Santa visits London

Santa waves to children lining Gainsborough Rd. Saturday at the annual parade.

The annual Hyde Park Santa Claus Parade was well attended this year with the temperature climbing above the freezing mark for the Saturday morning event.

The parade, organized by the Hyde Park and District Lions Club and the NorWest Optimists, had some 55 entries this year. The Lion float may have been the crowd-pleasing favourite — not counting Santa, of course.

London has two Santa Claus parades, one is held at night in the core of the city and the other is held a few weeks later but during the day and in a northwest London suburb. Many people that I know prefer the suburban parade.

The event has a nice Christmas feel with a lot of local kids participating. Kids marched, kids played instruments, kids wore costumes and threw candy to other kids — the ones lining the parade route. This event has a great community feel and it is fun.

The Hyde Park Business Association collected winter boots; The NorWest Optimist Soccer Program collected toys. For the first time, canned good were collected, too. Like I said, this event has a community feel.

Many little kids seemed as much in awe of "Wendy" of fast food fame as of Santa Claus himself.

For more on the parade, check The London Free Press  coverage.

Hank Daniszewski, a reporter with years of experience, covered the event for the local paper, both shooting the picture and writing the story. There may be no paper Sunday, but the news story has already been posted to the Net where it can found right now.

Growing season just about done for year

Thomas Brothers Farm Market, south of London on hwy 4

It used to be that my wife and I would drive outside the city to buy fresh Ontario fruits and vegetables. Today we don't have to leave the city. The market we go to has not moved but some years back the city boundaries did. The result is that some stands are now inside the expanding city, some stands have been closed and others have disappeared completely, replaced by housing.

I've watched the loss of precious southwestern Ontario farmland to industry and housing for decades, ever since I was a little boy. The acreage that has disappeared is astronomical. It is equal to the area of the province of Prince Edward Island and then some.

Today we get a lot of our broccoli from California, our asparagus from Peru and our peaches (canned) from South Africa. Peaches are no longer canned in Ontario. The water tables in the agricultural areas of both California and Peru are dropping. The day may well come when many of the areas shipping massive amounts of fresh vegetables today, will be unable to continue tomorrow. Starved for water the distant farmlands will be brown with withered crops.

This is no way to treat our space ship: Space Ship Earth.

I was amazed to find locally grown corn still available at the roadside food market.

New park fails to impress U.S. architect

This little park would benefit from some better planning, a little imagination.

Over the weekend, I took a visiting American architect for a tour of a new development in the southwest London. He had some interesting insights -- insights that should be of interest to those taking part in the ReThink London process.

For one thing, he was not impressed with the large park in the new Talbot Village development. Yes, it did attract kids. Yes, it did provide a place to play. But it could have been so much more. As it is, it is simply an open chunk of land trapped inside a circle of roads. It does feature some playground equipment -- a plus -- but it could have been so much more.

This small park in Montreal is a beauty.

When I was in Montreal recently, I walked to a park near to where I was staying. It was beautiful. Well treed and featuring a large pond fed by a small, rock-edged, meandering stream. A paved path through the park made good use of the little stream.

The park in Montreal was a neighbourhood focal point. The surrounding homes all faced the park unlike this new park in London. The London park seems ignored. Almost forgotten by those living nearby.

Think of the squares of Savannah, Georgia, or The Green in Dover, Delaware. For inspiration, Londoners actually need look no farther than the city's own Victoria Park in the city core. I am not suggesting that a small suburban park needs to be as grand as the large park in the core. I am only suggesting a small neighbourhood park can easily be more than what has been delivered in southwest London.

Both the Montreal park and the homes nearby benefit from their interaction.

Hawk Cliff

© Ken Wightman

There is a place, overlooking Lake Erie south of London, known by locals as Hawk Cliff. Each fall migrating raptors are sighted here in the tens of thousands as the raptors migrate south ahead of the approaching cold winter weather.

Some of the birds are lured into a net at Hawk Cliff and banded before being released to continue the flight south. On at least two weekends every fall local birders are allowed by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to put on display to instruct interested people in the ways of raptors.

This Kestrel Falcon, captured this morning, was banded and then shown to a small group gathered to learn a little about these wonderful birds. At the end of the talk, the Kestrel was released.

Another greenhouse, another picture

I love greenhouses. The plants make such great subjects.

With the summer season coming rapidly to an end, the local London greenhouses are now stocked with houseplants. I passed on the purchase and contented myself with a photo. The plants should thank me. Under my care, they wouldn't have lived till Christmas.

Minimalist photography makes my day

My wife and I had to head off to the garden centre today. My wife needed tulip bulbs. Unfortunately, tulip bulbs don't make a picture. That said, I discovered lots of plants that do. Especially when one is looking for a photo in the minimal photography style.

I loved the image I was able to coax out of a close-up of a succulent.

Another look at London's southern gateway

I have featured shots from the Wonderland Road South entry into London, Ontario, in the past. Today I am featuring yet another shot. It is not a bad stretch of road, lots of stores and a couple of small apartment towers, but it is certainly not a wonderland.

The London city council likes to talk about this stretch of roadway, which brings traffic into the city from highways 401 and 402, as the city's new gateway. Talk about putting your dullest foot forward. This stretch of road could be in any one of at least a dozen other communities. Rows of box stores, acres of parking and apartment towers visible behind the commercial development.

Being critical is not enough. There is no shortage of local folk to bad mouth this development. To be a successful critic, one must supply an alternative. Think of the The Market Common Clarendon.

The Common is not just another power node. This development in Arlington, Virginia, is an urban village of retail, apartment living and townhouses presented in an imaginative mix.

If you have a car, not to worry. The Market Common has 1,420 parking spaces.

Sadly, London has more developments like the Wonderland gateway waiting in the wings.

Cotton candy a fall fair pleasure

It's big, it's blue, it's sweet -- but it isn't as bad for you as you might think. There are approximately 200 calories in this spun bundle of cotton candy. An hour of running from ride to ride, of climbing rope ladders, and struggling up climbing walls, and kids can have this fall fair indulgence burned away.

When it comes to junk food, there is no place better than a fall fair. I have to confess that I love fair food. I think Bubba's Butterfly Chips are among my favourite sinful fair treats. When I googled these I was mildly surprised to learn these are popular across North America. Hmmm.

Weight Watchers would not be pleased.

Old homes showing their age

Took in the fair the other day. It was fun. The fair association does all right and it is not because of the fair. That's only about a one week affair. No, the fair association does just fine thanks to being home to the OLG Slots in London. The fair folk call it gaming income, others tag it gambling. When I was a boy it was called illegal. Funny how things change.

The area around the fairgrounds has not done as well over the passing years. These three homes, once examples of the very nice housing available to working class Londoners, are all showing their age today.

East London, where these homes are located was a manufacturing hub decades ago. I imagine many of the workers who originally lived in this area walked to work. Others would have taken the nearby streetcar. Today the streetcar service is gone but little matter. The jobs are gone too.

It is sad to see a row of three such lovely little homes in such questionable condition.

It's fall fair time in southwestern Ontario

It is fall fair time and Western Fair in London, Ontario, is open for business. For ten days every September the fair grounds, so quiet for most of the year, come alive. There are rides for young kids, rides for teenagers. There's gloriously high-calorie fair food: bloomin' onions, fresh made potato chips, back-bacon on a bun, pizza, Belgium waffles, fish and chips and much more.

For instance, there's entertainment. The high-wire family, the famous Flying Wallendas, are one of the acts appearing this year. And of course there are lots of farm animals for city kids to see. Some things haven't changed.

(Note: This was shot with a point and shoot. I blurred the background to lessen the incredible, and very distracting, depth of field.)

One perk of living near The Great Lakes

Swimmers enjoying the surf at Port Stanley on Lake Erie.

One perk of living in London is being centrally located between two of The Great Lakes -- Erie and Huron -- plus Lake St. Claire is but an hour away.

Port Stanley on Lake Erie is about forty minutes from London. Grand Bend, an even more popular beach for families and teens, takes about the same time to reach.

Sunflowers awakening in the early morning sun

Fields of sunflowers are now in bloom around London, Ontario. I noticed a local photographer had posted a picture and this alerted to me to what was happening just outside town. Having worked for years at the local paper I knew immediately where the sunflower fields could be found southwest of my London home. I grabbed a friend and we both grabbed our cameras and we were off.

Safety: Something Londoners take for granted

Londoners are lucky. They have lots of parks and they are all safe.

Recently I've been thinking a lot about Detroit and how unsafe that once marvelous city has become. Many of that city's parks are closed and the remaining open ones may be unsafe.

When I was downloading this image from my camera I thought how wonderful it is to live in London where our parks are safe. Londoners can stroll from the southwest end of London, where I live, all the way to the downtown and beyond and never worry about entering a "bad part of town."

One hears so much about what makes a good city. I think safe parks should rate high on the list.

The little engine that could

I've shown this little train before but yesterday I was doing some tests shooting RAW with my little Canon S90 and I shot the train.

Each ride on the little train outside Storybook Gardens is but one large loop. Little kids love it but I believe more could be done. Ideally, it should go somewhere and then return. It should be transportation and not just a simple ride.

I posted more on this topic when I ran the original post. Here is a link: Simple rides, simple pleasures. This is something ReThink London needs to address.

Is this a Queen Anne bungalow in EOA?

I found this home is in what is know as the EOA neighbourhood in London, Ontario. EOA stands for east of Adelaide.

EOA was, and still is, a working class neighbourhood. It epitomizes all the best of the working class aesthetic in years past. Many of the homes in the EOA area are beautiful, little jewels. Stained glass windows and ornate wood trim adds real pizazz to these homes. Clearly the early owners took pride in their little bungalows.

The present owner takes great pride in this home. It is one of four almost identical homes in short row and it is easily the nicest home in the group. That said, all four homes have their strengths. One has a full, covered porch. The large porch on the front of the one home makes one wonder what the other homes may have lost over the intervening years.

I am not an expert but I will hazard a guess that this is a small, working class bungalow in a variation of the Queen Anne style applied to a small folk cottage.

An Ontario vernacular bungalow, maybe

The home shown today sits across the street from the cottage featured yesterday. This home looks a lot like a classic Ontario cottage but it may be an example of a vernacular bungalow.

The simple shed roof doesn't feel right to me but maybe it's original. My guess is that it was added when the house was updated and upgraded.

On the plus side it is a well maintained, heritage home. It is located in one of the finest neighbourhoods in all of London. It should continue to be well maintained and it should not just hold its value but appreciate nicely over the coming years.

The amazing thing about these little places is how roomy they are inside. Usually the door leads into a long central hall with a living room off to one side. There are usually two bedrooms. The kitchen is at the back of the home and there is a small dining room. Many folk put an addition on the back of these and enlarge the living space.

The Ontario Cottage

This particular Ontario cottage is slightly different than most. Traditionally the door is in the middle, right below the central small gable breaking the roof line. Here the door is off to the side with the window displaced to where the door usually is found.

The question that immediately comes to mind is, "Has the door been moved some time after the home was built?" I don't know. It is possible the door was always at the far right. These little place were built and owned by working class families who followed tradition but were not adverse to bending the rules a little.

For more info on Ontario cottages try these links:
A Field Guide to Building Watching
The Ontario Cottage: The Globalization of a British Form in the Nineteenth Century

Horses south of roadway, homes north

Home building is getting closer and closer to this pasture and the day is coming quickly when the horses found on this land will be gone. Apple orchards, pasture land, crop land, all were to be found south of my home when I moved here just a little more than twenty years ago. All is now threatened. This should come as no surprise as this picture was taken not fifteen minutes by car from the London, Ontario, city centre.

St. Joe's Hospital getting a new face

The St. Joe's hospital complex in London, Ontario, has a rich religious heritage. As the old hospital is being updated, a new skin is being applied to the aging, yellow brick building -- yet, it's connection to Christ is still evident. Note the cross at the bottom right in this picture showing the new look.

Byron: 7th in a series

This modern home has the garage turned 90-degrees so the double, lifting door is on the side and not boldly facing the street. This answer to the hide-the-garage riddle demands a wide lot. I rather like this home and from inside I imagine the large windowed front is quite spectacular.

There are not a lot of homes like this one. I can see the day in the distant future when this home will be quite admired for its design and its rarity.

Byron: 6th in a series

I was posting some images of homes in my neighbourhood. Then I took a short break. Today I return to the topic of homes.

This home, a very common style of home in London suburbs late in the last century, has a lovely covered porch. The critics of suburbia often moan about the loss of the front porch. Clearly these critics have not spent much time in suburbia.

The lots in this Byron neighbourhood are wider than many lots today. This extra width allowed the builder to put the garage on the side of the home rather than jutting out from the front.

But what makes this place for me is the landscaping. The home has a wonderful in-the-park look, don't you agree?

Old attraction demands more attention

Springbank Park and Storybook Gardens are two aging attractions in London. The merry-go-round is in the park just outside the gardens. The merry-go-round is loved by many children but needs more maintenance than the city seems willing to give.

Note missing reins.

Today my son-in-law took my granddaughter to the park to ride both the carousel and the small train. While Fiona was galloping in circles on her black-painted steed, another child pulled on the reins of her horse and the reins broke. Merry-go-rounds are not dangerous but broken reins are. This is unacceptable.

I looked about and noted that possibly more of the painted horses were missing their reins than had them. Fiona told me that she always looks to see if the pony has reins before asking to be assisted onto the saddle.

The city is talking about putting in a multi-million dollar swimming pool and artificial beach at the Forks of the Thames at the edge of the downtown core. And in recent years city council has been on a hold the line on property taxes bent.

Note the broken mirror and missing light bulbs. Sad.

If the city goes through with the pool and the beach, I'd say they were practising a little of the rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul approach to budgeting. This is not a brilliant approach.

In the end the city will have simply have an expensive attraction in need of expensive attention.

You say you see a Blue Whale?

Fiona, 3, saw a Blue Whale floating above the trees as we did some cloud gazing.

I never saw anything wrong with the Road Runner cartoons of my youth. I didn't learn violence from watching Wylie Coyote getting smucked time and time again. I'm using smuck as it was used in the '50s and not as it is sometimes used today. A lot more has changed than just children's cartoons.

That said, my granddaughter learns a great deal from today's cartoons. She picked up the game "cloud gazing." I'm in my mid 60s and I didn't know there was a proper term for lying on one's back with a friend, the two of you sharing impressions of passing clouds.

And when I was three, I certainly would not have seen a giant Blue Whale, the largest animal that has ever lived according to Fiona, floating above the trees. But my granddaughter did, thanks to the Octonauts.

Byron: 5th in a series

A storm rolled in over London this afternoon. It threatened to be a bad one. There were warnings of possible tornadoes, heavy hail and winds gusting to 110 km/h. My wife and I moved our car into the garage, just in case. Then I walked across the court to watch.

As the storm roiled above I looked down. The light was lovely and the wild flowers beautiful. I shot some quick pictures.

Then I wheeled around and fled for home. As I walked quickly under a neighbour's tree lightning cracked above me. I thought: Not a good place to be; I'm on a high point of land under a tall tree.

I ran across the court, my wife was standing on our small, low porch looking quite concerned.

Byron: 4th in a series

The above home is one of my favourites in the neighbourhood. I believe it was painted a few years ago and it looks even better today than when I moved into this suburb more than two decades ago. The garage is a little more dominant than on some of the other designs but this doesn't detract from the home's attractiveness.

As you can see, this neighbourhood is not filled with cookie cutter designs. The developer was very creative.

Byron: 3rd in a series

This is a duplex. Did you notice that the garage is attached to the neighbouring home?

There is a lot of talk about building tighter, more compact neighbourhoods. This talk is quickly becoming nothing more than background noise as the city planning department has started a move to get everyone onside for the next expansion of London onto surrounding farmland.

We hate sprawl the London city planners tell us. Then they turn around and argue that in order not to sprawl too much, they will sprawl just a little. Don't they understand: Sprawl is sprawl. (Actually they do. They are not stupid, just sneaky.)

Once the public, the ReThink London members, accept a little sprawl, they will be asked to accept just a little more. After some years have passed, the community will look about and realize that it has been bamboozled and a massive amount of new sprawl surrounds the city.

One answer to sprawl is the building of duplexs and the ones in Byron are a good introduction to how to build duplexs that don't shout "duplex."

Byron: 2nd in a series

When I look at this home I see a maturing of the suburban homes I knew back in the '60s. Builders loved big bay windows at that time. The two smaller windows on both sides, called flankers, often open for ventilation. This bay window has a copper roof which has developed a lovely green patina over time.

The shutters are suburban classics: purely decorative. They clearly have no function other than visually framing the upstairs windows as they are too narrow to protect the windows if they actually could be closed. Because of their purely decorative nature, some people in the neighbourhood have removed the faux shutters that once bordered some of their windows. I think this is sad. The original look of the neighbourhood is being lost. These modified homes are being moved visually from the '80s into today.

This front door has sidelights with glass matching that in the door itself. In Byron this glass is usually decorative with a frosted look or stained glass appearance. This makes the large foyers bright but private.

The home has a lovely front porch. Long and sensibly deep, front porches like this are not uncommon in the area and are often used. That said, I have found in my strolling about the area that even smaller, less traditional porches are also often used by residents. I have a porch just barely big enough for two big chairs and a much smaller child's chair. That porch is often in use.

The garage is on the side of the home and not jutting out in front. Until that late '80s in London, this was the common approach. After that, lots became narrower forcing garages to the front. The so called snout house was born. (I hate the term. It sounds insulting. City planners should never use the term.)

The front yard plantings are almost de rigueur in this neighbourhood. A beautifully maintained front lawn seems to be socially obligatory. A well-tended flower garden, a row or two of bushes, a front yard island, all are almost demanded. These beautifully maintained front yards give this lovely area a park like feel which is much enjoyed by walkers. The neighbourhood is a walking destination in itself and its beauty expands the concept of a walkable neighbourhood.

Tomorrow I will post another picture of a Byron home.

Byron: A London, Ontario, subdivision

I love this modern home with a little balcony off what I assume is the master bedroom.

Subdivision is a dirty word in London, Ontario. I don't know why as most Londoners live in a subdivision.

The local paper likes to talk about London subdivisions as if they were the same as Toronto developments. They aren't. For instance, I can drive downtown in 15 minutes or less at almost any time of day. Heck, once I walked home from downtown London on account of late night car trouble.

Byron, where I live, was an independent little place southwest of the city before it was annexed half a century ago. My subdivision was designed and constructed more than thirty years ago by Eadie and Wilcox, a local developer.

There is a small commercial mall in the north end of the development. Farther north is the old, former core of Byron which is still a commercial hub with a grocery store, liquor store, drug store and more. Immediately to the south of the E and W subdivision is a new and rapidly expanding box store like mall. I can easily walk to all three commercial shopping areas

The street layout is classic North American subdivision with lots of crescents and courts mixed in with the roads. Major traffic carrying streets have sidewalks on both sides, minor traffic carrying streets have a sidewalk on one side and cul-de-sacs with low traffic flows have narrow roadways and no sidewalks at all.

The London planning department makes quite a big deal out of some of the older, heritage subdivisions in town. Wortley Village in Old South comes to mind. There is a move to protect the Wortley Village neighbourhood.

I like old as much as the next person. Yet, I find it sad that we ignore the new in favour of the old. I believe we should respect the whole city. The city planners should strive to protect what is good everywhere in the city and try to ensure that commercial spaces are as dense and productive in new subdivisions as in older, heritage ones.

And so, starting to day, I am going to run some pictures of homes in the Eadie and Wilcox developed subdivision in the south west end of London, Ontario.

Canada Day fireworks in London, Ontario

Monday was Canada Day. When I was a boy it was known as Dominion Day. The name changed in 1983. One thing hasn't changed: the fireworks. Almost every community in Canada annually puts on a large fireworks display every July 1st.

Colourful bursts filled the sky at the Forks of the Thames in downtown London, Ontario, while those in the south west of the city enjoyed fireworks at the Optimist Sports Complex. Thousands of Londoners took advantage of the two shows while still more celebrated with small, private displays held in hundreds of backyards throughout the city.

I thought I had a great spot to photograph the display but when the fireworks started, sometimes with two launch sites active at once, I found some of the bursts were marred by the silhouette of a lamp post. (It's right in the middle of this picture. Notice?)

Most hail I have ever seen fall at one time

The storm clouds were impressive last Sunday. My wife an I watched them roll over the city from the back porch of a condo in the north end of London. The biggest and baddest clouds seemed to be passing over south London, our home. (I took a quick picture as soon as we arrived home.)

When we returned home we discovered the ground around our home deep in hail stones. It was simply amazing. In some places the hail was five inches deep.

Many of our plants were destroyed. Our hostas took an especially hard beating. The next day my granddaughter thought the hostas had been attacked by caterpillars - very voracious caterpillars.

I picked up a few samples of the hail and took a quick picture. As you can see, some of the hail was larger in diametre than an American dime. I'm sure some of the hail, not much but some, was as large as a quarter.

Like I said, this was the worst hail storm that I have personally ever experienced.

I

It has been a wet spring.

It has been a wet spring but a bit dry photographically. Heart has been acting up, or more accurately my ICD has been acting up. Three shocks in the past month goes a long way to killing my enthusiasm for getting out and shooting daily pictures.

But I see so many good photos on Google+ that I felt downright inspired. I strolled all the way to my front lawn and found this oh-so-wet hosta.

The London area is well known for its fine farmland and successful agriculture. Everyone is praying that the rain dials back the clouds and storms, letting the sun shine through. Summer is just days away and its time to get down to some serious growing.

The asparagus liked the rain but it is almost done. The strawberry patches are just about ready for picking. The berries should be bigger than usual but not as sweet. They will be puffed with water and their flavour diluted. My granddaughter won't care. She'll still love getting out into the pick-your-own fields and filling quart basket after quart basket with the red berries.

Fleetwood Cruize Weekend: come and gone

John heads off in his completely restored Morgan roadster.

Steve Plunkett has again hosted his Fleetwood Cruize event. Plunkett has a large estate in the far west end of London and holds what may be the largest outdoor car show in North America and possibly the world and its held in what may be thought of as his backyard.

The owner of the Morgan spent years restoring his roadster.

The money raised goes to charity and he raises a lot. Plunkett is one cool dude.

The show is just five or ten minutes from my west London home and in past years I have shown my Morgan Plus 4. Not this year.

My heart has been acting up and my ICD has been busy pacing it and shocking it into line. My Morgan is parked for the time being and may be sold.

But my neighbours still got to enjoy the sight of a Morgan, actually two, gracing our suburban streets. Some members of the Morgan Sports Car Club of Canada stopped by to say hello while in the neighbourhood.

Tell me again, Mr. Urban Planner, why shouldn't I like driving?

Graham Arboretum

According to the local paper, the Graham Arboretum has been a feature of Springbank Park since the 1920s but most folk in London are totally unaware of its existence. This isn't all that surprising as an arboretum is simply an assortment of trees and shrubs grown for exhibition or scientific study. Before the present feature, a small gazebo took centre stage here.

The Memory Wall, partially visible on the left, features granite tablets personalized with individual messages. Londoners are using the Memory Wall to honour or remember friends and loved ones with an engraved granite plaque.

Each plaque costs $1,500 with a portion of the money going toward the purchase of new trees. The arboretum was originally conceived by park superintendent Ernie Graham in 1926 and today the collection includes 300 trees encompassing 75 species: Red oak, Serbian spruce, weeping beech, purple beech, an entire magnolia grove . . .

London, ON: World class medical research centre

London, Ontario, likes to think of itself as a world class medical research centre. And you know, it might be true. There is so much puffery surrounding claims made by cities that one has a tenancy to pooh-pooh the claims and write them off as so much hollow bragging. But London has the facilities and the history to back-up their claims of world class status.

I personally have benefited from the solid medical treatment available in London, albeit on an experimental basis. I was the first person in Canada to have a failed mitral valve in the heart repaired robotically.

Think of my operation as open heart surgery but with the accent on "heart surgery" and not on "open." No cracking open the chest for me. All I have to show for my surgery is a small scar  hidden in the fold of skin below my right nipple. (I had to check in a mirror to be sure.) Oh, and I have a repaired mitral valve as well. It's been ten years and the repair is holding.

I also benefited from the research being done by Dr. John White in high powered MRIs. Thanks to Dr. White an error in my genetic code was discovered that explained a runaway heart episode, a V-tach event, that I suffered in the States while on vacation.

After Dr. White's discovery it was clear I was a prime candidate for another V-tack event and possibly sudden death. I now have an ICD and I'm on proper meds to minimize my heart rate problems. I won't live forever but I won't die as soon as I surely would have without the intervention of the London doctors.

Note the name on the building in today's photo: Lindros. On his retirement from hockey, the former NHL star Eric Lindros marked his exit from professional sports with a $5-million donation to London Health Sciences Centre. The gift was the largest known one-time charitable donation from a Canadian sport figure.

Lindros is a native of London, he was born at the London Health Sciences Centre facility. It was probably known as University Hospital at that time. Anyone who follows hockey knows that Lindros had more than his share of injuries suffered during play.

I was at the press conference where he announced his gift and he said one reason for the size of the gift to the hospital was that he credited the excellent health care he was given in London over the years with allowing him to play as long and as successfully as he did.

London's facilities are definitely world class. Don't believe me? Ask Della Reese. This is what Wikipedia says:

"In 1979, after taping a guest spot for The Tonight Show, she suffered a near-fatal brain aneurysm, but made a full recovery after two operations by neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Drake at University Hospital in London, Ontario."

Yes, there's no question. London's has a world class medical centre.

Do wild flowers make a better lawn?

Spring daisies.

Herbicides, at least those for home lawns, are illegal in Ontario. The result has been more dandelions, more daisies and just generally more weeds. Personally, I don't think the result is so bad. My neighbour says we're just going to have to rethink lawns and what makes a good one. Perhaps, in the future, a good lawn will have lots of pretty wild flowers.

Hurry-up and wait, uh, weight

This gentleman was spotted taking a walk for his health in Springbank Park in London, Ontario. To pump-up the benefit, the chap is pumping a couple of small barbells.