Front doors of Teignmouth

Yes, you did read that right.  On our recent trip to Devon on the Sunday morning having ducked out of a longer walk, I had a wander around Teignmouth. As in most seaside towns I was struck by the pretty coloured buildings, and then I started to notice something else...

...the front doors. So here's a whole post on Teignmouth's front doors - bear with me.

This one was the one that started it off, but doesn't it look welcoming?

It wasn't long before I'd picked up on a common theme: a wider-than usual door, with an arched fanlights or in technical speak an elliptical Transom and invariably a number of panels.

Some were grander than others, heraldic even.

SOME WITH HANGING BASKETS

OTHERS FAILING TO DISGUISE THEIR WHEELIE BINS

The door above has, I think got letter boxes covered. All three of them.

And while the churches don't technically have front doors, they were pretty fancy.

In any seaside town the fish and chip shop front door is a must.

The tiled panels above bring a touch of colour to even the plainest of front doors.

I saw a couple of smaller, older doors too. This green door on the Cameo Gallery is small but looks even smaller I think because of the panelling detail.

This was another favourite of the ones I saw, with its oval window. It's the elegantly styled door pull underneath the Yale lock and the classic black and white tiled flooring, along with with what I suspect are the original bells on the left did it for me. At first glance, you just see a door, but there is so much more to see!

Heading back into the town I saw this old car, now wouldn't that be fab parked outside the door above?

What does your front door say about you?

A wander through the Victoria Embankment Gardens

Arriving at Charing Cross shortly before ten in the morning - yes early for me - it was busier than I've got used to. I didn't fancy the jostling walk along The Strand to Somerset House where I planned to see the Ten Designers in the West Wing as part of the London Design Festival, more on that another day though.  So instead I headed towards Embankment and ducked into the Victoria Embankment Gardens which are between The Strand and the Thames.

And it's a much prettier walk. 

I've seen this gate many times before but never stopped to see what it was before. The gateway marks where the North Bank of the Thames was before the construction of the Victoria Embankment in 1862. That's quite a way from where it is now as there's the gardens and the road before you get to the river. I'm always amazed by such engineering feats...

Looking towards the river you can easily see one of London's iconic landmarks.

Back to the gardens, just look at the sun shining through these leaves.

And is that a little monkey tree in a pot? A fairly large pot though.

But just look at those leaves. The colour and the pattern. Wow.

It is quite a formal garden and there's plenty of statues throughout - like the one to Robert Burns above. As I was admiring the brightness of the orange flower and thinking how like sweetcorn the leaves were, I turned and saw this huge leaf. Remind you of anything?

Maybe my tree?  Hmmmn...

It was mid-September and the flowers were still bright and colourful. I liked the planting in this part of the park - very bold and spiky.

As I reached the end of the path there was a small pond with water lilies and a small tree fern. It looked quite out of place so close to the road, but calming nonetheless.

This statue is quite dramatic and I was interested to know more about Arthur Sullivan. I then realised he was the Sullivan from Gilbert and Sullivan of Mikado and the Pirates of Penzance fame. It's quite a statue isn't it?

And with that I was back in the hubbub of London life and the never ending roadworks. And that was quite a change to the stillness of the Embankment Gardens - look:

A walk around Burnham Beeches

A couple of weeks ago we were booked in for lunch at Brasserie Blanc and anticipating a good lunch we prepared with a walk around Burnham Beeches in Buckinghamshire. It's somewhere I'd heard of but not been before and it was a great prelude to a large lunch. We ate well at Brasserie Blanc - another first visit - and having a walk beforehand was a good move as we really weren't up for much afterwards.

It's a space that covers 540 acres and is around 25 miles for London. It was bought by the City of London Corporation in 1880 to protect it as a public open space and wildlife reserve. Can you just imagine what it would have become if that hadn't have happened?

It's thought there has been woodland here since the last ice age, but the landscape today was created by people and there's evidence that the area was inhabited as early as the Iron Age. Today there's a mix of ancient woodland, wood pasture, coppice, ponds and streams, grassland, mire and heathland.

As well as gnarly looking trees to admire, I also remembered to look up.  Beautiful.

It's popular too, with 585,000 visits a year; people come to walk, cycle, picnic, enjoy nature or just walk the dog - and if you were local why wouldn't you do this on a regular basis.

The heather was just about still out for our visit and it was a welcome sight amongst the greens and browns of the trees. Although they were trying their best to vie for our attention. I mean, just look. 

It wasn't long before we looped down to the pond, how calm and yet energising does it look?

Then we headed back towards the car and onto the delights that Raymond Blanc's team had to offer us. A walk around the Beeches set us up for a great start to our day.