I enjoy doors and windows. That is where the character and soul of a building reside. Norm’s weekly challenge of doors shows so may beautiful doors. You catch yourself as you drive around town – “Oh look at that door’, where before you may never have noticed. Come join in on Norm’s Thursday Doors and see the beauty and creativity of builders and other bloggers photographs.
Mine this week jumps from churches, to homes, to businesses…ending with a cemetery.
Church doors…
A couple of businesses….as you can tell, I am a fan of stonework
Homes…
And last but not least the forgotten door of too many years gone by…with a tree growing in the mausoleum’s roof…
As you see the interesting doors around you, remember when you go through one, you enter into the world and life of that building. Respect its story to be told and share it if possible. Just like people, they all have a story, so share its story of beauty and remembrance and always be kind.
I stand and remember the wonder of this place, familiar smells are embedded forever
The three legged milking stool to stand on as she worked, with sun shining in her hair
The herbs are still there, were there even before, as great gran-ma was most clever
By planting them by the cellar door, the door great grand-pa had built for her to share
So when winters blast came through out the land, with white seeming to go on forever,
With simmering smells floated through the warm home, the cold could not compare
The love of family around a small table, only a candle for light, a memory that last forever.
Anita Neal
Come join in with Sue Vincent’s Thursday photo writing prompt. Use the image above as inspiration to create a post on your own blog… poetry, prose, humour… light or dark, whatever you choose, by noon (GMT) Wednesday 26th June. Don’t forget to use the #writephoto hashtag in your title so your posts can be found.
And those who know my writing, always know I close in a reminder to be kind. Kindness is a reflection of God’s everlasting love for all things.
It’s Thursday and a day we join in with Norm and our shared loved of doors. What wonderful stories the imagination can have as we look at some of the really old one. We have an area that we are trying to revive bu calling it a historical neighborhood. We aren’t all neighborhoods historical that were built over 100 years ago. Now that I am older, 100 years doesn’t seem that long ago.
This neighborhood has it usual transitions of original fine homes that got neglected and people left. Then other people moved in not understanding the value and letting it decline further then sold for “pennies” to those who could barely afford the “pennies” who showed no love to the homes only to leave them abandoned. Now investors who see the value in the wonderful homes have moved to revitalize them and bring them back to their glory days. I have seen this pattern i n every city. We are currently fighting for the beauty and value of our courthouse.
But today I offer you glimpses of revitalization of this neighborhood showing the condition of how some still are but the transition of the revitalized ones.
The beauty of this one is hidden by the tall grasses but as it sit on the hill surrounded by massive oak trees, it was probably a beautiful porch to sit on and enjoy the rockers.
I love how this garage was turned into a fun living space and the owners understood the value of doors as he worked on repairing and staining one.
I though these two interesting. The larger door is a revitalized firehouse. No sure if it is a working firehouse or now a home. It’s still a neat door. The other picture is a set of doors we pass daily that I have always wondered “how many garage doors do you really need?”
Other pictures below show continued revitalization of this neighborhood. Some houses quite striking and some kind of plain but still reflecting new life.
As you look at these wonderful doors, remember we ourselves are also beautiful doors. Some of us older still with many wonderful stories to tell; some with a face lift trying to fight that ever present aging factor and some with new parts as some parts just no longer work properly. But we all can be beautiful in what is on the inside of that door if we allow our hearts to shine forth the kindness God once intended us to show. So even if your door seem a little worse for the wear, open your door and shine forth the gift of kindness that God so wants to to share.
It is interesting to walk around the old section of town just north of the business district. There are still many homes well maintained from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and their doors are always interestingly combined with the wonderful porches we no longer see.
Some interesting takes on architecture of the day on a small income home.
The last one shown with the drive up is actually the back door. The front door you could not see for the steep hill and tall grass. I would hate to cut that hill.
On the business side we have a couple of interesting doors with stone faces which always bring in different architectural flares.
Insurance company with a woman’s touch
Come along and join in on Norm’sThursday Doors. Door show an interesting personality of designer and resident.
Doors always open up a new world of opportunities. There was a song on the radio this morning telling that God put a million, million doors on this earth and that one of them is you. We are all doors that can shine out the love from above that was given to us to share and reflect God’s love and kindness. So open your door and shine forth in kindness.
What a beautiful day today. Blue sky, bright shining sun, temp in low 70s, flowers are smiling, birds are singing, actually, they are raising Cain because I am out of food, I will fix that shortly. But the flowers and Mimi are happy as Mimi basks in her favorite morning spot.
But today is Thursday and Norm’s day for doors. I have been waiting since August of last year to be able to get out and look at all the marvelous older homes in our area. Some have some really interesting doors, so today, I am walking…
Not a lot of walking but some
I found interesting other things for later post as well but today is door day. It is always interesting how government building are these massive stone buildings with columns and such. Then when the building gets deemed no longer useful, they tear it down. Such a waste. We are fighting tearing down our courthouse. I didn’t take any pictures of it as its boarded up. But below is the county office building.
Then the side door to the bank which I thought interesting.
Then I went down to the river front to see where I could possible set up face painting for the 4th. I took a couple of pictures to show how we on this side of the river survived Flood ’19 vs. the other side of the river, where I work. We built a wall in ’65 after a bad flood then during the historic flood of ’93 we were safe as we were this year, which beat out the flood of ’93. No wall still on the other side.
Even from here you can still see the flood waters surrounding the trees along river park that are still surrounded by water. They are expecting another rise with all this rain. Oh, well…on to houses and doors.
I could have taken pictures all day but I do have grass to cut so I didn’t want to wear out my legs. To start with, I think we should all have gargoyles on our front stoop…right?
Dare anyone to take the package from the front door
Other doors of neat vintage eras are below. Wonderful history and architecture.
I miss the era of big front porches and neighbors visiting while sitting in rockers and such. It was a more simple time I guess. But was it?
I don’t think the basic principle of love thy neighbor has ever changed. Jesus was over 2000 years ago and that was part of the great commission. So I challenge you to remember the gentleness of the seemed eras gone by and bring forth the gentle kindness that seemed to be more prominent than now. Let the kindness of Christ shine through you to brighten someone else’s day.
What an odd title for Norm’sThursdays Door prompt. But for me it is a beginning as I have been recuperating from foot surgery since last August, first one foot then the other. Now after 6 weeks of therapy, I am no longer walking like a penguin and can walk further than from the couch to the bed. With the winter being what is was in the midwest, only to be followed by the horrific flooding, there are only two shots but I thought they were really interesting. I will get out this weekend to see what beauties I can find. There are a few quite old structures for the area so it is promising. In the mean time, enjoy the door of times gone by or time anew and share you doors with us.
Note the flood lines on the blocks of previous floods in the area. Beautiful home in the process of being restored.
And as always I remind everyone to think about being kind. It is not a hard task but one we often forget in the business of our lives. Kindness reflect your inner beauty so I encourage you always to be kind.
Weird title I know but doors are technically oblong in shape so I am combining two challenges into one. Its fun that way and you get to see more of other people ideas of a challenge. I am reverting back again to old doors, they have so much more character. I am from Ga and I stumbled across a blog about Forgotten Georgia but the site is not just buildings as it cover old towns, graveyards, old bridges and many of those forgotten time that can tell such wonderful stories. I will post a few of my favorites that I saw but check out the site for others. Its well worth the view. I hope I am not breaking the rules as I did not take these photos but I felt the site fit the prompts of the two challenges for today so I am cheating a bit. One prompt was from WoollyMuses in his Word of the Day Challenge – Oblong and the other is Norm 2.0 for Thursday Doors. I love doors as once you go through one it opens a whole new world of possibilities and to me forgotten doors are even more special. I would love to hear them tell all of their wonderful stories. And since I am from Ga (temporarily misplaced in Iowa) I enjoy the Forgotten Georgia blog even more as I know some of these places. Hope you enjoy and visit the blog above.
The Crescent, Valdosta Ga.
No, this building is not oblong but it does have fabulous doors. This building is mostly round and I spent much time there as a kid for recitals and such. It is currently run by the Valdosta Garden Club. It had to be at the first picture.
The Top house is in Bullock Co. Ga., The one below it is in Greensboro Ga., the the one to the side is the house I grew up in on Highland Place in Valdosta Ga. That one is not part of the Forgotten Ga. blog, I took it long ago with my little brownie camera.
A few commercial type buildings are the Calvary Baptist Church in Madison Ga., the First State Bank of lake Park Ga., and the old Jail House(1792) of Appling Ga. If you look close, you can see the bars for the upstairs windows.
And here are a few forgotten buildings in various places around the state.
The top is an old homestead and below it an old commercial building. I particularly like the last one, a gas station with an old pump and even an old car.
And in closing I remind myself as all those who read this, remember to be kind. I love the thought of kindness being a rock that is thrown in a lake and creates ripples of love and joy as it spreads to the shoreline. Be someones rock of kindness and spread ripples as you go.
During the middle ages church doors were painted red to signify the blood of Christ and as a sign of the cross. The red doors of churches also symbolize a place of sanctuary, refuge and safety from physical or spiritual evil/danger.
When I saw these wonderful doors, I wondered how many other doors of churches in my area are red and there were quite a few. Even a few residences had red doors. Enjoy these door, while some may be rather plain, I lean back on the wonder of showing the love of Christ on a door.
I thought this next door was interesting which at one time was possibly a home or apartment complex but now serves as one of the residences for St. Ambrose College.
There can be some much wonder when you take the time to study the details our world. The beauty and the complexities of why we are where we are today.
And as you reflect on this beauty, remember to be kind. A kind smile can break the tight hold of fear or despair that may be chocking someone.
Your kindness may be that person’s only light for the day.
There have been so many fabulous pictures of doors that I thought I would take a different angle but still show a door. In tapping in with Norm’sThursday Doors I ask the question -how about the forgotten doors, the lost doors or the doors no more. Doors are a portal into another world with each room has its own history. Then when economic doom ascends and robs the life of the room and causing forever closure. The sadness replaces the coming in and going out through the door and the life it once knew ceases to happen. Then the history gets replaced by cold loneliness. Ah, the stories the rooms could tell.
Forgotten and over grownFilled in doors & windows never to be opened again
Abandoned due to the sword of progress.
Progress is a doubled edge sword as it bring in the knew and throws away the old. May we as people never become so cold and callous that we too can become abandoned and lose the wonderful stories we could tell.
Always think of ways to be kind. Kindness is a gift of God.
