Tag Archives: doors

Thursday Doors – Hippies on the Canal

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As you may be aware from some of my earlier posts, in January I started a new job. I’m very lucky in that it’s close enough to walk to if I choose, and I can walk most of the way along a stretch of the Grand Union Canal, the longest canal in England.

It’s a lovely walk, and one replete with photo opportunities. From golden green vistas

To blossom caught on the water’s surface at an old lock gate

And unique touches on some of the canal boats, like this wonderful knotted mermaid.

It’s also home to some interesting little doors, like this one I photographed earlier in the week. I’ve seen the owner of this boat before on my walks, a friendly fellow with a dog, always ready to say good morning. From the sign I’d say he might have a sense of humour, too.

This is my entry to the Thursday Doors Challenge, courtesy of Norm 2.0. For more doors, or to add one of your own, visit Norm’s site and click the link.

And if you like my photos, follow me on Instagram!

If you enjoyed this post and want to read more, you can find me on Twitter @AuthorHelenJ,  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Plus my latest book release, A Thousand Rooms, is now available on Amazon. Visit my Amazon Author Page to see more.

Thursday Doors – Bath

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A short but sweet post to accompany this rather sweet door, which I found while in Bath this past weekend. I loved the glass circles and the wrought iron trees – I also liked how they’d preserved the original shop sign painted to the left hand side of the door.

Bath is a wonderful city with so many layers of history – I hadn’t been there since I was a child so it was lovely to be back again and wander the streets. There were certainly a few blog posts and perhaps even a story or two wandering there as well – I’m sure I’ll be sharing them with you soon.

This was my response to Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors Challenge – for more doors, or to add one of your own, visit Norm’s site and click the link.

If you enjoyed this post and want to read more, you can find me on Twitter @AuthorHelenJ,  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Plus my latest book release, A Thousand Rooms, is now available on Amazon. Visit my Amazon Author Page to see more.

Thursday Doors – In The Village

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img_5301I had a little time after work the other day, so decided to photograph a few of the lovely Georgian doors in the village where I work. It’s a small high street, 16th century half-timbered pubs next to Victorian villas and tiny cottages, older timber framed buildings ‘modernised’ with Georgian facades. The village dates back to Saxon times and is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. In the 12th century it was home to one of the royal Plantagenet palaces, since demolished.

img_5298It’s a lovely place to work, the river running in the valley below next to the more placid waters of the old canal. I’ve seen a kingfisher, flash of brilliant blue, along the river, and at the moment there are snowdrops on the banks – it’s nice to have the option to walk to work, too.

img_5314And I also took a shot of this wonderful fellow. He obligingly stopped so I could take his photo – isn’t he great?

img_5304This is my response to Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors Challenge, for door-lovers from around the world. For more doors, or to add one of your own, visit Norm’s site and click the link.

If you enjoyed this post and want to read more, you can find me on Twitter @AuthorHelenJ,  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Plus my latest book release, A Thousand Rooms, is now available on Amazon.

Thursday Doors – Red, Pink And Tangled

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img_4392These two rather fetching doors live in the old part of town, where buildings stretch back in time to the sixteenth century. I would imagine the houses they belong to are not much younger than that, despite their more modern Georgian frontages.

img_4398I also imagine that the residents must have other ways of getting in and out of their houses – otherwise they might find themselves in a bit of a tangle!

img_4396This is my entry to this week’s Thursday Doors Challenge, courtesy of Norm 2.0. For more doors, or to add one of your own, visit Norm’s site and click the link.

Thursday Doors In The Heart Of London

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IMG_2556This week I have some doors located in a winding cobbled alleyway in the heart of London. I love the way the alley twists, each turn revealing new shapes and architecture. It’s that wonderful mix of old and modern that you get in London, with a glimpse of the Walkie-Talkie looking one way, and the Shard the other.

IMG_2562The alley has an interesting mix of architecture ranging across several centuries. However, even though it’s in the oldest part of London, there’s not much remaining of the old city, as this is only a few streets away from where the Great Fire of 1666 started, which rendered most of the city in ruins.

IMG_2563I love the way that these two doors are straight, but the pavement slopes towards the river. I also love that the door on the right, despite appearing more welcoming, is apparently not in use. And the door on the left doesn’t even seem to be a door any more, though the iron grille covering it opens. These are the small mysteries you find on almost any street in a large city, glimpses into other people’s lives and stories. It’s part of what makes London so fascinating to me. I think I could go there every day for the rest of my life and still find something new to discover every time.

IMG_2566As a writer, these glimpses of stories are full of potential. It’s part of our craft, to go out in the world and observe, then come back and write what we see. One of our most famous writers, Samuel Johnson, once observed, ‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.’

IMG_2564I would definitely agree. 🙂

This is my entry to this week’s Thursday Doors Challenge, courtesy of Norm 2.0. For more doors, or to add one of your own, visit Norm’s site and click the link.

Thursday Doors – All-Hallows-By-The-Tower, London

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IMG_2474These two lovely doors are both from the church of All-Hallows-By-The-Tower, in London, England. IMG_2481The church was founded in 675AD, making it one of the oldest Christian churches in London, and parts of the original building are still visible inside. Standing outside, if you look one way you see the Tower of London;

IMG_2479And if you look the other way, you see the ‘Walkie-Talkie-, one of the newest buildings in the city.

IMG_2480If there was ever a building that could be said to encompass the history of a place, then All-Hallows-By-The-Tower is it. Built on the site of an earlier Roman building, you can go down into the original crypt and walk on tiles laid almost 2000 years ago. You can see a Saxon arch made using Roman roof tiles, and interior walls still blackened by a direct hit from the Luftwaffe during the Second World War, which reduced much of the building to a shell. Beheaded victims from the nearby Tower of London were sent to All Hallows for temporary burial, before heading to their final place of rest and the church tower, built in 1658, was the place where Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist, watched London burn during the Great Fire of 1666, the church itself only narrowly escaping destruction in the flames. Truly it is a building that spans millennia – if only the walls could talk.

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This is my entry for Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors challenge – for more doors, or to add one of your own, head over to Norm’s and click the link.

 

 

Thursday Doors – Along the Canal

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I had a different door in mind for today’s post, but, on a walk with a friend past the nearby canal boat mooring, found the combination of tiny doors, sunshine and colourful boats too hard to resist.

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I live near to the Grand Union Canal, which links London with Birmingham. The longest canal in the UK, it runs for 137 miles through 166 locks. Canals are a feature of the British countryside, once the highways of the industrial revolution and many of them feats of engineering in themselves. There are more canals in Birmingham than there are in Venice, if you can believe it.

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Nowadays, canals are used mainly for recreational purposes, with day trips, weekenders or longer voyages available for those who want to give canal living a try.

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There are many people living full time on the canals, travelling the length and breadth of the country without having to leave the comforts of home.

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Not such a bad way to live, I think…

This is my entry for Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors challenge. For more doors, or to add one of your own, visit Norm’s site and click the link.

Thursday Doors – Lend A Hand

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I was going to call this post ‘Handy Knockers’, or ‘Knock Me Up,’ but realised both titles probably wouldn’t work so well with a lot of my regular readers (though they may have attracted some new ones!) 😀

So here are my doors for Norm 2.0’s regular weekly challenge. Both images were taken in my home town, and both doors share a similar feature – the door knockers are in the shape of a hand.

IMG_2198This first door comes from a house with a storied history, one of the oldest dwellings in the area.

IMG_2196As you can see from the wall plaque, it’s had many different uses over the years.

IMG_2211This second door is from the rear of what is now a commercial property, but was once a fine Georgian house. While the surroundings may be a little dingy now, it’s nice to think of how it once might have been, when Hemel Hempstead was a country town outside London.

For more doors, or to add on of your own to Norm’s challenge, simply visit his blog and click the link 🙂

Thursday Doors on Crazy Friday

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I try to keep this blog a fairly positive place, without excessive swearing, so I’m not going to comment on my feelings about #Brexit here.

Instead, here are some pretty doors, part of my response to Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors Challenge.

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For more doors, or to add one of your own, head over to Norm’s site and click the link.

 

Of Doors and Getting Back Into Things

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I’ve just come back from holidays. Oh, very nice, you might say – and you’d be right 🙂

At the same time, it was a busy couple of weeks. No sitting around on beaches – instead we had a planes-trains-and-automobiles type trip starting in Vancouver, Canada and ending in Cambria, California, taking in the sights of Seattle, San Francisco and Monterey before heading to a family wedding on the coast.

I’ve written before about how being away can make a big difference, and so I have found it to be again. In June this year I had pretty major surgery, and the recovery process took quite a while. I also published my second book, upped my blog output and was training fairly regularly in a variety of different exercises, as I’m of the use-it-or-lose-it school of thought when it comes to staying active. Since my surgery I had been easing back into my usual life, so taking a break has let me see where I could make some more positive changes to my regular routine. I’m also part way through Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic, and it’s certainly given me food for thought about how I conduct my creative life and what I expect from it.

I’ll be writing more about my trip over the next little while, including a post about the fact that I really, really dislike flying, plus a few other ideas that have been percolating in my mind. For now, I’ll leave you with this picture of a rather gorgeous door that I took in Cambria – perfect for Hugh’s News and Views latest Photography Challenge – Thursday Doors.

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And thank you to everyone who stayed in touch and kept up with my blog while I was away – much appreciated! xx

A quick update: Hugh from Hugh’s News and Views very kindly let me know that the door challenge isn’t his – it’s actually Norman Frampton’s, from Norm 2.0, and the link to his challenge post for today is here. So pop on over and check out his door, and add your own if you feel like it!