Pets

On my commute, I am lucky that the bus comes off the highway well before the area around where I actually work. As it wends its way through the narrow streets one-way streets of downtown, I get to see some of the the best of the city before we swing west and traverse some of its worst.

Tucked among the modern mid-century concrete, steel, and glass monoliths are some lovely old buildings (old for being located in the capital of a state that has yet to celebrate its centennial). Out of these, I have my pets--the buildings I look up from my homework/reading/knitting to see as we pass, to make sure they're still there, safe and sound.

My first pet, pictured above, is the Securities Building. The picture is awful. It obscures the beauty of the bricks, which are all different shades of red, gray, and gold mixed together, and obliterates the delicate dimensionality of the ornamental stonework. Such are the trials of bus photography. At the risk of being considered totally insane by my fellow commuters, I may try to do better with that.

In the meantime, check out this beautiful post by Felix of the Domestic Soundscape on Reading's brickmaking history!