Trade between cities

 In history class I remember learning how cities have talents. Or at least the folks living in the various cities have talents. One city might be famous for its tile and pottery creations, like Nabeul, Tunisia. Another city might be well known for its glass, like Murano, Italy. Or it might be the creative innovation of its residents and the multitude of imaginative stuff pouring out of the place which put it on the map, like Palo Alto, California.

When I picked up my first Klutz Press book, I was not surprised to see that it came from Palo Alto. The Klutz credo was: "Create wonderful things, be good, have fun." Klutz books encourage kids to not just read but to do. The book on knots includes the necessary rope. The book on making paper airplanes comes with  40 sheets of flight-tested, ready-to-fold paper, printed on both sides in a variety of colourful patterns.

And possibly my favourite Klutz Press book is The Book of Classic Board Games. I believe it may be out of print but if you can find one, even used, buy it. Kids of all ages love it. Somewhere in there one will find a game one likes:

• Backgammon
• Checkers
• Go
• Nine Men's Morris
• Cats and Dogs (aka Blue & Gray)
• Solitaire
• Roundabouts (aka Surakarta)
• Brax
• Mancala (aka Kalah)
• Hasami Shogi
• Hoppers (like 2-player Halma)
• Dalmatian Pirates and Volga Bulgars (aka Fox & Geese)
• Hex
• 3-D Tic Tac Toe (aka Qubic)
• Fandango (aka Fanorona)

This skier almost skied out of my shot

 

This is my last post from the race day at Boler Mountain in London. I could not resist posting this image. I rather like the oddly weighted composition. I must confess, this skier approached so fast and I was so slow to react that this skier almost skied right out of my shot.

Saturday was a true race day at Byron

 

One always sees skiers blasting down a small, but on the steep-side, hill at Boler Mountain, scooting through gates, flashing down the slope. But Saturday was different, at least for me. Saturday the skiers were not practising but competing. And the skiers were looking good. 

This old geezer wishes he could have joined them. I'd have done my best Jean Claude Killy imitation, with the accent (French accent?) on imitation. I was Jean Claude Killy only in my mind, only in my imagination.

Living with the COVID-19 virus

 

We are now in the living-with-COVID part of the pandemic. Skiers on Boler Mountain Saturday were wearing COVID masks rather than balaclavas. Although, I wore both, with my balaclava over my mask. The dining area in the ski lodge at Boler Mountain was open but the seating number, thanks to social distancing, was halved. Maybe, just maybe, we are seeing the easing of this all-too-long pandemic.

Boring but functional fencing

 

A few days ago, I post some common fencing I found in the Ukraine. It was unique. Some folk found it a little busy, others tacky but others quite liked it. Whatever, it was completely different from anything I have ever seen in North America.

I decided to post an image of two types of fencing commonly found in London. The old wooden fence was popular about thirty years ago. The newer, plastic fencing on the left, is going up all over the city on both private and public land.

We replaces the aging, wooden fencing with the newer plastic stuff. As it is made to resemble stone, I think I am safe in saying it is, at its core, it is somewhat tacky. Imitations always are.

Not a lot of snow in London

With snow storms hitting the U.S. east coast and traffic in some locations along the seaboard coming almost to a standstill, snow, at least a heavy snowfall, seems to have eluded the southwest Ontario Great Lakes region. London has not had a prolonged storm, with heavy snowfall and high winds, move in from Lake Huron this year. One has hardly had to even get out the snowblower. A snow shovel had done just fine.

Another young skier at the neighbourhood hill

The number of kids who are able to complete a decent jump seems almost limitless. Take a picture of one and the next kid may take it up a notch. Even my youngest granddaughter has given  one of the smaller jumps her best shot. She got airborne but her landing let her down -- pun intended.