Jeff Maltby 4

Here is the triptych featured in the last three days' posts in its entirety. On the left is a photo of the artist, Jeff Maltby, taken in 2012 by Globe and Mail photographer, Chad Hipolito. We'll have a look at Mr. Maltby's other murals over the next week or so.

A Victoria Tradtion

One of the city's landmarks, the Dutch Bakery has been open since 1956 offering all kinds of delicious baked treats and chocolates as well as lunch and breakfast in the back. It's one of those places that rarely exists any longer, the diner where you went with your Grandma and is still exactly the same today. They have some great old pictures on their website here. - Fern

The Staples Building

To continue with our look at Victoria's downtown, here is one of our skyscrapers, the Staples Building. It's on Fort Street opposite Russell Books less than a half block distant from the intersection of Fort and Douglas Streets.

Banks

Yesterday's photo was of the southwest corner of the Douglas and Fort Streets intersection. Today's photo is of the southeast corner of that intersection. These photos make me realize anew how important money is in our culture, not just as a means to get other things but in itself. I'm sure lots of profound things could be said about money but I'll leave that to people better informed than myself.

Downtown Street Scene

I usually photograph Victoria's downtown from some distance since I don't spend much time there in the city's businessy heart. Consequently I realized that visitors to this blog may get the impression that Victoria is all seaside walks, interesting birds, lovely parks, and that all life revolves around the Inner Harbour Causeway and its wonderful collection of Buskers and craftspeople. So, here is one of the busiest intersections in the city, where Douglas and Fort Streets cross. While it's not the most exciting downtown in the world, it does have the virtues of being comfortably safe (you can walk around anywhere without any problems) and more human in scale than other city downtowns (no buildings higher than 20 or 21 stories).

Antiques Row

On the opposite side of Fort Street from the challenging building pictured yesterday are some of the antique shops that gave this area its former name of "Antique Row." These are wonderful places to browse around in if you like beautiful things. I'm hooked on Chinese porcelain myself and I have a special fondness for imitation Satsuma such as in the illustration above (from my personal collection). You're more likely to find the real thing in shops such as those pictured to the left. Fellow Victoria blogger Mike Laplante yesterday posted an interesting link to a news article on changing trends in the antique business in this area.

The Mosaic

This very 60's looking building was in fact built during that decade and served for many years as an office building. More recently it was converted to condominiums in order to preserve the ambitious tile mosaic that gives the building its name. The part of Fort Street where it is located used to be known as "Antiques Row" because of the numerous antique shops and auctioneers on that stretch of the street. It is also home to some trendy restaurants and home decor shops and local merchants now describe the area around the intersection of Cook and Fort Streets as "Mosaic Village."

Coal in THEIR Stockings For Sure

Above, busy with a cell phone and an i-Pod, passersby fail to notice Mr. and Mrs. Santa strolling by on Victoria's Government Street.

Below, what looks like a normally busy day in downtown Victoria is a bit unusual because this was taken on a Sunday. Usually on a Sunday here there is very little traffic and few pedestrians. It's because of Christmas shopping, of course. How's yours coming?

New Maltby Trompe l'Oeil

I must first thank regular visitor and commenter here, Dean Lewis, for alerting me to a new work by local muralist, Jeff Maltby. I have featured some of his remarkable trompe l'oeil in the past where it is located in Chinatown. Above is one panel of a new Maltby triptych that graces the wall of the Siam Restaurant near the corner of Fort and Langley Streets in downtown Victoria. Below is a wider shot showing all three panels. Victoria is lucky to have an artist so talented and to have patrons intelligent and generous enough to sponsor such works and share them with the public. They are a delight to the eye and I can only hope that ever more of Victoria's walls will be so beautifully and interestingly decorated in future.

Theme Park

There are times here when I feel like I'm wandering around in a giant theme park. For instance, moments after I had taken the photos of the Bell Tower that I posted the day before yesterday, I was crossing Fort Street and glanced down towards the harbour to see this view - very different in character but just as strange and wonderful. When I glanced the other way up Fort Street I saw St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, equally dream-like and different. I'll post a few photos of St. Andrew's sometime soon. This view looks from downtown across the harbour towards the Songhees. That rocky area across the water is where I took the photo that is the header for this page.

Wharf Street

This is my favorite Victoria skyline because it has such an interesting variety of architectural styles and its colors make it look warm even now, in March. In this photo Wharf Street runs from left to right above the Inner Harbor near Ship Point. The street we can look up is Fort Street, so named because it marked the original location of Fort Victoria. The photo was taken from the Songhees side of the Inner Harbour with a 200 mm telephoto lens.