Our Trip To A Wildlife Park

At the weekend my boyfriend and I decided to take a trip to Woodside Wildlife Park near our home town of Lincoln. Almost three and a half years ago we visited the same park, having only been together a few months at the time, and I had such fond memories. So we figured, why not go again?

I’ll be honest, we didn’t choose the best day to go as it started raining while we were there (and I didn’t wear my thick coat so my lips turned blue from the cold) but it was enjoyable. We got to walk around and see all the different animals, tried to communicate with the Lynx (we saw a video on YouTube about making friendly noises to tigers and figured it would be worth a try) and made friends with a cute deer called Fawn. She was abandoned when she was a baby and was raised at the park, so she’s extremely friendly with people.

When we got to the park we were greeted by a parrot that squawked every so often, and in the distance we could hear the howling of the wolves and their loud barks, with a growl thrown in every so often. Once we had made our way around we saw that they were playing with each other, one sneaking up on the other, all the while a lone wolf sat above the others, looking over them all.

There were a range of cats are the park, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a very good picture of the tiger as she kept moving too much. However, the lynx was very inquisitive of the people walking by and she kept coming up to the fence, as you can see below. As well as this, there was one that was more cat like than any of the others and was the size of the average household breed.

I know that not a lot of people agree with what zoos do, and in some instance I don’t. However, all of the animals at Woodside were rescued, their latest was a tiger from a circus in Europe, but there are also foxes, racoons and even some rats that take part in the Amazing Animal show.

We’ve already decided that we are going to go back in the summer, when the weather isn’t as cold, and check out the butterflies that are in the green houses.

Every so often I like doing a blog post that isn’t book or writing related (although those are a big part of my life) because I don’t always stay indoors all the time. We’re hoping to head to Ireland in the summer and visit Dublin Zoo if the weather is good.

When was the last time you went to a zoo or wildlife park?

Wrapping Up The Week (29th January – 4th February)

I hope everyone has been having a lovely weekend. Lucky for me that my weekend isn’t over just yet as I have tomorrow off due to it being my boyfriend’s birthday. The past seven days seemed to fly by and overall it has been a great week for reading and blogging in general. I am so close to reaching 200 followers now and I find it amazing how many of you love what I write.

So far February has been treating me well and I also started working out again (even though I’ll probably be very sore tomorrow). This year is all about doing things that make me happy and my stress/anxiety levels are so low they are almost nonexistent. I think a lot of that has to do with finding my love of reading, writing and blogging again. A couple years ago I lost that part of me and I am so glad to have it back.

Anyway, time to talk about books…

Books I read and reviewed…

In the beginning of the week I finished The Cruel Prince by Holly Black and I loved it! There’s been so much love for this book and I can finally understand why. It was dark, dangerous and everything a book about the Fae should be. If you need another reason to check it out you should head on over and read my review here. While it wasn’t a straight up 5 star read (I gave it four and a half) I still enjoyed this book thoroughly.

For the first time in a while I managed to read a second book in the week! While I didn’t enjoy The Keeper of the Watch as much (and there are many reasons as to why) I still read it quite quickly and enjoyed the action. It is more of a Sci-Fi book, something I said I would read more of this year, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea. Overall, I gave the book 3 stars and you can check out my review here.

I am currently reading…

I wasn’t sure if I would be able to read The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert before it’s release date on the 8th, but I was approved on NetGalley at the last minute. So far I have read 30% and I am really enjoying it. There have been a lot of questions raised about the characters backstories. I want to know more and cannot wait to get stuck into it later on. If I could get over halfway by the end of today then that would be great!

Posts from the week…

WWW Wednesday – Different Dimensions

Wrapping Up January ’18 – AKA The Longest Month Ever

January Book Haul (I think I bought too many)

My February TBR Pile

Four blog posts in one week is not bad at all! Unfortunately, I missed the Top Ten Tuesday this week as I wasn’t really feeling the topic, but hopefully next week will be different. I love looking back over the month when writing the monthly wrap ups and seeing how much I read (and spent).

My WIP…

For the first time ever I have succeeded in writing at least 1,000 words everyday for the whole week, including the weekends! Actually, yesterday I wrote 1,400 putting my total at 75,000 words. While I haven’t written anything today (yet) I will be putting fingers to keys straight after this blog post. I am so excited because I am getting close to the point where I can introduce my big plot twist and I cannot wait!

Other Fun Stuff…

Why does my whole life revolve around work, writing, reading and blogging? I can’t even say that watching Riverdale every week is fun because I’m not sure I’m enjoying it anymore. Season 1 was so much better and I swear the characters weren’t as annoying (anyone else unable to stand Veronica and Archie?) I’m just looking forward to The 100 and The Originals coming back in April. If only it wasn’t so far away.

I am definitely ready to conquer the rest of February and I hope you all are as well! Let me know in the comments how your week went.

Writing And Pinterest: An Epic Love Story

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend so far. Personally, the weekend is the best time for me to really get to work on my novel as I am not up to much else (apart from doing a bit of shopping here and there). Last night I was up late typing away at my keyboard and I was so deep into it that I didn’t want to stop. In fact, I ended up writing a total of 2,700 ish words in total, which is way more than the 1,000 that I set myself to reach every time I sit down at my laptop. So you can say I was ecstatic, especially after feeling weighed down with writer’s block for the week beforehand.

Me and writers block don’t get along. Whenever it sets in I can find it very difficult to escape and let the creativity flow again, something I have mention in my previous posts. I don’t have a lot of ways to get around it, that is, until I watched a video by Sasha Alsberg on her YouTube channel abookutopia and she mentioned that Pinterest really helps her when it comes to receiving inspiration.

I created a Pinterest account a while ago, but it was mainly to look for images that I could use to draw from or even some workout ideas (I do a lot of at home workouts), but I had never thought to use it for my story. So, the other day I set up a secret board that only I could see and I got to work searching for images that reminded me of what I had created in my mind.

In the screenshot above you can see a few of the images that relate to the town that my main characters lives in and the type of landscape that surrounds it. It’s very rural, with a giant forest and mountains, lots of cobbled stones and beautiful scenery. Of course, I have multiple boards for different places that will be in my story (but they would give away some key details so I’ll keep them to myself.)

When it comes to actually writing the descriptive scenes, Pinterest and these images, have been particularly helpful. While I am not writing exactly what I see in the pictures, there are elements of all in my story. And it is obviously working because I have been on a role!

Inspiration is all around us and we only have to look to find it. So for me, writing and Pinterest work together perfectly and I can’t wait to explore it some more!

Do you like to use Pinterest as well? Let me know in the comments below.

First Lines Fridays

It’s everybody’s favourite day of the week and that is definitely something to be happy about! I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend after all the stress I’ve been feeling this week and to get on with writing my novel. It’s coming together nicely and I’m laying the foundations down in so many notes (they’re on my laptop, sticky notes, my phone and a notebook).

I love taking part in First Lines Fridays because the books I choose are ones I probably haven’t paid much attention to before and this feature definitely makes me want to read them.

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? It’s pretty simple really, the rules go like this…

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

So here are the lines from the book I have chosen…

“My mother thinks I’m dead.

Obviously I’m not dead, but it’s safer for her to think so.

At least twice a month, I see my Wanted poster flashed on the JumboTrons scattered throughout downtown Los Angeles.”

First Thoughts

Straight away I’m intrigued and I want to know why it is better for people to think our main character is dead. Of course, it could be to do with the fact that they are a Wanted man, but that only leads to more questions. What did they do that was so bad? I really like the start of this book and it makes me want to read on.

And the book is…

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

Fun fact, I actually have this book and the sequel sitting on my shelf…I just haven’t gotten around to reading them. But after featuring the first one, I feel that I might be starting it fairly soon!

Would these lines make you want to read the book?