Today it is a bed and breakfast

Stratford, Ontario, is famous for its theatres, plural. A lot of the original manufacturing has left the little city and now a big percentage of the city's wealth comes from the entertainment industry. And make no mistake about it, it is an industry.

For instance, this little home is a bed and breakfast today. The hospitality business is a spin off reaping the benefits of the flourishing local theatre business. Rumour has it that this B&B was once a simple, little church. Maybe. But the little building also has the look of an old school. Unfortunately, the info on the stone above the door has been obliterated.

If you are ever in southwestern Ontario, google Stratford. You might well find play being performed to your liking.

Schubertii allium, I think . . .

Each year these blooms appear in a friend's front yard flower garden. Over the years, she has noticed that the strange blooms appear to attract butterflies and hummingbirds; a plus in her estimation. Furthermore, they don't appear to be loved by the common garden pests that plague other plants in her garden; another plus. 

But what exactly are these mystery blooms? I have guess thanks to a google search. (Drum roll, please.) These blooms are flowers on schubertii allium plants. Does anyone agree?

Only made in France, available everywhere

In high school history I learned shipwrecks of Roman trading ships had been discovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea with cargoes intact. Trade was important to the Romans. Goods unique to one country were bought and shipped back to Italy.

Trade is even more important today and the glassware at the restaurant silently attests to that fact. The glasses are Duralex. Duralex is French made glassware tempered to resist breaking. Invented just two years before I was born, Duralex, with its unique properties, was soon shipped around the world. 

Restaurants loved it. The glasses stood up to the crude automatic dishwashers of the period. The glasses lasted so long they developed a cloudy, surface patina of thousands of scratches from repeated trips through the dishwasher.

Today the Durlex product is still popular with restaurant owners. As a senior raised in the '50s, I immediately recognized the original glass design which is apparently still popular. Amazing. Any design still in use after almost eight decades is truly ageless.

But, the Duralex glass folk are not resting on their laurels. The second glass is also Duralex but a more recent design. Curious, I googled Duralex. I wondered if it was now being made in China, as well. No, it wasn't. The company says, 

"The original tempered (toughened) Picardie glasses are still produced in France and are known as the “original French tumblers”. . . . Duralex is and will always remain a true French manufacturer of glassware and tabletop products, and is the only glass manufacturer that makes 100% of their products in France."

Heritage home in Stratford

 

The yellow painted home is clearly a heritage property. The first clues are the storm windows. Storms like the ones on this home are no longer available. Note how the right front storm is clearly hinged and has been left open at the bottom. This wood sided home is reputed to be one of the oldest homes in Stratford, Ontario.

Once a church; today a restaurant

For a little more than a hundred years it was Mackenzie Memorial Gospel Church on Brunswick St. in Stratford, Ontario. Then, in 1975, the church was transformed into The Church—one of the finest places to dine in the entire province.

 

Today the former church has underdone another transformation. It is now the Revival House restaurant. Despite two major conversions, the beautiful old church remains one of Ontario’s finest examples of a heritage building conversion done with respect for the building's history.

We dined at Revival House today. If you are curious as to what the kitchen sends out, check out the picture. 

It is a vegetarian sandwich. Two thick slices of freshly baked bread stuffed with sauteed spinach, grilled bell peppers, mushrooms and onion, punched up with a little pesto mixed with soft goat cheese and served with a fresh mixed salad on the side.

 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

 

It has rained the past two days. It hasn't rained a lot but it has been enough to keep potted plants happy. Having noticed some posted pictures of water droplets and the like, I was more alert than usual to the possibility of finding some beauty among the leaves heavy with water droplets. Cheers!

Holy Roller returns

 Holy Roller was made in 1942 in Michigan and immediately the Sherman tank was shipped to England to fight in the Second World War. It was officially issued to Canada’s 6th Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) shortly before D-Day. Its crew named it "Holy Roller."

On D-Day, the tank was part of the second wave on Juno Beach. The tank and crew were able to advance 11 kilometres before a fuel leak stopped it in its tracks. As the commanding officer’s tank had been destroyed by a landmine on the beach, Holy Roller became B Squadron’s command tank.

The 1st Hussars lost 346 tanks with Holy Roller the only survivor. It fought in 14 major battles and covered some 4,000 kilometres. It sustained some serious damage along the way with some crew members wounded, but no one died in Holy Roller.

At the end of the war, Holy Roller was stored in the London, Ontario, Armouries for a few years before being put on display in a nearby park. In 1956, it was moved to Victoria Park, where it sat until its removal for restoration. Time and weather take a toll on everything, even a tank. Yesterday, Holy Roller was returned to its concrete pad in London's Victoria Park downtown.

A local journalist and Mennonite pacifist has admitted seeing the presence of the tank in a city park as glorifying war. Today, he seems to have shifted his take on the tank. He wrote in the newspaper, "It forces us to contemplate and confront our failures of diplomacy, the use of destruction of life and property as the bluntest of our tools, and the utter depravity of war."

There was a time I would have read those words and gave them consideration. Not today. Today I am seeing images from the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. 

I do not see the present war in Ukraine as a failure of diplomacy. Words were never going to stop the Russians. The West should have sent troops to the Ukraine the moment Russian troops began amassing on the Russian side of the border.

We might have stopped the invasion before it started.

Holy Roller and the brave men who crewed it deserve our gratitude, our praise and the very least we can do is honour them and their actions by putting their Sherman tank on display and thinking long and hard about not what it symbolizes but about what it actually accomplished. 

The Holy Roller fought against "the utter depravity of war."

The invasion of Ukraine has made all of us aware of the true horrors of war:

 

Surviving the Siege of Kharkiv (The New York Times)

The photos that have defined the war in Ukraine (CNN)