Thursday Doors – Silves, Portugal

IMG_0376This week’s door photograph was taken in the town of Silves, Portugal. Carved wood and curved metalwork make this quite an ornate door, yet the flyers casually shoved underneath add a prosaic touch, as do the jumble of wires overhead.

Located in the south of Portugal, Silves was a Caliphate from the 8th to 13th century,  and one of the most important cities in the region. Now it is still a prosperous town, with shops, cafes, and one of the best preserved Moorish castles in the country. Winding streets slope towards a curving river – you can see the slope of the street in the door photo, cobbles descending while the doorstep is set straight into the wall.

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One of the cobbled streets, flaking paint and soft colours adding to the texture of this ancient town.

IMG_0383A view from the 8th century city wall, looking over the rooftops.

This is my entry for this week’s Thursday Doors, courtesy of Norm 2.0. Head on over to his blog and see more doors, or add one of your own!

Hugh’s Photo Challenge Week 11 – Rust

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I’ve written about this object before. We found it on a beach in Ireland, just a little way around from where I photographed my rock face. We’d decided to climb along the rocks at the water’s edge to a small cove we could see in the distance. It turned out to be a fairly challenging undertaking, especially with a seven-year-old in tow, as the rocks became quite steep, deep pools of clear sea water just below our feet. But what amazing rocks they were! Full of fossils and layered and stacked, lines of colour showing how the landscape had built up over millennia.

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We made it, eventually, to the little rocky cove, and found the pebbly beach strewn with bits of rusting twisted metal. The rusty object above was quite large and weighed an absolute ton, as I discovered when I tried to move it. The pebbles were in it when we got there – whether put there by the ocean or another human hand I don’t know. So I took a photo, captivated by the rusty colours against the grey stones. And now I’m entering it into Hugh’s latest Challenge.