Genteel Ruin

Abandoned home, St. Augustine Florida, March 2014

About a year ago, Bruce and I visited friends who have a condo in St. Augustine, Florida. We walked a lot in that pretty, historic, city, and twice found ourselves in Lincolnville.

In case you can't read it, the plaque says that Lincolnville began as a settlement of emancipated slaves in 1866, on the site of First Nations' villages. The fifty-block neighbourhood contains the largest concentration of late victorian homes in St. Augustine (also known as the Ancient City).

There were many well-tended and pretty properties in Lincolnville, but my eye lingered on the ones teetering on the brink of or well into genteel ruin.

And the ones imaginatively repurposed, like the Lincolnville Public Library below.

In case you can't read it in the picture, the phrase under Fresh Produce" is "locally grown." The locavores have found St. Augustine.

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Some weeks, I really don't know what I'm going to write about in this blog. I sift through the eleven thousand shots I have in iPhoto and wait 'til something grabs me. 

These photos of old buildings slowly losing the fight against entropy appealed to me this week because I know we won't be able to see our friends in St. Augustine this year and I miss them.

The photos also make me think of the state I'll be in after the Ontario government's whirlwind, first phase, public consultation on climate change.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen