Cloud City Coffee and Antenna

7/16/14 Platinum Carbon, Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuyu-kusa and Fuyu-syogun inks,
water-soluble colored pencils, Zig markers, opaque white gel pen

Rarely, very rarely, does sketching trump food, because if food is imminent, I’m probably hungry. I’m just not one of those sketchers who can delay a meal in order to sketch it.

This morning was one of those rare occasions. Walking the half-mile or so to Cloud City Coffee, I had every intention of getting a cup o’ joe and a delicious scone or muffin and then finding a table outside to sketch the neighborhood. (I fondly recalled the first time I sketched the Maple Leaf water tower from one of those tables more than two years ago on a warm, sunny morning just like this one.) But just as I was about to cross the street to the café, I spotted Cloud City’s distinctive art deco sign. (I had sketched the other side of this sign a couple of years ago, too, from the café.) I’m not sure the sign alone would have been enough to come between me and a muffin, but yesterday’s over-indulgence in power lines must have whetted my appetite, because then I spotted the cable antenna tower behind it. Cloud City Coffee and the antenna tower: two Maple Leaf neighborhood icons in one.

Even a muffin can’t trump that.