The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 48 - Perfect Day Out

The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering.

Week 48 - Perfect Day Out

For me a perfect day out would have to include some or all of the below:

• Sun
• Countryside
• Good food
• Great people especially my family
• Rest, relaxation
• Gentle exercise
• Ending with that fresh, exhausted, but satisfying feeling

I am trying to think of The Perfect Day Out and I cannot think of one as there are a few really enjoyable days out I can think of instead:

Spectator fun at Le Tour de France - Yorkshire

• The day my husband asked me to marry him - it was a surprise trip out in July. The weather was gorgeous and my husband had hired a barge on the Leeds - Liverpool Canal in Skipton. We sailed, got lost, went down a cul-de-sac, did numerous 3-point turns, saw cows in the canal, was chased by another boat through the swing bridges, so Luke had to run to catch up with me driving the boat and most of all Luke asked me if I would marry him. It was a really beautiful day out with the love of life, a day which I will never forget and brings back happy, sunny, warming memories.
• Watching Le Tour de France through Yorkshire in July this year. It was my friend's birthday and her husband loves cycling, so up they travelled from London to watch it. We tagged along with them to line the streets just north of Skipton. I love hanging out with good friends who you do not see often enough. We sang happy birthday to my friend whilst lining the Yorkshire streets and the large crowds joined in with the singing. There was such a jovial atmosphere amongst the fellow spectators and the weather was again glorious. (see blogpost)
• A trip again to Skipton (I do love Skipton but it's just co-incidental that my perfect days out all happen to be there!) for my friends birthday. This trip was when we were students, so a big crowd of caught the train there. We enjoyed doing silly studenty things and just hanging out together as a good bunch of friends. It was February and it was such a clear, cold, crisp winters day. It was beautiful.
• A day out with my husband at Ripley Castle near Harrogate. Again a crisp winters day, we went on a tour of the house and a short stroll. We also really enjoyed a cake and cuppa in the cafe. The gift shop there was fab as well and I spent lots of pennies on pretty things! (see photos)
• An evening trip out with my husband as a date night to eat Murgatroyds fish and chips at Surprise View on Otley Chevin whilst watching the sunset on Midsummer's night. It was such a romantic trip, with an amazing sunset, views and tasty food! (see photos)

Sunset at Otley Chevin

The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 47 - Awards

The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering.

Week 47 - Awards

I think the only awards I have won were at school or in the 6th form. 

At our leavers ball, when we left the 6th form we nominated our peers for different awards, some categories were silly and others serious. I was nominated for the Kind Person of the Year award, which I never thought I would win, but I did! I am still the proud owner of the plastic Oscar trophy which was presented to me by the 6th form teachers at the leavers do. If I hadn't just moved house I could probably of put a photo of the trophy on here . . . but I have no idea which box the trophy was packed into!

I also have a vague recollection of winning a music trophy in either the school or 6th form. It was presented to me at an assembly in which we were presented with our GCSE or A level certificates too. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the award but it was for something like Excellence in Music.

The only other award I remember receiving recently was the One Lovely Blog Award for this blog.

One Lovely Blog Award

I was surprised to discover that today I have been nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award by Caitlin Gow of Genealogically Speaking and Young & Savvy Genealogists, who is a very passionate young Australian genealogist. Caitlin is overwhelming passionate about genealogy and her blogs inspire me in my research and blogging. Thank you very much it is a privilege to be nominated.


The rules for the "One Lovely Blog Award" are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to that blog
2. Share seven things about yourself
3. Nominate 15 bloggers (or as many as you can think of) who you admire
4. Contact your bloggers to let them know that you've tagged them for the One Lovely Blog Award

Seven Things About Me

Prea in north Brasil, one of my many adventurous travels

1. I love researching my family history and sharing my research with other interested family members.
2. I love cooking and baking but am especially passionate about encouraging others to have a go at cooking healthy & tasty food from scratch. I share some of my inspiration at Ruth's Blog on my Foody Friday posts.
3. I am a keen traveller - I have visited all continents of the world except Antarctica (oh and that's counting the America's as one - technically I have not visited North America yet) - again you can read more about my travels at Ruth's Blog - New Zealand and Ruth's Blog - Travels. I love immersing myself in other cultures.
4. My Christian faith is really important to me.
5. I enjoy spending my evenings with a good TV programme and a cross-stitch project in front of me.
6. The history of a place, from the meaning of it's name to the geography, the history of the people who have come from it and to it, is fascinating for me. I think you can really understand the atmosphere a place carries when you look further into it's history and past.
7. The community I live in is amazing!

Nominate 15 Bloggers (or as many as you can think of) Who I Admire

1. Maria Hogan of Maria in the Wood - my sister-in-law, Maria, is the reason I blog, she inspired me to start blogging about my passions and the designs of my blog credit to her . . . thankyou! Plus she makes and sells some really pretty things in her shop.
2. Luke Hogan of Ironclad Shipyard and Found in Praise - my husband's blogs - his art work is amazing and he inspires me!
3. Julie Goucher of Angler's Rest - the inspiration behind The Book of Me, Written by You project which I have loved doing and look forward to the next project...
4. Chris Paton of The British GENES Blog - he keeps me up to date with new releases of records within the UK
5. All the contributors of the Worldwide Genealogy blog - it's a fantastic idea to aid genealogists from all over the world to share their inspiration, all credit goes to the creators of this blog.
6. Compassion UK's blog - Compassion is a charity which I support, their work is incredible and I love being able to sponsor a special child in another country.
7. Jana Last of Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog - Jana is from California and my favourite part of her blog is the Follow Friday's - Fab Finds.

The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 46 - Childhood Reading

The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering.

Week 46 - Childhood Reading

I loved reading as a child, I loved having the time to delve into books. Now, as an adult I rarely read novels as I'm often so busy with work or blogging or surfing the internet or researching my family tree, unless I am on holiday and away from all other distractions, I generally don't read for pleasure.

As a child, I remember reading with a torch under the covers after I should have gone to bed and to sleep, if I heard my parents coming up the stairs I would quickly switch it off and pretend I was asleep.

Bookshelf of Enid Blyton works
(Image from: www.wikipedia.org, accessed 20 Sept 2014)

I loved bedtime reading and bedtime stories. I even remember my dad making up stories when we were on holiday to get us to sleep, they were about me and my brother getting up to all sorts of adventures. I loved Enid Blyton books, initially the Secret Seven, Malory Towers, the Famous Five and later still the Adventure series - I didn't read them all but I certainly read all the ones I owned or the local library had in stock. I always found her writing so exciting and it would draw me in as I wanted to have an adventure of my own. We often played making up our own secret club with our neighbours and we tried to find and make a secret hidey hole in the rhododendron bushes near our house.

Your Country Needs You
(Image from: www.wikipedia.org,
accessed 20 Sept 2014)

I would also read the Babysitting Club books as I always wanted to be a baby sitter when I was older, although I never did that much baby sitting when I became old enough to.

One of my all time favourite books is Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian, I have read the book a few times but also watched the TV version with John Thaw over and over again, in fact if I had the DVD of it I would probably still watch it now, it's such a loving, warm story about poor boy William during WW2.

I also loved the Anne of Green Gables series when I reached my teens but some of those stories are so sad and moving. I always wanted to be quite like Anne, successful and great at what she did yet with my head often in the clouds.

Today I generally read historic novels around the late Victorian, Edwardian and World War periods - such as Call The Midwife and I love Annie Murray's novels about Birmingham during the depression. I think this reading fuels my interest in social history and helps me understand life in my grandparents and great grandparents eras.

I have never been particularly interested in reading sci-fi books or anything that required more imagination, or belief. I like and still love real life stories, fiction or non-fiction.

I'm back...

Our real Black Forest Cuckoo Clock

Yes, this is my first blog post in about 2 months, but I'M BACK!

I am sorry that I have neglected all my regular readers during the summer, but it has been a very mad and crazy summer. This is what we were upto...

• we visited my brother and his family in the Black Forest in Germany, where we purchased a beautiful cuckoo clock for our new house

• we moved house, only around the corner but to create more space for my family tree

• we visited Wales for my sister-in-laws wedding, which was so pretty and beautiful . . . 

• AND the most exciting news is that the family tree grew another little person larger and let's say the introduction to parenthood has been a very intense but also a majorly exciting time for us.

I am hoping to get back to the blogging and also my research eventually but it might not be quite as frequent as my previous blogging was.