Various ramblings by the small hobbit

Wishing all on my flist best wishes, whether you have a particular celebration at this time of year or not.
( Seasons greetings )

The last of our summer days out (I shall be in London next Friday) we visited Charlecote Park.  This, like the last two places, is owned by the National Trust, and we've had free entrance to them because we hold Art Fund cards.  Charlecote Park is a recent addition to that list.

The land was granted to the Lucy family sometime after the Norman conquest.  The house was built in 1558, but almost entirely updated in the 1840s.

( Charlecote Park )

I've been sorting through some of my mother's possessions, prior to the sale of her property, and came across some interesting family photos.  But before I share those, here are a couple of other things I found.

( Photos )

Our hotel was about 15 minutes walk from Museumsinsel.  There are five museums on the island in the river.  It is possible to buy a combined ticket to visit all five in one day.  We decided to choose one museum to concentrate on.  Since our preference for art is that of the 19th century, we settled on the Alte Nationalgalerie.  We spent about four and a half hours there, although that included time in the shop and having a drink and some cake.

( Day Three )

We arrived home yesterday from a short break in Berlin.  It's a wonderful city, we only got to see a few of the many possible sights, and there's plenty more to see another time.  So for the next few days, I shall be posting pics.

( Day One )

And so we come to the last of our days out.  I wanted to see both Berrington Hall and Croft Castle, which are close to each other near Leominster.  Since this is a ninety minute drive SM suggested we do both but stay somewhere overnight, which we leave us enough time to enjoy looking round both places.  It would also feel like a proper end of summer trip.  So we stayed overnight in Leominster.

( Croft Castle )

( Berrington Hall )

A couple of months ago the Art Fund had an offer whereby for £10 you could have a taster card which lasted three months.  This card gives free entry (or half price) to a number of museums, art galleries, and stately homes.  So I thought why not?  This would be a chance to visit a few places I'd not been to, and get in free to things when I'm in London.
( Nature in Art and Dyrham Park )

It's been raining, but I thought I'd take some photos:

( May flowers )

 

I can't quite believe I've had three years of blogging about the goals I've set.  Looking back over the past year, it's been interesting - and encouraging - to see what I've done.  So often we don't think we've done much, so it's good to have a record.

Goal No 1 - Write all the things

In the past year I've added 23 fan_flashworks  badges, bringing my current total to 88.  Only a couple of new ones since last time, but one was the all important Collector badge, which still pleases me.



Other highlights over the year are my Call The Midwife SmallFandomBang, my first long AU Bilbo Baggins the Baker's Son, and Watson 1918 which is now written and is being edited.  Word count to date for 2017 is 49K, so I'm on target for reaching 165K for the year again.

I shall be continuing with this goal, and continuing to remember the idea is to not just write all the words, but tackle different things as well.


Goal No 2 - Read More and Widely

Definitely achieved.  I've read 29 books this past twelve months and once more covered a wide selection.  I'll do a review later this month, which should bring the total to 30.  I fully intend to continue posting book reviews, but will no longer include reading within my goals as such.  I've added all the books on my 'to read' pile to my Goodreads profile and will be using it to keep track.  I have just updated my 2017 Reading Challenge from 24 to 30 books, to make it a proper challenge.  If you're on Goodreads and want to find me, I'm Small_Hobbit there.


Goal No 3 - Post a purely photographic post each month

Also achieved.  And I shall be posting an Easter post at the end of this week.  I've enjoyed preparing the posts, but don't see myself continuing as regularly.  It has, however, been a really interesting project and I'm glad I did it.


I'll be setting my goals for the coming year later this month.  After some thought I've decided to keep going with the goals - it makes a difference to me, seeing what I'm aiming for and how I'm getting on.  One of my two new goals will be a monthly blog post, the other will be more of a challenge, and I'm hoping my flist will have a role in this (nothing difficult I assure you!)


Added for DreamWidth users: I'm trying to work out how to forward post an entry.  This is dated 11 April - does it make a difference?

I've been talking of posting the pictures of our estate through the year, and here it is, beginning with last March:
( Photos through the year )