I spent all of July in Davis. Remember last year when I filled that accordion sketchbook with drawings of Davis in July 2024? I didn’t do one of those this year but I did draw a lot more downtown, because what else am I gonna do in my spare time. I have been reading a lot as well, but I am a slow reader. Anyway here are some more drawings of the corners and sidewalks of downtown Davis in July 2025. Above is the little mailing dispatch shop on F Street near the old City Hall, opposite the Paint Chip. I like to draw a two-page panorama because I have this idea of producing a book full of them, two-page spreads of Davis, volumes 1-3, show people the city they live in as seen at eye-level by someone who only barely understands what things do. I have been in here once actually, but I don’t like sending parcels much. For a little while years ago I would sell drawings online and mail them from the post office, which is a great place if you have no time at all but want to stand in line for up to an hour with other impatient people, only to get to the counter and realise you have the wrong customs form. I would print those online first too but it was such a time-consuming process, and then mailing would be so expensive, and the post office would only be open at inopportune times for me with work, I would just give up. I should have come here, much easier I think. I did mail some pictures earlier this year from the FedEx store, drawings not for sale but to be displayed at an event in London (for the centenary of Burnt Oak station) and it cost over a hundred bucks to send them via Fed-Ex. Thankfully the organizer paid for that, and it got there really quickly, but it’s why I tend not to ship stuff any more. These days it’s even harder with all the tariffs, all that unpredictability, and many places have just stopped shipping here entirely. I ordered a book from Germany that I couldn’t find when I was there, and the publisher said they couldn’t send it as the shipping company would not mail to the US due to the cost of tariffs. In the end they were able to send it a month or so later, but additional shipping costs ended up more than doubling the cost of the book itself. Good book though, but wish I could have found it in Berlin while I was there.

The sketch above was drawn on the same block of F Street, but a bit further up, outside the former Mamma’s, looking across the street to the Davis Cyclery. I usually use a different bike shop (Freewheeler) when i’m downtown with a bike issue, but these are good too I hear. I ride my bike everywhere. As you can see there is a gap there where a car was probably parked that I couldn’t be bothered to draw. I like riding a bike but have no idea how to fix a flat tyre. Or ‘tire’ as they say over here. I really wish I did, but every time I try I just fail so I pay someone else to do it. Thankfully we aren’t short of places in Davis within a reasonable walk-of-shame distance.

Raisin’ Canes fried chicken fingers on E Street, to my shame, I go here for lunch more than I care to admit. It’s so unhealthy, but it tastes so good. I just did a quick sketch across the street in the middle of July. The dog mural is interesting, but that used to be the sign for Watermelon Music, back when that shop was located here. The current location of Watermelon is right out on the edge of west Davis, fine if you drive but a bit long to cycle out there for a browse. I liked it when they were downtown, especially if I needed some guitar strings. That’s what downtown Davis is really missing, a musical instrument shop. It’s so hard for them though to stay in business, Watermelon has nearly gone completely a couple of times but the community really wants it to exist. I would go there more often myself if it were nearer. You take them for granted, the shops you like, and then they are gone.

This is a block down E Street, the Hotdogger. They sell, would you believe, hot dogs, and have done since before I moved to Davis. I don;t come here often (in fact only a few times ever, beside their stall at the Farmers Market) because I don’t generally eat hot dogs, not being much of a meat eater, though I have had their chicken hot dogs and they are nice. They won some award on a TV show a couple of years ago competing against other eateries in Davis (glad they beat Sudwerk, nothing against Sudwerk’s very nice beer but the food dish they offered up was ‘fish and chips’, and the ‘chips’ were actual American chips, ie crisps, which come on mate, we Brits mix some mad things up but fish and crisps? Mate.). I do like the Hotdogger’s chicken dogs, but the past two times I have had one, both times a bit of it dropped onto my shoe and left a stain I couldn’t get off. For that to happen once, fool on you, for it to happen twice, er, you won’t get fooled again. Seriously I can’t seem to eat hot dogs without dropping bits on my shoes, another reason I don’t eat hot dogs. Funny story, I drew this on July 14th (nothing to do with the Bastille) but in fact I had drawn the Hotdogger before on the exact same date, July 14th, back in 2012 – here is the post about that day. It’s fun to look back at history, 2012 feels like such a different age. Thirteen years between sketches – here is the original:

Enough reminiscing. Ok the next one is a few blocks up and one block over, on the corner of 5th and D, a building which houses ‘Empower Yolo’, I drew it on July 13th. It was hot. Have I drawn it before? Probably. It’s a house with a tree in front; two trees really.

And finally, here is something that is not downtown, a hydrant I have drawn before on the corner of the Quad, UC Davis. I’m nearly caught up and will start posting sketches from England, Poland and Germany soon.