The Fan

I frequently stay in Richmond during the week for work. A friend who lives in The Fan district asked me if I could house sit last week. Her apartment is on Monument Avenue and Strawberry Street. This is the front of the building.

This is the entrance to her apartment. That is her balcony with the face of Bacchus on the front.

Here is the view looking across the street from her balcony. Walking down Strawberry Street the first night, I stopped to text, almost tripping the guy running behind me, who it turned out as luck would have it, was a dear friend from Mount Jackson. He came over the next evening, as did my daughter Hannah who lives nearby and my friend Elana from work. We hung out on the balcony and paid homage to Bacchus.

This is as far as I got in my explorations the first night.

Such a livable locale. Seems like most of the business here is pedestrian, yet enough to sustain a sweet operation.

Folks were sitting out on a lot of the porches. The neighborhood has a very at-home feel.

And it is not at all bashful about showing its colors. Sauntered back to feed the cats and guinea pig, read a little and drift into sleep. Mondays are always a rough transition from solitary country girl to working city girl.

So... the second night, as I said the four of us hung out on the balcony, telling stories and laughing.

The third night I was pretty exhausted from staying up until 2 a.m. and then working a nine hour day. I could do little more than amble about The Fan, a very rewarding and peaceful undertaking.

Loving this grille work on three neighboring houses

And the attic windows of these neighbors.

I'm not sure what to call this twin action they've got going on, but it's pretty cool.

These four are doing a lovely job of complementing each other.

Other architectural details fascinated me:

Why don't more shingled roofs show imagination?

This builder clearly got into the embellishments.

When I rounded the corner back to Monument Avenue, a wide and busy avenue separated by a large grassy median walkway almost constituting a park in itself, and many of its intersections boasting huge statues for drivers to circle, both sides of the avenue lined with huge trees and grand mansions, well when I rounded the corner and saw the sign on this church, I knew it was time to head back and crawl under the covers.

Organized religion insidiously instilling fear and hate. What is the point in this witch hunt?

The last night I discovered a couple sweet nearby eating establishments