Hostas appear to be delicious. Rabbits will eat budding hostas right to the ground and the rabbits will come back for seconds as the hostas attempt to recover.

Seeking a solution, some neighbours have place live traps around their property. Trapped rabbits are taken for long car rides and released miles some miles away deep in farm country. No idea how the farmers feel about this solution.

Me, I'm looking at colourful foliage plants. I've noticed that my palace purple, also known as coral bells, seems to be ignored by the rabbits, groundhogs and other wildlife paying a short visit to my yard. The plant at the top of the post was sighted in a local garden centre. Although I didn't buy it, I did pick up some other plants sporting very colourful foliage. Now, to see if these plants attract or deter the hungry wildlife stopping by for a quick snack.

There's a close bond between Canada and the Netherlands

The tulip gardens in Springbank Park and the new benches are but symbols of the close bond that has existed between Canada and the Netherlands since the Second World War.

Veterans Affairs Canada posted the following: "The Dutch people have never forgotten our brave soldiers’ efforts to free their country after years of harsh German occupation during the Second World War." 

More than 6,000 Canadian soldiers were killed, wounded or taken prisoner fighting to liberate the Netherlands.

The Liberation of the Netherlands (LINK)

Another gift to London from the Dutch

Apparently, Canadian soldiers, especially a detachment from London, Ontario, played a big role in the liberation of the Netherlands at the end of the Second World War in 1945. Fully 76 years after the event, the Dutch Canadian Society of London and District is still finding ways to say thank you.

I believe the tulip beds in Springbank were a gift from the Dutch Canadian group. When the tulips are in bloom each spring, many Londoners make a point of stopping by the park to check out the colourful display.

This year there are benches especially designed for the tulip bed area in the park. A neighbour thought so much of the pretty benches that she stopped by my home to tell me about them. Tomorrow I'll run two images of the benches.

The amount of new housing is amazing

 

London is growing. And London is not alone. Pick a town in southwestern Ontario and you will find a town growing by, as they say, leaps and bounds. And that amazing growth rate extends right across North America.

As farmland disappears under new housing and all that accompanies that growth -- streets, shopping districts, schools and even parks -- one must ask, how long can this pace be maintained?

Many of us, old enough to recall peach orchards and other crops now gone or disappearing from the province, worry about what crop or crops will be eliminated next. Peaches, once grown but on the edge of town and canned in one of the numerous canning plants that once dotted the countryside, now come from Greece or Australia.

A unique townhouse development

 

This townhouse complex is somewhat unique in London. I can't say I'm familiar with the whole city but I personally do not know of another neighbourhood quite like this one. With tree floors, these places are not designed with seniors in mind. Too many stairs. And the single car garages further restrict the market that these units appeal to.

What these places do share with many other recent developments in London is that these are clearly high density.

Yard decoration

This was a car stopper. Seeing this concrete column with a sculpture of a horse trying to squeeze its way out, had me braking to a stop in order to take a closer look. I immediately saw it was not alone. There were possible a dozen other columns, all with realistic sculptures poking out.

These were clearly lawn ornaments -- somewhat sophisticated lawn ornaments. These were not the usual garden gnomes with pointed hats. One column I could understand. A couple, one on each side of the driveway might work. But a dozen scattered about the yard seemed a little much. Was this a display of items for sale? If it was, was this legal in a residential neighbourhood?

Higher Density Development

 

Just a few short years ago, this was rich farmland. Some of the best in Canada thanks to the long, for Canada, growing season. Now, it's an expanding Northwest London suburb. The apartments and the townhouses raise the overall density per square kilometre of the area to the density  demanded today by city planners.

Dandelions are going to seed

It seems winter just left. It did. And the plants began to flower just the other day. Again, they did. And now, the flowers, like the dandelions in almost everyone's lawn, are going to seed. Talk about speedy, focused action. 

Maybe, just maybe, it is time to think of dandelions as food, salad greens, and not as weeds. If you can't kill 'em, maybe the answer is eat 'em. Or, if you are into dandelion wine, maybe we should drink 'em.

Dandelions are numerous and poison-free

Dandelions were once hated. Parks and other open, grass-covered spaces were almost devoid of the bright yellow flowers. Today dandelions are everywhere. Parks are filled with thousands and thousands of the bright, yellow blooms. Yet, for the most part, dandelions are still hated.

So, what changed to make the weed so common? The loss of poison control  of weeds. Poisons are out today and so dandelions are enjoying a de facto welcome. In Ontario, 2-4-D is essentially illegal. It is no longer used in parks or sold in stores. Round-up is also difficult to come by in Ontario although it is legal for some purposes.

When I was kid, I was warned not to pick the dandelions growing in the park. They might be contaminated with herbicide. I guess this is one other thing that has changed. Kids now pick dandelions without fear. And these young kids are growing up in a world where dandelions are so common that my guess is that the day is coming when the bright, yellow blossoms will be welcome and the oh-so-common weed will no longer be hated.

A sliver of forest in a suburban jungle

When I moved to London Warbler Woods it was a large wooded area on the southwest edge of the city. When a suburban development was proposed for the area, a massive movement to save the trees was started. Although it failed to save all the trees, or even the majority of the forest, the development was stopped before all sign of the wood disappeared.

Some years later the land on the other side of the woods was developed. Today Warbler Woods is but a sliver of forested land situated between two big subdivisions. The remaining land gives one a window into the look of the area before sewers, streets, sidewalks and homes filled valleys and flattened hills.

It may be small but it still lays claim to accolades for being a remaining wilderness area in the middle of an urban area. One spring when I stopped by with my granddaughters to hike into the woods on a Trillium hunt, some hikers warned us to stay together. They had spotted a small pack of coyotes in the forest. Not surprising as deer and rabbits frequent the area.

With covid-19, the area is more popular than ever. Hiking in the woods is one area where one can go maskless and this is oh-so-important to some folk.

A friendly lady directed me to a lovely grouping

I didn't find these but was directed to them. Warbler Woods attracts lots of folk. Many of the hikers come in family groups. One of the hikers on learning why I was in the woods, took a moment to direct to this lovely grouping of three trilliums popping out below an insect carved log. Gosh, it's good to meet good people. It puts a positive to spin on one's world.

Is anyone building apartments like these today?

 

Detroit once had a lot of wonderful Art Deco apartment buildings. I'm sure Detroit is not alone. My guess is many of the once outrageously successful cities in the northern half of the United States, had blocks featuring beautiful 1920s apartment buildings. I found examples of beautiful, abandoned apartment blocks in many other areas of the United States as well.

Some of these, at least in Detroit, are being saved. But that is not the point of this post. When I went to art school in the mid '60s, these apartments were already falling on tough times. I had student friends who lived in these buildings.

Why are we not building apartments that look like these today? I can speak from experience. These were good places to live and they were located in what was at that time good, walkable neighbourhoods.

One thing that made these apartments walkable were the apartments themselves. These places added atmosphere to a neighbourhood. The entrances were often spectacular. No simple glass entries for these buildings.

And the interiors were as grand as the exteriors. Inlaid tiles, curved staircases, brass elevators and lots of stained glass.

 

The shot of the lobby shows, I believe, the abandoned Henery Apartments in Stockton, California.

Sadly, many of these wonderful buildings have been destroyed by suspicious late-night fires.

London, Ontario, has saved some old apartments but London never had any as grand as the ones that once graced many large American cities. Today, London is striving to create beautiful, walkable neighbourhoods. The huge apartments hardly visually improve the neighbourhoods in which these massive structures are located.

I wonder why there is no money to be made salvaging some of the beautiful features of old, abandoned apartment buildings and selling these heritage construction materials to be included in new structures.

Canadian health care

I'm a Canadian but I have to confess I don't have a perfect handle on our health care system. It is complex and it can be confusing. And being that Canadians hear a lot of the misplaced, error-prone criticism that fills the American airwaves, we get even more confused from being exposed to all the bunkum being bandied about.

The other day I had to go for treatment for my aging, sun-damaged skin. The medical centre I went to is privately owned. In fact, the vast majority of medical centres and hospitals in Canada are privately owned and operated.

The centre in the west end of London is but one in a small chain of medical centre located in various locations across the city. From the looks of this latest addition to the chain, it appears the centres are successful. In fact, the company website promises investment opportunities will soon be offered.

What I do know it that Canadians have a single-payer medical care system. I pay the government in a manner similar to paying premiums to an insurance company. For medical treatements that are covered by our system, and not everything is covered, the government pays the cost.

If my skin treatments are for precancerous skin blemishes, the treatment cost is covered. My skin blemishes discovered during this visit were harmless, purely cosmetic. I paid $45 for the removal.

Does the Canadian system work? Yes, but it has problems and these problems seem to be growing. Health care is expensive.

How does the Canadian system compare to the U.S. system. I really cannot say. There are a lot of conflicting claims. All I can say for sure is that the rare time I had a health care issue treated both in the States and in Canada, the Canadian system finished in first place. But it was not a crushing defeat for the American system. It was a plodding, slow system, Canada's, matched against a speedy, hare, the American system.

The deciding factor was my insurance company. It balked at paying for adequate treatment. I got the minimum of care and was discharged before the excellent U.S. doctors could treat me fully. In Canada, slowly running up a big bill was not a problem but time was a problem. 

The Americans would have been fast if they had been free to give me all the tests necessary but no pay, no treatment. The Canadian doctors were much slower, they had less equipment and so a patient had to be patience. But paying the bills as the mounted in Canada was never in question and over a period of time all necessary tests were done and the cause of my heart condition determined and a pacemaker/ICD inserted in my chest.

The takeaway? If I were a millionaire or had very good insurance at a price I could afford, I'd take the American system. I'm not a millionaire and I have relatives in the States who pay far more for health insurance than I could at my age and with my reduced income in retirement. I could not afford their health insurance premiums. And so, I am happy to have the Canadian system.

Not freezing temperatures nor heavy snowfall harmed the robins

 

Neither snow nor rain nor cold nor gloom of night stays a robin from the full completion of its parental duties.

I recently ran an image showing the tough life of a robin parent-to-be risks encountering in Ontario. Both the bird, sitting on its eggs, and the nest itself were under a deep blanket of snow. I openly wondered if the eggs would hatch. I was concerned. On the plus side, it appeared the two robin parents were taking turns tending the nest.

My nephew, Paul, assured me that the robin parents would succeed and the eggs would hatch. He told me to relax. He was right. It appears three eggs have hatched and today the robins were busy finding and feeding earth worms to their squawking brood.

Ontario's provincial flower grows wild

The trillium is the provincial flower of Ontario. The pretty, white three-petalled flower grows wild across the southern part of the province. Many of the wild wooded areas in the Byron suburb of London are home to thousands of trilliums. It is no surprise that a few have taken root on the hill behind our suburban home.

Neighbourhood asparagus stand opens Friday

 

The little asparagus farm has been in operation for decades. So long in fact, that the asparagus sold there is somewhat unique. Most of the asparagus plants grown in Ontario are hybrids developed at Guelph University an hour east of London. The Greenland asparagus predates most of the hybrid plants grown on Ontario farms.

A few years ago a type of rust destroyed the Ontario asparagus crop. The Greenland farm was one of the few stands selling locally grown spears. The rust rippled through the mono culture found almost everywhere in the province but it didn't affect the older asparagus variety grown in the London suburb.

Today, Guelph University is bragging about a new hybrid it has developed. Apparently this was a tough spring. It was both very warm early on and then there was a late freeze accompanied by a blanket of snow. The Guelph hybrids stood up well to the extreme weather. 

It is interesting to note that the old, heritage variety grown on the Greenland farm had done just fine this spring. I had an early sample and the crop came through the extreme weather just fine.

Last year's plants are today's plants too

My wife and I wanted to visit a local garden centre. It was closed thanks to the covid-19 shutdown. And so last year's plants, the hardy perennial ones like these primulas, are becoming this year's plants as well.

I've been asked a few questions about these flowers. I discovered the following: The primula, also known as the common primrose, is native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa and parts of southwest Asia. It is not native to North America.

The 2021 Census forms arrived yesterday

 

Running a city is tough. Running a country is even tougher. Yesterday, we got our 2021 Census forms. The numbers the form supplies makes the government's task a little easier. The info is kept private and not open to public view for something in the order of 92 years. 

And how does the government get the info? Do participants use the mail? Not necessarily.  If one likes, the forms can be submitted using a unique identification number and sent directly to the government from one's home computer.

Daffodils are not just bright yellow flowers

It's a daffodil and it isn't yellow.This may not surprise you but it took me by surprise. Hey, I'm not a horticulturist. My only contact with daffodils is the annual Canadian Cancer Society Daffodil Campaign. There are daffodil window stickers, daffodil lapel pins and daffodil pens. And all are, to the best of my knowledge, yellow.

So where were these rare(?) daffodils growing. Uh, I'm embarrassed to admit it but these beautiful, non-yellow daffodils were in my wife's garden a few feet from our large kitchen window. O.K. I'm not all that observant either.

Warm spring sunshine begs to be enjoyed

It was cold yesterday. It rained last night and it continued into the morning. But the warm, spring sun broke through the clouds come afternoon. This lady found the perfect spot to enjoy the warm rays of spring sunshine: a chair outside Starbucks.