A road not taken

 

There's a famous poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. It starts "Two roads diverged . . . "

There's a bend in Hyde Park Road where, if one pays attention, there is the hint of long forgotten "Y".

Go right, through the curb cut and almost immediately encounter a couple of posts with a length of chain suspended between them

This the Hyde Park Road not taken, and for good reason. This is the old, closed, former Hyde Park Road. It was once a rather attractive stretch of highway. No more. Today, even Robert Frost would likely decide to stay on the well-traveled path.

This also came from China.

One. There is just one little brightly coloured bud on our entire magnolia tree. Tomorrow there will be more and then more and then one morning we will get up, look out the kitchen window, and see our entire magnolia tree in bloom.

I always thought magnolia trees were had large pink and white flowers. When I bought our tree it was small and sported only green leaves. When spring arrived, red-purple flowers appeared. Flowers with long droopy petals. It looked nothing like the magnolia trees with which I was familiar.

After a visit to the gardening centre I knew what I had was either a Japanese or Chinese flowering magnolia. A species of magnolia that was not found in Southwest Ontario in the past.

Cooped up inside, waiting out the quarantine, my wife and I will delighted when the tree is heavy with blooming flowers. Heck, we were excited just to see a little, rain-wet bud.

With the parks closed, kids play in the court

With the parks all closed, neighbourhood kids are getting antsy. The large, paved circle that gives our short street its designation as a court, is now very well used. Today it was bikes, the other day it was road hockey and tomorrow I'm sure it will be anther group and another activity.

I understand that residential streets that lack sidewalks and force the sharing of the paved street space among pedestrians, playing children and cars are called woonerfs in Holland. In London these types of residential spaces are often courts.

I couldn't get too close when taking the picture. One doesn't want to threaten the social distancing that the kids are being so careful to maintain. The little boys are actually quite delightful and I would not have wanted to risk upsetting them.

If the grandkids were here, this groundhog would be named.

The groundhog stays mostly out of sight. We know he's been around by all the tulips and other spring plants that are no longer in our garden. Between the rabbits and the groundhogs we may not have many spring flowers.

My wife is upset. Me? I enjoy watching the wildlife. But shusssh. Don't tell my wife.

Found Art_Sorta

 

Years ago I took my granddaughters to an art-in-the-park event. We saw this piece of art done in glass. It was a decoration for one's garden. It is simply old, discarded glass objects glued together. I bought it and it still stands today in the garden beside our front door.

Line-ups continue

Needing a few food items, I had to go to the grocery store. The line-up stretched a long way but there are not that many in line. Note the large gaps between waiting customers. Although I am well back in the parking lot, there are only about half a dozen folk ahead of me.

A note about No Frills. It is a discount grocery store. The plain white colour with big splashes of bright yellow convey the impression of cheap and the yellow is reminiscent of some of the least expensive products in the store. These  products, made especially for No Frills, come in plain yellow containers with simply black lettering.

Cars are not being driven. Result? An oil glut.

Yesterday the price of a barrel of U.S. crude fell into negative territory for the first time in history. Stockpiles of oil have overwhelmed storage facilities. Buyers were being offered something like $38 U.S. to take the oil off the hands of the sellers. Totally weird.

Take a look at parking lots. Compared to how they looked a couple of months ago, they are empty. People are not driving, planes are not flying, and oil is not being used. But the air is cleaner.