Chipmunks: not wild wild animals

The chipmunks in the cities are quite naturally tame. The little rodents know people pose little danger to them. but the question I have is do chipmunks pose a danger to humans, to us, to my granddaughters?

The chipmunks scurrying about our yard seem very healthy. Hey, they eat well. They find lots of seeds under the backyard bird feeder. But looks can be deceiving. They might not be as healthy as they look.

The Ontario government warns that feeding chipmunks right out of one's hand may expose one to lyme disease ticks or salmonella bacteria or even some once-unheard-of-in-this-area kinds of parasites.

If the kids want to try this again, it may be best if they wear a pair of gardening gloves. My wife insists that we wear gardening gloves when working in our gardens in the soil. Now that I know about the parasites that chipmunks and other wild animals can spread in their feces, I'm not arguing with her. She's right. Gardening gloves are important.

Siting is important

 

How a building is sited in a city is important. This apartment building in the western part of London absolutely dominates the view when heading east on one of the city's main traffic arteries. It appears to be foreboding, massive hulk of a building towering over the green forest canopy.

It is a pity this building isn't prettier. Sadly, it is just plain, big and plain. It doesn't even have the dramatic look of yesterday's in look -- brutalism.

Brutalist buildings are characterized by a massive, monolithic and 'blocky' appearance with a rigid geometric style and large-scale use of poured concrete. This apartment building answers many of the demands but come up short when it comes to style. This building is not stylish.

Both the French and the Brits experimented with brutalist apartment buildings decades ago back in the last century. Some have been demolished using the implosion technique. Some are still in use. But some are being updated and upgraded and flipped to the upscale side of life. Brutalist apartment building were originally designed to house the proletariat.

Many brutalist apartment buildings have been used to represent the future gone sadly awry. Think of the Hunger Games. A major set in that film is a brutalist apartment complex on the outskirts of Paris. No films crews are to be found outside the brutally plain London, Ontario, apartment building.

The Huffington Post did a feature on the apartment complex featured in the Hunger Games.

Having a dog means exercise no matter the weather

 

My doctors tell me having a dog is good for one's health. I think it may be the exercise that caring for a dog  entails. Despite the weather, dogs have to be walked. In the middle of winter snow storm, my neighbours are out walking their pets. And today, in the middle of the heaviest rainfall in months, the sidewalks were filled with folk out walk their dogs.

Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakota

Celebrating travel is the featured topic for the start of June. With the pandemic hopefully wrapping up as more and more people get vaccinated, places like the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota will again be open to visitors.

Before the arrival of covid-19, two 10K walks from the base of the mountain to the top were held annually. If it goes off as planned, the spring walk will be held this weekend. The fall walk is slated for Sunday, September 26. In 2010, I made the hike and documented the day in pictures.

But there is more to do at the Crazy Horse site than just view the sculpture under construction and you can discover all by clicking the link.

According to the info posted by the Crazy Horse Memorial, Crazy Horse or Tasunke Witco was a member of the Oglala Lakota. Born around 1840, his world was one of clashing cultures with land a big point of contention. Native ways were threatened and oppressed and Crazy Horse responded to his people's plight. Not yet 40, a soldier shot Crazy Horse on September 5, 1877, at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.

About 175 acres of farmland taken out of service daily in Ontario

 

It looks like it was a simply farm operation located between London and the once nearby town of Lambeth. Today the boarded up farm home and the abandoned farm are inside the city limits as it the town of Lambeth.

In Ontario it is claimed that something in the order of 175 acres of farmland are taken out of service every day. Homes, apartments, strip malls, parking lots and streets replace the crops.

As another poster to this group pointed out recently, the population explosion seems to be fading, birth rates are falling and the need for a lot of new homes and apartments may be coming to an end. The loss of farmland to growing cities may become a feature of the past.

Strathroy City Hall almost hits century mark

 

The current town hall in Strathroy, Ontario  is the fourth for the town. This most recent city hall building was erected in 1928 at a cost of $34, 323. And that was not even a depression number. Makes one wonder what it would have cost if built just four years later.

When its was built, the architectural style was described as combining beauty with utility, reminiscent of a New England style of architecture not found elsewhere in the province. Personally, I think it is no where near as grand as the city halls found in New England and elsewhere in the States.

On the other hand, it does seem to have met the utility demands, being it is still in use today. In a few short years it will be a hundred years old and getting a century of use from any municipal building is awfully good.

Today it's just another home

A photographer with whom I once worked at the daily newspaper in London retired to Strathroy. This beautiful home is located just a few doors down from where my friend lives. I took this picture from my friend's driveway.

It didn't take much searching to discover something on the Web about this large, striking home. The following is from The Strathroy Historical Society Facebook site.

This stately mansion was built by Cyris Bixel in 1889. Cyris moved to Canada from Germany with his father, Matthew and the rest of the Bixel family in 1874. On moving to Strathroy, the Bixels founded the Bixel Brewery and from the size of the home Cyris built it is clear that the brewery was a success.

The home originally had 14 “very large” rooms. There was a drawing room, sitting room, dining room, kitchen, Pantry, china and cutlery room, conservatory, library, front foyer, two bedrooms, and a servant’s bedroom plus two bathrooms. It is surprising that such a large home originally  had only three bedrooms.

After Cyris died in 1895, his wife Emily married Duncan Campbell Ross who went on to become a member of Parliament for the area. In 1922 when Ross was made an Elgin County court judge, he and Emily moved from the grand home but the mansion stayed in the family until 1957. When the place was sold in 1957, the new owners made some changes to home's layout. For instance, the home gained an additional bedroom.