Horner Lilies: a local supplier of lilies and beauty

If you want lilies, the place to go in the London area is Horner Lilies on the edge of town near suburban Thorndale. Run by the Horner family, there are numerous gardens with more than a hundred different kinds of lilies.

I bought my lilies there and will be going back tomorrow to order some more. I'm taking my granddaughters and encouraging them to pick out a couple each that they can plan and we can all enjoy.

Customers wander the grounds, check out the blooms while noting note of the ones they like the best. On leaving, one orders the plants one wants and then picks up the bulbs ordered come fall.

Inspired by Sheila

I have an artist friend who loves to do paintings of flowers. She doesn't just paint the gorgeous blossoms in fully bloom but she tells the life story of blooms. Look carefully and you will find new buds, growing buds, opening buds, full blooms (often featured) and finally blooms with their petals withered, dead.

When shooting this picture of lilies, which were locally grown and sold by a man and his wife who specialize in growing gorgeous lilies, I included more than I would have if I had not been influenced by my friend and her storytelling approach to flower art.

Capturing action easier today

Years ago I taught up-and-coming journalists how to shoot pictures. Originally the course used film cameras and all the technical stuff was important. With film one didn't know that one had missed the picture until hours after the fact. By the time the film was processed and an image pulled, it was too late for a reshoot in most cases.

Photographers, dependable shooters, were important back then and they were paid well for their talents and technical expertise. Today things are different.

The last time I taught a photo class, I think the group was very disappointed. I was given very little time to teach and so zeroed in on enthusiasm. Journalists no longer had to expend oodles of energy learning the photographic ropes before going out and capturing some damn fine images.

Cameras today, even relatively inexpensive ones like my old Fuji, are capable of grabbing good action when set to automatic. Point and shoot.

Today, where you point your camera is the big deciding factor. To be honest, photography was always about the image—where you pointed your camera—but the technical stuff all too often got in the way.

Today, you can have fun first and learn the technical stuff on the fly. I don't think the budding journalists were impressed. When it came to taking pictures, they did not want to be told to think.

I used to call reporters who took pictures "reluctant." They saw themselves as story tellers and they told their stories with words not with pictures. I wonder if this is changing as newsrooms shrink and staff numbers tighten.

And it's all safer than the traditional play equipment

Traditional playground equipment, such as a swing with a seat made with a heavy, steel-capped wooden plank, is out. Adventure playgrounds pushed the swings, tall slides and simple teeter-totters into the retirement. But then, the injuries mounted and adventure playgrounds were phased out. Totally safe equipment then came into vogue. Boring. And so today, designers are taking another crack at coming up with the ultimate playground equipment.

I have to admit to having had reservations about a lot of the new stuff filling London parks. But, the  more I travel about the city with my granddaughters, the more enthused I am getting. I'll have to go back to last night's park for pictures. It had the weirdest take on a slide ever. It was the reason my granddaughters took me there.

And the equipment comes from all over the world. So far, I've noted stuff from Big Toys of Chattanooga, Tennessee and HAGS of the U.K.

Big Toys: That's the company name and product

Some of the new playground equipment in London is quite imaginative. Now that the playgrounds are open around the city, my granddaughters and I are touring the burg looking for unique installations. The playground pictured features equipment from Big Toys of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

My granddaughters are playing on the Rock 'n Cross, a combination of a multi-rider teeter-totter with a dynamic overhead challenge. Hey, that's the company's description, not mine. I asked my youngest granddaughter how she liked it. "Not too much," she said. She found it a little frightening. The older girl was more positive. The big, high loop with equally-spaced handholds is one of the few monkey bar type installations she can still use. At ten, she now finds her feet drag on the ground most of the time. She also agreed with the company that the movement added an extra challenge.

I cannot help but wonder, what does a piece of equipment like this cost the city? And how long will it last? And are replacement parts easily available? Are the parts expensive? I noticed plastic collars on some of the equipment had grown brittle with time and cracked and chipped.

I'd like to see some research on these types of fancy playground "toys." I'm not convinced that some of these things are worth the cost. The city might be able to buy more equipment and keep more kids occupied if they went with equipment that was a lot less complex.

The wading pool has a long history. Surprising!

The short, twin pillars framing the sidewalk bear a clue to their origin. The one on the left says, "Rotary Club 1928." The one on the right reads "Service Above Self." But why were these placed in this location in Springbank Park some 90 or so years ago? The answer is right there before one's eyes.

The Rotary Club of London donated the funds to build the original Springbank Wading Pool in 1928. Who'd have known the little pool had such a history?

The urban texture is richer today

When I was a boy a lot of the urban landscape was better. For instance, it was easier to get around town, around the county and around the province without a car. We had buses and trolleys in the city, for outside town we had intercity buses and we had frequent passenger trains run by not one but two railroads.

But when it came to food, the old urban landscape of the late '40s and early '50s was pretty dull. If we got a crusty loaf  of white, enriched bread from the bakery, we had something special.

Today my city and my province is no longer as dull. We have oodles of different ethnic groups and with their arrival came new, interesting foods The other night I made my wife a rice and vegetable dish spiced with harissa. My granddaughters call harissa the North African curry.

And the breads that are available today puts a big smile on my face. I've been known to go to the store for some lettuce and come home with five loaves of bread—all different. Today I resisted. I brought home just one extra load: an olive and parmesan focaccia loaf.

Focaccia is a flat, oven-baked, Italian bread similar in style and texture to pizza dough. Focaccia can be served with meals or, and this is one is a favourite, it can be used to make wonderful sandwiches.

There's more to cities than bricks and mortar. There are the residents of the city. And a rich mix of residents makes for a richer, more diverse, more interesting and exciting place to live.

New cable laid by new Canadians/

New cable is being run in my neighbourhood. It is being installed by a crew from Rogers, the telephone and Internet provider. I was curious and tried asking the installers some questions. I didn't get a straight answer from anyone of them and one admitted he didn't speak English and didn't understand what I was asking.

I don't mind that the crew seemed more comfortable talking among themselves in what I assume was Spanish. If I moved to another country, I don't think I'd pick up a new language easily. I'd speak English at every opportunity. I'm just curious.

In Ontario, we take advantage of workers from Central America to pick many of our crops. The hot house area in the far south of the province has a big problem with COVID-19 being transmitted from worker to worker because of the cramped living arrangements that they are given. Some of the farm workers have actually died from the virus.

Are we now bringing in workers from Central America to lay our Internet cable? I'd call around but I don't want to get these fellows in any trouble. Still, this has left me puzzled.

It took time and the London Health Sciences Centre to reach 73

I've reached the ripe, old age of 73. I have now enjoyed all the years promised by God in the Bible. It wasn't easy getting here. About 18 years ago it took a talented surgeon at the controls of a Da Vinci medical robot to repair my leaking mitral valve in my heart. The small, robot "hands" only needed a small entry incision to gain access to my heart. No breastbone splitting for me.

An interesting mix of drugs keep my TIAs in check while not aggravating my micro-bleeding in the brain.

And a pacemaker/ICD unit keeps my heart beating despite my having a one hundred percent heart block. I am now on my second unit.

My granddaughters call me a cyborg as I have both natural and mechanical body parts working together to keep me alive. When we go biking, my inboard computer speeds up my heart and when I lie down at night my pacemaker senses this and goes into sleep mode. My heart rate drops to 50 bpm.

I have been in an American hospital and it was excellent. I cannot say enough good things about the care I received while in Marin General outside San Francisco. That said, I prefer the hospitals here in London. Why? Cost. After just a bit more than a day of care in the U.S. I faced a hospital bill of about $40,000 Canadian. My insurance company tried claiming I was not covered as my heart problem was a pre-existing condition. I was hounded by collection agencies for eight months or so.

In Canada, in London, my medical costs are covered by the government plan. There is no worry about pre-existing conditions or of being dropped from coverage for any reason. And so far the medical care has been excellent. Hey, I'm still here!

Tornado Warning!

Judy and I got two phone calls today from Environment Canada. These calls were to inform us that a tornado warning was in effect for our area. We were advised to head for our basement and stay well clear of windows.

Judy took the advice. Me? I grabbed my camera. The clouds were certainly threatening and the wind got awfully high. It was the wall of water that drove me off the street and into the basement with my wife. I watched the rain approaching and when it hit, it engulfed me, soaked my clothing and caused me to flee for cover.

Was there a tornado? Not that I know of. We did get a third telephone call while hunkered down in the basement. It was the all clear signal. With that the excitement drained from the moment, and not a moment too soon for my wife.

The play areas are open!

Yes, the yellow caution ribbons are gone. Playground equipment out-of-bounds for months is again available to children in London neighbourhoods. And not a minute too soon I might add. Kids need exercise.

Balancing the threat of COVID-19 with the healthy promise of ample outdoor exercise was tough. I'm not sure the right balance was struck but we may have to weigh our options again at some point in the future. This viral battle is not over.

London is entering stage three of the reopening procedure.

People still visited the parks but in small groups or even alone. But today the province declared London to be in Stage Three of the reopening process. Soon small groups will being gathering again in the parks. Large parties, groups of up to fifty will now be allowed. Barbecues and big picnics will soon be common again.

The yellow caution ribbons are being removed from the park equipment and restaurants are now allowed to serve diners inside, and not just on the patio, as long as some degree of social distancing is being observed. Kids will be back in the pools and back using the numerous splash pads found throughout the city.

Parks are coming back to life

The parks in London, Ontario, are slowly filling, life returns, but the activities one sees are heavily influenced by the need to social distance.

Does tumbling, cascading grass make a picture?

The rain was heavy, the wind was strong and the grass growing tall in the wide ledge on the wall, arced downward under the pressure. 

I saw it and thought picture. Others saw it and thought wind-damaged grass. 

Others thought absolutely nothing. 

Hmmm. Some folk have no poetry in their souls. 😊

What DO we the public really know about COVID-19?

The largest neighbourhood park now has a seven or eight foot fence blocking access. Why? I've read reports stating that fomites -- contaminated surfaces -- are not an important source of COVID-19 transmission. Furthermore, bright sunlight and high heat, according to some respected sources, can quickly eliminate the viability of t he virus.

Of course, it is possible that there are so few COVID-19 patients who are known to have caught the virus from a contaminated surface because such a good job has been done at eliminating this threat from our lives. Playgrounds taped off, credit card stations wrapped in clear plastic which is wiped after every use and the list goes on.

After communicating with a chap on this very site, I decided to determine just what I did and didn't know when it comes to COVID-19. I'm certain masks work. I found lots of support in medical journals going back more than a decade.

I'm also certain that COVID-19 is not just like the flu. But there are some great similarities and the flu is a lot more dangerous than many like to believe. There's a reason this old geezer with a failing heart always gets his flu shot. He knows the flu poses a serious health threat to him and his wife. Both diseases leave behind a lot of dead seniors.

The big difference between the flu and COVID-19 is that COVID-19 leaves behind a lot more dead seniors. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, "Doctors and scientists are working to estimate the mortality rate of COVID-19, but at present, it is thought to be substantially higher than that of most strains of the flu. Link: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-disease-2019-vs-the-flu

Note the words, "at present" and "thought to be." By the time I got to the second thing I was sure of, I was beginning to rely on fudging words. I never got to a third item for my list. 

This is a new viral threat. It should come as no surprise that nouveau means there are big gaps in our knowledge. At this time I will wear my mask and hope others do the same, I'll keep my distance, wash my hands and wash and wipe surfaces where possible. I'll follow the suggestions of those in authority and hope, and pray, they are right as they modify their actions based on the latest knowledge.

And I understand that that knowledge indicates we might, just might, open playgrounds to children. Enforced inactivity may be more dangerous to developing children than the threat posed by fomites found in playgrounds. What demanded a fence yesterday may be open to all come tomorrow.

A Segway spotted in the neighbourhood

I didn't know these were still in production, but, according to the young man spotted using one in the neighbourhood, they are! He was canvasing the neighbourhood for a charity and using the Segway to cover more distance than would be possible doing this on foot.

I googled Segway and found: Segway Personal Transporter. Was this a company ahead of its time?

Not a stairway to heaven

Trees, unlike parrots, can be dead, deceased, bereft of life, resting in peace and yet still be full of activity—the life of others, such as birds, insects and fungus animate the dead structure. And so, as the sign explains, the London parks department has trimmed the dead tree on the far left of all large, dangerous branches and has left the massive dead stump to provide wildlife with a habitat in progress.

Behind the tree can be seen the barricaded entrance to a fine staircase leading from the park to the Thames River. It seems the staircase, like the tree, had become a wildlife habitat full of insects and general rot. Unlike the tree it will soon be removed.

At some point, nature will replace the dead tree. It appears, unless the city changes its mind, the once well-used bridge will disappear and never return. Staircases don't grow like trees, one might say.

Long Lens or Lack of Social Distancing?

Are these bathers, enjoying the summer-warm water of Lake Erie, actually as close as this appears? Does this photo show the visual foreshortening effect so commonly encountered when using a long lens or does this image accurately depict a lack of social distancing?

Answer: it's a little bit of both.

Anchored out and yet social distancing not assured

Sunday, my wife and I took a quick trip to Port Stanley. We had to get out of the house. The four walls were closing in.

We found a beach on the east side of the village that we had never visited before. There were lakefront cottages, a popular beach, parking and small yachts anchored immediately off shore. Some of the boats were rafted together, giving the appearance of a breakdown in social distancing. Without actually chatting with the folk on the boats, it's impossible to say whether or not the recreational sailors were thumbing their noses at the guidelines or not.

Yes, London, Ontario, is located on the Thames River.

Years ago I wrote a column for the local paper, The London Free Press. The column was called Celebrate the Thames. At that time, I was told the following story by a local historian who claimed that contrary to popular mythology, a mythology backed up with lots of solid quotes from Simcoe himself, London is NOT the capital of the province because of the Thames River. The fellow was clearly swimming upstream, swimming against the current of public opinion.) 

You see, Londoners believe Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe wanted the capital of Upper Canada to be established at the Forks of the Thames River. And at one point, Simcoe did want this. He formed this dream while still in England, encouraged by maps that indicated the Thames was a mighty river.

Simcoe thought the headwaters of the river ended in the Halton Hills northwest of present day Toronto. But arriving in the area he discovered this was not true. Nor was the river particularly mighty. 

Now, Simcoe fought openly with his boss Lord Dorchester on many matters. But when it came to Simcoe's plans for a capital at the forks, Simcoe quickly and quietly acquiesced to Lord Dorchester and Toronto became the capital. 

The historian believed that Simcoe realized he had been out of touch when it comes to reality and the little, shallow-in-the-summer river. Today the Back to the River folk carry on the tradition of seeing myth rather than reality when it comes to the river. For instance, the group confused a reservoir behind a dam with a river.

Back to the River has become a bit of an ironic name for the group now that the Springbank Dam is out of commission and will likely never be rebuilt. Their grandiose dream for the Forks of the Thames may have gone with the disappearance of the working dam.

Shaw's IS the Home of Ice Cream

Established in 1948, Shaw's is the Home of Ice Cream. Still! This is amazing as Shaw's got out of the direct-to-customer retail dairy-treats business 19 years ago. The operation on the main highway between London and St. Thomas was sold in 2001 to three enterprising sisters who still run the business today.

The girls know how to run a successful operation. They have focused on quality. No fancy digs for them. Just great, traditional ice cream in oodles of flavours. When it comes to shakes, cones and sundaes made with traditional hard ice cream there's not a lot of competition in this area. The two places offering this product are located far enough apart that they do not compete directly. Where they do compete is in the quality arena. And both deliver wonderful, tasty ice cream-based products.

My granddaughters and I like to give our business to both operations.

For ice cream, stand here. Cones mark the spot.

My wife and I escaped the four-walls of our home and headed for the beach, for Port Stanley about forty minutes south of the city on Lake Erie.

On our way home, we stopped at Shaw's Home of Ice Cream. Shaw's has been in the same location since 1948 but it present owners, three sisters, only date from 2001. Today Shaw's sells more than 45 flavours of hard ice cream made at its nearby St. Thomas plant.

Like every other business, Shaw's has marked where one must stand. At Shaw's, ice cream cones mark the spot for social distancing. We ordered two cones. I got pistachio almond and my wife had butterscotch ripple.

A home that is remarkable because it is unremarkable

Walking about my friend's neighbourhood in Stratford, I was struck by the beautiful, oh-so-tidy, heritage homes. I thought they were remarkable: so beautiful, so well-maintained, so clearly loved. And then I realized that what truly made them remarkable was how unremarkable these homes are in much of Canada. Many Canadians live this way and think almost nothing of it.

I was going to say "think nothing of it," but that wouldn't be true. I don't think most of us truly appreciate how lucky we are but we do have an inkling.

Social distancing wildlife

You couldn't get a picture showing all the ducks as there were trees blocking the view, but there were dozens of duck sitting along the river bank and they were all nicely spaced apart. My wife thought it looked like duck-style social distancing. I thought they needed a few more feet of separation and masks but then they are just geese. What can one expect?

The Stratford Normal School

When my wife realized we were looking at the Stratford Normal School, she exclaimed, "That's the school your mom attended, Ken!" My mother, born in the early years of the last century, was one of almost 14,000 students who went on to graduate from the Stratford Normal School. After graduating, my mother landed a position teaching in the far eastern end of the province where she met her future husband, my dad.

This is what the Ontario Heritage Trust has to say about the structure:

In the 1900s, concerns about the quality of rural education prompted the Ontario government to build four new Normal Schools to increase the supply of qualified teachers in the province. The Stratford Normal School prepared its students for conditions in the rural schools that employed most new teachers. It is the only one of the Normal Schools from its era to survive without substantial alteration.

For more pictures and a bit more information read the posting on Canada's Historic Places.

Backyards can make a personal statement

Homes encourage creativity, at least when ownership falls into the right, read creative, hands. I learned this early in life when some art school friends moved into a lovely old mansion in the Boston Edison District of Detroit. Now, I must admit that place was somewhat unique but all homes hold promise.

The other day I spent some time in the oh-so-small backyard of a friend and artist in Stratford. This person has spent a lot of time traveling, especially in Italy. Today she has a little bit of Italy behind her home.

What a wonderful space in which to chat and share a meal with friends. (As a former staff photographer for the local paper, I can tell you that surprising backyards are more common that you might think. The creative use of backyard space is not restricted to the backyards of artists.)

Canada Day!

Today, July 1st, is Canada Day. A good day to post the striking sculpture by Walter Allward created in remembrance of those who fought, many dying, in the First World War.

Allward is also the sculpture who did the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in Vimy, France. He completed the Stratford Cenotaph in 1922 before heading to Vimy to complete his most famous commission.

Stratford is but one of only two small Ontario towns with an Allward-designed war memorial. Often, such memorials feature a famous general. Today, it's clear depicting an historical figure can be fraught with cultural traps.

Allward sidestepped the danger of depicting a person no longer worthy of the honour. The figures on the Stratford cenotaph are symbolic, representing the forces of darkness and the forces of good.

There's a plaque to a long dead Canadian at the site but it's not there in memory of a soldier. The plaque honours Allward by providing details surrounding his life. The late sculptor has become a revered Canadian artist with a large and lasting body of respected work still to be found about the province.

Fountain may be new addition

Clearly, Stratford has a story to tell. Walking down residential streets in the core of the small, southwestern Ontario city, one comes across a lot of impressive, historical buildings. This one on Water Street is just one of a number. My friend told me the fountain wasn't all that old. I found this home on Streetviews and, sure enough, no fountain.

Is this place a single family home? A bed and breakfast? A small inn? I don't know. When I learn more I will update this post.

A delightful southwest Ontario town

I need to take a walk every day. Doctors orders. I'm bad. I often fail to take my stroll. But visiting Stratford, a small town to the northeast of London made walking easy. It is simply a delightful town, especially in the the core. The downtown business district, the residential area and the theatre and the parks all work together to make one fine, urban package.

I saw this home and had to grab a quick shot. What a wonderful looking home.

Expanded patio-dining is coming

Restaurants are in trouble. Cash flow is important for these small, independent businesses and for some months there has been, in some cases, absolutely no cash flow. This weekend the province announced the easing of covid-19 based restrictions on businesses like restaurants.

Late last week when my wife and I were in Stratford, there were signs everywhere that folk were preparing to open and to operate in the new coronavirus-tainted world. These two people in my photo were measuring the sidewalk in front of their restaurant. They were preparing to locate an umbrella-covered patio on the sidewalk in front of their place.

Stratford and its citizens openly fighting covid-19

Stratford, Ontario, is a fine little Southwestern Ontario town. One of the finest. For well over half a century it has been home to the Stratford Festival—a world class festival attracting theatre goers from both Canada and the States. The visitors arrive by the busload, or at least they did until covid-19.

Driving into downtown Stratford, a sign reminds drivers to stay aware of the danger presented by covid-19 and to react appropriately. People are being encouraged to keep a safe distance between themselves and others others when out on the street and most folk are wearing face masks.

With the festival theatres closed, the fine restaurants struggling to reopen and hotels, inns and B&Bs with many empty beds, the town and the people of Stratford are setting an example on how to fight the coronavirus. While other towns are waffling, Stratford and its citizens are in full fight mode.

Watch your step

Some folk like the geese that can be found in almost all Southwestern Ontario parks. Lots of us are not so fond of these big, numerous birds. We find them lazy, dirty and sometimes even dangerous. They have been known to get quite aggressive.

But, for me, the biggest problem is the filthy droppings littering pathways and roadways. The filth gets into the pattern on one's soft-soled shoes and then gets tracked everywhere. Ugh!

Pandemic hard on Stratford Theatre

From this angle one doesn't see a lot of this building but one does see enough to identify it as the Festival Theatre in Stratford. The unique multi-pointed, roof-edge treatment is a clear identifier.

The Stratford Festival even gets coverage in distant Chicago.

Designed by Robert Fairfield, the theatre was built in 1957. Inside it has a thrust stage, called this because it extends into the seating space with theatre goers positioned on three sides. And there are lots of theatre goers. There's seating for 1,838 people.

As you might expect, the theatre is closed at the moment as a result of covid-19. The fear is that the theatre, and all the other venues which are part of the annual festival, will remain closed until sometime next year. This is a heartbreaker. The festival has posted the following on their online page:

While the creation of a vaccine and anti-viral drugs will cure this pandemic, ultimately what will cure society in its aftermath is art. We look forward to the time when we can come together again to “live, and pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh.”

A dam that can't hold back water. Oops!

For years the Springbank Dam held back the water of the Thames River creating a reservoir backing up for miles from the edge of town right to the core of the city.

Then the aging dam was left damaged by a severe summer rainstorm. A replacement dam was designed and installed. It was a fancy design with hugh pistons lifting and lowering the massive water blocking gates into position.

Sadly, in use, the gates can trap debris and jam. The design was, to be honest, always questionable. Many were not surprised when the dam gates failed while being tested. The new dam was never put into operation and today it sits idle facing possible demolition.

The river is healthier without a functioning dam. The city has recouped its expenses after winning a lawsuit against the firm that built the poorly engineered structure. The gates are sitting flat on the river bottom and will remain there indefinitely.

Oh well, it is a successful conversation starter.

Dental offices are reopening

Three things to mention here. One, dental offices are reopening in Ontario. Today I saw my dental hygienist.

Two, the charge for a cleaning has gone up by about twenty dollars because of all the costs related to the covid-19 pandemic.

And third and last item, many think all medical procedures in Canada are "free." Not true. In Ontario, dental costs are not covered by our government plan and dental fees can be substantial. Today's cleaning cost me, a retired senior, $163. I put the fee on my credit card as neither my wife nor I have insurance.

Going to the dentist has changed. On arriving at the dental office, you don't entered but remain outside and use your cell phone to call the receptionist and let her know you have arrived. Before entering, your temperature is taken, on entering you answer about half a dozen questions. If you answer correctly, you are given a mask. The only time you do not wear a mask is while a dental procedure is being performed on you.

Room air is trapped by heavy plastic sheets hung over each doorway. To enter or leave a room, one parts the plastic. All staff wear masks, as do all patients. Hygienists and the dentist all wear large, face-covering clear plastic shields as well. And light, thin latex gloves seem to be out and heavier black gloves seem to be in. Rooms are cleaned between patient visits. From the loud, constant background fan noise I heard, I believe the office air was being exhausted at an increased rate.

Don't feed the wildlife, please.

Springbank Park is the largest park in London and it merges with at least one other park to the east. Both parks border on the Thames River flowing through London. The sign asks, "Why we should not feet wildlife." Having worked for the Ministry of Natural Resources in Ontario many years ago, I can retiterate the warning.

Do not feed the wildlife. It was good advice half a century ago and it is still good advice today.

Jenny Jones playground sits idle

Do you recall the talk show host Jenny Jones. She has been off the air for a few years now. Jones was originally from London, Ontario. London's fanciest children's playground was funded by Jones. She put in $200,000. Thank you, Jenny.

Though it’s theoretically possible, there is no evidence that physical money—or any inanimate surface, for that matter—helps the virus spread. -- MIT

Usually packed with kids, the imaginative playground has sat empty now for months as the covid-19 pandemic replaces fun with fear when it comes to stuff like shared playground equipment. Some question whether or not closure are necessary. MIT claims inanimate surfaces are not a serious source of covid-19 infection.

Strollers are not always six-feet apart

A visit to Costco during the early morning pre-opening for seniors, it was noticed that everyone was wearing a mask. There was not even one unmasked face to be seen. Seniors take the covid-19 pandemic seriously. Senior die.

A visit to Springbank Park later in the day showed lots of young people enjoying the park and enjoying it with others and maskless. Yes, they are outside and this does diminish the possibility of transmitting the virus. Yet, it is hard to believe that a group of seniors would be walking this close together and with no protection.

Thanking Front Line Workers

The local chapter of the Lions Clubs International is raising money for the London Food Bank by going door to door selling signs for $20. The signs prominently display the Canadian flag and give a big thank you to our front line workers during this ongoing pandemic crisis. "You are loved and appreciated," the sign says.

With Canada Day just around the corner and the London Food Bank hook, the signs are going fast.

ActiveFit equipment sits idle thanks to covid-19

The equipment is made by ActiveFit. Click the link and it will take you to the company's web page. Designed and made in Canada, there is a rather complete installation in London's largest park—Springbank Park. 

What does the equipment do? In a sense, very little. It just sits there. Yet, it offers a host of exercise possibilities to everyone except the very young. Each different installation encourages a different exercise and works a different set of muscles. I'm almost 73 but I can see even me working out successfully with some of these pieces of equipment.

Sadly the installation sits idle at the moment thanks to covid-19 and our over-protective parks department. According to MIT, stuff like this equipment does not support the covid-19 virus. Using it is safe. One does not risk picking up the coronavirus. I believe the folk at MIT over the bureaucrats at city hall. I hope the yellow caution tape comes down soon and my granddaughters and I can give the ActiveFit equipment a try.

Garden centres are open

The province is slowly coming out of the covid-19 deep freeze. Restaurants are now open and the patios are doing  very good business. And our local garden centres are again selling plants. My wife calls the plants she buys "flowers for the garden." I call them flowers for the rabbits—expensive rabbit food. So far this spring, I'm right.

Some new homes are truly spectacular.

I took a spin through the new neighbourhood just to the southeast of where I live. Wow!

I talked with the builder and he told me every home he builds for the next six months or so is already sold. Huh? What about the covid-19 slowdown. Isn't there supposed to be almost a recession at the moment?

My fence and gate are failing and when I stopped by the shop of the fellow who built both the fence and gate I learned it would not be until mid August when the repairs could be done and the new gate installed. He told me business was booming.

Strange days.

1st clue announcing a new subdivision: Poles

A new subdivision is going in south of the area in which I live. I've known it would eventually appear. The question was always when and not where.

Today I noticed the long line of new street lamps. Between the tall, brushed-aluminum poles catching the light and the shear number of the new addition to the country lane way, the clue to the arrival of a new subdivision was hard to miss.

Just the other day I had wondered about the cost of lighting a city. What does a city spend on street lights alone? How long do these monsters last?

I imagine operating them is less today than in the past. Those small lamps extending over the roadway are awfully shallow. I'll bet they are LEDs.

Social Distancing Allows Bubbles

 

Visiting the grandparents has strange limits today thanks to the coronavirus. No hugging. No kisses. Social distancing is the rule and it must be followed. Oh well, grandma figured out that bubbles are a covid-19 friendly activity.

Fires during riots destroy more than structures

This is the area of Philadelphia in the Inquirer article. It's old elegance can still be seen in the decaying structures.

Stan Wischnowski, a 20-year veteran of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the newspaper's top editor, has sepped down days after the publication of an article that led to a walkout by dozens of Inquirer journalists. Wischnowski was responsible for the tone-deaf headline that said "Buildings Matter."

As someone who worked at newspapers almost all my life, I can understand how this happened. Editors like to play with words when composing headlines. All too often editors are too cute by half and leave the journalists who wrote the story under the headline fuming. Appearing to equate the deaths of black men and women at the hands of police officers with the destruction of some building was totally wrong. The newspaper's apology was necessary.

But, read the article and the reporter, Inga Saffron, makes some valid points. She tells readers, there was a frenzy of destruction and by evening . . .

"hardly any building on Walnut and Chestnut Streets was left unscathed, and two mid-19th century structures just east of Rittenhouse Square were gutted by fire. Their chances of survival are slim, which means there could soon be a gaping hole in the heart of Philadelphia, in one of its most iconic and historic neighborhoods."

She goes on to say,

" 'People over property' is great as a rhetorical slogan. But as a practical matter, the destruction of downtown buildings in Philadelphia — and in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and a dozen other American cities — is devastating for the future of cities. We know from the civil rights uprisings of the 1960s that the damage will ultimately end up hurting the very people the protests are meant to uplift.

Just look at the black neighborhoods surrounding Ridge Avenue in Sharswood or along the western end of Cecil B. Moore Avenue. An incredible 56 years have passed since the Columbia Avenue riots swept through North Philadelphia, and yet those former shopping streets are graveyards of abandoned buildings. Residents still can’t get a supermarket to take a chance on their neighborhood."

In the '60s I was in Detroit at a black friends's 1930s apartment on Chicago Blvd. when the rioting threatened to engulf the area. I was accompanied by my friends to my car and told to leave Detroit. Take Woodward, drive to the tunnel and return to Canada immediately. I did.

After the riot I was saddened to find that the half century plus ice cream parlour I used to take neighbourhood kids to was gone. Burned. In the suburbs white folk lined up to have an ice cream sundae at Farrell's. It was a tacky, ersatz copy of an old ice cream parlour. In the inner city, they had the real McCoy. It was wonderful. I hope those kids, now in their 60s, can still recall sitting at the counter enjoying a single scoop ice cream cone with a silly, white photographer fellow. I have the memories, and I also have one of the sidelights from the front of the store, I found it in the rubble.

The store, in any form, was never rebuilt. The kids disappeared as well. After the riots there were no kids and no ice cream. The neighbourhood was destroyed.

What was wrong? Why was it demolished?

What was wrong? Why was this train station, built in the late '30s in the art deco style, demolished only a few decades later? Why? For the same reasons the station that replaced it is now no longer standing either.

To many of us have a disposable attitude toward or built heritage. Buildings are discarded and for the flimsiest of reasons. Demolishing a building is seen as "no big deal." But it is a big deal. It is wasteful⁠—of materials, of money. It is unimaginative.

Tearing down the old is seen by some as the price of progress. All too often it isn't. It may simply prove to be a way of marking time. A perfectly usable railway station disappears and an equally usable one replaces it. At worse, an irreplaceable building is lost and replaced with a truly disposable structure. And that is what happened in this case.

Today, less that a century after the art deco station was built, the city has a third station which does not appear to offer anymore than the station from the '30s. Which leaves one to wonder: What did the '30s station replace?

Possibly the money wasted building train stations could have been put to better use, and sweetened the pot for funding the design and quality of construction of other civic structures. Just a thought.

The waiting areas in the '30s London railway station

Some of London's finest built heritage has disappeared over the passing years.

On Sept 1st, 1936 London opened a new Art Deco train station with a formal opening by Sir Percy Vincent, Lord Mayor of London England. The station lasted less than 30 years before being demolished in 1963.

 

Located below the railway tracks, the concourse was entered down a ramp from the main floor lobby just inside the station entrance. The concourse was 117 ft. long by 36 ft. wide and sat under 3 platforms. At the far south end of the concourse was the entrance to the L&PS (London and Port Stanley) subway tunnel - 100 ft long by 9 ft wide.

 

 

Photo source - https://ingeniumcanada.org/archives CN Images of Canada collection

Info source - https://railwaypages.com/carl-riff-s-railway-history-diaries

Brilliant thinking increases productivity

It's hard to see but this is a bit of truly brilliant thinking. It only took one man to deliver a new gas water heater to our home. The steel dolly used to move the heater had a small motor and a sliding bottom platform that descended down a central track at the push of button. No need to bump the dolly down the stairs.

The platform, driven by the small motor, can be extended five feet to where it is stabilized on a lower step. Then the movement is reversed and the extended dolly collapsed. At this point the dolly is again slanted back and the platform descends again taking the heater to a new and much lower step. The operation as repeated until the water heater reaches the basement floor.

The old heater is removed the same way. No wear and tear on the home. No tearing of the carpeting. Very little strain on the installer. Brilliant.

When we think of urban life, we don't always consider the support staff. Folk like this hot water tank installer are important and if they are very productive all the better. This dolly clearly makes this man a far more productive worker. Unfortunately, it also puts one person out of a job. The last heater installation required two delivery folk.

Back to the river is sunk

The project at the Forks of theThames was known as Back-To-The-River. Supposedly Londoners has forgotten the river that runs through the city from east to west with a very large branch forking off in the core to head north.

Is this true? Have Londoners forgotten the river? I can't speak for others but I've always been very aware of the Thames River and the larger North Thames River. I live where I do because of the river. I didn't want to live on flood plain and that is one reason I live near the local ski hill.

I lived for years in a neighbourhood near the Forks of the Thames and each spring I lived with the fear of a flood. Before Fanshawe Dam and Pittock Dam floods were not common but they did happen and homes were lost and people died.

Note the depth of the water in the illustration of the curving walkway proposed for the Forks of the Thames. The height is a lie. A dam on the river in the southeast of the city washed out a few years ago. That dam held back the river creating a reservoir that extended all the way upstream to the core of the city. Without the dam, the water is lower, cleaner and one might say healthier.

Now, with the cost of covid-19 looming, the cost of the Back-To-The-River walkways seems out of the question. The folk behind the effort have withdrawn their funding and the project has been canceled. Many folk will not be sorry. A natural, free-running river with fish and osprey and even a few bald eagles is more to their liking.

Forget the river? I don't think so. But it may not take long for many Londoners to forget the winding walkway.