I’ve been telling you what I did during City Harvest 2012 (a celebration of downtown)  but no need to wait two years to hear what happened this year – I’ll tell all.  In fact everybody is telling all, just look at twitter to see the good times roll.

We started on Gottingen St., where I took most of today’s pictures in about 5 minutes. That second block really has become a destination. 

What a nice bit of sign painting on The Independent Mercantile Company, such a rarity in these days of computer cut vinyl letters.  We were only able to look through the window and will be back.

And just down the street Carrot was open (perhaps for the first time).  Folks have worked very hard to get this grocery oasis into the food desert.  I’m going to buy a membership as should you.  I wish them well.  It’s worth a visit just to see how precisely the shelves have been stocked. Thing-O-Beauty.

And you can imagine how thrilled I was to notice in that one block two bees and a bat.

And because we are fond of type  here is the vintage Vogue Men’s Wear sign and the clever tables in The Nook that are made out of drawers designed to  hold movable type – known as  California job cases.   Uppercase and lowercase were named because of where they were kept in the drawer.  

The real reason we started wandering the street is we were waiting for a breakfast sandwich from Ratinaud.   When we opened it up, Sheila said it looked like a Mary Pratt painting. It did and  we were able to confirm that in the afternoon when we went to the opening of her large retrospective exhibit at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. You will want to see this exhibit.  And why not get a membership in the gallery – it will go well with your Carrot membership.  Maybe someone will give you memberships for your birthday.

Here’s the sandwich and Mary (she has painted a lot of food on aluminum foil) :

The rest of our day was relatively photo free.  We went to both markets, ate croquettes at Chives, mac and cheese at Krave.  I noticed this Whisper of rat excluders on a cruise ship and was amused by red rover (a game we played in school) on a Land Rover.

Our art show openings  also included  one that is part of the Photopolis photography festival:  Acid Rivers and River Guardians at the Archives by Heather MacLeod.  Here Heather introduces the show ( in the background are Peggy Cameron who has a show opening next week at the School of Architectue and man of the arts Andrew Terris who we were running into everywhere (he’s really not that short and Heather is really not that tall).  Who knew we had so many rivers and so many dead rivers. See it too.

Coming out of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, we noticed the Royal Bank’s logo had been removed from their old building because of the move down the street.  There is still an attractive stone logo at sidewalk level.  Closer examination showed that it must have been covered with a new form of the logo and when that was removed the older one was exposed. What next?

The block of Hollis between the old and new Royal Bank locations could really use some place making.  A big case of the dreary-os.

The social medias are full of City Harvest  pictures and enthusiasm .  Check them out to get the real story.  And thank Gordon Stevens:  when he has a good idea he actually does something about it.