Community Mail Boxes

 

Once mail was delivered to each and every Canadian's home. Not today. Many Canadians now must pick up their mail from a centrally located Canada Post Community Mail Box. These neighbourhood boxes are nowhere near as handy as a simple mailbox hanging beside one's front door but the service they provide is cheaper.

When the boxes first appeared, the super mail boxes were only installed in new developments. New subdivisions were denied door-to-door mail delivery but instead the mail was left in a community box some distance from the new homes. It is doubtful that Canada Post grasped the irony in calling such boxes super mail boxes.

Since the first community boxes appeared in 1985, Canada Post has been trying to phase out all door-to-door home delivery. I'm pleased to say that in my neighbourhood Canada Post has not been successful. We still have the truly super mail boxes; we have the ones located right on the wall next to each home's front door.

The lookout backdrop

 

The young girl was clearly the centre of attention with not one but two cameras aimed her way. The sunset, viewed from the lookout, provided an excellent backdrop and rimmed the girl's head with glowing, back-lit brilliance.

Not so rapid transit

 

Some years ago, London looked at Light Rail Transit (LRT) and ruled it out. The city then got deep into the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) model. Maps were drawn and costs calculated. That was also some years ago. Today, Londoners still find themselves in what feels like a never ending holding pattern waiting for a solution to the city's oh-so-very slow transit system. 

Our London Family

 

A little more than a year ago a London Muslim family out for an evening stroll was struck by a car and four of the five were killed: both parents, a daughter and her grandmother died, while a young son was the only one to live. Police allege the act was intentional. It is alleged to have been a hate crime. Now, a large monument dedicated to "Our London Family" marks the spot. Although located in the northwest corner of the city, the monument attracts a constant flow of visitors. Many leave flowers.

A monument to our London family

 

The mural shown is part of a larger mural on a monument erected to honour a London Muslim family killed a year ago in a vehicular accident police allege was intentional. A car struck a Muslim family out for a summer evening stroll killing both parents, their daughter and her grandmother. The family's young son was the only one of the group to survive the collision.

Hostas: better than you think

Hostas are nice but if we are honest we must admit hostas are not the first choice of most gardeners for a featured plant. Gardeners are missing a great opportunity.

For many years the local paper organized a Garden Walk Weekend. Readers were encouraged to stop by the paper to pick up a map in order to tour of the city and visit ten spectacular, private gardens. Most of the gardens were in the north end of the city, in the city's finest residential neighbourhood.

One year one home on the tour was located in the east end of the city in an area known for its industrial parks. Hidden among the factories and warehouses there was one short, forgotten residential street and the home at the end of the street was on the tour. To say folk were surprised would be a gross understatement.

When the visitors entered the home's backyard, they got quite the surprise. The home owner was a hostas freak. He loved hostas and over the years he had become a self-taught hosta expert. His narrow but deep backyard was filled with hundreds and hundreds of hostas: big hostas, small hostas, solid green hostas and varigated hostas. The biggest hostas were at the sides of the yard growing on tall mounds of earth. The tall plants, they must have been at least four feet tall, blocked the view of the surrounding neighbourhood. The large leaves even muffled neighbourhood noises. Very practical.

The hostas on the sides of the yard were so large that the plants inside the yard seemed small in comparison. Some were truly small but others were not and added privacy to small spaces enclosed by dozens of hostas. A narrow trail snaked through the yard with benches nestled among the foliage.

To a visitor, quickly lost in the green-lined maze, the backyard seemed far larger than its true size. The hostas had been planted imaginatively and wisely. The backyard was a world onto itself. At the end of the day, where ever folk gathered to discuss the tour, the hosta-home was the clear winner.

Ignorance is not bliss when it come to plants

Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to plants. Plant the wrong plant in the wrong place and one may find themselves with an aggressive, spreading ground cover that takes over an area and smothers competing plants--plants you may have liked.

The voting is still out on the plant shown above with the green leaves rimmed with bright yellow. It has spread very nicely, according to my neighbour, and so far it has played nicely with the other plants in the garden. The question is: will this cooperation continue?

City folk love their gardens. One can be forgiven for thinking that there might be an ongoing, unspoken contest being fought here. Each home each succeeding year sports bigger, more spectacular, more numerous flowers and shrubs. 

But mixing and matching plants is no easier than mixing and matching neighbours and sometimes the wrong plant gets put into the mix with disastrous results. Luckily, bad plants are easier to uproot and remove than bad neighbours.

Today it is a bed and breakfast

Stratford, Ontario, is famous for its theatres, plural. A lot of the original manufacturing has left the little city and now a big percentage of the city's wealth comes from the entertainment industry. And make no mistake about it, it is an industry.

For instance, this little home is a bed and breakfast today. The hospitality business is a spin off reaping the benefits of the flourishing local theatre business. Rumour has it that this B&B was once a simple, little church. Maybe. But the little building also has the look of an old school. Unfortunately, the info on the stone above the door has been obliterated.

If you are ever in southwestern Ontario, google Stratford. You might well find play being performed to your liking.

Schubertii allium, I think . . .

Each year these blooms appear in a friend's front yard flower garden. Over the years, she has noticed that the strange blooms appear to attract butterflies and hummingbirds; a plus in her estimation. Furthermore, they don't appear to be loved by the common garden pests that plague other plants in her garden; another plus. 

But what exactly are these mystery blooms? I have guess thanks to a google search. (Drum roll, please.) These blooms are flowers on schubertii allium plants. Does anyone agree?

Only made in France, available everywhere

In high school history I learned shipwrecks of Roman trading ships had been discovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea with cargoes intact. Trade was important to the Romans. Goods unique to one country were bought and shipped back to Italy.

Trade is even more important today and the glassware at the restaurant silently attests to that fact. The glasses are Duralex. Duralex is French made glassware tempered to resist breaking. Invented just two years before I was born, Duralex, with its unique properties, was soon shipped around the world. 

Restaurants loved it. The glasses stood up to the crude automatic dishwashers of the period. The glasses lasted so long they developed a cloudy, surface patina of thousands of scratches from repeated trips through the dishwasher.

Today the Durlex product is still popular with restaurant owners. As a senior raised in the '50s, I immediately recognized the original glass design which is apparently still popular. Amazing. Any design still in use after almost eight decades is truly ageless.

But, the Duralex glass folk are not resting on their laurels. The second glass is also Duralex but a more recent design. Curious, I googled Duralex. I wondered if it was now being made in China, as well. No, it wasn't. The company says, 

"The original tempered (toughened) Picardie glasses are still produced in France and are known as the “original French tumblers”. . . . Duralex is and will always remain a true French manufacturer of glassware and tabletop products, and is the only glass manufacturer that makes 100% of their products in France."

Heritage home in Stratford

 

The yellow painted home is clearly a heritage property. The first clues are the storm windows. Storms like the ones on this home are no longer available. Note how the right front storm is clearly hinged and has been left open at the bottom. This wood sided home is reputed to be one of the oldest homes in Stratford, Ontario.

Once a church; today a restaurant

For a little more than a hundred years it was Mackenzie Memorial Gospel Church on Brunswick St. in Stratford, Ontario. Then, in 1975, the church was transformed into The Church—one of the finest places to dine in the entire province.

 

Today the former church has underdone another transformation. It is now the Revival House restaurant. Despite two major conversions, the beautiful old church remains one of Ontario’s finest examples of a heritage building conversion done with respect for the building's history.

We dined at Revival House today. If you are curious as to what the kitchen sends out, check out the picture. 

It is a vegetarian sandwich. Two thick slices of freshly baked bread stuffed with sauteed spinach, grilled bell peppers, mushrooms and onion, punched up with a little pesto mixed with soft goat cheese and served with a fresh mixed salad on the side.

 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

 

It has rained the past two days. It hasn't rained a lot but it has been enough to keep potted plants happy. Having noticed some posted pictures of water droplets and the like, I was more alert than usual to the possibility of finding some beauty among the leaves heavy with water droplets. Cheers!

Holy Roller returns

 Holy Roller was made in 1942 in Michigan and immediately the Sherman tank was shipped to England to fight in the Second World War. It was officially issued to Canada’s 6th Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) shortly before D-Day. Its crew named it "Holy Roller."

On D-Day, the tank was part of the second wave on Juno Beach. The tank and crew were able to advance 11 kilometres before a fuel leak stopped it in its tracks. As the commanding officer’s tank had been destroyed by a landmine on the beach, Holy Roller became B Squadron’s command tank.

The 1st Hussars lost 346 tanks with Holy Roller the only survivor. It fought in 14 major battles and covered some 4,000 kilometres. It sustained some serious damage along the way with some crew members wounded, but no one died in Holy Roller.

At the end of the war, Holy Roller was stored in the London, Ontario, Armouries for a few years before being put on display in a nearby park. In 1956, it was moved to Victoria Park, where it sat until its removal for restoration. Time and weather take a toll on everything, even a tank. Yesterday, Holy Roller was returned to its concrete pad in London's Victoria Park downtown.

A local journalist and Mennonite pacifist has admitted seeing the presence of the tank in a city park as glorifying war. Today, he seems to have shifted his take on the tank. He wrote in the newspaper, "It forces us to contemplate and confront our failures of diplomacy, the use of destruction of life and property as the bluntest of our tools, and the utter depravity of war."

There was a time I would have read those words and gave them consideration. Not today. Today I am seeing images from the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. 

I do not see the present war in Ukraine as a failure of diplomacy. Words were never going to stop the Russians. The West should have sent troops to the Ukraine the moment Russian troops began amassing on the Russian side of the border.

We might have stopped the invasion before it started.

Holy Roller and the brave men who crewed it deserve our gratitude, our praise and the very least we can do is honour them and their actions by putting their Sherman tank on display and thinking long and hard about not what it symbolizes but about what it actually accomplished. 

The Holy Roller fought against "the utter depravity of war."

The invasion of Ukraine has made all of us aware of the true horrors of war:

 

Surviving the Siege of Kharkiv (The New York Times)

The photos that have defined the war in Ukraine (CNN)

May the "Life Force" be with you

The world can be a depressing place for those life forms able to think, to judge, to dream—to be horrified by the past and frightened by the future. I take delight in knowing that the miracle of life will continue with or without us. In the scheme of things, we are only indispensable in our own minds.

the silver mound plant (Artemisia schmidtiana

Read more at Gardening Know How: How To Grow Artemisia: Caring For Silver Mound Plants https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/foliage/artemisia/silver-mound-care.htm

For proof, one need look no farther than the artemisia schmidtiana or silver mound plant. It has the cannot-be-killed strength of the cockroach but in a far more attractive package. My oldest granddaughter picked a small silver mound as her addition to our gardens. She left the little plant in a small, blue plastic pot with me to plant. I didn't.

On a future visit, she said she would plant it if I just showed her where. I couldn't. She didn't. And, while I puzzled over where to put the little plant with the silver green foliage, the summer turned into fall, which in short order turned into winter. The little plant with the silver-green, almost sensually soft foliage turned black, harden and became brittle with death.

My granddaughter shook her head. "You killed it." I agreed and hung my head in shame. But then spring arrived and the warm sun and frequent spring rains performed their magic. New shoots appeared. The little, oh-so-delicate looking, little silver-green plant had survived the winter and did so while sitting outside, snow covered, forgotten, left to freeze in a little blue pot.

the silver mound plant (Artemisia schmidtiana

Read more at Gardening Know How: How To Grow Artemisia: Caring For Silver Mound Plants https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/foliage/artemisia/silver-mound-care.htm

the silver mound plant (Artemisia schmidtiana

Read more at Gardening Know How: How To Grow Artemisia: Caring For Silver Mound Plants https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/foliage/artemisia/silver-mound-care.htm

the silver mound plant (Artemisia schmidtiana ‘Silver Mound’)

Read more at Gardening Know How: How To Grow Artemisia: Caring For Silver Mound Plants https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/foliage/artemisia/silver-mound-care.htm

The Forest City

 

There are a number of explanations given for how London, Ontario, came to be known as the Forest City. One thing that all seem to agree on is that the city has lost the vast majority of the tree cover that gave the city its well known moniker. 

I am not a hundred percent sure of the origins of the Forest City nickname and I am even less sure that the name no longer fits. Viewing the city from Lookout Court in the southwest end of town, the city seems to disappear under the thick foliage of city trees.