Time for us to head back to Tucson to the beautiful gardens of Tohono Chul (“desert garden” in the language of the Tohono O’odham people). There are a number of smaller, more intimate areas in the large garden, including this Meditation Garden. For now we’ll meditate on the door leading to it.
To paraphrase the old adage: “A nod is as good as a wink to a blind man”, a gate’s as good as a door to a Thursday Door-ite. Hmmm, that sounds a lot like Dudley Do-right of the old cartoon series and the “Rocky and Bullwinkle” show. But I digress. At any rate, here’s the gate. Oh, I’m a poet and I didn’t know it…until just now.
Here’s a final door, Spanish-looking, sturdy, and elegant with some ironmongery for who like that sort of thing (which is probably all of us.)
The definition of a door for Thursday Doors is elastic, including a variety of alternatives. My first alternative door today is the door to a Southwestern fireplace that you might find in an adobe home. This one sports Southwestern motifs: two saguaro, a century plant, a quail, a javelina (AKA wild pig or collared peccary), and of course, the sun. Since it has hinges, that elevates it from mere firescreen to fireplace door in my estimation. 🙂
All three doors today are from Tohono Chul Botanical Garden, which we’ll visit more in-depth once I finish with the Chihuly exhibit.
I like that this gate’s center parts are made from found wood, helping it blend seamlessly with its surroundings. It reminds me of the way the people in Costa Rica used long sticks for their fences.
In contrast, this sturdy gate is much more finished, although I’m not sure what happened to the missing bit on the right-hand side.
We’re taking a day break from the Chihuly exhibit (back tomorrow, though) to travel south to Tucson and the Tohono Chul botanical gardens. Membership at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix comes with reciprocal admission to over 300 gardens throughout the U.S. so we decided to take advantage of that on one of the last days off my husband has for a bit. Little did we know what a gem this garden was! But more about the garden itself will have to wait until we’ve finished ooh-ing and aah-ing over Chihuly. For today, though, I have first a lovely set of doors leading into a inner courtyard and from there into the bistro. The left-hand one even has a bonus door.
I felt these doors had a very European feel to them but then the Southwest often takes a nod to Spain and similar European areas.
I also enjoyed this gate and the small specialized garden on the other side.
Tomorrow it’s back to glass but I hope you enjoyed the little side trip and that it whet your appetite for learning more about this wonderful garden.
While out for a walk in Redondo Beach, we came upon this lovely sight sporting a gate, two doors (one very hidden on the house), and a gorgeous garden. The husband of the couple who owns it was outside working and turned out to be someone our daughter and son-in-law knew. The couple had lived in this house for many years and had obviously put in a lot of work. But what a magical place!
Thursday, the horses’ day off, is the day we creep down the mountain to encounter civilization once again. We drop off our recycling and garbage (no garbage pickup on the mountain!!), stop at Toyota to see if someone can pair my new older iPhone with my 2014 Toyota Sienna (the answer is, after man tries, no), then are off to Andi’s Coffee Shop for perhaps the best dark chocolate mocha I’ve had anywhere, a similarly good iced green tea for my husband, and free internet before other errands. As we walk around Sheridan’s main street, I spy a few doors to share for this week’s Thursday doors.
Back on the mountain, this distinguished older gentleman would love it if one of us would open this gate for him. Unfortunately, he’s meant to stay where he is.
I’m taking a break from my quest for “yellow” today to share one door and two gates that I found while visiting the Celebration of Fine Art show, running until March 16 in Scottsdale, AZ (https://celebrateart.com/). There are over 100 artists’ studios there, housed in an enormous tent, or more likely, several enormous tents. One of these artists is a perennial favorite of mine, Michael Jones. Michael told me he doesn’t have a website anymore but can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=michael%20jones%20designs or search for Michael Jones Designs when you get there. He does much more than just gates and doors.
This first is an actual door, a screen door with a southwest motif. Would I have this on my door? You bet. On either side you can glimpse part of another type of sculpture Michael does, reminding me of what Chihuly might look like in metal.
The next two offerings are custom-made gates, the only kind he makes as each gate has to be made to fit its entrance. This first one is pretty sweet or may-bee a honey of a gate. Yes, I can’t resist a pun every now and then.
This gate featuring a bighorn sheep is one Michael made for himself…about 10 years ago, if I remember correctly. But he’s kept so busy make gates, doors, tables, and other sculptures that he just finally got around to building the wall on his northern Montana property that will showcase the gate. That’s patience and I’m sure he, his wife, and any visitors will greatly enjoy it.
If you visit Michael on Facebook, be sure to comment and also mention you saw his work on my blog. I’ll have a few more gates next week, too.
My last real trip was a driving trip to Pasadena to visit our daughter and son-in-law. One morning after stopping for coffee, we took a drive to an upscale neighborhood to take a safe, mask-less walk. The grand houses mostly had grand gates and since the gates were closer to the road than the houses, which were often not only far from the sidewalk but behind trees and other landscaping, they were much easier to capture in iPhone photos. These three certainly didn’t let down their houses.
We’re back in Sedona again this week, on the prowl for doors at Tlaquepaque once more. Let’s begin the beguine with some rather impressive gates, doors to the shopping complex.
This chapel is used for weddings at, I’m sure, a hefty price, but oh, the atmosphere!
This, that and the other thing 