Shaw's IS the Home of Ice Cream

Established in 1948, Shaw's is the Home of Ice Cream. Still! This is amazing as Shaw's got out of the direct-to-customer retail dairy-treats business 19 years ago. The operation on the main highway between London and St. Thomas was sold in 2001 to three enterprising sisters who still run the business today.

The girls know how to run a successful operation. They have focused on quality. No fancy digs for them. Just great, traditional ice cream in oodles of flavours. When it comes to shakes, cones and sundaes made with traditional hard ice cream there's not a lot of competition in this area. The two places offering this product are located far enough apart that they do not compete directly. Where they do compete is in the quality arena. And both deliver wonderful, tasty ice cream-based products.

My granddaughters and I like to give our business to both operations.

For ice cream, stand here. Cones mark the spot.

My wife and I escaped the four-walls of our home and headed for the beach, for Port Stanley about forty minutes south of the city on Lake Erie.

On our way home, we stopped at Shaw's Home of Ice Cream. Shaw's has been in the same location since 1948 but it present owners, three sisters, only date from 2001. Today Shaw's sells more than 45 flavours of hard ice cream made at its nearby St. Thomas plant.

Like every other business, Shaw's has marked where one must stand. At Shaw's, ice cream cones mark the spot for social distancing. We ordered two cones. I got pistachio almond and my wife had butterscotch ripple.

A home that is remarkable because it is unremarkable

Walking about my friend's neighbourhood in Stratford, I was struck by the beautiful, oh-so-tidy, heritage homes. I thought they were remarkable: so beautiful, so well-maintained, so clearly loved. And then I realized that what truly made them remarkable was how unremarkable these homes are in much of Canada. Many Canadians live this way and think almost nothing of it.

I was going to say "think nothing of it," but that wouldn't be true. I don't think most of us truly appreciate how lucky we are but we do have an inkling.

Social distancing wildlife

You couldn't get a picture showing all the ducks as there were trees blocking the view, but there were dozens of duck sitting along the river bank and they were all nicely spaced apart. My wife thought it looked like duck-style social distancing. I thought they needed a few more feet of separation and masks but then they are just geese. What can one expect?

The Stratford Normal School

When my wife realized we were looking at the Stratford Normal School, she exclaimed, "That's the school your mom attended, Ken!" My mother, born in the early years of the last century, was one of almost 14,000 students who went on to graduate from the Stratford Normal School. After graduating, my mother landed a position teaching in the far eastern end of the province where she met her future husband, my dad.

This is what the Ontario Heritage Trust has to say about the structure:

In the 1900s, concerns about the quality of rural education prompted the Ontario government to build four new Normal Schools to increase the supply of qualified teachers in the province. The Stratford Normal School prepared its students for conditions in the rural schools that employed most new teachers. It is the only one of the Normal Schools from its era to survive without substantial alteration.

For more pictures and a bit more information read the posting on Canada's Historic Places.

Backyards can make a personal statement

Homes encourage creativity, at least when ownership falls into the right, read creative, hands. I learned this early in life when some art school friends moved into a lovely old mansion in the Boston Edison District of Detroit. Now, I must admit that place was somewhat unique but all homes hold promise.

The other day I spent some time in the oh-so-small backyard of a friend and artist in Stratford. This person has spent a lot of time traveling, especially in Italy. Today she has a little bit of Italy behind her home.

What a wonderful space in which to chat and share a meal with friends. (As a former staff photographer for the local paper, I can tell you that surprising backyards are more common that you might think. The creative use of backyard space is not restricted to the backyards of artists.)

Canada Day!

Today, July 1st, is Canada Day. A good day to post the striking sculpture by Walter Allward created in remembrance of those who fought, many dying, in the First World War.

Allward is also the sculpture who did the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in Vimy, France. He completed the Stratford Cenotaph in 1922 before heading to Vimy to complete his most famous commission.

Stratford is but one of only two small Ontario towns with an Allward-designed war memorial. Often, such memorials feature a famous general. Today, it's clear depicting an historical figure can be fraught with cultural traps.

Allward sidestepped the danger of depicting a person no longer worthy of the honour. The figures on the Stratford cenotaph are symbolic, representing the forces of darkness and the forces of good.

There's a plaque to a long dead Canadian at the site but it's not there in memory of a soldier. The plaque honours Allward by providing details surrounding his life. The late sculptor has become a revered Canadian artist with a large and lasting body of respected work still to be found about the province.