Victoria Park is a popular park, popular with Canada geese. If you listen to my granddaughters, it's not as popular with people -- certainly not with them. Why? The geese, their droppings and their aggressive attitude. Canada geese, when fed in parks can congregate in large numbers, even into the hundreds, and can be downright pushy -- even frighteningly pushy if you are an easily frightened little girl.
Known as the Boer War monument in Victoria Park, The Soldiers' Monument is a tribute to those who fought in the South African War more than a hundred years ago. The monument was erected in 1912 at a cost at the time of $10,000.
Engraved deeply into one side of the base are the names of the local men, all privates, who died in the war.
Cities seem to love overflowing flower pots today. One sees them decorating islands in the middle of large streets and hanging from posts found just below the lamp on street lamps. In London, I believe, a lot of the flowers may be grown in the city greenhouse. Still, all these flowers cannot be cheap and keeping them all watered must take a lot of staff.
Hungry? If you are in downtown London and close to either Richmond Row or Victoria Park, Stobie's is the place to go if a giant slice of pizza and a juice box or can of pop will suffice.
Kids love Stobie's. The pizza is simple and delicious. Parents love Stobie's. The choices are limited making it easier for kids to make a decision as to what to eat. Students love Stobie's. The price is right. And downtown workers love Stobie's. It is quick.
Big cities have lots of places like Stobie's. London has a few but they are located well distanced from each other. They are not grouped together offering a rich mix of fast, inexpensive food for those in a hurry.
Both are known by the nickname "Jenga tower" in their respective cities. The building in London was praised in The London Free Press for its “decidedly un-London design.” Sounds right. The London tower appears to have a decidedly Etobicoke look.
I took my three granddaughters to Stobie's Pizza so each could have a piece of Stobie's excellent pizza for lunch. The plan was to grab some slices and then head over to Victoria Park and enjoy the park and our pizza.
I am so surprised at all the controversy surrounding masks. There is no question about mask wearing in London. Vaccinated? Good. But wear a mask anyway. Until this COVID-19 pandemic is under control, masks are going to be de rigueur in most public places.
Saying no to pictures is so today. When I started taking photos for publications in the late '60s, the risk one ran when taking pictures in public was being harassed by folk yelling, "Take my picture! Take my picture!" People thought it cool, even an honour, to be thought important enough to have their picture taken. Not today.
I saw a small group of young people in downtown London setting up for a shoot of some type. I thought they might be students from the community college or the local university. I asked and they said, "No pictures," and refused to say anymore. They turned their backs to the camera.
A young man insisted they did not have the time to answer any questions. I told him a one word answer would suffice. Are you students from Fanshawe? No reply. From Western? No reply. But they did have time to insist that I not take any pictures. Never tell a photojournalist not to take your picture. I have shots of police, military and criminal gang members all taken because of that order.
If you are up to something that you feel uncomfortable having photographed, that is worth a picture. At least, it might be worth a picture unless you are just going with the flow and turning your back on the camera because it is the in thing to do.
The Avon River, where it forms a reservoir behind a flood control dam in Stratford, Ontario, is more than a place to store excess water. It is a place for fun and fun is never excess. Rental paddle boats, canoes and kayaks are all available, complete with life jackets, from Avon Boat Rentals.
Noodoe EV is a Taiwanese maker of electric vehicle charging systems has operated in Asia and Europe for the past decade. A few years ago Noodoe EV expanded into North America and has now installed nearly 1,000 EV charging stations in the U.S. at casinos, hotels and shopping malls plus more.
The feature that Noodoe EV most likes to brag about is its use of a cloud-based platform. Does the cloud connection benefit drivers? Yes but it benefits the owners of the Noodoe EV charging stations more. Noodoe EV provides the parking lot owners with the charging stations with a wealth of information: how long does the average user charging their car, how much power is used during an average charge and how much profit is being made from each charging unit.
Noodoe EV like to brag that its technology transforms parking lots into "hands-off revenue generators."
Upper Queen's Park is right next to the Festival Theatre. One can stroll into the park from almost any direction, it is not surrounded with a barrier of any type. Yet, it does have a proper entrance off Water Street. It is clearly a proper entrance as there are two matching stone arches over both sidewalks bordering the roadway. In front of these, there are two dogs, two pleasant dogs. One might expect lions, or at the very least large guard dogs, but no, these mellow dogs look like a couple of family pets.
The occasional intermingling of the two Stratfords, the one in England and the one in Canada, shows up in the most surprising places.
The statue of William Shakespeare in the garden at the Stratford Festival was done by Frank Holte. Holte headed the Stratford Festival prop department for some 39 years. And, this is where the link appears, Frank Holte was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in England.
The American Southwest is in the middle of a drought of historic proportions, but not Southwestern Ontario. The southern most province in Canada, Ontario, is having a rather wet summer. There are weeks when residents don't have to water their plants at all. In fact, some of the local strawberries have had their flavour diluted by all the rainfall which has made the berries bigger, wetter and with a less intense flavour than one expects.
Stratford, in Ontario, is a town that knows how to make itself more than a stop but a destination. Without going into all the details, Stratford chased and embraced the dream of the English theatre director and stage legend, Tyrone Guthrie.
At the time, Stratford was known mainly as a place specializing in repairing steam locomotives. In other words, Stratford was facing economic disaster. Today the locomotive repair facilities are long closed and the theatre arts are the big driver of the local economy.
But great theatre is not enough to propel a town forward decade after decade. London, Ontario, can attest to that -- but that is another story. If you want to find a fine restaurant, think Stratford. And the town does not just have high-end eateries. You can get a very good shawarma, submarine or burger there as well.
If you cannot afford the theatre, it is not cheap, there are smaller venues with smaller ticket prices. If you only visit the town to enjoy a take-out lunch beside the river, you might be lucky enough to catch a singer giving a fee performance from on a slowly passing boat.
Stratford is lovely and full of lovely surprises.
Before continuing, I must mention why I have not posted since last Sunday. My other computer crashed and may be down for the count. I was out of town, in Stratford, unable to find another computer to use for filing.
Stratford, Ontario, was not always famous like it is today. The first theatre production opened on July 13, 1953. Today Stratford has at least three theatres and possibly more. The new Tom Patterson Theatre is now finished and is simply waiting for the O.K. to open. COVID-19 threw a wrench into the entire massive theatre operation. Until COVID-19 buses from across North America rolled into Stratford attracted by the now world famous theatre.
Stratford in Ontario sits on the Avon River and where the river runs through the city a damn has been built and a long reservoir formed. The river has become a secondary magnet to hold people in town who are first attracted by the theatre. There are small paddle boats and even a small cruise boat to be seen on the river.
To know more, click the link: Stratford Festival.
Yes, you read that right. Canada has a Stratford on the Avon just like merry old England. The early settlers of Ontario were not all that imaginative when it came to naming new towns. One must wonder if they were somewhat homesick.
The Stratford in Ontario is a wonderful town. It is attracting lots of tourists even today despite COVID-19. The lady was spotted walking along the Avon River. The plant is growing in one of the gardens at the new 100 million dollar theatre which is still waiting for opening night. The virus has kept the new theatre closed.
It looks every bit like a public park but it isn't. It's a backyard. A well designed, well cared for backyard. It is amazing what folks are hiding behind their suburban homes.
Both cable and network news are filled with stories about folks refusing to wear masks. In London, many businesses have no problem asking customers to wear masks. And if the customer refuses to wear a mask, masks are always available for those who arrive without one, then the customer is refused admittance. No mask, no service.
Once, more than a century ago, Ford Canada had a London, Ontario, assembly plant. It was in the heart of the city, nestled into a residential neighbourhood. It was much smaller than any plant built today. In later years its small scale may have been it undoing.
On the plus side it is a good looking building and that fact may have saved the building from the wrecking ball. Sadly, its good looks did not save the operation. Ford closed the plant, sold the building and left London. The building has gone through a couple of hands since then but it is still a good looking building and considered a plus for the area.
In later years, Ford opened a very successful assembly plant south of the city. It was often honoured for its excellent efficiency, high quality output and solid employee dependability. But these pluses were not enough to save the plant. It closed and the building was demolished. The newer plant was not guarded by an aura generated by attractive architecture. The newer plant was big, sprawling and ugly. In this case demolition was a plus. The land was worth more with the building gone.
It is called Bear's Breeches. This perennial came to southwestern Ontario, Canada, from southern Europe, from countries around the Mediterranean like Italy and Turkey. It has incredibly large, spiky leaves at the base. I thought the leaves would discourage rabbits. No. They love it, or at least have in the past. This year it has been given a reprieve. It towers almost three feet into the air and sports oodles of wonderful, purple flowers.
A truly giant one scoop ice cream is still to be had. You just have to know where to go and these little girls had the answer: The Scoops in Hyde Park on Gainsborough beside Unger's Market. I had to wonder: did person behind the counter at The Scoops make a mistake? These are the biggest single scoop ice cream cones that I have ever seen.
Recreation destinations such as the Fleetway activity centre may be open but many are understandably still quite frightened by the continuing threat of COVID-19. Adult vaccination rates in Canada are among the highest in the world but that leaves many concerned for the health of their young children.
The fear of COVID-19 is keeping many away from places like Fleetway. When our small party of seven played indoor glow-in-the-dark golf, we were almost alone in the huge facility. Bowling lanes sat empty, pool tables were unused and the links at the fun, little putting course were strangely free of crowds.
(Three golfers can be spotted in the dark room if one looks carefully at the upper left corner of the photo.)
I am constantly amazed at how much life changes just over the course of one lifetime. As a boy in the 1950s I recall the large vans carrying ponies that visited our neighbourhood. The vans would visit a neighbourhood a number of times each summer. The trucks would stop, a half dozen ponies or more would be dropped off along with a photographer for every pony.
The photographer/pony teams would fan out across the neighbourhood going door to door to see if anyone wanted a shot of their child posed on a pony. Clearly my mom went for the offer. I once had a number of these photos. One never sees a travelling pony photographer today. Never. (My wife looked at this post and remarked: "Didn't every child once have a photo like that?")
Prior to COVID-19 Fleetway was one of the most popular places in London to take one's family for a fun time. There's both 10 and 5 pin bowling, an arcade games room and a large billiards room. But what brought my three granddaughters to Fleetway Friday was the 18-hole indoor glow-in-the-dark mini golf course. The course, decorated with sculptures and paintings, truly does glow under the illumination of the black lights.
It is tough, if not downright impossible, to foretell the future. When the small, simple Ontario cottages were built in the downtown core, no one thought that a century later these homes would be valued as heritage structures worth making sacrifices to keep.
Today there are homes in some of the suburbs that reflect an attitude, an approach, to filling the need for housing that is no longer in vogue. It has only taken three or four decades but the Tudor style houses that dot this southwest London suburb are no longer in style and no longer being built in any number.
Will these examples of life in the 1970s and '80s be desirable in a hundred years? Many today would say no. Many might even argue that Tudor homes are not even all that desirable today and with some of the homes in question they would be right.
But this home has a certain charm, I feel. Will the features that make this home be retained over the passing years? Avoiding being updated will be the first hurdle that must be cleared if this home is to ever gain heritage status.
Did a heritage home sit on this property. If so, it was most likely built between 1870 and 1890. It is now gone. Some in London would mourn the loss but other will celebrate the missing home and the lot now available for redevelopment.
How to redevelop a heritage area while retaining the heritage feeling is tough. Very tough. It demands a lot of imagination and creativity on the part of the developer. From the look of the few highrises that now dot the area, imagination it seems is in short supply in the Soho neighbourhood. Soho meaning South of Horton with Horton Street being the northern boundary of the heritage neighbourhood.
This is another shot from the Woodland Cemetery. This photo shows a young doe among the headstones.
The Woodlawn Cemetery and Crematorium on Springbank Drive east of Wonderland Rd. attracts a lot of visitors with no interest in the graves. What attracts these folk to a cemetery? Deer. Lots and lots of deer. One never fails to see one or more deer during a visit to the cemetery.
