Christmas cookie making in a time of COVID-19

Suburbs are not cold, impersonal places. Suburbs are filled with people. This should not come as a surprise. And people are gregarious. They like to get together. And they do.

Each fall some of the ladies on my court get together to do some Christmas baking. It was tough this year. COVID-19 made the ladies think twice. But their group is small, only three ladies, and all agreed to wear face masks. The province advises no more than four at such a gathering.

Despite the cold fall weather, windows were left open around the home and cool air moved constantly through the stove-hot kitchen. Much of the time, the ladies practised social distancing. And masks were worn constantly.

At the end of a long, private drive, another Hall's Mills home

There are not many homes in the Hall's Mills neighbourhood, and there seem to a fair number of empty lots, all this would work to make this an enviable place for one's new home if it were not for one thing: water. Flood water to be exact. Hall's Mills was established before there were municipal laws restricting the erecting of buildings on flood plain lands.

Existing buildings are permitted to remain and these buildings can benefit from minor renovations, alterations or additions as long as everything is done with the approval of council in cooperation with the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority.

Clearly modifying the homes in Hall's Mills is difficult. I understand some homes have been purchased by the city, rented out briefly and then demolished. It appears more than the nearby river is out to sweep Hall's Mills away. 

For all these reasons, a visit to Hall's Mills is a trip back in time. The homes appear very much as they did when built, sometime more than a hundred years ago.

Hall's Mills homes may go back to before 1900

Hall's Mills is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in London, located in the west end of the city, immediately to the south of the Thames River. There are not all that many homes in Hall's Mills and as homes come down it is very difficult to get permission to rebuild. This is flood plain.

When I worked at the paper, I had to enter one of the Hall's Mills homes while on an assignment. The home showed clear signs of flood damage. The floors thick, wood plank flooring was heaved and uneven. The owner told me the home had come through so many floods that they no longer knew the exact number of times the plane had been inundated.

The home pictured, is on a slope leading to land above the flood plain. But, this home may still be on the flood plain as the brick work at the bottom of the home has the look of something added to repair flood damage. If I ever get up the nerve, maybe next spring, I'll knock on the door and make some polite inquiries.

Hall's Mills on Thames River floodplain

It was almost two hundred years ago that Cyrenius Hall, born in New Hampshire in 1788, bought the small gristmill and dam across the Thames River. Despite his Yankee roots, Hall worked for the British forces during the War of 1812. Later, Hall added a distillery and tannery to the mill complex. Owing to his many enterprises, the area became known as Hall's Mills and the area still carries the name today. The mill and dam though are both now gone.

Hall sold the gristmill in 1848 and just in time as severe flooding along the Thames River damaged both the dam and the mill in 1851. The mill was repaired, changed hands a number of times and was slowly enlarged until by the early 1870s it was a full two storeys high and producing 100 bushels a day.

In 1883, the Thames River flooded again, severeing damaged the mill. It was repaired with improvements but a fire in 1907 closed the mill temporarily. Once more, it was rebuilt and operated for another couple of decades before be closed and dismantled. The remains were carried away in the Thames River flood of 1937.

COVID-19 has put so much on hold

There are a lot of activities. like this now suspended karate class, that have either been cancelled or severely curtailed thanks to COVID-19. And sadly, it may get worse before it gets better. 

The Province of Ontario has unveiled a new COVID-19 modelling that indicates the province could face 6,500 new cases daily by the middle of December if no new measures are taken. A vaccine cannot come soon enough.

Danger Lurks

It looks quiet, safe, inviting, a good place to stroll with your significant other. Well, it is and it isn't. Do you see the patched sidewalk concrete? The patches are there because the sidewalk heaves in the spring as the spring thaw arrives. And the heaved sidewalk can catch a foot, causing the walker to fall, and to fall hard on solid concrete.

The city knows of the danger and regularly grinds down the ridges. But each winter the sidewalk heaves again. Eventually the city rips out the damaged concrete and replaces it with a new, fresh, smooth sidewalk. Tripping threat eliminated, at least temporarily.

One is left to wonder why, in a city with relatively mild winters, this problem is so common. Does the city put in sidewalks on the cheap, scrimping on the a deep, solid foundation on which the concrete surface sits?

CC-130J flyovers on Remembrance Day

Newspaper photographers are rather amazing. They shoot fashion, food and sports, or course, but their core calling is shooting news. They document life. It is important to note, they make artsy decisions with every photo they take and sometimes, especially with news moments, these decisions must be made in an instant. As can be seen from this image by Mike Hensen of The London Free Press, the seasoned news shooter found the angle to tell the story. This is not always an easy feat.

Hensen's photo shows CC-130J Hercules from RCAF Trenton performing  flyover at the London, Ontario, Remembrance Day ceremony at the downtown cenotaph. See how Mike Hensen tweeted this image and another on Twitter.