Santa visits London

Santa waves to children lining Gainsborough Rd. Saturday at the annual parade.

The annual Hyde Park Santa Claus Parade was well attended this year with the temperature climbing above the freezing mark for the Saturday morning event.

The parade, organized by the Hyde Park and District Lions Club and the NorWest Optimists, had some 55 entries this year. The Lion float may have been the crowd-pleasing favourite — not counting Santa, of course.

London has two Santa Claus parades, one is held at night in the core of the city and the other is held a few weeks later but during the day and in a northwest London suburb. Many people that I know prefer the suburban parade.

The event has a nice Christmas feel with a lot of local kids participating. Kids marched, kids played instruments, kids wore costumes and threw candy to other kids — the ones lining the parade route. This event has a great community feel and it is fun.

The Hyde Park Business Association collected winter boots; The NorWest Optimist Soccer Program collected toys. For the first time, canned good were collected, too. Like I said, this event has a community feel.

Many little kids seemed as much in awe of "Wendy" of fast food fame as of Santa Claus himself.

For more on the parade, check The London Free Press  coverage.

Hank Daniszewski, a reporter with years of experience, covered the event for the local paper, both shooting the picture and writing the story. There may be no paper Sunday, but the news story has already been posted to the Net where it can found right now.

Growing season just about done for year

Thomas Brothers Farm Market, south of London on hwy 4

It used to be that my wife and I would drive outside the city to buy fresh Ontario fruits and vegetables. Today we don't have to leave the city. The market we go to has not moved but some years back the city boundaries did. The result is that some stands are now inside the expanding city, some stands have been closed and others have disappeared completely, replaced by housing.

I've watched the loss of precious southwestern Ontario farmland to industry and housing for decades, ever since I was a little boy. The acreage that has disappeared is astronomical. It is equal to the area of the province of Prince Edward Island and then some.

Today we get a lot of our broccoli from California, our asparagus from Peru and our peaches (canned) from South Africa. Peaches are no longer canned in Ontario. The water tables in the agricultural areas of both California and Peru are dropping. The day may well come when many of the areas shipping massive amounts of fresh vegetables today, will be unable to continue tomorrow. Starved for water the distant farmlands will be brown with withered crops.

This is no way to treat our space ship: Space Ship Earth.

I was amazed to find locally grown corn still available at the roadside food market.

New park fails to impress U.S. architect

This little park would benefit from some better planning, a little imagination.

Over the weekend, I took a visiting American architect for a tour of a new development in the southwest London. He had some interesting insights -- insights that should be of interest to those taking part in the ReThink London process.

For one thing, he was not impressed with the large park in the new Talbot Village development. Yes, it did attract kids. Yes, it did provide a place to play. But it could have been so much more. As it is, it is simply an open chunk of land trapped inside a circle of roads. It does feature some playground equipment -- a plus -- but it could have been so much more.

This small park in Montreal is a beauty.

When I was in Montreal recently, I walked to a park near to where I was staying. It was beautiful. Well treed and featuring a large pond fed by a small, rock-edged, meandering stream. A paved path through the park made good use of the little stream.

The park in Montreal was a neighbourhood focal point. The surrounding homes all faced the park unlike this new park in London. The London park seems ignored. Almost forgotten by those living nearby.

Think of the squares of Savannah, Georgia, or The Green in Dover, Delaware. For inspiration, Londoners actually need look no farther than the city's own Victoria Park in the city core. I am not suggesting that a small suburban park needs to be as grand as the large park in the core. I am only suggesting a small neighbourhood park can easily be more than what has been delivered in southwest London.

Both the Montreal park and the homes nearby benefit from their interaction.

Hawk Cliff

© Ken Wightman

There is a place, overlooking Lake Erie south of London, known by locals as Hawk Cliff. Each fall migrating raptors are sighted here in the tens of thousands as the raptors migrate south ahead of the approaching cold winter weather.

Some of the birds are lured into a net at Hawk Cliff and banded before being released to continue the flight south. On at least two weekends every fall local birders are allowed by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to put on display to instruct interested people in the ways of raptors.

This Kestrel Falcon, captured this morning, was banded and then shown to a small group gathered to learn a little about these wonderful birds. At the end of the talk, the Kestrel was released.

Another greenhouse, another picture

I love greenhouses. The plants make such great subjects.

With the summer season coming rapidly to an end, the local London greenhouses are now stocked with houseplants. I passed on the purchase and contented myself with a photo. The plants should thank me. Under my care, they wouldn't have lived till Christmas.

Minimalist photography makes my day

My wife and I had to head off to the garden centre today. My wife needed tulip bulbs. Unfortunately, tulip bulbs don't make a picture. That said, I discovered lots of plants that do. Especially when one is looking for a photo in the minimal photography style.

I loved the image I was able to coax out of a close-up of a succulent.

Another look at London's southern gateway

I have featured shots from the Wonderland Road South entry into London, Ontario, in the past. Today I am featuring yet another shot. It is not a bad stretch of road, lots of stores and a couple of small apartment towers, but it is certainly not a wonderland.

The London city council likes to talk about this stretch of roadway, which brings traffic into the city from highways 401 and 402, as the city's new gateway. Talk about putting your dullest foot forward. This stretch of road could be in any one of at least a dozen other communities. Rows of box stores, acres of parking and apartment towers visible behind the commercial development.

Being critical is not enough. There is no shortage of local folk to bad mouth this development. To be a successful critic, one must supply an alternative. Think of the The Market Common Clarendon.

The Common is not just another power node. This development in Arlington, Virginia, is an urban village of retail, apartment living and townhouses presented in an imaginative mix.

If you have a car, not to worry. The Market Common has 1,420 parking spaces.

Sadly, London has more developments like the Wonderland gateway waiting in the wings.