A glimpse of life in London, Ontario

I like my posts to say something about the city in which I live: London, Ontario. London is smack dab in the middle of snow country and come winter kids start thinking "snow". Two of my granddaughters are excited that the ski hill will be opening in a month and all three of them can't stop talking about making a snowman. Snowperson may be politically correct but the word hasn't gained any traction in my home.

Since there's not enough snow to make a true snowman, a snowman made out of marshmallows had to suffice.

To satisfy their snowman-making urges, Eloise, left, and Isla, right, got down the hot chocolate, some marshmallows, a few pretzel sticks and some candy corn leftover from Halloween along with a tube of chocolate icing.

Soon, their drive to make a snowman was satisfied. But this snowman didn't hang around to slowly melt. He was quickly eaten, and being washed down with hot chocolate was an added bonus.

Paver Pattern

As one member, Kate Mura, pointed out, "What an interesting pattern on the bricks!" Exactly why paving stones cause this pattern to appear as warm sun melts the light covering of snow is a mystery to me.

Paving stones were very popular in London, Ontario, when my suburban neighbourhood was developed. Over the intervening decades many homes have had the stones removed and replaced with concrete.

Paving stones, also known as paving bricks or simply pavers, are still used for sidewalks and driveways but other materials are also often used, such as concrete and asphalt. And instead of using simply using compressed gravel and sand as the supporting base under the bricks, today, a smooth concrete base may be poured first and then the pavers placed on top in an attractive pattern with a little sand between and below them.

First True Snowfall and Not a Dusting

It wasn't much but it was enough to rate as a true snowfall. If your car was parked outside overnight, you had to sweep it off and once cleaned and on the road, drivers found neighbourhood roads slick and slippery. The salt trucks are not out yet apparently. It is only November 8th, after all.

Adding welcome to a cold entrance

The building is fairly new, it replaced an aging facility that has been on the property for year. Located in one of the nicest residential areas in London, old north, it is not surprising that a large part of the building is dedicated to providing residential for seniors.

The sign above the entrance says Advanced followed by Medical Group and Senior Living. I was there to receive treatment for my sun-damaged skin. I arrived with only an address but once there it was clear this place was more than a medical facility. My question was: "How much more?"

The welcoming fall scarecrow was light on the scare but heavy on the welcome. And the large Apple a Day Bistro sign indicated that there was more to this place than medical offices.

When I got home I discovered there are a number of Internet sites related to this place. First, the senior residences are part of The Manor Village chain. It appears there are at least eight of these Aging in Place facilities.

It is said a Dr. M. Garth Mann started The Manor Village Life Centers out of a belief that staying healthy in one's senior years should be easily accomplished without having to leave the area of one's home. His first Manor Village was built for, and inspired by, his mother some 30 years ago. Linking the London Manor Village with a local medical group was an natural fit.

My guess is that lots of folk living in the immediate area take advantage of the Advanced centre. The little bistro fills a neighbourhood need and the walk-in-medical-clinic is a plus for any neighbourhood.

Medical Treatment is Covered; Cosmetic Treatment is not

When one needs medical treatment in London, Ontario, for the most part it is covered by OHIP or the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. (Dental work is not covered.)

I got too much sun as a kid. Not an uncommon story to tell for a senior. How do I know I got too much? Skin cancer.

There are three major types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. Plus, there are other less common types of skin cancers.

My family doctors sent me to a specialist, the specialist took some scrapings and yesterday the results were in. Three areas tested were non-cancerous sun-caused skin blemishes and one was squamous cell carcinoma. It would have been removed immediately if it were not for my pacemaker/ICD. I need another specialist. The vast majority of skin cancers do not spread. Still, waiting another six weeks or more for removal is worrisome.

The other skin blemishes, the non-cancerous ones. were removed with blasts of liquid  nitrogen. The cost? $100 plus $13 sales tax. As the removal was for purely cosmetic reasons, the provincial health insurance plan does not cover the removal. At least, the doctor guarantees his work. If the blasted blemishes return, he will blast them again at no charge.

Will winter be severe? Maybe woolly bear knows.

The banded woolly bear caterpillar is said to forecast the severity of the coming winter. Supposedly, the wider the reddish-brown centre band, the milder the coming winter. Of course, there is a more prosaic explanation; the reddish-brown band simply gets a little wider each time the banded woolly bear molts and these caterpillars can shed their skin about six times before reaching full size.

At this time of year, banded wooly bears are a common sight in London, Ontario. This one was caught crawling over a decorative squash in front of my home on Halloween. The caterpillars are easily spotted crawling over concrete sidewalks or crawling on walls as they seek shelter from the coming winter whether mild or severe.

London, Ontario, has two Costco Wholesale outlets

Costco Wholesale is big. Really big. And very popular. London supports two Costco outlets. From the incredibly busy look of  the Wonderland Road outlet Sunday, it's clear the city needs its two outlets.

I know Costco started in the States and I know it stretches across Canada but what other countries have Costco? Answer: It has over 200 outlets outside the U.S. These included locations in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, France, Iceland, Spain, Taiwan, South Korea and Australia.

But Costco is more than just big and growing. Costco knows how to endear itself to both its employees and its customers and in doing so it locks in support. For instance, the Canadian Costco runs an annual $2500 (Cdn) scholarship competition for its employees and their children. 

The scholarship offer meshes nicely with the carefully nurtured Costco employee-focused reputation. Costco is known for offering fair wages and good benefits to its employees. A fact born out by speaking with some of the London staff. They are very positive about the place. I am more than a little amazed. I didn't expect the reputation to be true.

Costco doesn't carry anywhere near the selection of products carried by competing grocery stores and the like. But what they do carry seems to be of good quality at a fair price. Recently, Costco has been getting heavily into clothing and they are selling such name brands such as Haggar and Nygard. 

I've read stories in business publications questioning this move. Nygard allowing their pants to be sold for $15 and Haggar having shirts going for $20 is good for Costco and its customers but many wonder what is in it for Nygard and Haggar? 

My wife says the Nygard pants she buys from Costco are not available at the Nygard store. The pants are well made, stylish and comfortable but she believes only available at Costco. The  Costco sales appear to increase a brand's name recognition but whether this translates into more sales of the higher priced line is an open question.

And Costco seems to be quick to support local businesses. The Greek style feta cheese sold in the London stores is made in a small town outside of London from a mix of sheep and goat milk. It's a great tasting feta at a good price and locally made. 

These are all smart business moves and from the busy lot, filled with cars and, of course, shoppers, both coming and going, it is clearly a winning strategy as well.

Dahlias fighting Canadian cold, fighting losing battle

The pretty dahlia flowers are not supposed to survive the first heavy frost. Cold Canadian fall nights leave the bright yellow flowers black, along with the green stems and leaves, according to the experts. So how our Dahlias dodged the first frost bullet is a good question but they clearly have. Look carefully at the pedals and you will notice some streaky cold damage but, all things considered, the flowers still look pretty good.

The Dahlias are not the only surprising survivors of the recent cold snap. Our raspberry bushes are still bearing fruit and that fruit is still ripening. But no matter, the Dahlia flowers will soon wilt and the raspberries fall from the bushes. It's inevitable. Snow is in the forecast and the water in our bird bath will soon be ice.

Today is NOT feature-the-colour-brown day

Yesterday members of the Daily City Photo group were asked to feature the colour brown in their November 1st post. While searching for my brown-photo post, I was thinking fall leaves, I saw this red, wet leaf on my paving stone driveway.

The image in my viewfinder said minimalist art and brought to mind the city of Trieste. Why Trieste? Because that's the city Nora Pallavicini calls home. And who is Nora Pallavicini. She is one of my favourite people on the Net. She shoots and shares colourful, simple but sophisticated, images which are often posted as minimalist art.

Nora Pallavicini: click her name, it's a link and scroll her page. Note, Pallavicini doesn't shoot everything she posts. But she does give credit to the artists, and make no mistake, the images she posts are art and the photographers talented individuals.

And if you do visit Pallavicini's page, you might find yourself seduced by a page dedicated to Doors. (Click the word "Doors". This will take you to another amazing page.) I worked for a chief photographer who understood the visual power of doors. The paper would feature a page of doors annually just before Christmas. The seasonal decorations tied the entire page together.

The Doors page features doors from around the world. Some are absolutely incredible. Give it a visit and follow the links you find. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Cheers, Ken!

Theme for the day: Brown (but not a photo of rust)

Fall leaves sitting in fallen water, a sparkling brown mix to all taking the time to notice.

The kids appreciate the duck

Condo living is popular in London. The other grandparents of two of my granddaughters live in this complex. They sold a wonderful lakefront home to move here. The lakefront home had clear advantages but it also had one big drawback: it wasn't close to the grandkids.

The grandchildren love the condo. The oval roadway is ideal for practising riding one's first two-wheeler. There's next to no traffic. The only problem for a child of five is finding the right unit when it is time to return home.

Hence, the importance of the black-painted, iron duck. No one else has a black duck displayed on their privacy wall. Thanks to the duck, the kids never have a problem finding their grandparents' unit.

Differentiating the units when viewed from the back can be almost as hard as telling them apart from the front. But, if you are observant, there are clues: gas barbecues, planters, patio furniture and pumpkins at Halloween.

Look for the duck

Condo developments are everywhere in London, Ontario. Often condos like these attract seniors. With bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and living room all on one floor it means there is little need to go up and down stairs. Also, condos like these are compact and that translates into easy to clean and inexpensive to light and heat.

Keeping the design simple and repetitious helps to deliver an attractive selling price. But there can be a downside to the look of the units. Seniors with grandchildren may find the little kids have difficulty telling one unit from another.

Hence the metal duck perched on the privacy wall pictured above. The grandkids look for the black-painted duck and when they spot it they know they have found their grandparents' place.

Tomorrow we'll take a look at what this type of condo looks like at the front and at the rear. You will appreciate why the grandchildren are glad to have the duck.

Columbaria: apartment living for eternity

Room for the living is shrinking. The planet seems be getting smaller. Room for the dead is shrinking too. Housing for both the quick and the dead just keeps going up in price.

Woodland Cemetery doesn't push its clients to choose cremation over traditional burial but the advantages are clearly spelled out: it's less expensive, simpler and saves valuable space. I'd call the columbaria for holding the ashes a green solution but the scatter garden is surely an even greener solution.

 I  haven't gotten the details about the columbaria straight from the folk at the cemetery but these units appear to be like those at other cemeteries. If I'm right, these circular structures come in a variety of standard sizes with each move up in size offering more niches for cremation ashes. Each niche often holds up to two urns. One good sized columbarium may have 84 niches holding as many as 168 cremation urns.

My wife is not keen on the scatter garden. I'm not even sure she would feel comfortable sharing a small niche for eternity. She's a private lady and never liked apartment towers in life. An "apartment tower" for eternity may not be for her. But me, I find the concept appealing. 

I confess, I find the immediate wild debauchery of the scatter garden appealing. And, when my ashes tire of the mixing, I would be off to see the world on a beckoning breeze to become one with the world. All very Zen.

Annie Pixley: Queen of the Victorian Stage

This is a photo of the Fulford - Pixley Mausoleum on the grounds of the Woodland Cemetery in London, Ontario. Annie Pixley was a popular stage actress of the 1870s who won international acclaim for her stage performances. 

After her marriage to fellow actor Robert Fulford, she frequented the London, Ontario, area, spending many summers in Port Stanley and occasionally performing at London's Grand Opera House (now the Grand Theatre). 

In July, 1886, Pixley’s 12 year old son Thomas died of what was then known as "brain fever". He was buried at Woodland Cemetery. Just seven years later, on Nov. 8th, 1893, Annie herself died while visiting relatives in England. 

In memory of his late wife and son, Robert Fulford built the Fulford - Pixley Mausoleum. It was completed in 1897. It is one of the finest funerary monuments in Canada. For more information about Annie Pixley, and about the Mausoleum, follow the link and scroll down to the two-part documentary with local London, Ontario, author and historian Victoria Purcell.

A Silent City

I had no idea that old cemeteries are such interesting places. Woodland Cemetery may be the last resting place for ten of thousands of London and area folk but it is also filled with memories and absolutely great stories. The trick is to uncover these secrets.

Many mausoleums have value as heritage structures. These two handsome mausoleums have been standing here for more than a century. I'm positive these two both have stories to be told. Sadly, I haven't been able to unearth either one.

I did discover that the cemetery has a blog. I found an entry that asked the question: "How can we re-animate Woodland Cemetery?" It went on to say, "Our dead stories don’t have to stay that way." That may be true but you can't prove it by me. When it comes to these two mausoleums the story seems to be "Dead men tell no tales."

In researching this post, I did find one interesting fact: the Victorians engaged in post mortem photography. In other words, the Victorians took pictures of the deceased. The following is from the cemetery blog.

Over a century ago, disease and infection increased death rates. It was common for children to die before turning five. Devastated, parents wanted something tangible to remember their late children. To this end, they employed photographers to capture the dead child's image one last time before burial. 

The children were dressed in their finest attire and were posed carefully to maintain the integrity of their forms. In some cases, an infant would be propped up with a post, or held by their mother who wore a black veil. 

Once the daguerreotype photographs were developed, the artistic photographer would paint eyes onto the child’s eyelids and add some blush tones to their cheeks (colour photography was not widely popular in the 1800s because of its intricate process and high costs). The goal was to make the child appear alive again. 

Though this post-mortem photography process seems morbid today, what with painting eyelids and such, the images brought comfort and closure to those who lost their loved ones back in the 1800s.

Visit Woodland Cemetery To See Some Deer

Woodland Cemetery is deep inside London, Ontario, and yet it the home to numerous deer. Visit the cemetery and see some deer. It never fails. Some days it seems there are at least two  good sized herds living on the grounds.

And these deer are semi-tame. My eight-year-old granddaughter, Eloise, took today's picture using my little Canon point-and-shoot. The deer saw the car stop and immediately, with just a little hesitation, approached us. The young deer had clearly never encountered a hunter.

Woodland Cemetery is a multi-faith cemetery owned and operated by St. Paul Cathedral, the Anglican cathedral in the downtown core of London. Founded in 1879 on the banks of the Thames River, today the grounds have expanded to almost 100 acres and hold more than 50,000 burials.

I  believe being on the banks of the river is important, at least when it comes to the deer. The deer population rises and falls and I think they come and go unnoticed by using the river valley for cover. The river in London is quite shallow, only inches deep in some places with numerous shoals. The Thames River would present no danger to deer on the move.

Roof Top RF Base Stations Everywhere

Look at the top of the apartment building. Do you noticed the array of antennae installed on the highest point of the multistory residential building? I believe this is called an RF Base Station. Google "RF Base Station apartment building" and click on images. You will discover that these installations are common worldwide.

Many people  question the wisdom of putting these towers on residential buildings. They are concerned with people living in such close proximity to a transmitter/receiver of RF (radio-frequency) signals.

Yet, others are ecstatic about such an installation. They claim they live in iPhone heaven. Maybe, maybe not. Others say great reception is not a give; they say it depends upon how the antennae were aimed during installation.

I don't believe these towers are not sitting there gratis. The owner of the building most likely collects a fee for allowing the cell phone company to locate its towers on the apartment roof.

When I researched the question of whether or not these towers are safe, I found lots of scare stories. That said, the Amercian Cancer Society doesn't seem to be too concerned. If you want to worry about RF signals, worry about the cell phone held to your ear and forget about the base station on the roof.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies RF fields as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” This is based on limited evidence of a possible increase in risk for brain tumors among cell phone users.

The IARC also noted that RF field exposure from cell phone base stations (mounted on roofs or towers) is usually less than 1/100^th the exposure to the brain from a cell phones. Should you be worried? For perspective, IARC also classifies coffee as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."

As a flip phone user and only sporadically at that, I am not in the least bit concerned. Now, I'm off for my morning coffee.  ;-)

On a walk, backlit, low-hanging leaves a highlight

For many people around the world, the maple leaf symbolizes Canada. When I was young, many young Canadian travelers identified themselves as Canadian by displaying a Canadian flag stitched to a jacket or possibly a backpack. The Canadian flag sports a stylized red maple leaf on a white background bordered by wide red bars.

Taking an evening stroll in my London neighbourhood, the backlit, screaming bright, red leaves are the highlight of the walk. The tree in front of my home, planted a few years ago by the city, may be a red maple. I say "may be" as there are a number of different maples and telling them apart is not my specialty. I'm Canadian but that doesn't make me a maple leaf expert.

Red maples have green leaves for the majority of the year and then they turn a bright red in the fall. My tree certainly checks that box. But whatever it is, it's beautiful.

Red Light, Green Light: Not a Game

According to a City of London web page, there are almost 280 traffic accidents annually in the city related to running a red light. In an effort to reduce this number, the city has installed red light cameras (RLC) at ten intersections.

Not every car is photographed. Only those cars entering the intersection after the light has turned red. Enter on a red and trigger the RLC system. Some drivers erroneously believe they exempt if they are part of a funeral  procession. Not true.

When a car approaches a monitored intersection, two pictures are taken. The first photo shows the car in question immediately before entering the intersection and the second photo shows the car in the intersection.

According to the city, "Both photographs show a red traffic signal, when the photograph was taken, the length of the amber signal, how long the signal has been red and the speed of the vehicle."


The penalty for being photographed running a red light is similar to the penalty when given a ticket directly. The amount of the fine is the same $325 but being stopped by a police officer results in demerit points as well. There are no demerit points associated with a red light camera ticket. This may be because the red light ticket is issued to the owner of the car. It is not assumed the owner and the driver are the same person.

London: The Forest City

London certainly looks like a Forest City when viewed from the highlands of Byron in the city's south west.

London, Ontario, is called the Forest City. Why? Nitpicking history buffs like to point out it is not because present day London is blanketed with trees. The canopy can be a bit thin in places. No, the nickname has much deeper roots that reach well back into the past.

London arose at the Forks of the Thames surrounded by a dense, virgin forest. It was a city deep in an untouched forest. Whether this is completely true or not is open to argument. Some say there were always open fields and the like in the area and as the city grew the forest shrunk. It is quite possible that some of the forest was chopped down and milled for city housing. The only constant was the name: The Forest City.

Today it  is said, according to the CBC, "For every 1,500 trees that are chopped down annually due to poor health, the city replants 5,000."

An NPO ski hill needs community support

Boler Mountain, the ski hill in London, Ontario, is run as a not-for-profit organization. It qualifies  as an NPO because it was organized for, and it is operated solely for, recreation. Earning shareholders a return on their investment is not one of its goal. Improving the city by providing pleasure for residents is what Boler does and does well.

Years ago I sailed on Lake Huron and a fellow with a large yacht docked near mine was one of the original creator of Boler Mountain. Irish Ferguson was a very successful businessman and he and his friends used their business acumen to successfully create a ski hill for the city. Irish was a man who lived life fully and well. Boler Mountain with its downhill skiing is not the only recreational pursuit that bears his mark in the London area. Irish is one of my personal heroes.

As can be seen by the family name adorning the chairlift, there are lots of folk working to keep the dream of Irish Ferguson and his friends going. When I take my granddaughters to the hill to ski, I see signs everywhere that make it abundantly clear it takes a lot of community-minded folk to keep the Boler Mountain NPO going. I doff my hat, uh, my toque, to these generous people.

Boler Mountain: a not-for-profit ski hill

The chair lifts are still and the open slopes are quiet but thoughts of skiing are in the air at Boler Mountain, London, Ontario. How do I know? Two of my granddaughters ski at Boler. To ensure they are in the classes they wanted, I signed them up and paid all fees weeks ago. It is now mid-October and if you are just starting to think about skiing, you may already be too late for some classes.

If the hill looks small, it's because it is. The vertical  drop at Boler is greater than I thought but it is still only 207-feet at its highest. It seems as if no sooner are you up than you are down. For this reason, Boler has excellent chair lifts to keep lift lines as short as possible. People come to ski, not to line-up. And Boler does its best to deliver.

The best thing about Boler is its location. It is smack dab in the city's west end suburb: Byron. Boler is but minutes from my home. To take my grandkids to a ski hill of any size, I'd have to drive three hours to Blue Mountain. That's a long time for a little kid to patiently sit in the back seat of a small car. We've discussed Blue Mountain but at their age instant gratification wins.

Come to think about, when I consider the ages of the skiiers I see using the little hill, it is pretty clear instant gratification is a strong pull for lots of us.

A dream home embarking on a new adventure

It's an elegant home and a few days after taking this picture a for sale sign went up. It's the end of an era for this home. The couple who had lived here, raised a family here and grew old together here have both departed. It must be time to tie up lose ends for the family and to hand the home over to new owners with new dreams.

On a court overlooking the west end of the city, this home stands proudly in a dream location. The perfect home in the perfect location for nurturing fresh, new, perfect dreams.

Do I live on a woonerf?

This London cul-de-sac is a perfect living yard: woonerf.

After yesterday's post and the comments, I decided to rewrite and re-post the following which looked at suburban street design in London, Ontario, in particular and North American suburbia in general.

It was almost a decade ago that one of the coolest words in urban planning circles was woonerf. According to the local London paper, a woonerf was Dutch for naked street. I preferred an alternate translation: living street.

Woonerfs were streets designed, or redesigned, to force drivers to slow down as they shared the road with cyclists, pedestrians and children. There was no clear division between traffic and pedestrian rights of way in properly designed woonerfs.

Reading this gave me a crazy thought. Maybe I was living on a woonerf. Have North American suburbanites been enjoying their own form of woonerfs for years: Courts, crescents, places and culs-de-sac?

Traffic and kids share my suburban court.

Search the web today and you'll find examples of Dutch woonerfs with gardens and pedestrian seating nestled in among the shrubs and flowers.

These remind me of the court directly above mine and linked to my court by a well-used walkway. (I featured it earlier in the month.)

The first woonerf was in the City of Delft, Netherlands, back in the '60s. In the following decade, the Dutch government set design standards and passed traffic laws regulating woonerfs.

I feel some suburban courts come quite close to meeting the Dutch goals.