Feb 09
Well, I didn't take many photos in February. I was sick, and extremely busy. What can I say? My camera unfortunately spent more time on the shelf than it did slung over my shoulder. So since there aren't more photos to upload, I'll entertain you with the story behind the two shots below.
My real estate agent and I went to look at a house in Oak Bay, built in 1909. Some houses from that era are extremely beautiful, meticulously restored and well taken care of. This one was not. It's current state was not actually liveable. The place was run-down, mouldy and I almost feared for my life climbing up the rickety front steps. The selling agent had told us the back porch was not safe to walk on.
When we had pulled in, I manoeuvred around a cat lazing in the middle of the street like he owned the place. He must have belonged to one of the neighbours, but was thrilled by the prospect of new hands to pet him. He bounded over, crooning the whole way, and began to snake his body though our legs. Always a sucker for a friendly cat (I've met so many that aren't) I tickled his chin and pet his back.
The frisky little bugger followed us into the house, and we made the mistake of letting him. The place looked like the scene of a murder, minus the evidence. Everything screamed "horror movie".
And then we couldn't find the cat. I was already creeped-out just peering into the rooms, but we weren't going to lock a cat in an empty old house, so we set out to find him. In one of the bedrooms, some of the wall paper had peeled away revealing the original wall paper, yellowed, patchy and brittle. It showed a scene of two small kids "Dick & Jane"-style enjoying the last century. I began to imagine what the child who'd occupied this bedroom might have spent his or her time doing growing up in Oak Bay in the early 20th Century.
My real estate agent is braver than me, and she finally located the cat in a closet that looked deep enough to lead to Narnia, with ragged, exposed insulation on all four walls. She grabbed the sly little guy and put him outside. "Want to see the basement?" she asked? "Hell, no!" I said, and we left in a hurry.
