Author: Andrea Cordonier
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IKEA Builds 26-Acre Community in London
Can’t say I didn’t see this coming. Back in April, I extolled the virtues of IKEA’s business model and pondered how it might be applied to other related endeavours. You can read that blog entry here. Britain’s Daily Mail Online reports that IKEA is building an entire community near Olympic Park in London. Strand East will contain… Read more
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There’s a Reason for Those Signs
On Sunday night, just after dark, we were heading home along our usual route with Husband in the driver’s seat. We were travelling at ‘rural’ speed, par for the countryside, but not terribly wise for this time of the year. Being the passive, obedient wife that I am (snort!) I resisted the urge to remind… Read more
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Autumn Walkabout, In Town & Out
(Click on each photo to see full image.) [nggallery id=20] Read more
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Grand Opening of New Algonquin College Campus, Perth, ON
It was great to attend the grand opening of the new Algonquin College campus this past week. I graduated last year from the Advanced Housing – Construction Carpentry program and was not sorry to see the old campus torn down. It was never meant to be a permanent building, it had been band-aided to death… Read more
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Hiking the Legend of Grey Owl
I remember a friend saying that kids are special when they’re little, but that every age holds the promise of something new. My eldest son, D, now twelve years old, and I headed out for a seventeen kilometre roundtrip hike to Grey Owl’s cabin in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba, something he wasn’t ready for… Read more
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Not Your Folks’ NFB, For Sure
In early elementary school I distinctly remember seeing the National Film Board (NFB) production of Nahanni on one of those days, I’m guessing, when the teacher needed a break from the usual. The black and white images of buddy chasing his dream of striking gold on the Nahanni river in the Northwest Territories stuck with… Read more
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New York’s Flophouse Voyeurism
Maybe I’m just being overly sensitive, but I’m revolted by this article from The New York Times. It’s about the gradual gentrification of an age-old flophouse in The Bowery, where marginalized tenants who pay less than ten dollars per day and live in cage-like accommodation, are used as marketing pawns to attract upscale hipsters to… Read more
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Restoration
One of my favourite summer experiences took place in one of Winnipeg’s roughest neighbourhoods. On a drive around town, I spotted the most amazing mosaic mural under construction in a most unlikely location. I made an illegal left turn into an empty parking lot and jumped out with my camera in hand. I happily snapped… Read more
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These Boots Were Made for Walking
I finally connected to Toronto. I think four key factors shaped the positive outcome. First, I trained in so was car-free and walking everywhere; the weather was unbelievably gorgeous; I stayed with a friend well outside the downtown core; and I almost exclusively walked and took public transport to get around. Read more
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Bon Echo: Natural Inspirations (and Aspirations)
My foothold is tenon’d and mortised in granite/I laugh at what you call dissolution/And I know the amplitude of time. – WALT WHITMAN, 1819-1919, carved on a rock face at Bon Echo Provincial Park, Mazinaw (Massanoga), Ontario I am intrigued by, and not a little envious of, the concept of an artists’ retreat anchored deep… Read more