By: Blonde Two

I can’t imagine that we Blondes are the only walkers who enjoy a stop at the local pub or cafe at the end of a walk. After all, with all those calories burnt, we all deserve that pasty or Devon cream tea. I am also fairly sure that during lockdown, we weren’t the only people who were really enjoying our local walks but wishing those favourite cafes and pubs were able to open. Blonde One and I haven’t been able to walk together for weeks now but we have both been off exploring our local areas on foot. Mr B2 and I have walked all over Torquay, always from our doorstep. We have seen some marvellous sights, chatted to loads of new people and found secret passageways that we really should have known were there. We have both agreed that we want to keep walking together.

On one of our walks up to the local shops (extended to keep us in green spaces for as long as possible), we happened upon an open ice cream booth. We were very excited, enjoyed enormous drippy double scoops and agreed on the way home that we needed our own home cafe. In truth our cafe had already started to form itself. We had a rather wonky bench in the front garden (sunny in the morning when the back isn’t) that we used occasionally but didn’t enjoy because it was almost on the pavement.

As lockdown progressed we discovered that we liked being out in the sunny front garden, it was a much easier trip from the kitchen and we started to really enjoy chatting to passers by (we have had more than usual because we have a copse just up the road). And so our own personal street cafe was born. I moved an old garden table and a chair up from the back garden, and made the space home to a few tomato plants (I have almost twenty), a rather battered avocado tree and a more sturdy Fatsia japonica. We now have elevenses out there every morning and often our lunch (I am enjoying Mr B2 working from home). The cafe had bunting for VE Day, a Devon cream tea for Mr B2’s birthday and has brought on a biscuit baking competition (my cinnamon biscuits and his chocolate chip cookies are the favourites so far).

We aren’t the only people in our street to be taking back our front gardens. Who knew that street cafes could be so close to your front door?

OS Maps… can you walk a secret message?

Local Dartmoor Hospitality