The province-wide lock-down has been eased and folks are now allowed to visit city parks. Swings that sit idle much of the time when there is no pandemic are all seeing action today. Anything, absolutely anything, that offers exercise-starved folk something to do outside is popular beyond belief.
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You cannot play catch inside the house. Not now. Not ever. It was a hard and fast rule in my boyhood home. The rule no longer stands. My granddaughters often play catch inside the home but not with a ball but a mini-drone.
A ball thrown about the house was bound to hit something, a lamp or worse. It could and would do damage. The mine-drone has sensors that keep it from smacking the wall or other objects in its path. Oh, it might touch them lightly but for the most part it veer away while still inches from the object blocking its path.
Hold a hand in front of the drone and it reverses course and heads toward the other player. The game can last for up to twenty minutes and then the little unit requires recharging. We have been using it since Christmas and so far it has caused no damage. Well almost no damage. Little children with even slightly long hair must either wear a hat or tie the hair back. If the little drone approaches too close to the head, it can pull loose hair in and the hair can become tangled about the rotors and shafts. No fun.
When I was a boy all the good toys were made in Canada or the States. A few came from Europe. Today essentially all my grandchildren's toys come from China and many are surprisingly sophisticated.
I, too, had a small flying saucer that could do a lot of neat manoeuvres but mine pulled off its greatest feats thanks to the imagination of a small boy. I cannot help but wonder if there were not some benefits to powering toys with gobs of impressive imagination rather than oodles of hi-tech smarts.
When the first blooms appeared on our magnolia tree, we were taken aback. My wife and I expected pink blooms tinged with white. We got solid bright purple blooms with petals resembling no magnolia tree with which we had any familiarity. It was a total surprise. This year we did get some white but it didn't count. It was snow.
Since planting our tree, now many years in the past, we have learned that magnolia trees come in many varieties with blooms in a multitude of colours. What we have appears to be some variety of purple magnolia—a magnolia liliiflora possibly.
We wondered why the garden centre was selling a magnolia unlike the majority of magnolias found in our region. On asking, we discovered that our tree is more winter hardy than many magnolias. This year this was a distinct advantage. Many magnolias are not well adapted to living in Ontario.
There is one native magnolia—the cucumber magnolia. It is named for the slight resemblance of its immature fruit to a cucumber. These native trees are on the endangered native plant list as there are only approximately 18 small populations in Ontario totally no more than 170 to 190 mature trees, plus saplings.
As the snow storm approached London yesterday, it appeared that fog obscured the view from Lookout Court. It wasn't fog; it was snow. The white, blurry dots are snow.
We may be two thirds of the way through April but it can still snow in southwestern Ontario. The little robin built a nest in a lilac tree and is now is patiently sitting on her clutch of robin-blue eggs. Unexpectedly, it began snowing this evening. The little Robin is now dripping wet from the falling snow. Will the little Robin make it through the coming night? Will her eggs survive? Only time will tell.
The clouds yesterday were so dramatic, so visually powerful, I just had to park my car and get a shot. These were not thunder storm clouds, these were not even rain clouds, at least they didn't pose any immediate threat. They were simply visually impressive as they moved quickly across the sky above the city.
It came as no surprise when I was awakened hours later, well past midnight, by house rumbling thunder and bright flashes of lightning.
The Ontario premier has loosened the strict shutdown rules announced just days ago. Originally, folk were being told that all residents must remain at home at all times, with exceptions of certain listed essential purposes, such as going to the grocery store or pharmacy, accessing health care services or to go to work.
Neighbourhood walks, either sold or taken with another who is in one's "bubble", were allowed but there was a lot of confusion surrounding the strict shutdown regulations. Some of the confusion has dissipated. The rules were attacked by many health professionals as needlessly strict. For instance, closing playgrounds does little to slow the spread of covid-19 but it does prevent children from getting much needed exercise.
And so today one could see many more Londoners out strolling about their neighbourhoods and children sharing playground equipment. Social distancing was being practised everywhere and some folk were even wearing masks despite being outdoors. Everyone was glad to see the originals rules relaxed.
