We share our cities

We think we are important when it comes to the scheme of things -- and we are. We are far more influencial when it comes to what happens on our planet than our numbers appear to warrant. For instance, insects make up the bulk of the world’s animal species, some 70% in fact.

Many of us don't give the other species on our planet enough credit. We need them. The linked article may overstate the problem. It is hard to extrapolate the way the author does. Yet . . .

It may feel more natural to fret about wolves, sea turtles, and white rhinos dying off than it is to feel remorse about vanishing bugs.

But the loss of insects is a dire threat — one that could trigger a "catastrophic collapse of Earth's ecosystems," according to a February 2019 study.

Source: Last year, 40% of honey-bee colonies in the US died. But bees aren't the only insects disappearing in unprecedented numbers. -- Business Insider.

The first of the month. Is this share a park day?

London's parks are peaceful but across the States parks are in shambles after days of protest and rioting. Canada is not free of the taint of racism. There but for the grace of god as my dear departed mother would have said.

The unfolding story in the U.S. is a wake-up call for Canadians. We have racist issues and these issues have resulted in violence, very localized, but violence in the past nevertheless. These matters must be addressed, dealt with and dealt with successfully.

One thing that I have not seen discussed is that half way through this century whites will be the minority, at least in the States for sure. If we have not solved the race issue, we, or our children and grandchildren, may suffer the same fate we have inflicted on others for centuries. This game could flip.

Urban landscape owes a lot ot the banks

Opened in 1822, the Bank of Montreal is Canada's oldest bank. If it gets through the covid-19 financial disaster without touching its dividend, it will have gone 198 years without ever being forced to reduce its dividend. An enviable record but one that is not out-of-place in the Canadian banking world.

Buy a home and you may well find yourself dealing with one of Canada's big five banks. Housing and banking is a partnership with deep roots. But any big personal expense may send a Canadian to visit a bank. Banks are seen by many Canadians as almost a friend. Always there offering support in tough times.

But Canadian banks do more than just loan money. For instance, the Bank of Montreal has a very successful ETF investment arm. When a Canadian is born, the little baby may be given an RESP or Registered Education Savings Plan. During one's life, a Canadian may well save for their senior years by putting money aside in an RRSP or Registered Retirement Savings Plan. And when a Canadian dies, it may well be a bank that acts as the executor of the will.

Compared to U.S. banks, in size Canadian banks would be rated among the largest regional banks in the States. With a market capitalization of only $43.4B Cdn., about $32B U.S., BMO is dwarfed by the immense size of big U.S. banks like JP Morgan Chase with a market capitalization of about $336B U.S.

So, why are Canadian banks so successful? Many claim it is because the Canadian banks operate in a highly regulated environment which is much different than that found south of the border. On the surface all the regulations don't seem to work in the Canadian banks' favour. For instance, according to Morningstar the Canadian banks are forced by law to hold more risk on their balance sheets that their U.S. counterparts. But this, some argue, forces Canadian banks to act more fiscally responsibly.

The future of banking in Canada may be different than the history of banking in Canada. U.S. banks are trying to make inroads while Canadian banks are expanding south of the border. How these actions will play out is a big question with the role protectionism will play in the unfolding story an immense grey area.

Canada's banks are part of the fabric of the country

The Bank of Nova Scotia is the third largest Canadian bank with what many say is the largest international presence. The BNS has invested heavily in Latin America.  A move that many see as potentially a negative today.

Lots of Canadian seniors hold Canadian bank stock for the generous and dependable dividends. Those dividends can be very important in retirement. Today the BNS dividend is $3.60 annually resulting in a yield of 6.53% based on the present price of the BNS stock.

Founded in 1832, the BNS has gone 187 years without once missing or even reducing its dividend. In fact, the bank habitually does the reverse; it has increased its dividend in 43 of the last 45 years. Because of losses related to covid-19, it is feared investors will not see a dividend increase for three or four years. On the other hand, the bank promises  it will not cut its dividend. It says it will not break an almost two century long tradition.

Our largest park is now open

London's largest park, Springbank, is now welcoming visitors. The park is not crowded like some that one's reads about on the Internet. It's long trails are being used again but very lightly. Still, it is nice to see. The city is waking up; it is coming out of its covid-19-inflicted stupor.

This raccoon will get its water

I wish I had the pictures to tell the whole story. If you have ever wondered whether or not animals can engage in creative thinking, I have the answer: They can.

The urban raccoon was looking for a drink. The bird bath offered water but it was difficult to reach. After awkwardly drinking while hanging from the bowl for a few minutes, the raccoon climbed a nearby tree, climbed out on a limb over the bird bath and, when well out towards the end of the branch, it sagged and the raccoon hopped down to the bird bath and to the water

Years ago, in the late '60s, I there was a course at the University of Windsor that taught animals were incapable of true thinking. I raised an example of an action similar to this raccoon's, which, by climbing a tree and moving away from the goal (water in the bird bath), seems to be taking an approach requiring creative and not instinctive thinking.

The professor got angry and banished any more questions of that ilk. He used bluster to hide the fact that he had no ready answer: animals might well think and creatively too.

Scooters are for tricks

I believe it was built as a skateboard park but now it's used by young people with scooters. I had no idea that high-flying tricks could be done with scooters but clearly they can. And the nice thing about the park is that it naturally encourages social distancing. Only one athletic scooter trickster is allowed on a ramp at any one time. It's a covid-19 safe activity. Hmmm. Where did I put my scooter?

Keeping our urban world functioning

Keeping an urban region running smoothly is not just about repairing roads and bridges doing all on the taxpayers' dollar. Keeping our stock of residential structures sound is also important and this expense falls on the home owner, as it should.

Our garage door is now approaching 40-years-in-age. It is painted wood not aluminum like those available today. Its motor is new, replaces last fall, and its rollers and seals are replaced when necessary. Four rollers were replaced today and the seal that repels mice was repaired.

I spoke with the repairman from afar. Covid-19 rules of social distancing were in force. I trusted him to do a good job and the company he works for will email me a bill. I will pay it electronically.

It is not often considered but living in a city provides services like garage door maintenance at a very reasonable cost. The business is located no more than ten minutes or so from my home. Travel costs are minimal. Not so if one lives in the country. There are advantages to city living that often go unnoticed.

163 unbroken years of dividends

Canadian banks are amazing. TD Canada Trust has an unbroken record of dividend payments going all the way back to 1857. That's right it has not missed a dividend, or cut the payment, in 163 years. And TD Canada Trust is not the only Canadian bank with bragging rights in the dividend area.

Canada's oldest bank, the Bank of Montreal, hasn't missed a dividend since 1829. That's 191 years! The Bank of Nova Scotia has a record going back almost as far: 1832. The Royal Bank, Canada's biggest bank, can only brag about not missing a dividend payment since 1870 or a mere 150 years.

And Canada's banks are not the only one's with bragging rights when it comes to paying dividends. BCE, also known as Bell Canada, hasn't missed a dividend payment since 1881, which is just a few years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. (An invention that Canadians lay claim to.) The Bell Telephone Company of Canada was incorporated in 1880 and started paying investors a year later.

Will covid-19 put an end to these companies' unbroken run? Not if they can help it. The banks have already stated that if they must they will issue new equity to cover expenses. All banks are stating publicly hat their dividends are safe. And Bell, well it is not known as the stock for widows and orphans for no reason. It's dividend may well be safe, too.

One last note on TD Canada Trust. The TD stands for Toronto-Dominion. That was the name of the bank when I was a boy. The Canada Trust tacked onto the TD came about when TD merged with a London, Ontario, based competitor. Trust companies are not banks but a very smart Londoners figured out that this should not stop trust companies from competing with banks. Canada Trust did was such a great competitor that TD merged with the trust company a few decades ago.

When covid-19 was still off-shore but threatening to invade, I got out of the market. After the virus struck and the stock market crashed, I bought back in but this time I filled my portfolio with dividend paying, oh-so-trustworthy Canadian companies. Banks, utilities, communication businesses and pipelines make up a big part of my investments. I may lose money but my income should be relatively safe.

If these Canadian companies cut, or worse miss, a dividend then we have more to  worry about than the stock market.

Sadly, a covid-19 birthday is very memorable

The excitement began building late last year. Come May Isla would be seven. Mom would rent a room at a party palace. There would be games and pizza and friends, lots and lots of friends. At least once a week the little girl would ask how many weeks until my birthday. It was a long countdown made longer by the unrelenting anticipation.

And then—wham!—the coronavirus: Covid-19. It ended schooling for the year. It brought mom home. It put the grandparents off limits. And the much anticipated seventh birthday bash, it wouldn't happen.

Kids all over the world suffered the same fate when it came to their birthdays. In the covid-19 world, birthdays come and go quietly, not unnoticed but not loudly celebrated either. Isla's grandparents dropped off a gift. She opened it on the driveway. Her grandparents could not enter the home. It was off limits to them. The gift was a kitchen set. Isla quickly carried it into the home. 

No point waiting about. A covid-19 birthday does not have hugs. No kisses. No one, other than mom, dad and her older sister, can get closer to her than six feet. Isolation does not make for great birthdays. All around the world, thousands of kids are learning covid-19 birthdays may not be great but they will be memorable. Unforgettable, in fact.

It would be sad except for the fact that it was a seventh birthday. Seven! Think about it. Turning seven cannot be a bad thing. Never. And then there is that kitchen set.

At the moment, Detroit is infinitly far from London Ontario

When I was a boy in the '50s I lived in Windsor, Ontario. That's the city immediately across the Detroit River from the city of the same name. Crossing the border was easy. A ten-year-old could do it, and a ten-year-old did.

In the '60s and '70s Canadians living near the border, would visit Detroit. It was an exciting city to visit with a rich mix of restaurants, stores and shops, art gallery and a big-city zoo. Back then lots of Londoners made a day trip to the big city and as often as not the big city of choice was Detroit rather than Toronto.

This art work was done in those distant years by Detroit artist Ronald Scarborough. It looks at first glance like a signed and numbered lithograph. On careful inspection one realizes it is a very good half-tone print. This print is from a numbered run of 900 copies.

An unsophisticated Canadian visitor might think they were getting an incredible bargain when buying this Scarborough print for only $10 in a Detroit private gallery. They weren't but they were not getting ripped off either. The price was fair for a mass produced copy. As a halftone and not a lithograph one could say it came from a run of 900 copies and was not part of an edition of 900 prints.

Over the years the private galleries closed. Many of the restaurants closed. Big stores, like Hudson's and Kerr's, and small stores, too, closed. The trip from London to Detroit seemed two hours too long. Today the border at Detroit is closed. The covid-19 virus has put the once grand city of Detroit off limits. And yet, for many, the draw had already become very weak. Many crossed the border only to reach the Interstate and immediately leave the city without stopping to head quickly south.

My Ronald Scarborough print hangs in a front hallway, its white paper slowly turning yellow. The image, like the city it came from, has faded with the passing time.

Self-isolating is not all bad

You say no school to a parent and they tremble with anxiety. No schooling. No learning. How will the kids get by? Say no school to my granddaughters and they hear "hammock."

Although they may not be rushing about in the morning to catch the school bus and then spending all day in a crowded classroom, they are still doing some school work every day via a couple of home computers.

How much are they learning? That is an open question. Their parents are still anxious and the kids are still spending chunks of each spring day enjoying the hammock.

Neighbourhood asparagus stand is open

The land must be valuable. If it were growing new homes rather than shoots of asparagus, I'm sure the owners would be far wealthier.

The family growing and selling the asparagus has been doing this for decades. They've been doing it for so long that their crop is unique. It is an old hybrid no longer commonly grown in the province.

One year the Ontario asparagus crop failed. Rust. There was no locally grown asparagus in the grocery stores. But the little Greenland Asparagus stand had fresh, green spears for sale. Their crop was not the hybrid being attacked. It was not affected by the rust spores floating in the air everywhere in the province.

I worry about the little farm. Finding folk to pick the crop is getting harder and harder with each passing year. I fear that one year it will homes or stores filling the fields and not haphazard rows of an ancient asparagus hybrid.

Normal is looking more normal

The day is warm and London's biggest park, Springbank, had a sprinkling of people engaged in a number of activities: walking, jogging, skateboarding and biking.

Oh, the pandemic is still modifying behaviour. Most people seemed to be giving others a very wide berth. Social distancing was clearly still in force.

And yet, there was a back to normal  feel to the day that may not be bested until a vaccine is released.

Life goes on

I read an article in The Lancet, I believe, that said we should learn from this covid-19 pandemic. We have been taken down by our hubris.What is hubris? Excessive self-confidence. Pride in oneself bordering on defiance of the gods.

We are changing the planet. Modifying the only home we have and we are doing it in way that can only bring disaster. Covid-19 is a window on the future.

I can recall as a small boy worrying that the immense herds of wild animals found in Africa back in the early '50s were threatened. My mom thought I asked too many questions. I thought adults didn't ask enough.

This little wren is living a life modified by the fact it lives in close proximity to us. But, take us away and this little bird's life will go on. It appreciates us but it doesn't need us. But, in a very real sense, we don't fully appreciate nature and the wild world but we need it. And, we need to keep it rich and diverse and somewhat separate. We need to respect the others with whom we share this planet. Wildlife markets are not places of respect.

The lonely tulip. It was missed by the rabbits.

Off with their heads. Or at least, off with the blooms. One lonely tulip stands in my wife's garden. Left intact, so far, by the grazing rabbits. My guess is that come morning it too will be gone. Heck, even I can see it is probably quite delicious, cool in the evening air and covered with moist raindrops. I'm sure it is not only very pretty but yummy as well.

This blossom is a real pistil.

Our Japanese magnolia, which originated in China but that is another story, is finally in full bloom. It blooms a bit later than the the more common, at least in our neighbourhood, pink magnolia.

I love the look of the blossoms but it is the pistil and stamens at the core of the flower that I find most interesting. I understand all magnolias hide treasures like this deep inside the flowers. They all don't look like this but they are all spectacular, especially in close-up photos.

Should puzzles be sanitized? It's a puzzle.

As self-isolation continues, folks in my neighbourhood are facing the challenge of finding interesting things to do. One answer has been jigsaw puzzles. To this end, folk have been passing puzzles from home to home, mom to daughter and friend to friend. But one question keeps me awake at night; can jigsaw puzzle cats carry the coronavirus?

We're told to keep six-feet or more apart. We're told to wear a mask to protect others from our possibly contaminated breathe. We're told to sanitize this and to sanitize that. Should puzzles be sanitized, and if so, how? It would take a long time to wipe a thousand individual puzzle pieces.

It is a puzzle.

Gardening while self-isolating

Our neighbours are putting this time of self-isolation to good use. They are all out working on their yards: fertilizing, weed-pulling, raking and planting.

I was surprised to learn that many of the garden centres are now open. Oh one must line up to get in and the number allowed into the store or the yard is carefully monitored. And there is little spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment purchasing. You must get, get what you came for and leave. If not the folks waiting to enter would wait a long, long time.

It is beginning to look that our urban lifestyle has been changed by this virus. Until there is a vaccine, we may not be living as we did just a few short months ago.

A silver lining

There have been some bad incidents it's true but for the most part the covid-19 pandemic seems to have brought out the best in people. Young couples with families assisting older seniors missing their grandchildren. Shoppers lining up politely and waiting patiently to enter the store and do their shopping. Strollers keeping their distance but still finding it possible to smile and shout a "hello" and "stay safe."

Signs thanking those who are on the frontline working are common. Seeing the good that the pandemic is drawing out of people seems to be a silver lining in this terrible, global disaster.

Our neighbours love Turtle Cookies as a thank you gift

Our neighbours worry about us. I rather wish they'd stop. I'm going stir crazy. We run low on milk and before I can make my escape, a neighbour stops by and asks if we need anything from the store. I haven't been free of the home since late last week. Aaauuuggghhh!

And paying them is difficult. We are not rich but we aren't poor either. Our grocery bill has headed so far south, it may not break into the three digit range. Ridiculous but so caring. It all leaves me smiling (through my clenched teeth).

My wife has worked out a way of saying thank you. She leaves a bag of Turtle Cookies on the porch. The neighbours leave us our groceries and take the Turtle Cookies in return. When done the baked cookies have a round gob of melted dark chocolate on the top of the shell and hidden inside is a square of chocolate and caramel broken off a Hershey's Caramilk bar.

Growing food closer to home

Our food supple chain is breaking down because of the ongoing pressure of covid-19. Before the coronavirus we bought strawberries from California or from Mexico and thought nothing of it. Now, I see those berries with a new and growing appreciation of the complex delivery system that put those berries on my table.

It is mid May and the berries shown have been available since late April in a specialty grocery store in my neighbourhood. What is unique about these berries? Note where these berries are grown: Canada. These are locally grown, greenhouse berries. Despite the snow on the ground, there are locally grown berries on the store shelves.

When I was a boy strawberries were available for about three, maybe four, weeks in late spring. And that was it. When those weeks were gone, strawberries were gone. Not so today. There are now varieties of strawberries called ever-bearing that produce three or more crops annually.  Locally grown field berries are now available from late spring until very early fall.

Thanks to hothouse berries, the growing season is expanding again. Soon, it should be possible to eat locally grown strawberries from April through to early November. And if folk can be persuaded to eat frozen berries at other times, imported fresh berries may become a fading memory or a very expensive, hard-to-find treat.

Mother's Day Meant Too Close for Comfort

It was Mother's Day but getting gifts for mom and grandma was tough. With the gardening centre closed, the two little girls had to settle for gift cards. A bit impersonal but it was the best they could do.

Kisses and hugs for grandma were out. Masks were in. Just getting close enough to hand grandma an envelope seemed wrong. Social distancing demands 2 full metres.

The visit  didn't last long -- if you can call what occurred a visit. How we recover from the tension and the fear of our Covid-19 response is an open question. The self-isolation may end, but Grandma will still worry about the young girls and the girls will still worry about grandma. When will hugs return?

Another self-isolation dinner

Finding pictures is tough when one is self-isolating. The big moment of the day is often dinner. Since restaurants are off our menu, unless we want take out, my wife let's me play "Is this restaurant fare?"

I try my best but the dinners are rarely great. I grumble a lot about my failures. She tells me to lighten up; I'm too harsh a critic of my cooking, she says. Well tonight, thanks to a New York Times recipe, I hit the jackpot. Dinner tonight was restaurant fare. Now, my wife is telling me to stop gloating. She's never happy. Well, not quite true, she was happy with my oh-so-fine dinner and I'm gloating again.

A truly compact car spotted on the court today

A truly compact car was spotted on the court today. It was bright and warm and not weather than encouraged a family to stay indoors or at the least remain on their property. This little boy jumped in his little electric car and, with dad watching from the sidelines, he headed off for some laps on the court.

Rabbits are picky eaters; who'd have thought.

My wife has some flowers blooming in her garden. What a wonderful surprise. Nothing kept the rabbits away from the tulips but apparently primula doesn't need protection from the little furry cuties. Rabbits, we have learned, are not attracted to primula. What a delightful surprise.

Photo of German Cars Recalls French Flag. Oops!

It was time for the winter tires to be switched for the the warm weather rubber. But, because of covid-19, it had to be put off until the first of May.

Today was the day. I drove down to the dealer and found the door closed, locked. A note on the door. Knock, it said.

My service advisor came to the door, I backed up and he came out, arm out-stretched. I tossed him my keys and he took them, told me to come back in an hour and turned and walked away. No customers allowed inside.

I killed the hour looking at cars, new cars, used cars, VWs and Audis. The Audi R8 convertible at $254,000 looked nice but a bit too much car for me. I'd feel guilty behind the wheel. I'd also feel tinges of guilt when I stiffed VW for the car payments.

When the hour was up, I picked up my aging Jetta. Its black paint sparkled. The service department washes every car passing through. I'm not sure everyone can see it but when I look at that car I see a pleasing patina of affordability and I like that look.

A road not taken

 

There's a famous poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. It starts "Two roads diverged . . . "

There's a bend in Hyde Park Road where, if one pays attention, there is the hint of long forgotten "Y".

Go right, through the curb cut and almost immediately encounter a couple of posts with a length of chain suspended between them

This the Hyde Park Road not taken, and for good reason. This is the old, closed, former Hyde Park Road. It was once a rather attractive stretch of highway. No more. Today, even Robert Frost would likely decide to stay on the well-traveled path.

This also came from China.

One. There is just one little brightly coloured bud on our entire magnolia tree. Tomorrow there will be more and then more and then one morning we will get up, look out the kitchen window, and see our entire magnolia tree in bloom.

I always thought magnolia trees were had large pink and white flowers. When I bought our tree it was small and sported only green leaves. When spring arrived, red-purple flowers appeared. Flowers with long droopy petals. It looked nothing like the magnolia trees with which I was familiar.

After a visit to the gardening centre I knew what I had was either a Japanese or Chinese flowering magnolia. A species of magnolia that was not found in Southwest Ontario in the past.

Cooped up inside, waiting out the quarantine, my wife and I will delighted when the tree is heavy with blooming flowers. Heck, we were excited just to see a little, rain-wet bud.

With the parks closed, kids play in the court

With the parks all closed, neighbourhood kids are getting antsy. The large, paved circle that gives our short street its designation as a court, is now very well used. Today it was bikes, the other day it was road hockey and tomorrow I'm sure it will be anther group and another activity.

I understand that residential streets that lack sidewalks and force the sharing of the paved street space among pedestrians, playing children and cars are called woonerfs in Holland. In London these types of residential spaces are often courts.

I couldn't get too close when taking the picture. One doesn't want to threaten the social distancing that the kids are being so careful to maintain. The little boys are actually quite delightful and I would not have wanted to risk upsetting them.

If the grandkids were here, this groundhog would be named.

The groundhog stays mostly out of sight. We know he's been around by all the tulips and other spring plants that are no longer in our garden. Between the rabbits and the groundhogs we may not have many spring flowers.

My wife is upset. Me? I enjoy watching the wildlife. But shusssh. Don't tell my wife.

Found Art_Sorta

 

Years ago I took my granddaughters to an art-in-the-park event. We saw this piece of art done in glass. It was a decoration for one's garden. It is simply old, discarded glass objects glued together. I bought it and it still stands today in the garden beside our front door.

Line-ups continue

Needing a few food items, I had to go to the grocery store. The line-up stretched a long way but there are not that many in line. Note the large gaps between waiting customers. Although I am well back in the parking lot, there are only about half a dozen folk ahead of me.

A note about No Frills. It is a discount grocery store. The plain white colour with big splashes of bright yellow convey the impression of cheap and the yellow is reminiscent of some of the least expensive products in the store. These  products, made especially for No Frills, come in plain yellow containers with simply black lettering.

Cars are not being driven. Result? An oil glut.

Yesterday the price of a barrel of U.S. crude fell into negative territory for the first time in history. Stockpiles of oil have overwhelmed storage facilities. Buyers were being offered something like $38 U.S. to take the oil off the hands of the sellers. Totally weird.

Take a look at parking lots. Compared to how they looked a couple of months ago, they are empty. People are not driving, planes are not flying, and oil is not being used. But the air is cleaner.

Rabbits have invaded

This self-isolation means no granddaughters keeping eyes peeled for rabbits in the yard eating budding tulips. And that translates into no blooming tulips this spring. None. Nada. Nothing. Zero.

Oh well, without the girls yelling "Rabbit Stew" and running outside hands waving, the little monsters have taken up residence at our kitchen dining-nook window. No point on doing any yelling after the blooms have been eaten.

The rabbits seem to be having as much fun watching us as we do watching them.

Front line workers go to work for us; we stay home for them.

There are no crowds out protesting social distancing and the temporary shutting down of many businesses in London. And to many of us, the workers who are still going to work are not lucky but brave.

The sentiment expressed on this sign, thank you to all the front line workers, is one commonly encountered. This is a tough moment and it seems everyone is trying to get onboard, cooperate and successfully see this pandemic through.

A comment reprinted from the group FB page

I joined this group because I love cities. Always have. To see what this new virus, the coronavirus, has done to our cities, to our way of life, amazes me. It has put so much under the microscope, so to speak, and what I believe we are finding is not good. 

This is an awful virus but it could be a lot worse. We, the world, is actually getting off rather lightly. We have to learn from this. We have to tighten up; we have to improve a lot of our systems. The next pandemic may be the bad one, the one that attacks everyone and just the old(er) and frail. 

I cannot believe, that there are people who don't understand that social distancing is not just for their protection, especially if they are younger, but one practises it for the protection of the seniors in their lives. Protest social distancing, gather in a big, tightly packed group, pick up the virus and take it home to mom and dad, to grandma and grandpa. 

Talk about the complete antithesis to how to run a proper urban civilization. I shake my head. (But I am proud of those who have given this their full support despite the difficulties, and the great unkowns - many people, and companies, are to be commended. There are a lot of fine citizens out there.

The comment above was a follow-up to my comments that accompanied the above charts which I posted to the Daily Photo FB page. These are but part of the information released and updated daily by the Australian government. Note the amount of illness spread out through the population and then not the deaths. The deaths are all among seniors, those from about 55 up. The peak for deaths is among those in their 80s. Just talking about the death without attaching sex and age group information is almost meaningless.

More comes from around the world than just the corona virus

 

I smiled as I put out tonight's dinner. More than just the coronavirus comes to us from around the world, I thought. The basmati rice came from India, the garlic from California, the lemon came also from the States, the yellow sweet pepper and asparagus from Mexico and the rainbow trout came from Chile. Only the tomatoes were local, grown in a hot house an hour southwest of London.

Why even the plate came from outside the country: Portugal. Thankfully the coronavirus has not made an appearance in our home and we hope it never does.

Kids now doing school work online

I was on Facebook when I heard a computer beep and a flashing light on my computer monitor indicated I had a message. Before I knew it I had my granddaughter on the screen, a little image in the bottom right corner showing the image that I was transmitting and I was having an online chat with my youngest granddaughter.

The little girl and her older sister are now doing their school work online. They are using a program called BlueStacks. BlueStacks works with Facebook and so with her school work done, the kid tried calling Judy and me. It wasn't perfect but it worked well enough. I now have BlueStacks loaded and I'll see how our online chats go in the future.

Social Distancing at the grocery store

I finally got out of the house. I made a quick trip to Costco with a stop at the small, family market on the way home. Tuesdays and Thursdays Costco opens an hour early for seniors. I was done in less than an hour and so had time to stop at Remark which opened at nine a.m.

The early morning shoppers were lined up right around the store waiting for the doors to open. Line-ups seemingly go forever today. When people are frightened and leaving eight and ten feet between themselves and others in line, lines grow fast. And when the doors open, the lines move fast.

I feel like I'm living in a bad, made-for-television movie. This simply does not feel real. And yet, not only is this real, but it will continue in some form until a vaccine is available and herd immunity kicks in.

Raccoons have always practised social distancing

 

It's definitely spring. The raccoons are back. It's too bad our granddaughters are not back. They are missing seeing all the wild visitors enjoying our backyard.

I'm not sure what this raccoon was enjoying but it sat on the top of our wall and quietly dined. Sometimes I'm tempted to put out carrots and train the wildlife to stop by for a quick dinner. Seems wrong but then is eating old cookies from someone's garbage an improvement?

Aren't kissing booths just a cartoonist joke?

 

With my wife and I are practising self-isolation, Getting out and about to take pictures is hard. So, I spent the afternoon tidying my basement storage room. I found some photos taken during my career as a staff photographer at the daily paper.

I have always found this image, taken about 1980, a very strange photo. The Board of Education was holding a park activities event for all the city's public schools. One event was a kissing booth. I had never seen such a thing. I had thought kissing booths were a joke. A figment of the imaginations of slightly off-kilter cartoonists. 

This young girl was selling kisses for 3-cents a kiss! Yuck! And dozens and dozens of young boys were crowded around the booth with one of the boys waving a dollar bill. I took the picture and I thought I had something, something weird, something that should never be but was. The picture made the paper but the editor thought it was very ho-hum'.

I entered it in photo contests sponsored by photojournalist organizations; it went nowhere. I entered it in a photo competition at the fair; it collected no votes. Maybe today, some four decades later, someone will be shocked that this was ever allowed to happen, let alone encouraged. I feel it makes a clear statement as to the state of thinking back then -- or the lack of thinking.

Kissing booth. Disgusting.

 

Remembering the days before COVID-19

As my wife and I sat alone in our home self-isolating, we recalled the days before COVID-19 and, forgive me, before Donald Trump. The border between Canada and the U.S. was a friendly border back then. I can recall when a driver's licence was all one needed to cross into the States.

We would leave London for the U.S. in our aging roadster with a body that was aging more gracefully than our own. We'd visit friends in the Detroit area, we'd lunch in a wonderful small-town diner, we'd cruise the backcountry roads and enjoy the hospitality.

Those days may be over for awhile. Social distancing may become the norm. And crossing the border now takes a passport. It is not so easy anymore. The border restrictions have tightened on both sides. Just the other day Prime Minister Trudeau announced asylum seekers attempting to enter Canada from any entry point along the Canada-U.S. border will be returned to the States.

According to the Globe and Mail, possibly the most influential paper in Canada, "More than 57,000 asylum seekers have entered Canada through unauthorized border crossings since 2017, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced a crackdown on illegal immigration."

"Most of the asylum seekers have been able to remain in Canada through a loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement (a loophole the U.S. under Trump has not honoured) . . . . refugee advocacy groups have encouraged the government to make it easier for people fleeing the U.S. to seek asylum in Canada, and are disappointed with the decision. Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, called the move 'beyond disappointing and disgraceful.' "

Some have called Prime Minister Trudeau's move downright un-Canadian.

You know, somedays being isolated isn't so bad.

Healthcare from a COVID-19 safe distance

 

With COVID-19 making visiting a hospital a questionable thing to do, even if normally you'd jump in your car, or call an ambulance, today you think twice, pick up the phone and make a call. I called.

I was asked if MyCareLink Patient Monitor was indicating a problem? An out-of-control arrhythmia or tachycardia event? Nope. I'm jsut a little dizzy, I said. My blood pressure is 62 over 41 with a pulse rate of 50.

With a reading like that, there is no surprise that you're dizzy, I was told. It should pass, If not, call us again. Your pacemaker won't let your pulse drop below 50 bpm and your blood pressure should slowly comeback up. 

Take comfort in the fact that your low blood pressure won't kill you. I smiled and hung-up Healthcare in London in the year 2020.

Snow: nothing surprises us

 
It's early April. The days are longer, warmer and snowier. Snowier? Don't ask. It is a strange world in which we are living. Last night we were kept awake by numerous bright bolts of lightning followed by oh-so-loud cracks of thunder. Earlier in the evening, hail the size of golf ball hit North London, punching holes in plastic siding.

So, when does the plague of frogs arrive?

Joy

 

It rained yesterday. It stormed last night. This morning it was too wet to work in the garden. But come mid-afternoon, it was warm and beckoning. My wife's garden has little flowers beginning to bloom but the petals are spotted with mud splatter thanks to the heavy rain.

Then I noticed the little rock with the word Joy etched on one side. My granddaughters saw the rock in a craft shop and immediately wanted it for the garden. My wife looked at my picture and smiled. "We all need a little Joy today." 

Clearly, buying the little rock was a good idea.

It's not the way we saw it.

The picture on the left was linked to a Twitter tweet. It raised a lot of concern and anger. These people were clearly not practising social distancing. Complaints were lodged going all the way to the Prime Minister having angry tweets addressed to him

The local paper went out and soon realize the image was an example of photographic foreshortening. The shoppers appear much closer together than they really are. It is an illusion and not reality. (Not quite true, but an in depth discussion takes awhile. When I taught photography I had to take a student to the physics department to get him to understand. Let's not go there.)

The line may not have been as long when the news shooter arrived but he took two images that nicely illustrate how the same line can look quite different depending upon the angle.

Kudos to our local newspaper for nipping this brouhaha in the bud.

A blister beetle or so I believe

It was a big, attractive, dark blue beetle. I took its picture but I didn't touch it. I'm self-isolating and if I can't get close to my grandkids, I'll be damned if I'm going to get close to a bug. Turns out, the expression rather fits when used here. The bug is a blister beetle. Touch it and, you guessed it, you may get a damn blister or two. Ouch!

Seems the little fella excretes a toxic body fluid through its leg joints. Colourless and ordourless, the fatty fluid can cause blisters upon contact with the skin. Be alert as these are often found on flowering plants right across North American. Relatives that look similar but are coloured differently can be found in various places right around the globe.