Thursday, May 26, 2011

Old. Not obsolete.


Windows and light
London, ON, May 2011
[Click here for more Thematic blue]

I'm lucky enough to live in a burg where the century-old architecture has largely not fallen victim to the wrecker's ball. It's a place that, if it doesn't rise to the occasion every time an opportunity to save a treasure comes up, well, it doesn't deliberately pave it all over, either.

Which leaves an ample number of discoveries like this one, visual snippets that remind you to make more time for exploration, reflection and thought. Pieces of history that quietly shape the way we lead our day-to-day lives. And small businesses - City Lights is quite possibly the region's top independent bookstore, a virtual hub of social media and community-building goodness.

As I stood in the late-afternoon greyness and wondered what kinds of scenes these buildings, and the people who lived and worked in them so long ago, must have witnessed, I wondered if they'd be here another hundred years, and who would be standing in this spot in the future, wondering much the same thing.

It wasn't a major deal to stand there and stare at a line of building frontage. But in its smallness and ordinariness, I found a strange sense of peace.

And all because I wanted to take a few pictures that day. Neat.

Your turn: So what did these buildings witness? Make something up, k?

6 comments:

Kalei's Best Friend said...

Just looking at those buildings says a lot.. I bet they have a lot of ghosts in their walls... Buildings hold history, pain, joy, discoveries.I don't think any thing is obsolete because the past is what was the groundwork for the future.

Karen (formerly kcinnova) said...

LOVE the colors in those buildings. I have heard of City Lights bookstore before, although I'm not sure where. Certainly they don't have one down here in Washington, DC!

Julie said...

Nice, images from both the shot and inside your head.
I do that all of the time, wonder what it must have been like.
Julie

Catherine said...

All I can think of when I see buildings like those is that one good shake would bring them down. We had lots, and I've photographed a few, but most are now either a heap of bricks, or an empty site, since February.
Let's hope we don't get tilt slab monstrosities in their place.

Julie said...

I have a heartfelt blue, today!
Thank you...

http://wishiwasonhigherground.blogspot.com/2011/05/true-blue-challenge-147-written-inc.html

Julie said...

I have a heartfelt blue, today!
Thank you...

http://wishiwasonhigherground.blogspot.com/2011/05/true-blue-challenge-147-written-inc.html