Photos in the hometown/ part 2...Chinatown

Welcome to Victoria's Chinatown...the oldest one in Canada and second oldest to San Francisco in North America...

I have been venturing into Chinatown since I was a young girl and I still find it fascinating.

Walking by this building, you can quite often hear the clatter of the Mah Jong tiles through the open windows  above...

Many of the addresses are like this one, '23 1/2'...

When I was a letter carrier for Canada Post, Chinatown was your worst nightmare for trying to sort mail.

Many storefronts are getting ready for Chinese New Year...this year is the Year of the Ox...MY YEAR!

This alley is so narrow at most points you can stretch your arms out and touch the buildings on both sides...

It used to be full of opium dens, gambling rooms and a menagerie of sordid behaviour. My mom said when she was a girl, they were not allowed anywhere near here.Too dangerous!  Now it houses record shops, clothing and gift shops...

...and the barber shop which has been there forever.

The local tattoo parlor...

Century old doors leading up to artist lofts...

Here is the Chinese Public School built in the early 1900's and still in use today...

The red lanterns looking beautiful against the clear blue sky...

Lovely architectural details...

Then there's always the adventure of shopping in the local grocery stores....

Full of strange and interesting things...

A whole lot of benevolency going on...

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!
(Happy New Year!)

...bird pause...

A trip to the city...photos in the hometown. (part 1)

I went into Victoria today specifically to take pictures of a few of my favorite old derelict buildings. They have sat empty for over 40 years or more and have had quite the history...

This is one of two twin buildings which housed the Northern Junk Company...they were a company which dealt with international ocean shipping and I believe the buildings were built in 1864.

A developer has recently purchased them and although he is very limited to what he can do to them, (they are designated heritage buildings) I wanted to photograph them 'as is'.

 

 

Seems like there weren't much in the way of building codes back then and everything is hodgepodge with brick, sandstone and jumbles of rock and cement pieced together...

Time has allowed wonderful hanging gardens of ferns, sedum and moss of all kinds to flourish here...

 

Then it was over to the Janion building which has been empty and boarded up for over 50 years. This has always been a gem to me.

It was built in 1891 as a Canadian Pacific Railway Hotel.

She was grand in her day...

...with cast iron pillars...

...hitching rings still stand waiting...

Now she sits and the sandstone washes away. The back has been a hangout for druggies and drunkards for years but they leave behind bits of beauty as well...

...perhaps even a Cinderella or two.

So for now I will see which way these old relics will go and hope that one day someone will enjoy their beauty in new ways.

Song for Friday....the kiddies might like this one...

I was never really much of a Bruce Springsteen fan but chummed around with someone who was a FANATICAL FAN. There were the stories about the 3 hour performances and how Bruce would practically melt down into a pool of sweat by the time he was done his show. This was probably 30 years ago when he was much younger, of course, but I've heard that his shows are still pretty amazing. I have a few favorites that I like to hear once in a while but none of his songs caught me like this one. It is a mellow and somewhat off the track of the blue collar worker anthems he is famous for and it has stuck with me since the first time I heard it. The song came off of his second album in 1973, 'The wild, the innocent and the E Street shuffle' (a great title as well). I always had visions of what this song would 'look' like but I've never been able to find anything to reflect the feel of the song....so computer to the rescue! After reading 'Water for Elephants', I became enthralled and pulled in by vintage circus photos and decided to put my own vision to the words...Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls...may I draw your attention to the centre ring...sit back and enjoy...Wild Billy's Circus Story!

Introducing...Rueben.

Three years ago, on a Thursday, I went into the city to have lunch with Irma. She says to me at one point.."I saw some really cute kittens in the vet's window." We had just lost our ginger cat, Paddyo a month before and she thought it would be good for us to get another one. I said "O.K but just to LOOK at.." Yeah right. Next thing you know I'm driving the 45 minute ride home with this....

That same night we had the most fearful, wicked hurricane that we've ever had here and guess who decided to sleep all alone upstairs? Yup...Rueben. I realized later that his namesake (after the boxer Rueben Carter) fit perfectley because not only was he ballsy, but Rueben Carter's nickname was....the Hurricane... Anyway I thought I would show a portrait of Rueben and his many moods.

He loves the fire...

He loves his basket..

He loves Griffin and  thinks he's Griffins little brother...

He sleeps in very strange positions...this one is the 'ready for anything' pose. Notice the hind feet on spring mode...

This one is the feline question mark yoga pose....

Stealing Griffins bone.

Here is the 'melt into the couch' pose...

Rueben goes by many names...the most obvious is 'Rubber man', then there's 'Little man', 'Bad Boy' (for gorry reasons to do with birds and mice) and a few unmentionables which shouldn't be in print (to do with the previous reasons).

But we love him just the same....