Twin Tin Roofs

I'm ready for the rain to stay away. I'd love a return to days like this, where you need a little shade from a roof overhead.

In a vain attempt to call back the days of sunshine, I'm posting a sunny picture of lovely twin balconies near downtown.

Abandon

I'm afraid this place must be abandoned, forgotten. It's falling apart, of course. Plants growing up between the stones aren't a good sign.

The general state of the place is a shame because there are such amazing details here, the carvings around the door and the shaped window openings, the delightful balustrade too.

So what do you make of the jeans? Were they abandoned as well? They could have been. Or, maybe they're just hung up to dry and the place hasn't been forgotten after all.

Somewhat Unusual

Reddish wall, green doors and plants. And textures, textures everywhere. I like how the white is really clean looking, bright and unbroken.

The squarish design in the iron balustrade is somewhat unusual in Beirut, which makes it all the more interesting to me.

Like the Sky, Like the Sea

Ah, blue. Such wonderful associations. This is a calm picture, a picture for a quiet day at home, taking advantage of every little bit of serenity.

It makes me happy just thinking about it.

I've tagged a bunch of Beirut Pursuit photos that show street lamps.  You can see that group of posts by clicking here. 

The Perfect Yellow

A few years ago I had paint chips propped up on the window ledge in my living room. All of them within a few shades of this:

I was looking for the perfect yellow, something like an orange tinged lemon or a really yellowy butter or an egg tart if you bumped up the saturation.

When the Rain Stopped

The rain comes and goes all the time these days. On the first rainless day in way too long, I was lucky enough to spot this sun-washed balcony.

Light caught all the little details that I've come to love so much.

Corbels in Brown

In case you though I was done with this, here's your proof that I'm not.

Corbels in Brown. To see corbels in almost every other color, click here.

A Lot Going On

This is a photo that I unabashedly love and for so many reasons. It's full to bursting with lines pulled in every possible direction. We've got wires ascending and wires descending, they're hanging and swaying, snaking up the wall, falling back on themselves, draping, cascading, bunching here, stretching there. And then there's the radiant mid-day sun casting hard-edged shadows everywhere.

And then there's how typical all of this is here in Beirut. The street light, the yellow electric pole, the generally French architecture of nearly every building from this era. It's a lovely, lovely thing.

Triple

Three corbels holding nothing, jutting out as if attempting a triple fist-bump.

I love that association.

I'm also drawn to the lone, bare light bulb hanging from the nearest arch, ephemeral in the presence of all that stone and iron.

Zoom In, Zoom Out

Zoom in. Focus on one small piece

of a bigger picture. Zoom out


to see where it belongs.

Corbels in Tripoli

It's been a while since the last time we visited Tripoli. We didn't have a map and not much of an agenda, other than to find the Souk. So, for a little while we wandered through town, just looking around.

We passed this little street. It was so ornate that I had to stop for a few photos.

One Eye

In Clemenceau, there's a downhill stretch of road that I see more often from a car than on foot. The raod skirts past this building with a sharp zig zag, first to the right then the left. It's a street that forces you to slow down, proceed with caution, carefully inch your way past parked cars, construction rubble, pedestrians, cats.

And while I do all that, I have one eye on the corbels, the balustrade with its line-up of curls, the flowering whatever-it-is brightening up the balcony, and the tangle of wires going about their business.

Reinforced Corbels

Sometimes, a few corbels just aren't enough.  The triangular reinforcing beams aren't pretty, but I'll overlook that small failure since they allow the pretty balcony to go right on existing.

This balcony has a really great balustrade.  I'm of that opinion because a child absolutely could not accidentally squeeze through. 

Golden Corbels

I like how this picture turned out, the blue sky peeking out behind fanciful golden corbels fanned out overhead.

I like the emblem, embellishment, whatever it is, up there between corbels. And it's interesting that there are two corbels sandwiched together instead of one heavier one.

Rainbow Electric Cascade

It would have taken magic of one kind or another to get that crazy cascade or electic wires out of my picture. I was, after all, interested in the balcony. I mean, look at that balustrade; iron swirling in a generous arc the likes of which I had never seen anywhere else. If I'd been able to make the wires vanish (and gauze and those wooden masts) I'd have done it.

I'd still love to have that picture, the one without the cascade of rainbow colored cabeling. But this is the one I have, and I'm inclined to accept that as it is.

A Good Balcony

Balconies are such a delight, and for so many reasons.

They look wonderful on a facade, usually adding depth and variety at the very least. You might also get a cool pattern in the balustrade or the corbels and that's even better.

Plus, urban residents tend to enjoy balconies--I've lived without one in the past and I really hope I'll never have to do that again. So when I see a balcony I feel happy for the people who live there and assume their quality of life is a little better for it.

Finally, balconies make sense in climates where you'd like to be out-of-doors for a good part of the year. That alone is a very happy thought.

This is a good balcony. It looks peaceful. The white and black combination is pleasant and I like this iron balustrade, the little curls and near symmetry of it. The corbels are boring, but they're getting the job done.

Downtown Corbels, Monochrome

This is Downtown, where most every building is creamy, brownish, beige. It's all startlingly clean, which I think make the monochromatic stone stand out even more.

Downtown isn't Beirut's most colorful neighborhood. But, if you want is to look around at a wide variety of carved stone facades, this is the place to find them.

At first, all that creamy, brownish, beige might fool you into thinking that the carved shapes are all the same too. They aren't. Once you get used to the color you look beyond it and you see the forms, an amazing variety of shapes and surprising details that were always there waiting for you to notice them.

This collage emphasizes the corbels, which illustrate Downtown's variety of stonework quite well I think.

Corbels Collage #3

Here's another group of corbels. I've decided that I like it when a facade has more than one color. I like the look of it more than monochrome.

And speaking of monochrome, I have some of that coming soon; a collection of corbels from downtown where everything is squeaky clean.

Common Corbels

Another dip into the archives, another aray of corbels.  The scroll pattern is a popular one, seen in four of these today and one from yesterday. It's funny, but I considered leaving out redundant corbel patterns because we all know that once a thing is common it stops being special.

I included them anyway, in part because the truth about the scroll pattern is that you will see it everywhere. It's a very Beirut thing.

Lest I wear you out on corbels, I'll take a little break from this theme for a few days. There's lots more where these came from, days and days worth. But I'll wait.  I'd hate for corbels to stop being special.

Corbels From the Archive

It's been fun, sorting through my archives looking for corbels. I have a lot and today, I'm sharing the first batch.

Corbels are not the easiest thing to photograph. They're often hidden in shadow. In addition, I captured most of these images while trying to get a good shot of something else--I wasn't thinking about the corbel. I was focused on the windows probably.

Anyway, they're nice, and I have more of them coming tomorrow. I especially like the one on the top right, the corbel all on its own holding up nothing at all.

The other thing about corbels is that you'll usually see them supporting iron balustrades on balconies.  So, there'll be a lot of iron going on in these photos too.  That's kind of nice, since I've wanted to eventually get to focusing on those.