Thursday doors – 21 October 2021

Doors 165 – Penzance, Cornwall

Continuing with my doors of Cornwall from a short family holiday in August, I bring you this series of wonderful doors in Penzance.

My father lived in Penzance after he retired until his death in April 2018, and it was probably the happiest period of his life. He was a colourful man whose career in stage management, pub management and show business went down very well with the locals. He was an adopted son of Penzance and known to many in the town. This visit was a pilgrimage to the place he loved so much. I used the opportunity to photograph a few doors too.

Penzance was once a prosperous town that found itself at the end of Isenbard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway, and is known to many from the Gilbert and Sullivan light opera, The Pirates of Penzance (or The Pirates of Men’s Pants as we used to call it at school). Now it is a bit of an eclectic place, with prosperity and poverty side by side. It is a honeypot for eccentrics, hippies, collectors of junk, drunks and addicts who seem to be attracted by its remoteness, quirkiness and mild climate. I think my dad made it into at least two of those categories.

I rather like this collection, I hope you do too…

Blue door with superb neoclassical portico, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021
Blue door with superb neoclassical portico, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021

 

Captain Cutters House door, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021
Captain Cutters House door, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021

 

Steps to a high door, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021
Steps to a high door, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021

 

A stunning door to the former home of the mother and aunt of the Brontë sisters, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021
A stunning door to the former home of the mother and aunt of the Brontë sisters, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021

 

Plaque by the door to the former home of the mother and aunt of the Brontë sisters, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021
Plaque by the door to the former home of the mother and aunt of the Brontë sisters, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021

 

Double door and contrasting colours, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021
Double door and contrasting colours, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021

 

Double door and steps, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021
Double door and steps, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021

 

Another stunning door slightly set back, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021
Another stunning door slightly set back, Penzance, Cornwall, August 2021

 

More doors from Cornwall to come, but I think that next week I will try to switch it up a little bit with something else. That’s it for this week, may I wish you all a fun and relaxing weekend ahead.

If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors  from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.

by Scooj

Grave side

.

It’s been quite a while

since I sat by my dad’s side

the soil between us

.

by Scooj

Clearance

.

It isn’t easy

sifting through another’s life;

once loved, discarded.

.

by Scooj

Thursday doors

Door 34

This week I thought I’d go for something a little different.

It was my father’s funeral last Friday, and family and friends gathered in Penzance where he spent a very happy last few years of his life. We hired an Airbnb property for a couple of nights in a village just outside Penzance. The property was nothing flashy, nothing out of the ordinary. It was definitely a case of function over form, but comfortable enough and set in 16 acres of hillside woodland – perfect for the dog.

When we were choosing bedrooms, my daughter said she didn’t want the scary room, and my son, who arrived with my wife a day later (courtesy of sitting a GCSE exam) said exactly the same thing.

It turns out that the room was indeed scary with a full wall oak wardrobe door that was wholly out of place in the room. It looked like the doors had been harvested from some other piece of furniture and subsequently worked into this space. Something of ‘the Sixth Sense’ about it…

Thursday doors, Scary door
Thursday doors, Scary door

Thursday doors, Scary door
Thursday doors, Scary door

Needless to say, nobody slept in this room.

by Scooj

More doors at: Thursday Doors – Norm 2.0

Woodland burial

 

No sombre salute

instead joyful remembrance

of a life well lived.

 

by Scooj

 

 

Funeral planning

.

My sister and I

over a cup of coffee;

time to reminisce.

.

by Scooj

Making plans

.

Woodland burial

with willow wicker coffin

return to the earth.

.

by Scooj