The days are cool, the nights are nudging cold but it all adds up to good jogging weather. The incredible hot, humid summer days are now but memories. Soon the parks walkways will be snow covered and slick with icy patches. Joggers are out enjoying the moment.
When my wife, Judy, ran low on flour right at the beginning of the first COVID-19 lock-down, a neighbour said he was going to the grocery store and he'd pick-up some flour for her. He did but he would not take any money. So, Judy gave the fellow and his wife a chocolate cognac truffle tart to say thank-you.
That was months ago. During the intervening time the fellow set out to find a suitable dessert to give to Judy in return. The other day he and his wife stopped by with his response to Judy's gift: a German chocolate bombe.
Wow! He said this was the first dessert that he has ever made. Wow! Both Judy and I are speechless. And damn it, this thing tastes as good as it looks. The fellow is amazing. I hate him. I'm looking for a gypsy to put a curse on him.
I try to cook. I often make dinner and I've tried my hand at a dessert of two. But I don't come close to delighting Judy to
the extent that he did. Grrrrr. Isn't jealousy and ugly emotion? Now, I've got
to go. I have to go looking for a proper gypsy. (Stephen King would
understand.)
Hospitals like the Vic in London have very pleasant spots out in the open air for sitting with friends and other patients who have some mobility. The benches and swings hold three people and the tables have seating for four. Since the appearance of COVID-19 notices have been posted; only one person is allowed per bench, swing or even table.
Surely with so many folk getting vaccinated, soon the limitations will be lifted. A swing or bench for three is simply not the same with only one user.
The pandemic seems to be the gift that just keeps on giving. Soon it will be legal to sing and dance in Montreal pubs but in London patients must still line-up to enter Victoria Hospital. And those bringing family members to the hospital must drop the patient off and then leave. Only patients, and those with special dispensations, are allowed entry.
Running the gauntlet to enter the hospital can be time consuming. First, patients must answer a number of questions designed to winnow out anyone who might carry the virus. Then the mask they wore to the hospital is tossed and they are given a new, hospital-issue mask.
The question on everyone's lips is "When will it end?"
This was an incredible wooden staircase, complete with landings and built in-place wooden bench seats. I am not sure when it was built nor when it was opened to the public. And I am not exactly sure when it was closed but it is closed and remains closed to this day. All indications are that someday, when the city budgets for the cost, the walkway to nowhere will be dismantled and removed.
The only thing left will be the question: Why?
The engineers said the new dam with huge, heavy gates lifted into place by hydralics was a great improvement over the ancient dam it replaced. The old dam used simple stop logs. In time the logs would begin to rot and need to be replaced. Not so the new gates. The new gates will last indefinitely.
There was only one thing wrong with the new design. It didn't work. Never did. Failed before it was even officially in use. But the engineers did get one thing right. The new dam was a big improvement over the old, functioning dam. The river, left to flow free, left to be a true river and not technically a reservoir, was a healthier river. Turtles, one endangered, are back. Fish and amphibians and birds and mammals are all flourishing thanks to the cleaner, faster moving river.
Walks along the river are popular and kids find it exciting to spot a heron overhead, a deer in the woods or a fox darting across the path running from one wooded area to another.
Some folk have even learned that canoes and kayaks don't need all that much water. Recreational paddlers are often spotted in the river starting in the spring and not to disappear until late fall.
It has been such a wet fall that the Thames River is flowing fast and deep through the city. Usually, by November the river is dropping fast and some areas of the river bed are lying exposed and drying. This cannot last and soon the river will be too shallow for even most canoes. Portaging season for this year is just about at an end.
Oddly enough, portaging around the Springbank Dam is hardly necessary. The gates of the dam have not been operational for years. The gates sit in the open position on the bottom of the river. A faulty gate design doomed the reconditioned dam before it officially entered service. The city sued and won a decision against those responsible for the design and construction.
