Ode to my grandfather

On Dalhousie, Ottawa, near the bridge to Hull.

OK, is it just me but I love this building.
I love architecture. I get it from my grandfather. My grandfather, Paul Sears, was an architect. He died four years ago. I don't know about you and your relationships with your grandparents, but I adored my grandfather. He was smart, reserved (but still added in his smark remark to the conversation), and so so talented with art and sculpture and architecture. Every time I'd be there he'd be working on a new project, sometimes several at once since he'd get distracted.
Once he had to make a cover for an outside outlet and made a tiny house for it. A house to cover an outlet. Amazing, yes.
What got me thinking of him was first this photo, and that I went into his workshop (attached to the house he built for my grandmother). I took this photo mostly because I love colour, I love the blue colour of the door and the yellow hydrant with the blue top at the right side of the frame.
Secondly when I was visiting my grandmother last week I went into his workshop. And really everything is exactly the same. I was overcome with love, appreciation, gratitude. For everything he had taught me, given me. The workshop is still, of course, a complete mess. Random scraps of wood on the ground, tools still in place as if they had been used yesterday. It really reminded me of a still photograph. I opened the door and its as if nothing had changed; still the old dusty air, cold pavement, tools well used. Honestly I started getting emotional. I don't want to say you don't know what you've got until its gone. Because I did know what I had, I just wasn't aware of his impact on my life.
I know that if he were here he'd love to see my photos, comment on the architecture in them (since I find I do take a lot of photos of buildings) and explain to me how they are made, structured. Then maybe he'd go into a quiet pensive mode, look out onto the field, and retreat to his workshop and create something cute and miniature. He loved miniatures.