Everywhere you go in the city of Santa Barbara you can find some beautiful architecture. In old town, the promenade at State Street, there are hundreds of examples like the one pictured on the right. This is a detail of a doorway on an obscure building off the beaten track. The arch way border itself is about three feet wide, making a graceful arch at the top. It descends into the doorway about another three feet. For me, the amazing thing is that the detail in this scroll work is not repeated more than 3 times in the relief which is three stories high. Crazy! There are, in this particular doorway, 5 different "stripes" of relief connecting together to make one huge border. This example has fruit as the theme. The others had scrolls, animals, leaves, and cherubs. All for a doorway! This grand entrance now belongs to the delivery entrance for a store on the promenade, which has an even more grandiose welcome for it's guests. Whew!
I managed to walk through a botanical garden, actual two, that are just one block over from State street. AMAZING flowers and shrubs. The pathways are winding and help you relax and just drink in all this nature. The birds sing and chirp and there are nannies with strollers, lovers hand in hand, and plenty of old timers who are willing to explain this or that flower or tree if you just ask. I could have spent plenty of film in these parks!
After walking through the parks I headed for the promenade and set my sights on Sur Le Table where I picked up some goodies for home and kids. It was nice to have a slow shopping experience and read all the labels and pick up things, explore, and browse the store shelves. I even made a few phone calls to folks to share my finds, which was fun!
Thor called me just about the same time my tummy was, so I grabbed the world's largest grilled chicken burritos (thanks to Tony's on the promenade) and headed back to meet Thor for lunch. We split one burrito and thought we were going to burst! Thor went back to work and I decided to take in the hotel and snap up some pictures of the great blessing we were sharing!
Check it out! We have a couple of parents hanging out on the porch. They were busy all day long bring food, and chirping to the little ones tucked behind the wires. I believe they are robins, as daddy bird has a flaming red breast. On the opposite pillar we have another set of parents, big black birds who built their nest on the outer side of the pillars next to a conveniently placed drain spot. They too were busy flitting in and out feeding their newly hatched offspring. Needless to say we have one busy and chirping porch!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment