A great place to visit but . . .

Toronto-born Frank Gehry, has done his first building in Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. The famous architect put a long expanse of slanted, reflective glass above the Dundas St. W. entrance to reflect the townhouses across the street.

Gehry used a lot of warm wood inside the AGO.

Many of us living in Southwestern Ontario have a love/hate relationship with Toronto. We love visiting the big city but we don't want to live there. Toronto has great theatres, athletic events, restaurants. The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) are wonderful places to spend a day.

Right now King Tut: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs is at the AGO.

King Tut is two hours from London.

The tickets are available online. Buy in advance online and when you walk in the door, you can immediately line-up for entry at the time on your ticket. It's pretty slick.

To go home, one gets on the Gardner Expressway or maybe the 401, and if it is rush hour you just about park your car on the expressway. The going is slow. It gives one a lot of time to consider why, "Toronto is a great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there."

Art Gallery of Ontario

It's location, location, location --- or is it?

I always thought with real estate it was location, location, location. Well, this is the location of the upscale apartments featured yesterday.

On the right edge of the picture is the Men's Mission and in the foreground is a complex of storage units. I'll bet folk who live in the apartments rent space here as it's handy.

Between the storage buildings and the apartments run the Canadian National Railway tracks. This is the CNR mainline through London and it is heavily travelled.

And behind the Men's Mission at the CNR tracks, both men and women often gather to chum about. The London police seem to think of this more as loitering, or something, and are often there breaking it up and moving it on.

When my wife worked in the area I always had to pick her up after work because she was afraid to walk to her car. She feared the fellows who, when moved on from party-hardy-city, loitered in front of the door to her building.

This is not a criticism but an observation. I personally found the wording of the sign fastened to the side of the apartment building odd, but hey that's probably just me.

Cheers,
Rockinon

Love the sign

Love the sign: "Upscale 1 & 2 Bedroom for Lease." Admittedly, this is a good building and my wife, who worked in an office on the second floor, assures me it is very well maintained. Yet, let's be honest; This building, and the other two in the complex, is as dull as they come. Similar looking buildings in the States have been demolished with dynamite, dropped dramatically to the ground and the rubble carted away.

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you this "upscale" building's neighbourhood.

For now,
Cheers,
Rockinon

Somethings don't change

Somethings are the same the world over --- likes babies. And the lessons that babies can teach us are as valid in London, Ontario, as they are in London, England.

Babies are curious. They constantly investigate the world that surrounds them.

Babies don't hold a grudge. Give them a bath and they may howl but moments after leaving the water all is forgiven. "Don't live in the past." They seem to be telling us. "You gotta have a life. When it's over, move on."

And it is good to laugh if given the opportunity. At least, that is Fiona's strong belief. She jumps at the chance to share a laugh with a friend, and it does help to be her friend as Fiona is no naive fool. She knows you don't just trust anyone on first meeting. Relationships can't be rushed.

Babies everywhere have sparkle. It is too bad that for many of us, life dulls our sparkle, our native curiosity and enthusiasm.

Cheers,
Rockinon

Spring flooding

Behind the Canada goose is Harris Park at the forks of the Thames in downtown London, Ontario. This park is located on flood plain and so it is no surprise that it is under water in mid March. What is a surprise is how little flooding has occurred. Some years the flooding can be quite extensive when a late, heavy snow is followed by a sudden warm spell accompanied by rain.

In the background, on the left, can be seen a high concrete levee. This levee is necessary because the homes on that side of the river are also on flood plain.

I liked this picture so much, I wrote a weather article just so I could post it on Digital Journal.

The clock jumps forward, the snow pulls back

Except for some areas where the drifted snow was exceptionally deep and somewhat sheltered from day long sunshine, like my backyard, most of the snow cover in the London area is gone.

I saw this and thought if grass was blue, this scene would resemble many of the aerial pictures I've seen showing polar glaciers where they meet the sea.

A sign of spring

Tonight the clocks spring forward, one sign of spring. And the irises are showing green sprouts, another sign that spring is coming to London, Ontario.