I like the variety of signs shopkeepers choose to advertise their business. Who wouldn’t want to eat at a place frequented by a sheep (or is it a goat?). The hand-written notice on the window lets one know that they are open.

I also like inadvertent signs, like this bit of graffitti. Perhaps “Tents” is a band, or is it just an enigmatic sticker someone made? I don’t know, but someone else with a marker was compelled to answer.

Then there are the ancient signs, faded, but faintly visible still. I have no idea when this business was here, it’s been a bar for the past 30 years or so.

This sign was a lovely invitation to enter (or at least it was those many years ago when it was first put up). Gadgets! Gizmos! and Electronics! Just the sort of place to offer a vision of the future, now it seems incredibly quaint. But it is still here to remind us of another time.

That brings us to the present, and the Alien in the shop window. Safely behind glass, one hopes that this is not a sign of the times. Or maybe it is.

I had been invited out for tea on Sunday, and as luck would have it, it was right across the street from a city park. I had heard about the wondrous new structure that the city had added, so I decided to check it out.

Yes, the city (really the taxpayers) spent some large sum of money to install a state of the art, self cleaning, public toilet. And it has apparently become a trending item on instagram (people really spend their time looking at such things?). I will admit that this is probably as attractive a structure as possible, and it is certainly a useful addition to the park.

It makes a nice place to put one’s collection of old photos.

This building was one of the very first buildings erected in the area, but this sort of building failed to catch on, so most of the surrounding ones are brick.

There is also a bandstand in the park, and there was a dj creating music at the time. The local hippies (apparently it is still a thing) were enraptured, but not enough to start dancing.

In former times, there would be car show on this weekend, with an opportunity to admire the rides, and chat with the owners. But this year it was held as a cruising event, most of the cars just drove up and down the main drag, so one couldn’t really get a close look at all the tiny details that the owners had added. This one had parked, so I was able to run an eyeball over it’s customization. It’s a nice job (and perhaps the owner has had a little too much time on his hands).

Ultimately, I suppose the park shows that while some things change, bits of it stay the same.