Brookline Beauty. GX1, Leitz Summitar 50mm.

The Cape of Good Hope was settled by the Dutch in the mid 17th century. With them came a style of architecture still to be seen in Northern Europe today: gabled town houses. Of course, the style morphed to fit the local conditions of climate and building materials and a rural rather than urban setting. What remained was the imposing gable on the front of the building decorated in the vernacular Cape style with lime plaster and whitewash and the date of construction. The elaborate plaster curlicues and Rococo shell are both typical ornaments. The roofing material was traditionally thick bunches of river reeds bound together to form thatch but in the interest of fire safety this is sadly lacking. Along with the shape of the building, usually a "T" or in this case an "H", these elements all combine together to form an architectural style, the Cape Dutch, which is utterly unique to the Western Cape Province of South Africa.
Imagine my surprise then, in 1986 to discover this mansion planted firmly in Brookline, built in 1929, and transplanted straight from the part of the world where I was born and raised. I have not been able to determine how this house happens to be there and wonder if it was perhaps built to serve as a South African consular residence.
Over the years I have come back to visit, and when exploring old haunts looking for yesterday's Blip, I drove past and noticed a realtor's sign up proclaiming that the property is "under agreement". Fearful that some developer will come along, flatten the old house and slap up a row of ugly condos, I thought that this should be today's Blip: the gable peeping through the yet leafless trees of a winter that steadfastly refuses to yield to spring.