Thursday 23 February 2012

A meme and photos of Dunster in Somerset

I was tagged in a meme by Pat at Here There and Everywhere. It's fun but I honestly don't think I know 11 more people to tag and ask 11 more questions of. What I'll say is that if anyone feels like doing it, let me know and then I'll think up some new questions.


1. Post the Rules

2. Answer the eleven questions that were asked of you by the person who tagged you.

3. Make up eleven new questions and tag eleven new people to do the meme!

4. Let them know you tagged them!


So here are Pat's question for me:


1. What are your most favorite books that you have read more than once.(name at least two)

Hmm. Well there aren't all that many as I'm not a huge rereader. But here're a few:

The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (must be due a reread of that soon.
Howards End is on the Landing - Susan Hill
The Harper's Hall trilogy - Anne McCaffrey
Sylvester - Georgette Heyer
Frenchman's Creek - Daphne Du Maurier (due a reread as it must be 40 years since I last read it.)
The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett

2. Who is your favorite male character from a book?

I don't think I can name just one!

Robinton from Anne McCaffrey's Pern books.
Adam Hauptman from Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series.
Matthew Shardlake from C.J. Sansom's books.
Sherlock Holmes

3. Who is your favorite female character from a book?

Again I can't just do one.

Jane Rizzoli from Tess Gerritsens' Rizzoli and Isles series.
Ruth Galloway from Elli Griffiths' series of the same name
Anna Pigeon from Nevada Barr's series of the same name.
Flavia de Luce from Alan Bradley's series of the same name.
Merrily Watkins from Phil Rickman's books.
Shan Frankland from Karin Traviss's W'ess'har sci-fi series.


4. What is the last book that you read that is out of your comfort zone, and did you enjoy it?

I feel quite ashamed to say that I rarely read out of my comfort zone. The last one was probably Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Zoer, which I read in Feb 2011. The background to it was the 9/11 tragedy and although I couldn't say I *enjoyed* it, it was a brilliant book... just been made into a film I believe.

5. If you could have gone on the movie sets of any movie and watched it being made, which movie would you choose, and why?

Oooh... hard one. Um. I think the sets of the new Sherlock Holmes movies, filmed in London, would have been fun to visit. Just to see how they do all the Victorian stuff, not because I like Robert Downey Junior you understand...

6. What food is your most guilty pleasure?

Crisps (potato chips). I probably eat too many and they're not great for you, but according to a recent programme I was watching, lots of things have more salt than them (including sliced bread) and they're high in potassium so I've stopped beating myself up over it so much.

7. If you could travel somewhere (money is no object) where would you go?

Definitely back to America. I'd like to spend a couple of years going all around the USA and Canada too. Trouble is I'd probably miss England at some stage.

8. If you could change one thing in our world, what would it be?

The lack of tolerance displayed by so many people towards the old, the disabled, different sexualities and religions, and so on and so on. Lack of tolerance or lack of open mindedness: I hate it.

9. What is something that you'd like to accomplish this year?

At the start of the year I decided I wanted to read more non-fiction this year. I'm happy to say that I'm doing exactly that. :-)

10. What are 3 things that are very important to you?

Family. Books. My own space.

11. If you could go back in time, where and when would you be?

Oooh, good one. I read somewhere that the ancient Egyptians had a wonderful library - their scientists or physicians had control of it I seem to recall. And then it was lost when their civilisation declined. I'd like to go back and take a look at that library, even if its contents would be right over my head.

~~~~~~~


I recently came across this post from Cathy at Kitling Books: A Sunday Stroll in Somerset. Over here we see these lovely nostalgic paintings by A.R. Quinton a lot on calendars and such and they are so pretty. This one struck a chord with me as we used to live not far from the beautiful village of Dunster on the Somerset coast, and it's quite unusual as Dunster is one of those villages which has hardly changed since this painting was done. I thought Cathy and a few others might like to see several photos I took a few years back. Double-click for a larger view of the photos.



This is a similar view to that in the painting. The National Trust were working on the castle at the time but that work is all finished now. Dunster is extremely popular with tourists for obvious reasons.




A closer view of the yarn market, built in 1590 for the purpose of selling textiles.




The Luttrell Arms, seen to the left of the painting, is a 14th. century inn, named after the family that owned the castle for many centuries, and is still a hotel and restaurant to this day.




Dunster Castle of course. Not a terribly good shot of it to be honest. I'll have to see if I can get some better ones in the spring.

So there you go, some things never do change, and thank goodness for that.
~~~oOo~~~

15 comments:

My Gallery of Worlds said...

Loved your answers Cath! Looks like you, Pat and I will all be fighting over the good Masterharper...lol
Gorgeous pictures. What a beautiful town <3

Val said...

Lovely photos (That Yarn market building is amazing) and interesting answers :0)
I'm becoming aware that I'm incurably nosy ..would that sound better if I say I'm curious about life???

Nan said...

As for #5. You didn't mention Jude Law. :<)
#6. Anything potato is tops with me.
#7. It's such a nice treat to be liked. It seems to be trendy now to hate the US for a variety of reasons.
#8. I'm sure with you.

It truly makes my life better to know that these English places are still the same. I would like to live in one of them.

Cathy said...

Thank you so much for posting the photos. I can see what you mean about how little change there's been!

Cath said...

Kelly: Yup... 'handbags at 20 paces' as we say here. ;-)

Yes, Dunster is very pretty, a nice place for a wander.

Val: Thank you. I think 'curious about life' is a good way to put it. It's a trait we share. ;-)

Nan: Ah yes, Jude Law - very nice too. They were both (JL and RDJ) on a chat show some weeks ago. It was lovely to see the rapport they have with each other.

Me too with potatoes and the same with bread. I'm a staple foods sort of a person. LOL

I feel the same way about being English... no one's that keen on us either. I think my love of the USA and its people is well documented here though. Stephen Fry said he didn't know of a friendler race throughout the world. Well I haven't been everywhere in the world but I'm going to agree with him anyway. Biased? Me? Absolutely...

Cathy: Glad you enjoyed seeing the photos.

DesLily said...

poor Robinton lol..he will go screaming to the southern continent to get away from all of us! lol..McCaffrey really did him right! lol lol

hey here's something else "good" about potato chips... read the nutrition on them... ZERO cholestrol!!!! that alone is a reason to eat them! lol

love all the answers Cath!...and the photo's (as always)always are great! *sigh*..

Cath said...

Pat: I bet Anne McCaffrey never imagined Robinton would have fangurls when she invented him. LOL.

Well now I feel ok about my crisp addiction. Well almost...

chrisa511 said...

Oh Cath, one of the reasons I love you so much is because of your answer to number 8 :) You really are a gem of a person! I am DYING to read Extremely Loud...glad to hear you enjoyed it! And that is so interesting that chips (crisps for you :p) have less salt than bread!! Crazy what's in processed food these days :/ I'm so glad Pat tagged you and Kelly for this meme :) I wanted to tag you both but I ran out of spaces :(

Cath said...

Chris: Well... as a fanfiction writer of a certain sort I'm very much into diversity and everyone having a worth whether they be black, white, old, young, gay or straight. People are people and the world should be made up of all kinds, not just one. Lots of people would like it that way though and it's a real tragedy.

I tend to keep away from processed food as much as I can. Like you we grow our own fruit and veg and use it to cook meals from scratch. Soup is my favourite thing, like Pat, and I could cheerfully live on homemade soup made from garden produce. :-)

Susan said...

Ha, you and animewookie and Pat can have the masterharper! lol I forgot Merrily and Ruth Galloway, though I did remember them at one point with my answer. Darn! I'm with you on the intolerance, too, for others.

Dunster is beautiful, this is even more reason to come one day; some of my ancestors are from Somerset. What a lovely village.

I guess we have to thank Pat now for tagging us! lol

Cath said...

Susan: Only three of us running (Hah! Lessee, when did I last *run*...) after Masterharper Robinton then. My money's on Kelly winning that race, with Pat close behind and me hobbling along half a mile away. lol. Of course, if it was someone like Peter Bishop from Fringe I'd beat the both of them off with a big stick...

Do you know which part of Somerset your ancestors were from? How interesting.

Yes! Thanks, Pat.

WhatHouse.co.uk said...

Don't usually bother with these types of things (answer ten questions or else......) but you put real though into your answers. And I am with you on a couple - definitely love yo have seen ancient Egypt and would love to travel around Canada.

Cath said...

WhatHouse: I don't do many of these things either but sometimes the questions are fun. Yes, that library would've been stunning and I can't help but wonder if bits of it still exist somewhere.

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

Hi Cath,

Dunster is such a lovely place, isn't it?

Even better if you can time your visit right and combine it with a trip on the steam train.

It is quite a distance for us to travel, but easily 'doable' in a day. We quite often hold events there as part of our 'Treasure Trails' portfolio and of course we have to do regualr checks on the permanent trail, to ensure that all the clues are intact.

This is always one of the best days out for me, I love the place.

Great photos,

Yvonne.

Cath said...

Yvonne: Dunster is lovely. We used to live about five minutes away in Minehead. Lived there for eight years and enjoyed it very much but it is a bit cut off for my liking. In all the time we lived there though we never did go on the steam train.