Turquoise Doors

There's so much to this building, but these doors are what initially caught my eye. They're such a lovely color.

Maybe turquoise isn't the right name for it. It's deeper than Robin's Egg. It's too gray to be an aquamarine. Too green to be a peacock.

Here it is, below the upper floor. This section of the building sits directly to the right of the balcony in yesterday's image. The stone details, window tracery, proportions--all of it--are identical. But this section is in significantly better shape. There's glass in the windows, plants on the balcony. This portion surely has residents; lucky, enviable residents.

Continuing, Counterclockwise

What began at the gate continues here, around the corner from the building's flank shown in yesterday's image.

This is the upper floor where a family very likely lived at one point.


Below, at street level are carriage doors. I'll show those tomorrow.

Bound

The gate in yesterday's photo is just to the left of what you see today.

It's a funny shot, full of unexpected angles and lines all bound together by an illogical web of wires.

Round Trip

I recently had the good fortune to wander all the way around a very lovely ramshackle old place in Kaslik. We had already seen most of it when we found this gate--with the date the place was built set into the iron.

In the following days I'll upload pictures of its many faces.

Falling

It's winter, yes, I know it is. It's nearly a new year.

But it felt like fall when I walked past this spot recently.

Most of the green and growing things in Lebanon don't even bother changing color.  The ones that do tend to change at unexpected times of year. Like this grapevine--I think it's a grapevine or some sort of vine anyway. It made such a lovely rainbow growing there that for a minute I felt hadn't missed autumn after all.

Vintage Amir Munzer

A few times previous, I've mentioned a cache of pictures of Beirut taken in 1965 that are available online. If you have the time go ahead and follow this link and browse around. They're fun to see.

The collection of mid-60s images includes this one.

I knew I recognized the place, and finally the other day, I took photo of what it looks like now. It's the Emir Munzer mosque downtown, very near Place de L'etoile. In fact, if you're standing there by the clock tower and look over to the northwest, this is pretty much what you will see.

Wikitravel has this to say about it: The Amir Munzer Mosque was built in 1620 on an earlier structure. Also called Nafoura (fountain) Mosque, there are eight Roman columns in its courtyard.

That's interesting stuff.  But what I'd love to know is, why weren't there crescents atop the minaret and dome in the 1960s.  When were they installed and why?  

Beirut Exhibition Center

On Christmas, a lot of Beirut shuts down, but a lot of the city continues on it's merry way and it's a good thing it does. Think of all the families with active children--families like mine.

After a nice slow morning at home we went to Beirut by Bike downtown. While the girls rode bikes, I wandered over to this place with my camera:

Huh, I thought, because I hadn't been here before and didn't know anything about the place. Since I was with my kids on bikes I couldn't exactly investigate further.

But one thing I knew for sure: cool typography for the sign.

Once we were back home I went to the web where I found the following information about the Beirut Exhibition Center:

1. The artist who designed the typography for the sign is named Mary Choueiter. I like her website, which has many more pictures of the sign at the Exhibition center, but (and this was a real treat) she also has a photo up of another project that filled me with envy such as I have not felt in a very long time.

2. The Exhibition Center has a website, but it's a work in progress.

3. Arch-Times did an article on it complete with great photos and even an image of the architect's model.

Ah, Christmas and modern architecture--two of my favorite things.

Gingerbread Village

This year we had a few gingerbread decorating parties with friends. Here you can see the festive and delicious results.



So much fun. Very merry.

Silver and Blue

More photos of the trees at the Souks.



Amazingly lovely trees in a dilapidated shell of a building-- my two favorite things in one. 

Red and Gold

We've had lovely, clear, sunny skies lately. Perfect for photographing the trees downtown in the Beirut Souks shopping mall.

A friend recently told me that she saw real trees for sale in a shop near her home--$250 for a tree that would sell for a tenth of that in the states. It's silly, but I actually thought that sounded like a price I might pay . . . some other year.

The trees decorated in red and gold are at the south end of the Souks. The north end is decorated in gold and silver. I'll post those pictures tomorrow.