Images from a mall soon to close...

The Jones New York women's fashions factory outlet is closing. Come January it will be gone. Like so many of the stores in the mall at the intersection of Wellington and Exeter Roads, it soon will be empty.

My wife and I stopped by there the other day. Retired, we seek out bargains and the Jones store was filled with them. Marked down women's wear, marked down again.

My wife tried on this and that and bought more this and that than I would like. I felt we couldn't afford it; We're retired. She felt we couldn't miss these bargains; We're retired. Ah, the same shade of grey but it looks different to each of us.

While my wife shopped, I took pictures. Surrounded by beautiful fabrics and clean light, I took out my little camera and set to work.

The staff watched, obviously curious. I got down on my knees for one pictures and stretched out over a round rack of dresses for another. I held my little camera up, down and rotated it diagonally.

Unable to keep their silence, they asked me politely what I was doing. I told them and I showed them the pictures on the camera-back monitor.

"Oh." They understood.

Now art was in the air. It filled the store and the staff was infected. "Have you looked outside?" A couple of the sales clerks were really getting into this and they had discovered their own art moment. "Those clouds won't last," they told me.

I slipped out the door into the parking lot. They were right.

This was originally posted to Rockin' On: the Blog, but I thought I should share these images with the followers of the "Daily Photo" international group of blogs.

Cheers,
Rockinon

Birch Tree at Dusk

This picture, or at least the look, was inspired by the work of London artist Clark McDougall who died of a brain tumour at the age of 59 back in December of 1980.

McDougall did a number of paintings in which objects in the scene were outlined in black paint. A painting from this period in McDougall's career hung on the wall at The London Free Press when I worked there.

This is a birch tree just off Wharncliffe Road on the way to Lambeth. It was dusk and the tree had a wonderful warm glow which looked all the warmer juxtaposed against the cool, blue sky.

To learn how this image was created see my post on Rockinon: Photography.

Court House at Dusk

Many people don't like the look of the courthouse in London, Ontario. Intimidating, foreboding, an almost windowless fortress. Sounds as if the architect got it right.

Do we really want a cheery courthouse?

Modern Buildings - Old Street

The bright, yellow tree is one of the many steel painted trees enlivening downtown London and the brightly tinted reflective glass is the former Canada Trust branch at the corner of Dundas and Talbot Streets.

Being kitty-corner to the JLC one would think this would be an excellent location for a restaurant. A lot of other people over the past few years have agreed and voted their agreement with their wallets. A number of restaurants have come and gone since the branch closed and the voting on the benefits offered by the location does not seem to be closed.

The large, white building on the far left is the Bell building. It was originally the hub for Bell operations in Southwestern Ontario, and in a sense it still is. But today the building is no longer home to original large number of Bell employees. On the bright side, whether the building is populated by Bell employees or not, London still has a great building and we all know how London has treasured its downtown structures through the years.

I wonder what originally occupied the site of the present Bell building and of the former Canada Trust branch?

Doggone-it! I'm not going!

"Like to go for a walk?"

"No!"

And there does not appear to be a lot of room for negotiations.

This lady taking her dog for a walk was sighted the other evening in London, Ontario, in one of the larger parks.

I think her dog was "parked."

Late November in Canada

Yes, that's right; This is a picture taken just the other day in London, Ontario. Posties walk a lot and they can get warm no matter what the weather. With a late fall rain forcing our mail-person to wear a bright, yellow slicker, the kind that traps heat, it was a day calling for shorts.

Computer Died, Blog Stalled, Back Thursday!

I'll be back - Thursday. I have a new computer. Yeah!