The area west of St.Joseph's Hospital is dotted with fine, heritage homes. There are a number of fine colourful Victorian homes still sporting the original wooden siding and not sheathed in vinyl as so often happens in London. London was home to a major vinyl siding company and in many areas heritage homes now sport vinyl rather than the original wood siding.
The homes to the west of St. Joseph's Hospital in London were once owned by the elite of the city. Many of these grand, old places have been demolished over the passing years but a good number are still standing and in good condition. Walking about the neighbourhood while waiting for friend to be discharged from the hospital can be a real pleasure if the weather cooperates as it did the other day.
My wife and I had to take a senior friend to the hospital to visit the eye clinic. Recently, the friend's one eye endured an operation. The wait for the operation was incredibly long unless she agreed to drive a hundred kms southwest of London to another clinic, a private clinic. The trip was long and the treatment was expensive. And the results were questionable. This was the bad,
The recent trip to the London clinic was her second follow-up appointment. With the eye now fully recovered from its recent ordeal, the examination went well. The doctor told her he could improve on the treatment result. He'd take a laser and reshape the lens in her eye. And, best of all, he would perform the operation immediately. After an hour spent recuperating, she emerged from the hospital with her vision immensely improved. This was the good.
And the ugly? The new hospital addition. Compared to the older, yellow-brick Victorian building, the addition, at least to me, looked downright ugly.
The guitar music sounded distant and possibly slightly distorted. It was both. A young man was bearing down on me rather quickly, rollerblading down a paved path while simultaneously playing his guitar. I was unable to grab a picture of the multi-talented musician approaching, but I did get off one fast photo before he disappeared.
The trade between ancient cities and civilizations always fascinated me as a child. Today, as an adult, I am still fascinated by the extent of trade, often global in nature. And I puzzle over what exactly it all means.
Breakfast this morning was waffles. The waffle-maker was made in China by an American company. The waffle mix came straight from the States. The strawberries, maple syrup and whipped cream are Canadian in origin, while the peaches are from Austria of all places.
When I was a boy Ontario canned and bottled a lot of peaches. No more. All the canning plants in Ontario are long gone. Closed. There are but very few bottlers of peaches remaining in the province.
These tomatoes looked wonderful in the store. Big, bright red, a bit of green from the vines still attached. These tomatoes are almost works of art. Hot house grown, carefully nurtured for the perfect look, what else could one ask of a tomato?
Well, not to put too fine a point on this, but how about taste and texture to start. These tomatoes are rock-solid hard. They lack juice and are even missing the distinctive tomato fragrance.
There was a rumour a few years ago that the latest hot-house tomatoes being grown in southwester Ontario were going to be more like the tomatoes so many of us recall from our youth. Since shipping was no longer a problem, these tomatoes are grown but hours from market, tomatoes able to resist the worst handling imaginable would no longer carry a premium. Breeding for taste would become the dominant driver.
I'm disappointed to inform all that tomato breeders are finding it difficult to dig themselves out of the tomato hell into which they have tumbled. Meanwhile, oddly enough, there are still diced tomatoes in cans and those wily canners seem to know where to go when seeking tasty tomatoes.
I often read that the suburbs are horrible places. Why? Well, for one thing, there are too many rows of look-alike homes. I cannot speak for all towns and cities but in London the developers try to NOT sell two homes of the same design side-by-side. There may by a number of similar, even very similar, homes in a new development but these are rarely located right beside each other.
But, in older heritage neighbourhoods, building rows of similar looking homes was not only common but it was often the rule. I think these old times builders must have thought that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery.
The row of homes shown are in a very desirable heritage neighbourhood in Stratford, Ontario, about forty-five minutes northeast of London.
