This and That Thursday

Happy Thursday!

I thought it was time for a non bookish update. I will be honest since being back at school I haven’t had as much time for adventures but we are trying to make the most of our days off together.

Boscobel House and White Ladies Priory

Last week we visited Boscobel Hosue and White Ladies Priory. We loved the fact that you get a candle and every time you see the candle symbol you put your candle on it and something happens, whether that be sound effects or videos. It was a nice feature that we had never seen before. When we had finished in the house we walked to the ruin that is White Ladies Priory and then went around the farm at Boscobel.

Berrington Hall

Today we met up with a friend and visited the National Trust property Berrington Hall. Berrington is one of my favourite National Trust properties because I always love how they decorate the rooms at Christmas. It was also nice to see the house without the scaffolding inside as that was there when we last visited. After a lovely lunch we went for a nice walk around the grounds and enjoyed the beautiful views and Autumn sunshine.

I am really looking forward to half term as we have lots of adventures planned so I will probably do another This and That Thursday then.

Happy Reading

Etsy

Blogtober 2022

Hello!

I have been blogging since 2018 and I have always admired my fellow bloggers who take part in Blogtober. However, I have never had the guts to take part myself and having looked back it would appear October is usually my worst month blogging wise. I have no idea why my blogging falls away in October but this year it hopefully won’t as I fully intend to take part in Blogtober and to succeed.

My Blogtober will include the usual posts of Mid Week Poetry, The Weekly Brief, Friday Poetry, Reviews (I’m very behind on my reviews), This and That Thursday and maybe some extras to spice up the mix.

Please let me know if you are taking part in Blogtober because I would love to follow your Blogtober journey and give out moral support to my fellow bloggers.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Lyra’s Pawsome Books #2

Hello!

I have so many new products in the pipeline for my Etsy shop and hopefully I will get those up for sale soon but until then I have released another two products on the shop. The code BOOKDRAGON10 can still be used at checkout for 10% off anything on my Etsy store.

Now one of my favourite things to do on a cold winter evening is curl up with a mug of hot chocolate, some biscuits and a good book. This made me come up with my dream book box. I would personally love to get this book box as a present.

Luxury Hot Chocolate Book Box

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The box includes:

A brand new paperback book of a genre of your choice.

A bookmark so you don’t lose your place in your new book when you put your book down for a hot chocolate refill.

Kingsbridge Hot Chocolate Spoon Flavours:

– Marshmallow Milk Hot Chocolate
– Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate
– Marshmallow Dark Hot Chocolate
– Marshmallow White Hot Chocolate
– Marshmallow Caramel Sea Salt Hot Chocolate

Border Biscuit Flavours:
– Chocolate Cookies
– Viennese Whirls
– Golden Oat Crumbles
– Butterscotch Crunch

Lotus biscuits x2

Book Box with Vegan Treats

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Box Includes

– Brand new paperback book (genre of your choice)
– Tea bags
– Coffee bag
– Bookmark
– Nomo vegan chocolate bar
– Candy Kittens Wild Strawberry Vegan Gourmet Sweets
– Vegan Popcorn

All products now have the option to include a free personalised gift message that will be handwritten on a bookish themed postcard.

There are now 5 different book boxes on the Etsy store and one book present so it is slowly building up. The Christmas and Advent themed book boxes will be put up soon.

Happy Reading

This and That Thursday

Hello!

I hope everyone is well.

I thought it was time for another This and That Thursday because I have been quite busy going on adventures recently.

Norfolk

Just recently I went to Norfolk where my best friend lives to surprise her for her birthday. The surprise went really well and we had a really great time. We ate some lovely food and visited a lovely National Trust property called Felbrigg Hall. It was a wonderful weekend away and it was so good to spend time with friends.

Afternoon Tea

My husband and myself went to try afternoon tea at our local Golf club. We had never been before but thought as it was the holidays we would treat ourselves. We really enjoyed it and have also been for dinner there as well.

Powis Castle

Powis Castle is a bit of a distance for us but we had a rare Sunday off together so we thought we would set off earlier and go to a National Trust place further afield. We enjoyed the castle so much that we went around twice and this also helped us avoid the rain.

Witley Court

We are also members of the English Heritage but we haven’t used our membership this year so we decided to remedy the situation and visit Witley Court. I love Witley Court but I do find it depressing. The house was clearly a gorgeous house and would have been wonderful to see before it was burned down. However, walking around the ruins you get the sense of the grandeur but also sadness that so little remains.

Wightwick Manor

Wightwick Manor is one of my favourite National Trust places and one that is very local to us. I love the design of Wightwick and the fact that in comparison to most National Trust properties it is relatively new. The house is so eccentric and always fills me full of wonder. It is also has some beautiful artwork in and a very nice library.

So there are some of my adventures. I am going on another adventure tomorrow all being well so I am hoping it doesn’t rain.

What adventures have you been on recently?

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Happy Book Lovers Day!

A day to put aside those phones and instead enjoy a good book. To celebrate this day I have decided to list ten of my favourite short reads which are 300 pages or less.

Big Panda and Tiny Dragon by James Norbury

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Dogs in Medieval Manuscripts by Kathleen Walker-Meikle

Women of Holy Week by Paula Gooder

The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien by Georges Simenon

Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot

Matilda by Roald Dahl

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Sappho: Poems and Fragments

Borderlands by Brian McGilloway

These are all five Dragon reads and books that I absolutely loved.

Please drop me a comment with any of your favourite short reads.

Happy Book Lovers Day!

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Happy Christmas 2021!

Happy Christmas!

This is just a little post wishing all my fellow bloggers a wonderful Christmas.

I hope everyone has a lovely day and I hope you get to spend it with friends and family.

Lyra wishes everyone an extra special Happy Christmas from her favourite spot from under the tree.

Happy Christmas and Happy Reading

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

This and That Thursday

Hello!

I hope everyone has had a good week so far. I have been on a few adventures over the past week so I thought I would do a post about it.

Downton Village/ Bampton

We went away for a mini holiday which was lovely and one of the places we visited was the village that is used for Downton Abbey. We are massive Downton fans in this house so we were very happy to have a nosy around the different venues. The places we visited were the church, the entrance to the hospital and Mrs Crawley’s house.

Upton House

Upton House was a National Trust property we visited and it was a lovely place to visit. Sadly the upstairs and the library were not open for viewing but I did get a little sneak peak of the library and it looked amazing. My favourite part of National Trust properties is the library.

Gin Blending

At the hotel where we stayed there is the Gin Pantry which does gin tasting experiences and gin blending. We chose to do the gin blending and had great fun smelling all the different botanicals and then choosing which ones to use for our gin. The man who ran it was brilliant and we learnt a great deal about gin blending. Our gin is rather Christmassy I think and as we are both organists we called it Organ Cypher. A little in house joke that us organists know well.

Waddesdon Manor and Afternoon Tea

The best place we visited was Waddesdon Manor which was owned by the Rothschild family as a weekend retreat that was used for 14 weekends a year. It was amazing, the building was incredible and the amount of beautiful things inside was just fantastic. There was so much to see inside and out and we spent all day there exploring. We also had a very yummy afternoon tea whilst there with so many teas to try. My favourite was a very light and refreshing white tea.

Now it is back to dissertation writing and work but hopefully more adventures will happen soon.

Happy Reading

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

This and That Thursday

Hello!

I thought it was time to share what I have been up to outside of reading this week as it has been rather an exciting week.

Dissertation writing continues and I am still enjoying it so that is a good sign.

Elephant Hunting

I met up with my two best friends for the first time in nearly two years and we went to Worcester to do the elephant trail. It was so much fun and so lovely to spend time with friends again.

Safari Park

I have also been to the safari park this week and it was wonderful to see all the animals. I haven’t been to the safari park for over ten years so it was wonderful to see everything again and the new addition of the Red Panda. My husband loved the Red Panda and bought a massive cuddly toy of one. I had a little elephant toy.

Family Party

At the weekend we had a get together with my husbands side of the family which was wonderful to see everyone. It was an evening of good food, drink and excellent conversation.

It was so nice to get away from teaching this week and go on some adventures. Hopefully, we will be going on some more soon.

Happy Reading

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

This and That Thursday

Hello!

I thought it was time for an update on life outside of books. The usual things continue such as teaching and studying but I have been fitting in some other adventures as well.

Paint by Numbers

Yes I have another paint by numbers which proved to be useful whilst my husband was watching the Grand Prix. This one is an Eeyore which my friend very kindly sent me.

Walking Challenges

I’ve recently completed a virtual walking challenge and now I am trying to walk 1,000,000 steps for a sponsored challenge by Diabetes UK. This has involved going on some beautiful walks which at times have been a bit muddy. I love going on different walks as it is fun to discover new places and get out of the house.

Worcester

We spent the day in Worcester today and tried to find all the elephants. Sadly we didn’t find them all but we had great fun and rewarded ourselves with pizza. There were also some strange creatures in Worcester which looked great. It was a lovely day and I went to my first bookshop in over 18 months.

Hopefully more adventures will be coming soon.

Happy Reading