PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
He-Man and I went back to Santa Barbara, CA for a long week-end to celebrate our wedding anniversary at the end of March. While out and about I photographed a couple of doors, and a gate.
We passed this store on the way down to Henderson, NV and knew we’d have to stop on our way home. It’s got an ice cream shop, and lots of souvenirs all on the Area 51 theme. It’s a fun stop along the journey.
posted a bit about some time he and his wife spent in Chur, Switzerland, and I loved one of the doorways so, I asked him it it would be alright if I tried to draw and paint it. He said yes! Here’s the reference photo. Used with Pit’s permission.
I wanted to simplify the image a lot keeping the door and only a bit of the courtyard. thought the little entry stair would be the hardest for me to draw so did a little thumbnail sketch- it was okay so pressed on and painted this.
I’ve taken on the challenge of painting 100 mini paintings this year. I’m 16 paintings in. I’m going to paint this in mini this weekend. Time will tell if I can make it to 100 or not.
Thanks again, Pit for letting me use your photo as a reference!
Another barn. This is one of the last images I took in 2024. I spied this barn while doing the Christmas Bird Count in my county on the 29th of December. It was a very cold, windy, rainy, snow flurries day so my partner and I only saw 23 species during our time out. I loved the Copula door. I imagine Owls using it.
This is the door a friend sent me that he saw while in London and thought of me. Isn’t it gorgeous! Doesn’t the portico look like it’s made of cherry wood?
After viewing some of the lights downtown I stopped in Scoup’s a local Ice Cream and Soup cafe for a bowl of soup and saw this door hanging on the wall.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
After several hours of birding my birding partner and I were hungry so went looking for a place fairly close by to have some lunch. We found Quaker Steak & Lube.
This is the only one in FL going by their website. We both had salads and I failed to take a photo of either of them. It was just a Caesar Salad w/grilled chicken. Instead of croutons they served it with Cheese Curds. Now, I thought that sounded gross and would probably just pick them out, but after trying one I gobbled them up! They were warm and slightly gooy and tender on the inside yummy. Mary had the Biker Chick salad. It sounded delicious too, but it was on the sweet side and I was hot and wasn’t in the mood for sweet.
The inside of the restaurant is car themed. Each wing of the interior has a small sports racing car hanging from the ceiling, and lots of car memorabilia like a dividing wall full of MAC tools for fixing cars. I went back a second time for that salad and this time He-Man was with me he said he has some of those tools. Who knew?!
Anyway, I did get photos of the exterior and the doors.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
These aren’t Guest in the sense your mind probably went to when thinking about Guest doors, no. These doors were sent to me from a friend who lives in CT but, wishes to be anonymous for the time being.
She moved to CT oh, 4-5 years ago…time flies! Anyway a couple of weeks back she sent me an email saying,
“I visited Gillette Castle in Connecticut over the weekend and they had the most beautiful interior doors, all hand carved and I thought of you 🙂 Here are just a few but there were many! There were three stories’ worth and each one was unique. The castle was fascinating!”
She didn’t include the stories or details but, we have her images of three of the doors.
The door knobs are interesting. They’re wood!
Image used with permission from photographerImage used with permission from photographerImage used with permission from photographer
She included a close up the door knob as the third image. Those door knobs are different! The doors remind me of quilts with their square patterned designs.
I looked up the castle and it does look beautiful and interesting.
Here’s something about those door knobs.
“Gillette designed 47 one of kind doors made from Southern White Oak found on the property. They were all hand carved. Each door has a unique, elaborate latch intricately carved of wood.”
Here’s a little intro about the castle from the website:
” Atop the most southerly hill of a chain of hills known as the Seven Sisters sits the retirement estate of noted actor, director, and playwright William Hooker Gillette. Named the Seventh Sister by Gillette, the property’s focal point is a 24-room stone mansion reminiscent of a medieval castle”. There’s a photo of the castle at the link and lots more information about the man and more photos.
Circadianreflections Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.