Ralentissez pour nos enfants: slow down for our children

London is an english-speaking community in the south-western part of the province (Ontario). Yet, London has a number of french-speaking schools.

École élémentaire Marie-Curie is not a french immersion school where english speaking children are immersed in the french language. Marie-Curie is a french first-lanuage school providing instruction in french for children who come from french-speaking homes.

Why does London have school like Marie-Curie? Because Canada is a bilingual country: french and english are the languages of the land. Of course, in Quebec, french is the primary language while in most other parts of Canada english takes the primary position.

My granddaughters attend Marie-Curie. Why? Are we a french-speaking family? No, we are not but Fiona, my oldest granddaughter, went to a french-speaking daycare when she was but a toddler. Today she is bilingual. Because of her fluency, her sister, Isla, was accepted into the Marie-Curie french pre-kindergarten class. Today, Isla is fluent as well.

In a bilingual country, speaking both languages is a plus. At the very least, it makes a number of cable channels available that would otherwise be of no interest. The channels of which I am speaking are, of course, the french language ones.

I can read french and so I turn on the captions for the hearing impaired and watch the french channels. I especially enjoying getting the french slant on the news by watching TV5 out of Paris.

An artsy approach

The day before yesterday I posted a photo showing a child playing on the snow "doughnut" in the middle of the court in front of my London home. The doughnut is a real kid magnet each winter. Click on this link to learn more and to see the original picture. Link: Our doughnut is spelt oddly: woonerf.

The first picture shows enough of the snow pile to make its shape somewhat clear. The photo also places the snow pile in the road on pavement and bordered by suburban homes. It is what I would call a photo that documents.

The picture today is simpler. It is almost a silhouette of the playing child. There are very few elements and one the tree seems to be included simply for its graphic appeal. Today's photo is more artsy, more visually creative, than the first image.

Modern, contemporary but conservative

This infill development is quite small. It is one long row of condos with a paved acccess at the front and that's it. Beyond the pavement is the next property. When it comes to increasing density, this development delivers.

Visually I find this development both contemporary and conservative. There are not too many different, competing-for-attention exterior materials. It is just brick, wood and painted metal garage doors. All trim, and it is limited, is metal and painted to match the garage doors. The exterior lighting is simple and the small balustrades circling the small balconies are supported by thick, break-reistant glass panels.

These units look as if they would be very efficient to heat in winter, cool in summer and general maintenance should not be too much. Someone did their homework before these were built.

Our doughnut is spelt oddly: woonerf

When the snowplows clear the court in front of my home, they leave a round mass of snow. The kids call it the doughnut. Children stateside would call it a donut. Me? I call it a woonerf: a living street.

I believe woonerf are a Dutch creation by Niek De Boer. Woonerfs, or living streets, are streets designed to force drivers to slow down as they share the road space with cyclists, pedestrians and children. Woonerfs are generally residential in character with the first one built in the City of Delft in the '60s.

I never cease to be amazed at how our court accommodates playing children, strolling neighbours walking their dogs and joggers. We see a few cyclists but they are on the court to enjoy the lookout and not to take advantage of the street itself.

At some point in the future the City of London will probably destroy our woonerf. A sidewalk will be built and the expectations of drivers to see folk on the road will diminish. The car speed on the street and the court will possibly increase.

Pedestrians will keep to the sidewalk, kids will go to to the nearby park to play ball and kids sliding down the snowy doughnut will, uh, will continue. Somethings I'm sure never change.

Boler Mountain/Byron Bump both spell challenge

 

As I have said in the past, the Byron neighbourhood ski hill is amazingly small. That said, it is also simply amazing. It has been a fairly warm winter with snowfalls few and far between. Still, neither warm weather during the day during the week or even rain has closed the hill for more than a day or two.

I understand that on nights when the humidity is low and the temperature below zero, the Boler Mountain ski hill can go through 30-million gallons of water to make snow. And it shows.

Yesterday was February 2nd or Groundhog Day and the voting is split on whether winter is going to end soon or hang in there. The fortune-telling groundhogs have delivered opposing views.

For the sake of my granddaughters, I'm hoping the Wiarton, Ontario, groundhog is right and winter is not going anywhere for some weeks. Skiing into early March is a safe bet according to Wiarton Willie.

The strength of neighbourhood malls

I bought my Silhouette frames back in 2006 at Cummins Optical in what was then a booming, oh-so-successful neighbourhood mall which drew customers from across London. My oldest granddaughter broke an arm in 2012, I took the broken frames to Cummins and they ordered a replacement. It cost more than a hundred dollars.

Saturday it was my six-year-old granddaughter who broke my Silhouette frames and again it was an arm that bent and broke. I returned to the mall, now a smaller building, one wing has been demolished, and many of the remaining stores are now empty. I was delighted to see that Cummins Optical was still in business.

And this is where the strength of the small, independently-owned business shines. The optician, Matthew Clarke, checked his parts supply—I'm a little unclear as to why he has these assorted spare parts—and he found an arm. It was the right colour, the right size, the right shape and, for me a retiree, it was the right price. Clarke saved me a lot of money and he fixed my frames in minutes.

I doubt that many chain outlets could offer such fine service. There are advantages to both the customer and to the frame manufacturers to dealing with small stores like Cummins. I never would have bought the Silhouette frames in the first place if it had not been for the perceptive salesperson at the small store. They understood my needs—a working photographer I appreciated the lightness and the solid attachment—she also warned me that the frames were fragile. The store staff has always treated me honestly and left me feeling they know their business and care about their customers.

I understand the owner of Cummins is now in his seventies. I fear the day is coming when Westmount Mall will have another empty store front: Cummins Optical.

Successful infill but . . .

London city planners would like to see the city density increase in the future. Most Londoners are in agreement with this goal. To this end a lot of small, undeveloped spaces are becoming infill. This home is but one of a very small but compact infill development.

I like what was done here very much. All the homes share the same contemporary look right down to the predominant white and black motif. But the designs are not cookie cutter. Some of the homes in this development manage to be quite unique despite sharing so much with the neighbouring homes.

Come spring, I'd love return to this development and document it with care and depth.