Fernwood Coffee
This is on the same street as yesterday’s shot, less than a block away. It is a parking area next to the Parsonage Cafe, which is part of the Fernwood Coffee Company. This is as close as I could find to an alley on my wanderings on the weekend.
I was killing time while the finishing touches were being applied to an apple pie for dinner at Patisserie Daniel, which is in this same group of buildings as those pictured here. I was glad to have my camera along as it was going to be 15 or 20 minutes and I had already checked out the nearby thrift store.
EDIT: @Fernwoodcoffee tweeted me an article about the artist, Hans Fear, who painted this face. The article is an interesting read, and has this to say about the painting:
“This strange, vampire-clown is possibly the last remaining wall graffiti by legendary Victoria artist Hans Fear. Fear, whose tag was GHOST, pioneered the rebellious art form here in the 1980s along with a couple of friends. Yet to call him simply a graffiti artist does Fear a deep injustice. Amongst scribbles and tags, Fear created pictures of remarkable complexity and depth. He was an astonishingly talented and prolific artist, and while graffiti was his preferred medium, he drew constantly, producing hundreds of sketches, cartoons, and wall murals during his short life. When Fear, who suffered from schizophrenia, took his own life in 2001, he left behind drawings, stories and legends that continue to haunt Victoria’s streets and stories today.”
I had no idea I was photographing something so historic, but must say how pleased I am that it has been preserved. Thanks @Fernwoodcoffee for the link!
.
.
Canon EOS 5Dii, Nikkor-N 24mm/f2.8 lens, ISO100, ~f-8, 1/160th, +/- 2.0 E.V..
.
.
burnt embers 
Hello to those of you following comments on this post – I have edited the post adding some information about the artist that made this painting. An interesting, though tragic, story lies behind the image.
LikeLike
I think that that is the old gas station that my friend used to work at when we were growing up. Great shot.
LikeLike
That would be interesting to know about. This location is between North Park and Grant Street about 3 buildings east of Cook St.
LikeLike
Killing time photographing vampires – very funny, Mr E. PS Thanks for the link to the article about the archaeology of the hospital site in London. Have printed it out to read later.
LikeLike
Ha! That shows just how carefully I looked at that picture. I missed the vampire reference entirely, but now that you say it, of course I see it. So, you get credit for the lousy pun, no me 🙂
LikeLike
Oh, Mr E!! I am very unhappy about being given credit for a pun. I come from a family of appallingly bad punsters and had always prided myself on not being one of them. Guess mud sticks, eh? I like today’s post. I guess the pie was very worth waiting for as you got so many great snaps.
LikeLike
Katherine, I grew up in a similar environment and even indulg(ed) in a lousy pun from time to time. You sound traumatised by your punning experience. It seems you now can sense one coming on at 1,000 paces, which is why you spot the unintended ones too. I expect that if you wanted to you could be very bad indeed at punning (in other words, very good at it). Good on you for your restraint!
LikeLike
Tee hee hee!
LikeLike
And, the pie was worth waiting for. This part of town is pretty good for a photographer – a mix of light industrial, small or elaborate old houses, organic gardens, commercial outlets and so on. Good bakery, good music instrument store, good coffee shop, good thrift store, grotty bar with live music, hardware and lumber store, lousy pizza place, a fabulous vintage lighting store, Polish delicatessen, and a medical marijuana store all within one block of each other. It has a bit of everything that is funky. But not what one would call a ‘nice part of town’.
LikeLike
Still great, for all those reasons.
LikeLike
This may seem weird but I always liked the looks of a cinder block building. They just look strong to me.
Now I’m hungry for pie!
LikeLike
Thanks Ken. I think you mean visually strong? In earthquake country they are some of the least attractive building, at least the ones from a few decades ago, as they are often very weak. In fact, they have been doing seismic upgrades on schools around here, and the first thing they do to a large brick school is to either demolish and replace, or heavily rebuild the cinderblock additions – shops, gyms, that kind of thing. The brick buildings are better, which says something.
In this instance the cinder block looks like a replacement for the original building, except building front(s) seems to have survived, or been disguised to look older.
LikeLike
Great image. The lighting really allows that face to stand out superbly
LikeLike
Thank you Andy.
LikeLike
Outside water pipes a bad idea I would have thought.
LikeLike
I agree, which makes me think they might be for something else – maybe electrical conduits? I’ll have to have a closer look next time I am in that part of town.
LikeLike