Restoration House | The View Outside

I’ve been nominated for the Beautiful Blogger Award by Hezalyte at Iridessence Indeed and by Ayesha Shroeder Anushka at Finding My Creature Kristi at Dressed To Quill Jane Ayres Patsy Collins and Cheryl at Catching Fireflies for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award *squeals* Thank you so much ladies 🙂 What can I say? How many nominations can a girl get in a 2 week period? Lol *blush*

I’ve already received both these awards in the past, so wow! Surely I should be drop dead gorgeous by now and inspiring everyone across the world *snigger* No? It doesn’t work like that? Oh well 😉

The rules are the same for both of these. Say thank you to the blogger who nominated you (done). List 7 facts about yourself and then nominate 7 bloggers….so lets see, you know I’m a rule breaker, so rather than list 7 things about myself I’m going to show you the town where I live. All the photos taken by me 🙂

Some of you may know I live in Rochester (Kent) in the UK. The town was frequented by Dickens who lived close by. He loved the place (as do i!) so much that he was inspired to use a lot of the locations in the town for his books.

This is the Cathedral graveyard where you’ll find the grave of Little Dorritt.

Below, The Vines, where Dickens would often be seen walking (no doubt mulling a plot over). He was seen in here, leaning against a fence people watching the day before he died.

The Cathedral, 2nd oldest in the country, after Canterbury.

Dickens chalet, where he wrote some of his masterpieces. It was moved from his garden to its current location after his death.

The Castle, site of many a battle! Dickens would often be seen walking round it talking to himself.

Dickens wanted to be buried in the Castle Moat, but when he died, Queen Victoria wouldn’t allow it and insisted his body be laid to rest in Westminster Abbey. The first, and only time an English monarch has ever over ruled a persons last will and testament.

Eastgate House, featured in two of Dickens novels. He obviously found it inspiring as a location.

Restoration House, famous in its own right, but now, people come to stare at it because Dickens used it for Miss Haversham’s house in Great Expectations. I don’t know if Dickens ever got to go inside, but I have 😉

And finally, Minor Cannons Row, which lies behind the Cathedral. Dickens used it in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

I could have shown you sooooo much more, but this post is turning into 2 posts lol 😉 So now, back to business 😉

I’m nominating the following bloggers for the Beautiful Blogger Award
Holly Michael
Bridget Whelan
Florence at Ramblings From The Left
Sabrina at Creativity or Crazy
Sam at Him, Her and Us
Madalyn Morgan
Bel Anderson

I’m nominating the following bloggers for the Inspiring Blogger Award
Cheryl at Creating Space 365
Sue at sassyspeaks
Lin at Voices in My Head
Joanne Phillips
Morgen Bailey
Patsy Collins
Sue at The Long & The Short Of It

So on top of all that I’ve also been nominated again for the Blog Of The Year award, this time by Hunter Emkay and Chris Stocking so a huge thank you to both! It appears I now have 8 stars 🙂

Please take a moment to visit some of these wonderful bloggers and I hope you enjoyed the mini tour 🙂 Do you find where you live inspiring?

I really wasn’t in the mood to do any serious studying yesterday, but, if I’m going to get my assignment in on time on the 20th, I really had to pull my finger out 😉

Sooooo, I spent the afternoon doing exercises regarding Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs and Syntax. I wasnt able to upload the actual pieces I used, as they’re short stories I want to use at a later date for submissions. Anyway, some very interesting things emerged. The fact that my Syntax is kinda ok (no major problems anyway!). I don’t tend to use Passive Voice, which is good, but I do need to sort out my use of Authorial Comment 😉

I’ve finished Note Book number 8. It’s always a bit sad when I finish/fill up a book….but, it’s exciting to start a new one. All those clean empty pages….I can’t wait to fill it with writing and notes 😉

My next task on the course is to research the following:
Simile
Metaphor
Imagery
Figurative Language
Cliche
I enjoy doing research…..sometimes, you think you know exactly what a word means, but it’s interesting to delve a bit deeper 😉

I started reading Maeve Binchy’s Quentins last night. I haven’t read anything by Binchy before, so I’m eager to see why she is so popular 🙂

Tonight on TV, a new adaptation of Charles Dickens Great Expectations

Living only a couple of miles from where Dickens lived (and living in the town in Kent he loved so much) I’m always interested in watching anything Dickens related. I was hoping that this modern version might actually use some of the real locations from Rochester for the filming, so I was a bit disappointed not to see Restoration House used as Miss Havisham’s home 😦

Now, where did I put my copy of The Old Curiosity shop? I’ve only been reading it for about 2 years lol