The other night we had to drive to a nearby mall. We noticed another closed business. It made me stop and recall for a moment a time when restaurants were packed with diners, cars lined up for take-out and, if it was warm outside, folks relaxed on restaurant patios.
And kids were able to get together in big groups with other kids to sing, to dance, to practice martial arts and dozens of other things. I miss those times.
More and more children are being picked up by parents after school. Why? My guess is to keep them off the somewhat crowded school buses to avoid COVID-19. Although the mortality rate for children seems to be exceedingly low at this time, there are other health issues being encountered by kids. Many parents are trying to minimize the risk by dropping their kids off at school and picking them up afterwards. No school buses for these children.
Some folk had grass still uncut, others had leaves waiting to be raked, others had shrubs begging to be cutback in anticipation of winter. But everyone had snow. It was the first snow and it provided a window into the coming winter. Almost everyone complained except for the kids who asked, "Is there enough to make a snowman?"
Lots of kids were wearing a new mask for Halloween: a COVID-19 mask. There is one poster to the Daily Photo site who is opposed to mask wearing. This may come a surprise but he has a point. Most folk agree masks are a barrier to transferring the COVID-19 virus from one person to another but there are some caveats.
Masks must be clean. And masks must be dry. Masks should not be quite damp, saturated with contaminated moisture from one's breath. Google this. You may be surprised to learn that moisture retention in reusable masks may result in poor filtration and, and this is the big surprise, increased risk of infection.
That said, the child pictured is wearing a clean, dry mask. She is at the door but still outside. And we, my wife and I, are both wearing fresh masks. We wore gloves to place candy in bags and we used tongs to give the bags to the trick-and-treaters. We believe our handing out of Halloween treats was a low-risk activity as far a spreading COVID-19 is concerned.
For more info on mask wearing, check out this post by the ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.) Scroll down to number 5, It is clearly stated that the appropriate and consistent use of face masks is key for effectiveness.
Halloween is O.K. in southwestern Ontario in the eyes of both the municipal and the provincial governments. It is not such an easy slam dunk for a lot of parents and their children. I'm amazed that we are getting any Halloween trick-or-treaters at all this year, but we are.
These two little ones are new to our court and have so looked forward to Halloween. Their parents are taking them on a limited run about the court and going a short distance down the street itself. To put everyone at ease, my wife is using tongs to hand out the candy and chips. And, of course, she pulls on a mask immediately before opening the door.
School buses, almost unknown in the city when I was a boy, are seen almost everywhere today. Every morning and every afternoon hundreds of buses fan out over the city picking up and dropping off students. I think we walked more when I was a boy.
Today the ride home was different, one might even say special. The bus driver had Halloween treats for every child and the inside of the bus was very simply decorated. A school bus must be safe inside -- just in case.
The children were delighted. Kids who were regularly picked up at the school by their parents, took the bus home Friday. The driver was prepared for the extra riders. No one was disappointed.
It means "rest in peace," I said. It is a pleasant wish that the deceased will find tranquility in the afterlife. "Oh," the little girls replied quietly.
I don't think it had ever occurred to the little girls that one could be anything other than tranquil after death, very, very tranquil.
We may have to have a little talk. The oldest one didn't sleep all that well last night.
When ghosts and cemeteries adorn Canadian homes, it can only mean one thing: Halloween.
In the daytime this display not so great but at night these Halloween lights add colour to the neighbourhood. It was not until the 1960s that large numbers of folk began the tradition of stringing rows of small, coloured electric lights along the eaves of the home. The practice caught on and today's LEDs are both efficient and inexpensive.
Now, the practice of stringing small electric lights on bushes, trees and eaves around the home is beginning to show signs of becoming a Halloween tradition as well as more and more homes are illuminated at night.
On Halloween night, follow the white cats to the front door of this home to be rewarded with some candy and chips.
My granddaughters are not fond of the homes decorated with fake body parts and oodles of simulated red blood. But a couple of white cat cutouts stop the two little girls in their tracks. The cats say fun. The other displays leave the two kids feeling uneasy.
Isla saw these eyes from our car as we drove past on our way home. She dragged me back to get this picture. And she was awfully happy to have gug get the shot and to share it on the Internet.
I'll another shot or two from our walk in the coming days.
Cheers and stay healthy!
And so a very happy seven-year-old hit the street skipping and laughing as she headed off to inspect the Halloween lawn decorations to be found all about her grandparent's neighbourhood.
It's Halloween and skulls are popping up like mushrooms in neighbourhood lawns. With COVID-19 still raging, I was concerned most folk would pass this year on Halloween. Nope. The decorations are out and the number of displays is growing daily. I'm thinking lots of kids will hit the streets for trick or treating and virus be damned!
If you don't see the red of ripe raspberries, thank the squirrel.
My granddaughters love picking the ripe raspberries and by this time of year the bushes are loaded. Well, this year the low hanging fruit has been spoken for by our neighbourhood black squirrel.
Oh well, the kids are generous and after a little thought have decided they don't mind sharing the bounty.
What grabbed my attention was the way the three bushes, viewed from this new angle, lent themselves to a cropping accenting the three distinctive falls colours.
The lighting shifted with the changing location. I liked the change. The leaves had more of a glow with the light coming through the leaves rather than being simply reflected.
To force the three bushes to appear visually close, a longish lens was used and a slow shutter speed was teamed with a small aperture. Doing this maximized depth of field, keeping all three bushes in tight focus.
And so, in the interest of accenting the medium, photography, forgive me but I'm running a second image from yesterday's shoot.
My wife calls this a Fire Bush. I believe it may actually be a Burning Bush. Whatever is correct, it is spectacular in the fall. I have three of these and did not realize that my trimming was what was keeping them small and bush like. Let them grow wild and they become veritable trees.
Many folk are wondering how we will handle Halloween this year. As decorations appear everywhere throughout the neighbourhood, it is looking more and more like folk are going to celebrate. Guidance has been promised by both the municipal and provincial governments. My grandkids want to go out trick and treating but their mother has doubts. "Mom's overly protective," according to the kids.
It's flu shot time. Our doctor put two shots of high dose flu vaccine with four times as many antigens than a regular flu shot aside for us, Many believe the more complex flu shot is a better option for seniors.Why? In a word COVID-19.
And speaking of COVID-19. The nurses giving the shots parked themselves in the lot outside the doctor's office and gave the shots to those arriving for the shots while they were still sitting in their cars. This was done to eliminate having patients from all over the area packed into a small waiting room.
A vaccine for the present corona virus cannot come soon enough.
It is amazing how quickly traffic backs up and how long the lines extend back from the site of an accident. Roads like Wonderland Road South are especially bad as there are no other streets to carry the traffic thanks to the presence of the river.
I wish I could say this happens rarely but it happens all too often. It was promised that the red-light cameras would cut the number of accidents at Wonderland Road South at Springbank Drive but one wonders if they cameras have performed as promised.
The London intersections with the highest number of accidents are monitored by red-light cameras. Run the light and receive a ticket in the mail. Was this accident caused by a car running a red? No idea. But clearly this intersection just suffered another accident despite the presence of the cameras.
I've wondered if the cameras can, at times, cause accidents. I admit that when there are cameras mounted around an intersection, I find my self somewhat distracted. I'm thinking about cameras and not driving. When I googled this question I discovered many researchers believe that red light cameras may not make intersections safer.
Scientific American reports that fear of fines may fuel more sudden stops and rear-end collisions.
When I was a boy there were tall television broadcasting towers all over the province. Every TV had a pair of rabbit ears sitting on top to pick the television signal out of the air. It was not uncommon to jump up, go to the television and turn the rabbit ears to improve the reception, lessen the "snow." Often it was not possible to get completely rid of the snow, especially if the channel was a distant one.
I've noticed these towers are disappearing. One of the towers in town, there were two, had its top chopped and its height reduced. The other tower is still standing on the edge of town but its presence is under pressure.
When I started thinking about this, I googled the topic and discovered a piece posing the question: Will Television Disappear in the Years to Come? According to the linked article many rural Americans have seen most or all their over-the-air stations disappear."
Television, paid for by advertising, pulled for free from the air has been minimalized by the advent of cable. I can see the day the towers, left with no use, will be removed. The sight of these towers will be relegated to memory along with other sights once so common. Need an example? Think of the smoke on the horizon left by a passing coal burning steam engine.
Many species of sumac boast striking red-leaf displays in the fall but some sumac turn bright yellow and others a deep but rich orange. Every fall, I watch for the moment the sumac changes. I find the brilliantly coloured stands breath taking.
There are those who argue that London is no longer the Forest City. From where I sit on Lookout Court in southwest London, in the former Byron community, The Forest City seems a perfect moniker for our town.
According to the London St. Thomas Association of Realtors,
London received its nickname of The Forest City from the British Government to poke fun at Governor Simcoe, as he envisioned a prominent, prosperous city at The Forks of the Thames, when it was only a time village carved out of the centre of a forest. Since then, London has prospered and continues to live up to the name "The Forest City" by caring for, continually planting and respecting the history of its trees.
The new cars sit in the corner of the new car lot in front of a high wall of lush, colourful foliage. The red leaves are sumac and the nearby green and yellow leaves tumbling downward waterfall-like are a vine the I don't recognize. The thick foliage not only looks beautiful but it also muffles the loud rumble of the Canadian National Railway freight trains that pass regularly through the city.
I thought the tall grass was an invasive grass that has been spotted flourishing not only across the province but throughout North America. I may be wrong. This may actually be a stand of native phragmites. Both plants grow in the wet soil at the bottom of the ditches found beside provincial roadways.
My nephew is not fifty-years-old. But the other day he had a heart attack. Is he overweight? No. Does he not get enough exercise. Hell no! Then why? Genes. He has bad genes. His grandfather died from a heart attack and two of his grandfather's brothers died from heart as well: one at only 39 and the other in his early 40s.
As his uncle with the same family history, I have a good idea what his doctors are going to ask him to do. Watch the diet. Slash the amount of cholesterol consumed.
Our bodies make most of the cholesterol found in our blood. Only about 20% comes from the food we eat. For that reason statins are often prescribed to those who arteries are plugging. Statins help to block the body's production of cholesterol.
So, why watch one's diet? Why cutback on the cholesterol we consume? Simple: with healthy folk, the 20% does not cause problems. With those with heart disease, cutting the amount of cholesterol found in the blood, even cutting this by a small amount, is important. There is even a class of drugs to help prevent the body from absorbing cholesterol from food. Ezetimibe 10mg is the cholesterol absorption inhibitor that I take. I believe there are number of choices here as well as different statins from which to choose.
But that does not mean I don't watch my diet. I do.
It looks to me like a late 1920s Chevrolet pickup. Where was it spotted? Not at an antique car show. No. It was spotted on the street being used as a daily driver. At least, it's a daily driver as long as the good weather lasts. Once it snows, it is off the road.
Rare today but when I was a boy cars like this were common. One could buy a used antique car for about $25. Less if it wasn't in drivable condition.
Sadly, the large number of old cars combined with ridiculously low prices meant these fine old vehicles got absolutely no respect. Kids bought 'em and entered them in the weekend demolition derby. A couple of dozen old cars would be driven into a large, fenced field surrounded by seating.
As the crowd roared the cars were raced about the field frequently and purposefully slamming into each other. The last car standing, running, was declared the winner and the driver would claim something in the order of a hundred bucks.
Cynthia has spent years travelling throughout Italy and not just as a tourist but as a tour guide. Cynthia knows Italy. Her home and the grounds surrounding it reflect this interest. My nephew tells me Italy is famous for its gardens--gardens often featuring vine-covered walls. One could be forgiven for feeling one has left southwestern Ontario for Italy when visiting Cynthia.
The porch is big and airy and in these times of COVID-19 it is an excellent place for hosting a lunch with a friend. Not many modern homes have porches like this but this century home does and the owner is delighted to have it today.
According to the Smithsonian, "For farmers, breeding for novelty has paid off. Between 1993 and 2007, prices for decorative gourds doubled, and in 2016, the world collectively grew more pumpkins, squash and gourds than corn or mushrooms." Amazing.
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The well-named speckled swan gourd is a popular decorative gourd. Sometimes it is painted before being displayed. But it is pretty well never eaten. If a veggie is known as a gourd and not a squash, it is most likely considered inedible.
These clearly two toned squashes are, I believe, all varieties of turk's turban heirloom winter squash. Many folk used these as fall decoration but if you should bake them, I understand they taste very much like the butternut and acorn squash with which we are all familiar.
The large, squarish tower caught my attention. I stopped for a closer look. It is a new, red-brick home built in a style reminiscent of the Italianate architecture so popular in Ontario from about 1830 to 1900. I'm not all that knowledgeable when it comes to architecture but even I know the significance of the widow's walk feature.
A widow's walk is small rectangular platform, bound by a low railing. Inspired by the cupolas of Italian Renaissance homes, widow's walks were very popular for decades in Ontario. Even when the heritage homes are still standing, it is rare for the widow's walks to a have survived. It proved easier to remove them than spend money maintaining them.
The new home features more than a simple, idealized widow walk topping an Italianate tower with the numerous tall, narrow windows sporting tightly curved tops. For instance, note the robust eave brackets, the window shutters, the irregular roofline. I'm sure there's more but I'm not an expert.
It would be neat to have time machine to zip a hundred years into the future. Will this home still have shutters? Home in my area that once had faux shutters now have a clean look. The home owners removed the shutters rather than paint them and most folk think the homes look better.
And will the widow's walk still be present? Or will it disappear just as many of the original, heritage examples disappeared with the passage of time? (And, truth be told, the brick home is, to be accurate, actually brick veneer. The brick is real but it is only one brick thick. The home is actually wood-frame construction. A true brick home has an exterior wall constructed with a minimum of three brick depth and many have use an interlocking five brick design. And the true brick wall does not require the support of a wall-strengthening wood frame.)
Fall is here. Summer is gone. And what memories do we have from the summer of 2020? Mostly we have memories of memories. My wife and I and our grandkids sat together, but socially distanced, and we all recalled stuff that we did in years past. With COVID-19 restricting travel, cottage country was out. I'm sure the sunsets were still beautiful and I'm sure there were folk standing at the water's edge taking in the view but it wasn't me nor my wife nor anyone I know. This is the first summer in 73 years that I did not get so much as out of the county. In fact, I hardly escaped the city.
What can one say about a praying mantis? A lot, I've learned. First, the one shown is not native. Nope. It is a European immigrant that came to Canada via the States. There is also a Chinese mantis but it is found mainly in British Columbia in Canada.
There is one mantis that belongs here: the Carolina mantis. The native species gets too little respect. Why do I say that? Well the European praying mantis is the official state insect of Connecticut and not the Carolina mantis. And when garden centres sell mantises to dine on destructive insects in our gardens, the mantis species sold is invariably the European. And the insects dined upon may even include our own native mantis.
The European mantis may threaten the existence of the Carolina mantis. For this reason, some advise destroying the egg clusters of the European and Chinese mantises. I would think it awfully hard to differentiate. That said, there is cluster glued to the underside of the brickwork near where my granddaughter spotted today's example. I think I'd be safe in assuming this was left by the green-winged visitor.
When Isla, 7, makes waffles for a family breakfast, she does not think of trade but it is an important ingredient in making her waffles a success. The strawberries she used last Saturday came from a local grower but the berries she will soon be using will come from the Imperial Valley in California. The waffle mix comes from a company founded in Seattle in Washington state in the early '30s. The egg is local but not the olive oil. It is imported from Tunisia.
The all important waffle maker itself is made in China. It wasn't all that long ago that it would have been made in either Canada or the USA but for the moment that day has passed. The bowl holding the water came from Portugal, the bentwood bar stool on which she is sitting was made in Czechoslovakia.
She gives it not the slightest thought but trade between nations quietly colours her days.
Townhouses were somewhat rare when I was young. When friends bought a townhouse/condo back in the early '70s in a community north of Toronto, it was considered a unique development. Not today.
As I recall, my friends moved into their townhouse/condo in the '70s because of the pressure of fast climbing housing costs. The couple saw the townhouse/condo as an entry point into the housing market that they could afford. My gut feeling is that the high cost of housing is behind the growing popularity of this type of housing.
That said, ease of upkeep and an accurate way to estimate total housing costs probably enter into the equation as well.
I love this home. It looks like a direct descendent of the homes I knew as a child. Homes built in the '20s and '30s in Windsor, Ontario. A direct descendent of those homes but an updated one.
Homes didn't have an attached garage in the '20s. No need. Many folk didn't have a car. As car ownership increased the snoot-nosed home made its appearance. This home borrows from, and improved on, that look in home construction. The jutting snoot is gone but the handy-to-access garage at the front of the home is still present.
This place, with its relatively small size, would easily fit into my former century-old neighbourhood. And yet, with its bright-red metal roof, its paving stone drive, perma-colour shingles and other modern exterior materials, it would stand out. Even the exterior brick would distance it from its neighbours. The brick is coloured concrete and not red or yellow clay.
With its AC unit and triple-pane windows, this home is comfortable in summer and with its blanket of insulation hidden in the exterior walls it is cozy in winter. I would imagine it is draft free.
Folks love to complain. For years our local paper ran stories on the hell of living in the suburbs. The suburbs being places just ten minutes by car from the city centre. But today those stories are waning. Many of the reporters live in the suburbs and like where they live.
