The East, part 8: City Snippets

As we walk and drive Providence:

Another Normal Tower.  I believe this is a Baptist Church, just a block or so away from the house, and across the street from the toy store.  Interesting that the door is red.  Years ago, when my father was riding with his sister, I think during his mother’s funeral proceedings, they saw a church with a red door.  When my father commented on the door, my aunt explained that the red indicated the Holy Spirit.  I found this interesting and have always remembered it.  Now, I wonder if that is the meaning of the red on this door.

Urban silhouettes are so chaotic.  It’s part of what makes them interesting.  But too much interest can be stressful to some minds.  It strikes me that the variety is actually an aid to navigation.

Reminds me of Dickens, two houses, playing at hide and seek, ran into a little yard and never found their way out again.

Just an alley.  Got a glimpse and liked it.

It’s always odd to me when houses are right on the street like this.

 A school?  Or just a play yard?  Fathers there with their children.  Down by the river.

 A grand old relic.

Too much house for a 50 mm lens, actually.  You have to wonder what’s inside of that folly on the top.

Loved this house.  Love the upstairs verandas.

Random art.

I didn’t get any shots of the water – a river in the middle of a city – common but so odd, really.  Gin wouldn’t slow down for that, either.  But here is evidence: a raised draw bridge.

Another once lovely bit of house.

Loved this.  We couldn’t tell if it had been painted or pieced.  G votes painted.

Loved the gingerbread on this one.  Maybe it’s not gingerbread, since it’s not free standing.  Maybe just trim.  What must these neighborhoods have looked like in their heyday?  (By the way, I thought the expression was ” hay day,” and I’d understand exactly what it meant if it were that, indeed.  A hay day is when your barn is full and you haven’t got a care in the world.”

Loved these graceful arches.  I missed one shot and really regret it – this green door, slightly recessed into a blind wall that looked much like this one, facing the street.  On the deep frame, up toward the top, were embedded three neat door bell buttons.  Can’t explain them.  And they were gone before I could get focused.

The fire station.  I don’t have a shot of the engines coming in and out – but oh, they do come in and out, and they do it loudly.  Several times a day.  When I talk to Gin on the phone, I hear them, sometimes two or three times in one conversation – they roar up and down Hope street, and this street and other streets all the day long.

Funny how I can shoot so much better on foot.