Most, but not all, folk at the park were not wearing their masks. It did appear that people were clumped together in what may well have been family units. A dad, a mom and some kids. The groupings kept to themselves while keeping distant from other small groups.
These two girls, with their smart phone, were clearly sitting too close together -- unless, of course, they were both members of the same family. Possibly they were sisters. I certainly hope so.
The effect is known as foreshortening, perspective compression or forced perspective . It makes objects in the distance look closer to other objects in the distance than they actually were. In other words, the folk crowding the sidewalk in Springbank Park Sunday were not breaking all the social distancing rules despite what the photo shows. But the park was packed with thousands of Londoners eager to get out and about thanks to the warm spring temperatures.
The snow has melted. The breezes are warm. We have sunshine into the early evening. Spring beckons and Londoners are responding by heading for the city's many parks--often blue masks in hand.
What is the cone-shaped roof above the porch of this Victorian home called? I'm not an expert when it comes to architecture. I think it may be a turret. This home appears to have been built in a somewhat simplified Queen Anne Victorian style. This would explain the very simple turret.
Alexander Murdoch built a simple home for a young, working, family man. The 29-year-old was a spinner at a local mill when he built his home in Stratford. What was a spinner? A spinner was the operator of a spinning jenny or spinning mule used in the local mills to make yarn and other textile products. Some of the larger mills had upwards of 200 employees. The mills were the third most important business in Stratford at that time after the furniture factories and railways.
According to the Ontario Architecture site, the bungalow style is an American invention, popularized in California in the early 20th century. It was brought to Canada in the early 1910s. The Americans got the idea from the British who built small homes, bungalows, that imitated the style of home the Brits had lived in while stationed in India. The North American version is very different than the British style.
Bungalows are generally one or one-and-a-half storey homes with broad, low-pitched, roofs and generous, large porches. Bungalows are almost exclusively residential and are often made of materials such as stone and brick.
