Market may be on the market

This is the Covent Garden Market in downtown London, Ontario. A market has stood on this site for more than a hundred years.

There is little point in writing a lot about the market as the above link will take you to a fine slide show detailing the market's history. When watching the slide show, note the size of the crowds and the great number of cars in some of these old photos.

Contrary to what some would have us believe, walking wasn't always the way to get around, even in the distant past. 80 years ago parking spaces for all the cars was already an issue under discussion. And before cars circled the market and clogged the area, horse drawn carriages filled much of the open space.

Today there is talk of the city selling the market. Times are tough, they say. Time to make a tough decision. Maybe the tough decision is to hold onto the market and the site.

Reclaimed gravel pit

When I moved to my home in suburban Byron on the edge of London, Ontario, there was a huge gravel pit immediately across from my home. The pit was actually closed, no more gravel was being excavated, and the pit was now going through a process of reclamation.

My wife and I were warned that we might have to put up with dust from the closed pit for twenty years. Reclaiming a gravel pit requires a lot of fill and dumping that fill creates a lot of dust.

Well London grew faster than estimated and new construction creates a massive amount of fill. The old pit disappeared quickly. It was gone in just a few years. The steep cliffs of the pit were sloped and a beautiful park took shape, complete with a baseball diamond and a children's play area.

Watching these boys ascending one of the wildflower covered slopes, it's hard to believe that just more than a decade ago this was the steep, sandy home for hundreds of cliff swallows.

It is funny to contemplate but sometimes I wonder if my home, sitting on a mound of gravel and fine sand hundreds of feet deep, will be torn down someday in the future in order to get at the gravel underneath. It is not unknown for homes to be demolished to extract the valuable aggregate on which they sit.

Back from extinction

Sighted behind a London home flapping in the summer breeze.

The clothesline was a dying feature of Canadian urban live. In some suburbs long clotheslines were banned. If one felt driven to hang wet laundry outside, exposing all to the neighbourhood, a circular, rotating line was the only type allowed.

Three years ago all this changed when Premier Dalton McGuinty lifted the ban on outdoor clotheslines by overruling the common suburban bylaw. McGuinty said the move was aimed at curbing the use of energy-sucking clothes dryers, which burn up to six per cent of Ontario's power.

In explaining the change, McGuinty said:

"There's a whole generation of kids growing up today who think a clothesline is a wrestling move."

Hmmm. I guess there's was a whole generation, mine, who thought a wrestling move was a way to dry laundry.

A storm rolls over the city

Minutes before the storm hit, this was the sunset.

I cannot recall the last time an electrical storm frightened me. The one that rolled over London, Ontario tonight was scary. The bolts of lightning hit so close to my home, I live on a hill overlooking the city, that the thunder had not just sound but real fury. My windows rattled and the pens on my desk trembled.

The sky was thick with storms all day.

I wish I could have gotten a picture but the lightning came and went very quickly. The rumble of thunder is now distant and growing weaker by the minute.

By eleven tonight all storms should be past and tomorrow I will drive my Morgan to Burlington with the top of the old roadster stored on the shelf behind the seat.

Tomorrow morning should be a day not for umbrellas but for sunblock. But by late afternoon it might be time for another thunder storm. That's common summer weather in Southwestern Ontario.

Paul Di Libero: Bike Medic

Print out this post, present it to Di Libero, receive $10 off your first bike tune-up.

The doctor makes house calls; The bike doctor that is.

Paul Di Libero is a bike mechanic. He is also a fourth year student at King's University College at The University of Western Ontario. With college out for the summer, Di Libero is turning from books to bikes.

The London philosophy student perfected his bike repair skills working at the Missing Link on Commissions Rd. W. in Byron. The cycle shop was a fixture in downtown Byron for more than a dozen years. Rising rent coupled with diminishing sales forced the closure of the small, locally-owned store. Clearly not just downtown London is suffering from the growing number of big box stores.

Thanks to funding from the provincially sponsored Summer Company 2011 program, Di Libero has been able to open a mobile bicycle repair business — the Bike Medic. Saturday he was spotted cycling about Byron, his shop/trailer in tow, distributing flyers throughout the suburban neighbourhood.

Specializing in tune-ups, flat tire repair, bike cleaning and maintenance, the experienced bike mechanic tows his cycle-shop-on-wheels to the customer's home. Naturally, Di Libero tows his shop behind a bicycle.

The Bike Medic, Paul Di Libero, can be reached by phone at 519-615-9135 or by e-mail at paul@bikemedic.ca.

With one of his flyers, Di Libero is offering $10 off on your first tune-up. The Bike Medic has graciously agreed to give anyone presenting a printout of this London Daily Photo post the same deal.

Now, forgive me, I've got to go and call the Bike Medic. Oh, and make a print of this post.

FrankenBaby

Has someone slipped chipmunk genes into the little girl? No one is talking.

Canadian scientists in Guelph, Ontario announced they have created a mouse-pig by splicing the rodent's DNA into a pig's.

This is true. Honest. According to John Miner, writing in The London Free Press, the researchers have submitted their data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Canadian government. The data are presently being evaluated. If this latest FrankenFood wins the required regulatory approval in Canada and United States, soon the mouse-pig could be on a dinner plate near you. (Question: Does it taste like chicken?)

A lot of people have expressed concern when it comes to the genetically modified Canadian porker; I have other worries closer to home. I'm worried my little granddaughter may have been slipped a little chipmunk DNA. I can't say for sure but there are signs. The scientists in Guelph aren't talking.

One Dog a Leaping

Dogs love to play catch. And some of them are awfully good. It is difficult to get an excellent action shot at dusk. I came close but excellent it is not.

Someday I'll get a fine picture of one of the neighbourhood dogs in action. For now, this image will have to do.