Let’s call it a renovation.

©2012 Mike.Geiger.ca Mike Geiger, professional photographer and eagle-eyed sign watcher, has landed another exclusive story. On August 21st, he emailed to say “Griffintown – we have a problem.” He’d just taken the photo, above. Although the paint job he reported earlier has now advanced as far as the second row of letters, you can also clearly see that one of the letters is entirely missing. After some fevered speculation, we were both very relieved when this view greeted Mike two days later:

©2012 Mike.Geiger.ca

So, it appears the Farine Five Roses sign has a guardian angel at ADM or Smucker’s. After years of speculation about its imminent demise, all signs point to a prolonged life. Let’s call it a renovation, shall we?

Photos: ©2012 Mike.Geiger.ca.

From Snow Job to Paint Job

©2011 Mike.Geiger.ca
We interrupt this art project to bring you some very exciting news. If this photo taken by Mike Geiger on July 27, 2011, is to be believed, our beloved Farine Five Roses sign is getting a fresh coat of paint. This is huge news: someone, somewhere in the impenetrable bureaucracies of ADM and/or Smuckers has decided they can’t pull the sign down – at least not yet. Better still, they’re actually looking after it. (Remember that they agreed to keep it lit only until it became unsafe, which to me sounded like code for “once this all blows over, we’ll claim it’s too badly rusted and pull it down anyway”.) Oh happy day.

Photo: ©2011 Mike.Geiger.ca. Full image here.