Cities have global connections

 

The company delivering gas to homes and businesses in London, Ontario, is Enbridge. A Canadian company, as far as I know, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. The biggest name in natural gas heating and electric cooling equipment in London is Reliance Home Comfort. Many of its customers believe that it too is a Canadian operation. It was but it isn't today.

Originally, Reliance was owned by Union Gas. Today Union Gas is no more having been taken over by Enbridge. And Reliance, its connection to Union Gas severed years ago, is now controlled by the family of Hong Kong-based Chinese-Canadian businessman Victor Li.

Have these changes been good for London? Have they been good for Ontario? On the surface, it would seem a larger share of the money generated by this residential and commercial gas business may have once circulated throughout the city and province, for the most part. Now, with the Hong Kong and Bermuda connections, a lot of the profits may be leaving the country.

I am not a financial wizard. I cannot say if the present set-up is better or worse for Londoners, for Canadians. But one thing seems certain, it is better for the governments of Hong Kong and Bermuda.

Love the juxtaposition of statue and flags

 

When I was a boy in the early '50s, one would not have encountered a lawn statue like this one displayed with the Canadian flag. For one thing, the maple leaf flag was not the Canadian flag until 1965.

10,000 Steps?

Are these Canadian Geese out for a morning stroll in order to meet the 10,000 footsteps-a-day goal? If they are, I am sure the folk in this neigbourhood are hoping the geese take all their steps in a straight line. Geese are not welcome in residential neighbourhoods. Nothing messes up an area's sidewalks and lawns like a flock of geese. Yuck!

Is this a special lily?

Are these lilies special? They certainly are beautiful. These lilies also came from the lily fields now plowed under with the retirement of the couple who ran the lily operation. If you'd like to know more here is a link to an earlier post: A colourful, beautiful memory.

Parking where the lawn once was

 Many urban critics love to point out how the car has shaped and modified the suburban home. Home after home has yielded half or more of the front lawn to the car. A paved driveway replaces grass for a big chunk of many a suburban front yard. And then there are the garages. Many of these jut out a metre or more in front of each home on the suburban street. There is even a name for this style of home building: the garage forward look.

What these critics ignore is that the car has also reshaped our older, heritage neighbourhoods. And just like in the suburbs, a paved spot for the family car or cars claims a big part of the front yard. In fact, the narrow lots in older neighbourhoods demands that occasionally the entire front yard must be given over to the car.

July Theme Day: Tools

Many have called the telephone an indispensable tool. But telephones today come in many guises and the two we use in our home are both slowly losing the telephone popularity contest to more modern designs.

 

This GE-made landline telephone has been constantly in use in our home for decades. The only problem encountered is with the coiled cord attaching the telephone to its receiver. The cord eventually gets tangled and fails

.

As of a few days ago, we are down to one telephone. The cord on one telephone has failed. Worse, we are finding replacing the coiled cord today is quite difficult. With fewer and fewer people using landlines, the demand for replacement coiled cords is drying up.

 

The telephone as a tool is needed more today than ever. But the original landline models may almost disappear at some point in the near future. Telephone technology has moved on and the telephone tool of yesterday may be the door stop of tomorrow.

Twins are not new

One often reads criticisms of the homes in new developments. A big one is that homes can look alike. So? I can point to quite a number of neighbourhoods through out London where sometimes six or more homes have been built all the same: cookie cutter homes.

Yesterday I featured two homes that were quite similar. Today I am posting two twin homes in the same neighbourhood. There are lots of things to criticize when it comes to new homes, and I have to admit that in recent years popping up similar homes side by side and row after row takes the building of similar homes to an arguably ridiculous extreme, but the idea of building identical twin homes is not new. And sometimes, as in the past, it worked.

A century-plus-ten home in North London

These two homes sit side by side in North London. They look quite similar at first glance. It makes one wonder if the homes shared the same builder. The home on the left is a heritage home with plaque beside the front door. It declares that the home dates from 1911 and that its first owner was Alfred Ironside who farmed some acreage outside London and then moved into the city to work as a cattle dealer.

The Home Alone style home in London

There is a fabulous, architecturally designed neighbourhood in Detroit known as the Historic Boston-Edison Neighbourhood. This handsome home in North London has always reminded me of some of the homes found in that iconic Detroit development. It also brings to mind the Chicago home in Home Alone but on a slightly less grand scale. Do you agree?

More yellow brick homes in London than elsewhere in Ontario

This clay brick home in North London features the area's much loved yellow brick which was made from the rich, limestone-saturated but iron-deficient clay found throughout Perth and Middlesex Counties. It was manufactured locally and used in most building construction in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. Reportedly, London has the highest concentration of yellow brick homes of any place in the province.

Note the interesting pattern in the brick below the eavestrough. And notice all the upgrades that this home has enjoyed over the years. Lighting, shutters, front door, stone porch and steps plus a carefully done rear addition. The homes in North London are aging very gracefully.

From the days when a one garage was a luxury

 

When I was a boy the immediate neighbourhood where I lived had almost no homes with an attached garage. Even carports were rare. We did have alleys and some homes had a garage accessed from the alley behind the home.

This home in North London must have been a rare beauty when it was new. It had an attached garage,  set back a little and not built in the later garage-forward style. The front door was impressive in a quiet way with its cut ston and thick wood trim. I would not be surprised if the wood door with large, black hinges is either the original or a replacement door with the look of the original.

This is a home that has lost none of its eloquent demeanour over the passing decades. Nor has its neighbourhood, for that matter.

A small North London Home

At one time, North London was THE neighbourhood. It held onto its number one position in the neighbourhood pecking order for decades. It still rates quite high in the neighbourhood sweepstakes even today. Many of the homes are beautiful. Oh, some are small and others are quite large but almost all have personality to spare.  

At one time both millionaires and people of much lesser means lived in the same neighbourhood. Clearly, this was never a millionaire's home. But in the coming days I will post some much pictures of much larger, grander homes. Today, homes are grouped together by value. Not so in the distant past.

A colourful, beautiful memory

The man and his wife used to sell lilies. Lovely lilies. They had a small farm but they didn't raise one of the usual cash crops. They grew lilies.

The farm was very popular and folks came from hundreds of miles to visit their acres of lily beds and place orders for their favourite blooms, many of which were unique or at least rare.

But time marches on and a few years ago the couple got too old to continue and they retired. The lily beds were emptied of flowers and today the land is devoid of lilies. And yet, the memories linger and come to life in the thousands and thousands of beautiful blooms in flower beds across the province.

Strawberry picking is back

Strawberry picking is a family outing for many London area families. Unfortunately, the pick-ur-own strawberry fields were closed last year. Why? COVID-19. 

This year the strawberry farms are again open for business. Is a pint of pick-ur-own strawberries less money than buying them in the local grocery store? This may surprise you but the answer is no. In fact, locally grown berries are often cheaper in the stores.

Families with little kids are not very efficient. Having fun, not saving money, is the goal and most folk would tell you that this is inexpensive family fun.

A symbol of a richer, more diverse, Canada

When I was a boy back in the early '50s very few folk would have been able to recognize Thai summer roll accompanied by a peanut dipping sauce. Canada was very much a meat and potatoes place seventy years ago, at least in the town where I lived.

Fast forward to today. Thai summer rolls with rice paper wraps are a favourite appetizer to be enjoyed at the neighbourhood Thai restaurant. There were no Thai restaurants seventy years ago in most Canadian neighbourhoods.

For the past year and half there were again no Thai restaurants. In fact, there were no restaurants at all. COVID-19 saw to it that most restaurants have been closed for months on end except for the occasional periods when patios have been allowed.

With more and more Canadians getting their second vaccination, the restaurant shutdowns are becoming a feature of the not-too-distant past. Our local Thai diner is again open, at least the patio. Soon, it is hoped, inside dining will also return.

Repurposed

The shop in St. Jacobs has carved out a special niche in retail. It sells used goods, often quite old, some might say heritage items, and buyers are encouraged to take this stuff and repurpose it.

My wife saw the fancy Victorian wooden columns supporting spindled arches and immediately thought of our backyard. I immediately thought of the difficulty of getting this large structure home. It wasn't going to fit in the trunk of our car. It might even be hard loading it onto a truck.

It stayed in St. Jacobs. Once back in London, we both had another thought: what was that beautiful, intricate structure originally? Was it used inside an old, Victorian home? It didn't look weathered. An indoor use now seems reasonable.

St. Jacobs is about an hour east of Lonon

The old diesel engine and what appeared to be long out-of-service passenger cars carried a unknown (to me) moniker—Waterloo Central Railway. I had to stop, look around and grab a picture.

I have since learned that the Waterloo Central Railway is a heritage railway offering historic passenger train rides between Northfield Drive in Waterloo, the St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market, Village of St. Jacobs and Town of Elmira. Clearly, it is not running at this time thanks to COVID-19 restrictions.

The WCR is operated by the Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society (SOLRS), a not-for-profit, registered charitable organization.  All ticket proceeds go toward supporting operations and restoration programs that the group's volunteers complete at its restoration and maintenance facility in St. Jacobs.

Squall line: more huff and puff than real danger

The sky looked very impressive. Threatening. Downright frightening to some. The hot day had turned cool and the quiet, humid air was beginning to move. Soon trees were bending in the fast increasing wind. London was about to be hit by a quickly moving squall line.

Squall lines are impressive. Lots of wind and rain and sometimes, like today, hail. But squall lines pass quickly and rarely result in a tornado. Residents of southwestern Ontario learn these facts as they must contend with more tornadoes than any other region in Canada. Southwestern Ontario is Canada's tornado alley.

St. Jacobs streetscape

The outlet mall at the far end of the downtown in St. Jacobs has closed and reborn with a completely new use and no retail is involved. None.

Today St. Jacobs, once possibly the biggest, best known outlet mall destination for southern Ontario shop-a-holics, is settling back into its old groove: an artsy, colourful, Mennonite community: a place to buy unique products and enjoy Mennonite sausage on a bun.

Thanks to COVID-19 the main street in St. Jacobs was exceptionally quiet last Sunday. The loss of the town's two outlet malls has not helped. But the province wide shutdowns are nearing their end and with luck St. Jacobs will again be a popular, quaint destination for weekend excursions and short vacation visits.

Don't count St. Jacobs out

 

Once passenger-packed buses would bring literally hundreds of visitors to St. Jacobs in search of the perfect shopping experience. The little village smack dab in the middle of Mennonite country seems an odd place to become a veritable temple to capitalism but that is what it was in the not too distant past.

Dansk, Paderno, Corning, Nike and many other big name brands had outlet stores in St. Jacobs. Local artists, and even artists from outside the little town, opened shops in St. Jacobs to take advantage of the intense shopper traffic there to immerse themselves in a shop-till-you-drop experience.

Today, St. Jacobs is but a shadow of its former self. Dansk is no longer a stand alone company. It has closed most, if not all, its stores. Paderno still exists but it too has closed stores and now sells mainly at the stores run by the big retailers like Canadian Tire and Walmart. Corningware too has slashed its number of stores. The one in St. Jacobs is gone. The old outlet malls are either closed or mere shadows of their former selves. 

Then came COVID-19 and the lock-downs. St. Jacobs was given a one-two punch from which it may never totally recover but it may be too early to count the town out. A visit to St. Jacobs early Sunday morning confirmed that many of the art stores, antique shops and fine craft outlets are still there and open for business.

The parking spots for the buses are empty now and may soon be painted over. Facing the reality that the buses filled with shoppers may never return may mark the official end to an era. But no matter, when COVID-19 is licked, it is quite possible that St. Jacobs will get its second wind and come back reincarnated in a form that may actually, in the end, benefit the residents of St. Jacobs more than all the big names did by bringing product in and moving cash out.

When does it end?

When does it end? The mazes go up and the mazes come down and then up they go again. Stores are open in London but getting into those open stores is time consuming and patience destroying. The line-ups are long, wrapping around quickly improvised barriers such as these shopping carts flipped upside down.

It is hard to believe that at well run society wouldn't have delegated a lot of this stuff to the past by this point. Canada is reportedly one of the world leaders when it comes the vaccinating its people. But, sadly, shockingly, Canada's world leading numbers are not all that impressive. Only 24.5% of Canadians are fully vaccinated. The U.S. is doing almost twice as well as Canada with 45.3% fully vaccinated. The U.S. hasn't passed even the halfway point. Globally, only 22.6% of the population has received the first vaccination and in the poorest regions of the world that number drops to 0.9%.

With numbers like that, Covid-19 may be with us for a long time yet. And, with so many folk resisting getting vaccinated, there may be more severe strains of the virus in our future.

Carol Johnston was a force in London

Carol Johnston was a force in London

Posted by The London Free Press celebrating the late Carol Johnston and the wonderful changes she made on the city thanks to the creation of the local children's museum.

Some are still proud of the flag

It has been a hard year for the Canadian flag, the red maple leaf. Indigenous communities across Canada have hundreds of reasons to flying the flag at half staff and many are. But many have simply taken their Canadian flags down. If you don't know why, please google "Canada, indigenous and residential schools." You will be shocked.

With more and more stories related to the residential school system coming to light, I was a little surprised to see that this home had dozens of small flags waving in the wind in anticipation of Canada Day this coming July 1.

We still have sunsets.

Things are opening up in Ontario and as restaurants open and movie theatres and other activities are again available, I expect the evening crowds that gather on Lookout Court to view the sunset will dissipate. The usually quiet little court is often lined with cars and sometimes the court even has vehicles parked in the middle of the circle. Before  COVID-19 it was never this way. Never. Viewing a sunset is the new family outing.

Bubbles were smaller at one time

When I was a boy the fluid for making bubbles came in small, glass jars with small, plastic bubble-making wands attached, usually with a strong elastic. The entire package usually originated in Toronto. The bubbles we made were possibly as large as four inches, but that would be pushing it.

Today bubble making fluid is big business and the bottles are huge, the wands large and sometimes even gigantic and the bubble these kits make are at least a foot in diameter and often much, much larger. The kits come from China.

Trade, we are told, is good. It is the life blood of our economies. Still, I cannot help but wonder why bubble-making kits cannot be made anywhere. Why it is necessary to ship the stuff literally halfway around the world so little kids can make bubbles? Why?

Thames in Southwest Ontario is the little brother

When the name Thames was originally considered for the river flowing through London, Ontario, the river was known mostly by reputation. The river was reputed to be big and long. It was said that it might well be the biggest river system in southwestern Ontario. It's reputation brought to mind its English namesake. It is long but big? I don't think so. The biggest river in the area is the well named Grand River. 

The picture shows the Thames River flowing out of London heading toward Chatham before it empties into Lake St. Clair. Head up river from here and after very few kilometres one reaches the Forks of the Thames in the core of the city. 

The North Branch of the Thames meets the Thames River proper at the forks but one would not know it from the local stories, mostly wrong. The North Branch is bigger than the Thames River itself. The North Branch tributary carries more water than the Thames River. This leads folk to call the Thames River the South Branch. Many believe the Thames River is the result of the merging of the two branches. Nope.

The Thames River flows east of the city to Woodstock and then turns north to its headwaters in some marsh land near Tavistock. In truth, the Thames River in southwestern Ontario is a slow, meandering, shallow river that picks up a little extra water at The Forks of Thames and then continues its lazy way west.

Cities often offer wildlife a perk or two

According to the New York Times, birds in North America are in decline. Numbers are down by almost 30% since 1970. This is not something one would think based on the number and variety of birds sighted in London, Ontario.

And North American is not alone. In Europe, as well, common bird species are in decline. And what is driving this decline? Habitat destruction takes a big toll. Pesticides and chemicals in general are big culprits. And, of course, there is urban sprawl. Dr. Young, of the University of California, says humans are overusing the world. 

And yet humans do offer wildlife, such as birds, some appreciated perks. Bird feeders, bird houses and bird baths are all very popular with the feathered wildlife found in cities.

Proposed tower is closer to being built

The tall tower on the left is not there -- yet. At this time it is only a proposed tower but it has cleared every hurdle tossed in its path. At 40 storeys, the tower will be the tallest building in London and a side benefit of its size may be that it will also possibly be the most hated building in London. 

Some of the oldest heritage buildings in the city are owned by the same developer and stand immediately beside the proposed tower. The developer claims the new structure will respect the much smaller, 1800s structures. Heritage activists find this claim hard to believe.

Many also say that the new tower will be built partially on floodplain. This is a strict no-no but it appears the tower is being given a waiver.

Although it is hard to see in this illustration, the tower overlooks the Forks of the Thames in London's core. A number of nearby high rises will have their lines of sight to the forks blocked or partially blocked by the new, proposed tower.

And then there are those who find the new tower design just plain boring and that in itself is enough not to build the monster in such a historic and valued site. The Forks of the Thames deserves something much better architecturally.

Once millionaires supported their hometowns

 

When I moved to London it was said that London had more backyard, in-ground pools per capita than any other community in Canada. This is another way of saying that London was known for wealth.

For a small city, London had more than its fair share of millionaires and these millionaires made the community a better place to live for everyone. One very wealthy family with deep roots in the town was the Ivey family, the family behind EMCO.

If the millionaire families had only given London jobs that would have been wonderful, but many of the families contributed generously to the city, their city, as well. 

That is why today when I had cataract surgery, I had the operation at the Ivey Eye Institute. The Iveys were a very generous London family. They left their mark in many ways on the city.

One often reads that Canada has socialized medicine. Technically, it doesn't. It has a single payer system. But I like to think that our system has benefited from the participation of capitalism and capitalists as well as government.

As a former photojournalist at the local paper, I met many of the Iveys. I especially liked Richard and Beryl Ivey. They were a classy, interesting couple and amazingly down-to-earth. I believe it was Richard's sister Lorraine Shuttleworth who was an original contributors to the clinic that carries the family name today.

Groundhogs love strawberries; groundhogs are not alone.

Most homeowners believe that if they have a problem with a wild animal making a nuisance of itself, they can simply live trap the nuisance, drive it out of town, the farther the better, and release it. Problem solved. In truth, it is not this easy.

For one thing, in London a live trapped animal cannot be moved more than a kilometre away from where it was taken. That is only about .6 of a mile and that's not all that far. Stay within the law and the animal essentially stays within its home range. The problem animal may easily find its way home and be back being a nuisance within a day or two. If it doesn't return it may be because it is now busy being a nuisance to a nearby neighbour. This hardly seems fair.

Put the idea of using a pellet gun or BB rifle right our of your head. Using a firearm within the city limits of many municipalities is strictly a no-no and a BB gun or pellet gun is classified by many municipalities as a firearm.

Leg holds are out and with good reason, as is poison as well. With pets and children all about in the city, the danger to other nuisances, like children, is just too great.

So buy a live trap, bait it with one of the suspect animal's favourite foods and, if you are lucky, capture the bothersome critter. Property owners are allowed to protect their property withing legal limits.

I have baited my large live trap with strawberries and some flowers. So far the only animal to show an interest has been a chipmunk. It nibbled on the strawberries from outside the trap. As of this time, no sign of a groundhog. Maybe tomorrow I will up the ante by baiting the trap with chopped up cantaloupe. If it doesn't find the strawberries enticing enough maybe a large helping a cantaloupe will do the trick.

Think of this not as a flower but groundhog food

It's a little late in the year to be shopping for garden flowers. My wife spent her gardening budget a month or more ago. Now, that investment is under attack.

Last night my wife notice the flowers in one of her patio planters were vibrating. Weird. She watched. A groundhog poked its head up. It was taking a brief break from having its dinner. And what was dinner? Of course, my wife's flowers were the main course. And it ate them all. Every last one!

And so today it was off to the garden centre to look for more groundhog food—uh, flowers, potted flowers.

The groundhog will return. Of this, I have absolutely no doubt. Will it again dine on potted flowers? If it does, I have broadened the menu. There is a new flower being offered. To sample this flower, the groundhog only has to venture into to live trap I have set in the backyard.

First sign of new subdivison: mountains of topsoil

 

The first sign that a new subdivision is about to be built are the mountains of topsoil tucked into a far corner of the development. The former farmland contains far too much organic material. It is good quality soil for growing crops but poor quality soil for "growing" homes.

Topsoil will not support a structure. It must be removed and in southwestern Ontario there may be a lot to remove. Sometimes the topsoil extends up to four feet down. Hence the veritable mountains of topsoil removed from construction sites.

And what happens to the topsoil that was bulldozed? A lot of it is put back when building ends. It can cost a lot to truck the earth away. It is easier and cheaper to simply use it to give the new homes the soil necessary to for grass and landscaping.

Soil not returned to neighbourhood land can be bagged and sold if the builder finds there is too much soil. After the homes go in and the roads are paved, it is not surprising that often there is some soil remaining when all the subdivision work has been completed.