Views from an Early Morning Walk

Being inspired to get out for a walk early this morning I went up onto Stinchcombe Hill.
Here I found some Harebells in flower.....

....and got this atmospheric view over towards Cam Peak and the Long Down.............then I returned home ready for breakfast!

Down Darwin's Way

On my way back from visiting Dover for mum's birthday I stopped off, near Orpington, to visit Down House, the family home of Charles Darwin. It was in this house and its gardens that he mulled over (for years and years!) his ideas about a theory of evolution. I pulled into the carpark in time for a spot of lunch and whilst I chewed on my sandwiches I spotted this interesting shot through my car roof! Any dark spots you can make out are not blemishes on my car but aircraft queing up to land at Gatwick!

Anyway, here is the house....
...and here a view from Darwin's "Thinking Path" (with his greenhouse visible beyond the hedge) along which he walked three times each day, rain or shine, regular as clockwork.
It was interesting to visit and see some of the various specimens he collected, books he refered to etc. etc. But its not a huge house, so hardly a "whole day" sort of place to visit. I timed my visit very neatly, as just as I left a coachload of tourists arrived!