Cherry on Top Award

Thank you so much to the lovely Cannwin and Jennifer of the Literary Soundtrack for giving me the Cherry on Top Award! That really made me smile :)

Here's how it works:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.
2. Copy award and put it in your blog.
3. List three things that you love about yourself.

• My curly hair - its a nightmare sometimes, but I wouldn't change it!
• My home - it needs work and has created quite a headache over the 6 months since I bought it, but it's mine to make as I wish and I'm happy that I was brave (and lucky) enough to take the leap, and thankful for the help I have had.
• My experiences - although there are many things I still want to do and places I want to see, I am happy that I have done so much with my life already.

4. Post a photo that you love.
I took this picture of Dunottar Castle in Scotland back in 2006, and it has stayed with me as one of my favourite examples of what I love about Britain.

5. Tag 5 people you would like to pass this award on to.

• A Striped Armchair
• Fluttering Butterflies
• In Spring Is The Dawn
• Stuff As Dreams Are Made On
• Stella Matutina

Thanks you guys :)

Book Bloggers Christmas Swap 2008

So, the reason I have been posting way more than usual is not that I have finally pulled my finger out and stopped procrastinating..its because I have been lying in bed or on the sofa pretty much constantly since Wednesday feeling sorry for myself. Instead of just getting the flu, I managed to discover the world of bacterial bronchitis, so I'm not supposed to do much other than sit home. Sounds great, but its amazing how bored one can get so quickly! To make matters worse, I was actually too ill this weekend to carry out any of my winter solstice plans, and was left feeling rather bereft last night (though that may have been the antibiotics!).

But what did Mr Postie bring me this morning to brighten up my day? None other than my Secret Santa gift from the lovely Quixotic, and I was quite lost for words upon opening it.

Yes indeed, a box full of delights. First I found a beautiful handmade card and an adorable knitted gnome (who you can see has helped himself to my supply of sloe wine already!).

Also in this box of goodies...Dreams Underfoot by Charles De Lint and Strange Roads by Peter S Beagle, both books by authors that I have been longing to read ever since you naughty bloggers recommended them to me!






But she didn't stop there! I also found another card, some beautiful writing stationery (about which I am totally obsessed, just ask Rhinoa!) and two lovely little button badges that suit me perfectly!


Quixotic, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and wish you a very Merry Christmas! You've certainly brightened up a rubbish week for me.

I also want to thank Nymeth for organising this year's Book Blogger Christmas Swap. I'm sure I am not the only blogger with a big smile on my face because of what you have organised, many many thanks for your festive cheer! My thoughts will also be with Dewey, who has done so much for events like this. Winter blessings to you all and may all your dreams blossom in the coming year!

(Apologies for the poor quality photographs. They were taken on my phone as I managed to lose my camera last week. My brand new camera. Just before my holiday. Typical!).

Blog Advent Tour 2008

Welcome to your next stop on the great Blog Advent Tour 2008 as organised by the ingenious Kailana from The Written World and Marg from Reading Adventures!

I thought I would share a little something about my build-up to the winter holidays this year. I live in Norwich, a mediaeval city on the east coast of the UK. The city is not very large, but famous for its 11th century Cathedral and Castle, old markets, fairs, street theatre, crafts, infamous Colmans mustard and of course for our most famous resident...the great Stephen Fry! I have only been living here for two and a half years, but love the history and culture the city has to offer, and this is the first time that I have been here during the build-up to Christmas.


Every year the city hosts numerous festive events and I have had the pleasure of attending both the Mediaeval Fayres over the past two weekends, one at the Dragon Hall and the other in the cloisters of the Cathedral. Both were transformed by the presence of stallholders in traditional costumes selling mediaeval style wares, such as pottery, woodwork, games and jewellery. Minstrels, jugglers, fire eaters and storytellers graced the halls, passages and cloisters, with the smell of hog roast and mulled wine permeating the brisk winter air. I was particularly taken by the traditional ash longbows, but I did not have enough silver coin and had to be pleased enough with a beautiful old flowerpress, antique wooden jewellery box and mediaeval dice game in a small leather pouch. Here is a little taste of the Historic Christmas Fayre in the Cathedral.

And the final highlights to my mediaeval winter celebrations..a trip to the theatre to see a lovely performance of Charles Way's play Merlin and the Cave of Dreams and a visit to the somewhat drafty Cathedral to see the fabulous group the Mediaeval Baebes play their best performance yet (in my humble opinion), with the audience sipping mulled wine in an effort to stop shivering. I was even graced with my favourite song (which brought more than one tear to my eye) and the lovely ladies signed a copy of their new album for me. Drums, flutes, strings and beautiful lyrics sung in mediaeval latin, english and welsh in a stunning mediaeval setting. I do not know how I am going to top this next year!


A very Merry Yule/Christmas/Hanukah (etc etc delete as appropriate) to you all! Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to visit the other blogs on today's advent blog tour:

Laclau from Conversaciones de cafe
Kriss from The Swim Mom
Morgan from Insert Clever Name Here

And there are plenty more fabulous sites to visit from tomorrow:

20 December
Jessica from The Bluestockings Society
Naida from The Bookworm
BookClover
BookThingo

21 December
Rhinoa from Rhinoa's Ramblings
Melissa from Remember to Breathe
The Bluestocking Guide
Michelle from Fluttering Butterflies

22 December
Think Pink Dana
My Friend Amy
Nicole from Linus's Blanket
Susan from Reading, Raving and Ranting by a Historical Fiction Writer

23 December
Jane from Janezilfeandtimes
Memory from Stella Matutina
Debbie from Friday Friends Book Blog
Cari from Book Scoops

24 December
Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings
Sheri at Semicolon
Kailana's Written World

Dewey's Books Challenge

I've been finding keeping up with challenges difficult as I am so fickle with choosing books to read in advance and then picking something completely different up later! I decided not to join any challenges in 2009, but have chosen to make a couple of exceptions. The first is Dewey's Books Challenge, a wonderful way to honour and celebrate the life of Dewey, one of our most beloved book bloggers who is sorely missed. I haven't posted about her passing before as I never seem to find the right words, so this is my way of honouring Dewey, and all the wonderful reviews she has shared with us in the past. I am very grateful to Chris and Robin for designing and hosting this challenge.

So to the challenge! Either:

1. Pick one book from each of the 6 years that Dewey has archives of. You can access her archives by clicking on the archive link in the sidebar of her website. It’s a dropdown menu. For instance, you would read one book that she reviewed in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 for a total of six books.

2. The other option is to read 5 books that Dewey reviewed, which can be from any year.

The rules are simple! Choose either option 1 or 2 from above and read your five or six books between January 1st and December 31st 2009 (though the challenge unofficially starts now). Check back to the Dewey's Books page to update on the challenge, mini-challenges and giveaways, and post your reviews on the Mr. Linky’s on the Dewey's Book Challenge Reviews blog.

The most important thing is to enjoy yourselves and remember that we are celebrating a blogger who has made such an impact on so many people. If you sign up by January 1st, you'll be entered into the prize draw for one of Dewey's infamous chocolate monkeys! So I'm heading on over to Dewey's blog to peruse her many many reviews. Happy reading.

Movies, awards and sunny holidays!

So, I'm back in gloriously sunny Norfolk and have two whole weeks off work to look forward to! I've been living here for over two years, but haven't really taken the time to explore the area, which is absolutely stunning. So I'm really looking forward to having a frolic in the countryside and catching up on my reading as I am woefully behind on my challenges!

In the meantime, I saw Wanted a few days ago and was very pleasantly surprised. Very very gripping, with some fantastic action sequences, and the ever delicious James McAvoy! Tonight, we're heading to see the Dark Knight tonight...very exciting! We bought 13 tickets this morning, and good job too, because over half the tickets had already been sold. Verdict tomorrow!

On the blog front...Eva at A Striped Armchair has given me a Blog Award of Excellence for my blog's physical appearance. Thank you very much! So I'm supposed to nominate other bloggers... I nominate Nymeth at Things Mean a Lot for her fantastic reviews and diversity of reading, Rhinoa of Rhinoa's Ramblings for her great reviews and for introducing me to so many good books, Carl of Stainless Steel Droppings for his wonderful posts on unusual and intriguing art, Valentina of Valentina's Room for her great children's book reviews, Dewey of The Hidden Side of a Leaf for her excellent Weekly Geeks and Andi of Tripping Towards Lucidity for her excellent reviews, doggy photos and fabulous blog layout! Thanks for all your great blogs guys!

Weekly Geeks!

Welcome to the first Weekly Geeks! Dewey’s first theme is a nice way to introduce ourselves to each other…Discover New Blogs Week! The idea is to find five blogs among the WG participants, that you have not previously visited, and vist them, leaving a nice comment :), then mention them on your blog.

I’m very new to blogging, so the majority of these blogs were new to me! I visited all of them (yes all of them..its really way past time I should be in bed!), but have picked five blogs that really caught my eye, because I couldn’t possibly mention them all!

Everyday Reads: The wonderful orange background and fantastic goldfish banner first caught my attention! I was then pleased to see that we have similar tastes in books but that there are plenty of titles that I have not read, and some that I haven’t even heard of. I sense that I will be getting many recommendations from this site!

That’s the Book: I found the post on Listening to Books interesting as I grew up listening to books on tape and have recently rediscovered that pleasure with the Harry Potter audiobooks. Plis I like the review of Punch by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean.

Bookstack: I was first drawn to this blog by the gorgeous banner picture, a bridge, trees, autumn leaves and mist…perfect! Great reviews and that all important obsession with notebooks will keep me visiting this site!

Random Field Notes: The first thing that caught my attention on this blog was that Ashleigh is an Egyptologist…professionally! Something I have been an amateur at since my science teacher taught me hieroglyphs at age 8! This combined with a love of books and crafts sounds eerily similar to myself, so I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this page!

Not Enough Bookshelves: The name of this blog first caught my attention, swiftly followed by the quotes of the day, a nice touch! I also liked the review of The Secret History, one of my favourite books!