New subdivisions have hidden walkways

Today, people like to walk. This is a fact not lost on the developers of the newest subdivisions in London. Often the walkways are finished and in use even before the subdivision itself is finished.

Deer in the suburb

As the City of London spreads out further and further into the farmland surrounding the city, city dwellers are coming in contact with the area wildlife more and more often. Tonight, while exploring a new suburban residential development still under construction, a small herd of deer darted across the road right in front of me.

The promise was fulfilled: snow!

 

Snow in mid April is not uncommon but it is still unexpected. This morning, Twitter was filled with tweets from folk complaining about their snow tires or should I say their unmounted and stored for the warm weather snow tires. Oops!

Oh well, the mercury may climb to 10-degrees centigrade or 50-degrees Fahrenheit tomorrow. The snow will soon be no more than a memory.

Snow and rain promised for evening

 

Although it is not the usual weather for Easter Monday, snow mixed with rain is forecast for Easter Monday, arriving in the late after noon and continuing into Tuesday morning. Some accumulation is expected. Many motorists, caught without their snow tires mounted on their cars, are praying for the return of warm, sunny weather as soon as possible.

Easter: a time for family and memories

Today, Sunday, is Easter. It is a day for families to come together and celebrate the future and the past. Though, last year it was a day for hunkering down in out homes that had become shelters from the pandemic. There were very few large family gathering. 

But today was different. It was a bit more like Easters of days gone by with children and grandchildren and my wife's grandmother's china. But, all was not yet back to Easter as usual. One daughter and one granddaughter were missing. Why? Although both are fully vaccinated, they were home recovering from COVID.

Flying Ukraine flags is just a start

Seeing the Ukraine flag flying in London is almost as common a sight today as seeing the Canadian maple leaf flag. I originally said more but I have had second thoughts. I cannot speak for you, but I need a break from this topic. It is simply too sad, too absolutely heartbreaking.

Vintage London: The war to end all wars.

 

There is a Facebook site called Vintage London. It carries interesting photographs doumenting London, Ontario, from days long past. Today an image taken shortly after the end of the First World War was featured. 

The posted image showed an arch, one of two, erected after the war to honour local soldiers returning from Europe after the end of the First World War. Listed on the arch were the major battles in which Canadian soldiers played a prominent role.

The First World War was know as the "The war to end all wars." War had become simply too horrible to contemplate a replay. Sadly, as we know all too well today, the First World War was just one more war in an apparently never ending, constantly growing, list of wars going back thousands of years.

 

This is the caption from Vintage London:

"Two large 'Welcome Home' Arches were constructed on the streets of London as soldiers returned from World War I. This arch was located on Dundas Street just east of Wellington Street and had to be large enough to allow London Street Railway trolleys travel through it. 

A second arch was built on Richmond south of Dundas. On the illuminated arch in the photograph we see plaques that detail the battles in which Canadians participated, including: Passchendaele, Amiens, Arras, Bourlon Wood, Cambria, Valenciennes, Mons, Ypres, Festubert, St Eloi, Sanctuary Wood, Somme, Vimy Ridge, and Hill 70.

 
As the various battalions returned home the soldiers would march from the train station to the armories as crowds cheered their return."