A Day in the Life of London, Ontario

Stuff is expensive. Children require lots of stuff. You do see where this is going, right?

My little granddaughter was was two as of the second of this month. She is a delight and has brightened up this old man's life. That said, she is expensive. I cannot believe what a good pair of shoes for a little kid cost.

I got very lucky when it came to buying Fiona a little girl's kitchen. I found one at Homesense. And I mean one. I imagine it wasn't the last one in stock but the only one they ever had.

You see, Homesense is a "jobber" outlet, that is, it is a store (in this case, a  Canadian chain of stores) specializing in buying odd lots of leftover inventory from wholesalers and other retailers, and selling the stuff at discount.

The Homesense inventory changes drastically from week to week and, with some things, from day to day. There's no guarantee they will have what you are looking for, but when they do, the price is an incredible bargain.

Scarecrow, nope. A scareowl.

To keep pigeons off roofs and ledges, folks often resort to using plastic owls as a type of "scarecrow" meant to banish the troublesome bird pests. The London Free Press had one; Pesky birds still built nests in the large company sign mounted on the paper's east wall. The owl pictured was set on the roof of an area hairdressing salon. Local birds didn't seem to take much notice.

Kids just gotta run

Do you recall being a kid? You could never just walk anywhere; You had to run. What better activity than running for kids attending a summer day camp, or similar function, at a local park?

When Fiona saw these kids go running by she was jealous. The little toddler took off at, what was for her, a fine running pace. When the group came by a second time, Fiona was inspired anew. I can't speak for the running mob but Fiona slept well that night.

Splash pads replacing wading pools

Splash pads are the watery wave of the future in London, Ontario. They are slowly replacing wading pools right across the city. The pools demand no chlorine addition nor chlorine monitoring. Life-guards are not necessary. Despite what appears to be a very generous use of water, splash pads are reportedly less expensive to operate than the old shallow, wading pools.

London, Ontario bigger by one

The population of London, Ontario took a very small pop yesterday. At dinner time Saturday the population of this Southwestern Ontario city grew by a little one, and the little one is my beautiful, new granddaughter Eloise.

Mother and daughter are doing well.

Cheers world!

Thames Turtle

A park walker noticed that I was shooting pictures and alerted me to the turtle sitting on a rock on the other side of the Thames River. "Do you have a long lens?" I answered yes and headed off.

My little Fuji HS10 found itself challenged. The turtle was quite some distance away. I tried to steady the camera against the trunk of a small tree. I shot a number of pictures and hoped for the best.

I've seem better shots of turtles in the London, Ontario river. Today, this one will have to do.

Cheers!

Simple rides, simple pleasures

London's Springbank train is simple but it provides a lot of simple pleasure.

The problem with the little train in London's Springbank Park, if there is a problem, is that it is just a ride and not transportation in any sense. It would be really cool if the little train actually went somewhere in the park; If it provided a unique form of in-park transportation.  "All aboard for the wading pool and playground!"

Our London train already has a station thanks to the Sifton family. The local London family, famous for such developments as Westmount and RiverBend, built the beautiful Springbank Express train station to celebrate 75 years in the construction business.

As a small boy I have very fond memories of the miniature train at the Detroit Zoo, officially known as the Tauber Family Railroad. That little railroad it still running today with two complete trains of six coaches. There is one standby locomotive. All three locomotives were donated by the Chrysler Corp. in the 1950s and Chrysler is still involved today.

Even a young child can see these trains are special.

What makes the Detroit set-up so neat, is that it serves a purpose other than giving kids with a simple ride; It actually fills a transportation need.

The railway still operates today as it did when I was boy, a family can board the train near the park entrance, ride to the back of the park and then stroll back through the zoo to finish at the front gate. Or a family can walk through the zoo, view all the exhibits and then board the train for a ride back to the zoo entrance. We never bought a round trip ticket. The little train was our transportation within the park.

If you'd like to know more, watch the little video.




And folk at The London Free Press please note the involvement of The Detroit News in Detroit's little railroad. Maybe instead of just asking what can be done to improve London, the paper should do what was done in the past and donate time and money to the city in which it operates and which has given the paper such a long and successful life.

Add some track, maybe some new and improved trains and let's go!

In researching this post I discovered that when the new station was built, new track was installed and the loop was moved to a spot closer to Storybook Gardens. See the Closed Canadian Parks Internet page; Scroll almost to the bottom. You will see a picture of an older Springbank locomotive and some interesting background information.

"It was reported that in 1999, plans were being made to connect the old and new track layouts so that people could use the (Springbank) train for transportation to the wading pool at the old location."

From the looks of things, the above didn't all happen. Too bad. The loop should be kept for the youngest of little riders who just want a short, simple ride.