I read about this blogging project the other day, and was undecided about whether I wanted to participate or not.  When I initially read the prompt for Day 1, I was stumped.

Did I have any goals last year? My first response was no, I didn’t.  But then I thought harder about it and realised that infact I did have some travel goals, and I did indeed accomplish them.

My first travel goal was related to my returning home to Australia on a holiday.  I wanted to go and see May Gibbs’ House.  Why you may ask?  She wrote a book called Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, where she brings the Australian bush to life, in a beautiful story, with relevant bad characters ‘The Banksia Men’.

I read the book as a child, but did not remember it that well, so in preparation I re-read the book, before I went along to visit her house.

Nutcote is the name of May Gibbs‘ house, it is where she spent many years of her life.

You can see Sydney Harbour Bridge from Nutcote, which is located in Neutral Bay.  You can find out more about Nutcote by going to May Gibbs’ website here.

The garden is just beautiful.

The picture above shows a ‘bad’ Banksia man.

The link to Wikipedia above (on May Gibbs’ name), mentions the fact that in 1985 a postage stamp was released in her honour as part of a set of books.  My grandfather who was an avid stamp collector, and tried to instill this passion in his grand-daughters, bought me this set of books.  The photo below is my copy, which I still have, as I hoard/ treasure all of my books.  Every time I get it out, it makes me think of my grandfather.

Another travel goal that we had last year was to go to England for Christmas to be with my husband’s family.
We did it, and we had a lovely time catching up with his family.  I do not have a particularly large family, but my husband does, lots of cousins, aunts and uncles.  We all had a lovely time.  We got to go to London, and walk along Oxford Street with all the Christmas decorations up.  My kids bought some tacky souvenirs, that they love.  The photos below I took in Brighton.

I have no more travel goals for 2011, as I have been fortunate to have already made a trip home to Australia, and also to England at the end of the summer.  2012 we will have to wait and see, what you hold in terms of travel.