Spring Book Challenge Update 15

Finished Pride and Prejudice - fantastic book! I have to finish one more book in the next 3 hours to meet my target of 300 points!

(UPDATED: I have made my target! I finished the Reluctant Fundamentalist)

Red is a planned book, Green is being read and Blue is a completed task

5 Point Tasks
7. Brians Jacque's Mossflower as an Audio Book

0/50

10 Point Tasks
9. 19. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - I was born in 1972

0/100

15 Point Tasks
4. Jane Austen's Emma
8. I Like It Here by Kingsley Amis & listened to a radio interview with the author.

30/150

25 Point Tasks
1. Gargoyle / The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2. The Diaries of Charles Greville
3. Elizabeth-Alaska The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini & Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
4. Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice
5. Brian Jacque's Redwall (YA)
6. Phillip Starkey's Elizabeth: Apprenticeship
7. J D Salinger's Catcher in the Rye
8. Tamora Pierce's Wolf Speaker & Wild Magic
9. Gregory Maguire's Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

225/225

50 Point Task:
1. Ruth Rendall's Going Wrong & Barbara Vine's Birthday Present

50/50
(Tasks can be seen in detail in this post)

Total points to date: 305

Spring Book Challenge Update 14

A little re-jigging, putting Pride and Prejudice into 25.4 and moving Emma to 15.4 as I visited Box Hill this spring (Emma Woodhouse &co had a picnic on Box Hill in the book), finished The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

Red is a planned book, Green is being read and Blue is a completed task

5 Point Tasks
7. Brians Jacque's Mossflower as an Audio Book

0/50

10 Point Tasks
9. 19. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - I was born in 1972

0/100

15 Point Tasks
4. Jane Austen's Emma
5. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - winner of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1972
6. Joan Slonczewski's A Door into Ocean
7. Neil Belton's A Game with Sharpened Knives & Bill James' Between Lives
8. I Like It Here by Kingsley Amis & listened to a radio interview with the author.
9. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
10. #3, 4 and 5 in the Redwall Books (Mattimeo, Mariel of Redwall & Salamandastron)

30/150

25 Point Tasks
1. Gargoyle / The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2. The Diaries of Charles Greville
3. Elizabeth-Alaska The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini & Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
4. Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice
5. Brian Jacque's Redwall (YA)
6. Phillip Starkey's Elizabeth: Apprenticeship
7. J D Salinger's Catcher in the Rye
8. Tamora Pierce's Wolf Speaker & Wild Magic
9. Gregory Maguire's Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

175/225

50 Point Task:
1. Ruth Rendall's Going Wrong & Barbara Vine's Birthday Present

50/50
(Tasks can be seen in detail in this post)

Total points to date: 255

Spring Book Challenge Update 13

Another 25 points because I've finished the Diaries of Charles Greville by Charles Greville and edited by Edward Pearce. I've started the first of two books for the last 25 point task but with only three days left in the month I am not sure if I will get this one finished.

Red is a planned book, Green is being read and Blue is a completed task

5 Point Tasks
7. Brians Jacque's Mossflower as an Audio Book

10 Point Tasks
5. Christopher Priest's The Prestige
7. Bright Lights and Promises - Pauline McLynn (my mother's name is Pauline)
9. 19. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - I was born in 1972

15 Point Tasks
5. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - winner of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1972
6. Joan Slonczewski's A Door into Ocean
7. Neil Belton's A Game with Sharpened Knives & Bill James' Between Lives
8. I Like It Here by Kingsley Amis & listened to a radio interview with the author.
9. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
10. #3, 4 and 5 in the Redwall Books (Mattimeo, Mariel of Redwall & Salamandastron)

25 Point Tasks
1. Gargoyle / The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2. The Diaries of Charles Greville
3. Elizabeth-Alaska The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini & Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
4. Jane Austen's Emma
5. Brian Jacque's Redwall (YA)
6. Phillip Starkey's Elizabeth: Apprenticeship
7. J D Salinger's Catcher in the Rye
8. Tamora Pierce's Wolf Speaker & Wild Magic
9. Gregory Maguire's Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

50 Point Task:
1. Ruth Rendall's Going Wrong & Barbara Vine's Birthday Present

(Tasks can be seen in detail in this post)

Total points to date: 265

A night at the movies..

The perfect end to a fabulous long weekend. I went to see the new Star Trek movie and I wasn't disappointed. Whilst the plot was fabulously ridiculous and implausible, the way the new actors stepped into the iconic roles couldn't have worked out better.

My favourite was Zachary Quinto as Spock, I doubted anyone could ever make a Spock quite as good as Leonard Nimoy, but ZQ was excellent. Second favourite was Simon Pegg who made a fantastic Scotty - irreverant, bonkers and brilliant.


Highly recommended!

Hampton Court Palace

Today, a step back in history to the times of the Tudors. This is the Thames from Hampton Court Bridge, I imagine it wouldn't have looked that much different when Henry VIII used to arrive at his riverside palace on the Royal Barge.

The driveway and entrance to the Royal Palace photographed from the side of the Thames

On the gateway a plaque that reads:
THE SITE OF THE TOY INN
An ancient Hostelry of Note
Built for Oliver Cromwell's Troops c.1650
rebuilt c.1700 demolished c.1840 wherein
Pope wrote the Rape of the Lock, the Duke
of Clarence, afterwards William IV formed
and presided over his Toy Club and Thomas
Dunckerley founded the Masonic Lodge
of Harmony 255 in 1785. The Lodge held
here for 37 years now erects this Tablet.
July 1933

The front entrance to the Tudor portion of Hampton Court Palace


A dragon statue guarding the main gateway - he holds the Henry VIII's coat of arms.

This is Henry's Great Hall, Englands last and greatest Medieval hall, with it's magnificent vaulted wooden ceiling. This would have a been a truly awe-inspiring room for Henry's guests whether they be other royalty or ambassadors of foreign nations. It's purpose was to create the idea that Henry was a great king at the head of a great and powerful nation.

And skulking in the corners are some reminders of Henry's wives, even the disgraced ones. On this wooden panel is the intertwined monogram of Henry and Anne Boleyn.

Off the Great Hall were some hunting trophies.

And onto some of the private apartments... decorated in the most outrageous style, opulence, paintings, tapestries, trompe l'oeil, carved panelling. Unfortunately my phone camera doesn't really like dark places so not as many photo's as I'd have liked.

At one point, Henry paraded along one of the corridors with his new Queen (I think this one was Anne Boleyn)

From the private apartments of Mary II there were stunning views across the landscaped gardens.

In a side yard off the Fountain Courtyard, this magnificent lady was taking a moment (later on she would fly in the falconry display)

And these two gentlemen were available to take you on a tour of the East Gardens

The formal Privy Garden

and the view looking back to the Georgian-built part of the Palace from the Privy Garden. It really was a glorious early summer day!

The smaller of the Pond Gardens, the hedges formed the shape of a crown.

The Hornbeam Arch, a welcome spot of shade after a walk around some very hot gardens.

Back to the older part of the Palace, this is the Clock Court. Over Anne Boleyn's gate is this magnificent astrological clock built in 1540

Henry himself was posing for portraits!

and his wife too... (I don't want to imagine how hot those costumes were today)

Looking up the chimney from one of the enormous fire places in Henry's kitchens.

In the wine cellar, Henry appeared once again and was arm-wrestling with members of his Court

One of the Georgian bedchambers - though they probably didn't sleep here, just received honoured guests.

Another elaborate ceiling

And of course you can't go to Hampton Court Palace without trying to find your way around the maze

Another part of the gardens, the wilderness gardens, where we found more shade under another archway

Back to the East Garden for the sword fighting demonstration - these are apparently German long swords.

A wander around the beautiful gardens, what you can't see in this photo is the enormous carp that were swimming around in this canal/lake - the ripple is where they was just skimming under the surface of the water. I swear they were at least <-------- this big --------> she says holding her hands 2ft apart.

A coot on one of the ornamental lakes

And a magnificent heron, just posing for us by the Long Water

And finally to the Rose Garden before heading home

And another red pin in my Googleworld. Next stop...

Charlie and the Case of the Curious Cows

Took my intrepid Westie on another walk around a spot of local countryside...

We set out from The Ship Inn at Ashford Hill - a lovely country pub, great food, welcoming atmosphere and a somewhat dilapidated red telephone box in the car park. The pub is said to be haunted but on my visits I've not seen a ghost...

Always good to know where you are, and of course you can guarantee we got lost!!


As my daughter would say "I like buttercups!"

I'm not sure she means Buttercup the cow, but they seemed friendly enough...


Maybe a little too friendly?

In the cow pasture (which is the nature reserve) I spotted this little beauty (pun intended) - a spotted heath orchid...

This is what it looks like when the photographer isn't me and isn't using a mobile phone to take pictures...

Now what you may not be able to see in this picture, but I swear it is there... is a deer. Draw a line up from the tip of Charlie's tail to just beyond the horizontal pile of logs and if you look closely you may just be able to make out the head of a deer. If you can't.. scroll down and I'll show you what you should have been looking for!!


We stopped for a picnic in a hay meadow... admired some inchworms, one of which crawled enthusiastically up my jeans until I found him a more suitable location...

and lay back for a chapter of Pride And Prejudice and admired the clouds, altocumulus with a mackerel pattern of stripes - it was as you can see a glorious late spring day.

Wandered around some more woodland and saw some yellow flowers which I identified as Yellow Archangel when I got home (again not my pic, far too well focussed)

We also saw some foxgloves about to flower (this picture taken by someone else, somewhere else and a little later in the year probably)


And as we had gotten lost (again) we doubled back and came upon the curious cows again, this one wanted to be a film star

There was almost a cow stampede to get your picture taken! And to check out Charlie who is just at my feet the other side of a gate...

And walking back to the car there was some red campion (again not my picture, one day I will get a decent camera)

And in the pub car park, some lily beetles being naughty!

Here's a clearer picture of a lily beetle, theyreally were quite striking


And here's the route we took, just over four miles of walking