Hall's Mills on Thames River floodplain

It was almost two hundred years ago that Cyrenius Hall, born in New Hampshire in 1788, bought the small gristmill and dam across the Thames River. Despite his Yankee roots, Hall worked for the British forces during the War of 1812. Later, Hall added a distillery and tannery to the mill complex. Owing to his many enterprises, the area became known as Hall's Mills and the area still carries the name today. The mill and dam though are both now gone.

Hall sold the gristmill in 1848 and just in time as severe flooding along the Thames River damaged both the dam and the mill in 1851. The mill was repaired, changed hands a number of times and was slowly enlarged until by the early 1870s it was a full two storeys high and producing 100 bushels a day.

In 1883, the Thames River flooded again, severeing damaged the mill. It was repaired with improvements but a fire in 1907 closed the mill temporarily. Once more, it was rebuilt and operated for another couple of decades before be closed and dismantled. The remains were carried away in the Thames River flood of 1937.

COVID-19 has put so much on hold

There are a lot of activities. like this now suspended karate class, that have either been cancelled or severely curtailed thanks to COVID-19. And sadly, it may get worse before it gets better. 

The Province of Ontario has unveiled a new COVID-19 modelling that indicates the province could face 6,500 new cases daily by the middle of December if no new measures are taken. A vaccine cannot come soon enough.

Danger Lurks

It looks quiet, safe, inviting, a good place to stroll with your significant other. Well, it is and it isn't. Do you see the patched sidewalk concrete? The patches are there because the sidewalk heaves in the spring as the spring thaw arrives. And the heaved sidewalk can catch a foot, causing the walker to fall, and to fall hard on solid concrete.

The city knows of the danger and regularly grinds down the ridges. But each winter the sidewalk heaves again. Eventually the city rips out the damaged concrete and replaces it with a new, fresh, smooth sidewalk. Tripping threat eliminated, at least temporarily.

One is left to wonder why, in a city with relatively mild winters, this problem is so common. Does the city put in sidewalks on the cheap, scrimping on the a deep, solid foundation on which the concrete surface sits?

CC-130J flyovers on Remembrance Day

Newspaper photographers are rather amazing. They shoot fashion, food and sports, or course, but their core calling is shooting news. They document life. It is important to note, they make artsy decisions with every photo they take and sometimes, especially with news moments, these decisions must be made in an instant. As can be seen from this image by Mike Hensen of The London Free Press, the seasoned news shooter found the angle to tell the story. This is not always an easy feat.

Hensen's photo shows CC-130J Hercules from RCAF Trenton performing  flyover at the London, Ontario, Remembrance Day ceremony at the downtown cenotaph. See how Mike Hensen tweeted this image and another on Twitter.

Many Canadians support mask wearing

 

When one is outside, one doesn't have to wear a mask. Despite this many Canadians can be spotted outside wearing a face mask. No explanation.

Absolutely surreal

 

This toilet was the surreal image greeting drivers as they reached the top of a steep hill in west London using its tightly looped roadway. I got this from my files to share today.

iPads are strangely ubiquitous

Before the arrival of  COVID-19, all my granddaughters did not have iPads, or what they like to call iPads. In truth, they have less expensive tablets made by Apple competitors. But whether iPads or tablets, these portable computers are now everywhere.

Find a kid and you may well find a tablet. The big force pushing tablets into our children's lives has not been games but school. With the arrival of COVID-19, the importance of computer learning has soared. All my granddaughters do a massive amount of their school work on their tablets. This is true both in school and at home.

But when school work is done and it is time to play, the versatility of these things becomes very evident. These tablets are also good for playing computer games, chatting and sharing pictures with distant friends and relatives and even for taking pictures.

Computer tablets are a good example of a product we didn't miss when it didn't exist but now many of us cannot live without them.