Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Country Life

Country life is beautiful.

Coyotes and crickets singing you to sleep.

The smell of fresh cut hay on a balmy summer evening or crisp clear morning.

Fields of sun ripened wheat waving around you.

Laying of your back and watching fluffy white clouds sailing above you with nothing to obstruct the view.

Deep blue night skies full of sparkling stars.  "Summer skies dripping rhinestones".

The smell of rain wet earth during a thunderstorm.

Clear views of the moon.  Have you ever looked the moon through a pair of strong binoculars?

Running out barefoot to bring in the laundry when it starts to rain.

Spectacular sunrises and stunning sunsets.

Spending over two hours on a Friday morning watching close to 1500 cows walk past on their way down from summer pasture.  Chatting and laughing with the cowboys and girls driving them.

Rolling and standing round bales on end.  It's really a lot of fun!

 Being lulled to sleep by the sound of raindrops pattering on the hollyhock leaves outside your window.

Country life is beautiful.


Disclaimer: Yes I do realize that not all people who live in the country are able to experiance these things.

Yes I realize that you can do some of these things in the city as well.



Monday, September 26, 2016

Fairy Nymph

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  Yesterday, I discovered something that saddened me a bit.  As I have mentioned before, I love Celtic Woman.  I was introduced to them 3 years ago, and their music has often been very encouraging.  It has also been a lot of fun to "get to know" the girls.  (No I have not yet been to one of their concerts, though twice they have been within 2 hours of where I live.  The tickets are just a wee bit expensive!)  Yesterday I learned that (although it happened a month ago), Mairead Nesbitt, the blonde haired, fiddling fairy nymph who first awoke in me the desire to play violin, has stepped back to focus on her own projects.  Now don't get me wrong, I am thrilled that she is fulfilling her dreams and moving on in her life, but she was my favorite member and I will sorely miss her.  I was sad when Lisa Kelly and Chloe Agnew (my second favorites) left, but their departure was nothing for me compared to Mairead's.  She has been replaced by a beautiful red-head named Tara McNeill who I am sure I will come to love, but I will very much miss Mairead.  She is still performing and recording and maybe someday I will be able to go to one of her performances and I am definitely going to by her newest CD.

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  Thank you Mairead for the talent and wonder that you brought to Celtic Woman.  You are amazing and Celtic Woman will not be the same without you.



Thursday, September 22, 2016

Happy Fall Y'all!

  And Happy _______ to a few others!!  First of all, Happy Half-Birthday to a very dear person (you know who you are!!).  And then......
A VERY, VERY, VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR DEAR BILBO AND FRODO BAGGINS!

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Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Knit-A-Long #1

  PioneerGirl is doing a shawl knit-a-long (you can find it HERE).  I joined and here are the pictures of the first weeks part.

Shawl

Rosette




Monday, September 19, 2016

Tolkien Blog Party 2016 ~ Tag

Wooo hooo!!  Hamlette's Blog Party is finally here!!

 
The Tolkien Tag 2016
1.  How many books by J.R.R. Tolkien have you read?
   A lot more then when I did this tag last year!!  I have read, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and The Children of Hurin.
 
2.  Have you seen any movies based on them?
   I have seen the theatrical and extended editions of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the theatrical editions of his The Hobbit trilogy. 

3.  Are there any scenes/moments that make you cry?
   An easier question to answer would be, "are there any scenes that don't make you cry".  The sad scenes make me cry, the beautiful scenes make me cry and I always cry when the Horns of Rohan are heard on the Pelennor Fields.  Both in the books and movies.

4.  Are there any scenes/moments that make you laugh?
   GaZOBS!!  Pippin scenes, Legolas/Gimli scenes.  And I tend to laugh at the Orcs twisted belief that "this is the age of the Orcs".  Also when they discover that the Rohirrim riding down on top of them aren't scared of them!

5.  Have you ever chosen a Middle Earth name for yourself?  If so, what is it?
   Well I have used a Elvish and Hobbit name generator and these were the results.
My Elvish name is: Finduilas Arnatuilë (I have always loved the name Finduilas!!)
My Hobbit name is: Sweetpea Bulge of Great Smials (I must be a cousin of Pippin's!)

  I have also translated my own name into Elvish, but I'm not going to state it here.



6.  Who would you want to party with/marry/fight to the death? (pick three characters)
   Oh my goodness!!  Party with?  Merry and Pippin.  MARRY?!?!?!?!  I have no idea!!  If I have to choose someone (well someone who isn't dead or married by the end of their respective book), I'll just say......Beregond if he isn't already married?  His wife is never mentioned.  Otherwise Eomer.  Totally and completely.  Fight to the death?  Well if it's fight beside, then Kili and Thorin, if it's fighting against then, I don't know.  Ugluk.

7.  When was the last time you visited Middle Earth, via books or movies?
   Well I am kind of there now.  Melody and I are reading the books out loud to some of the kids.  We are about to read, "The King of the Golden Hall".  I haven't watched the movies yet this year, which is a serious crime!!

8.  Do you consider Gollum to be a villain?  Why or why not?
   Not really.  I consider him more of an antagonist.  Yes he does some really horrific things, and yes he was a bad person even before the Ring took him, but I can't think him thoroughly a villain because of how much of his villainy IS caused by the Ring and not really by him.  (I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense.  I'm not feeling well today and my brain isn't working!)  

9.  How would you sum up what Tolkien's stories mean to you in one word?
   Epic.

10. List up to ten of your favorite lines/quotes from the books or movies.
  I don't have the current brain power to actually go search them out (or remember them) right now, so I will just grab a bunch off of Pinterest.

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And of course this one!!!
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Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Movies I Watched In August 2016

Titles with nothing before them I watched for the first time.

Titles with ** before them are re-watches.

Titles with # before them I watched with my little siblings.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader ~ 2010


I had high hopes for this movie.  VotDT is my favorite Narnia book, and I was hoping the movie would live up to the book.....it didn't.  It was the worst of the three.  I would watch it again because there were a couple really cool parts, but I didn't really like it.


Full House Take 2 ~ 2012 ~ 6 eps


This drama is hilarious!!


Descendants of the Sun ~ 2016 ~ 4 eps


Ah!!  We finally finished DotS.  It was an amazing drama!!  I loved it!


** How To Steal A Million ~ 1966


This movie is the best!! 


Anna and the King ~ 1999


You can read my thoughts about this movie HERE.


Cantabile Tomorrow ~ 2014 ~ 16 6ps


I needed a drama to watch, so watched this.  It was amusing and I binged it in one week.  (I could have done it faster, but I made it last longer.)


Bridge on the River Kwai ~ 1957


This was the most boring movie ever!  It was full of egotistical, arrogant dingbats.  The Army doctor was the best person.



Books I Read In August 2016

Titles that have nothing before them are books that I read for the first time.

Titles with this ** before them, are books that I re-read.

 Titles with # before them, are books that I read out loud to my little siblings.

Titles in ( ), are books borrowed from the Library.

  Yippee!  We finally got a Library card and are borrowing books again!

** The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ~ C.S. Lewis
** Prince Caspian ~ C.S. Lewis
** Voyage of the Dawn Treader ~ C.S. Lewis
** The Silver Chair ~ C.S. Lewis
** The Horse and His Boy ~ C.S. Lewis
** The Magician's Nephew ~ C.S. Lewis
** The Last Battle ~ C.S. Lewis
** These Old Shades ~ Georgette Heyer
** Devil's Cub ~ Georgette Heyer
** Powder and Patch ~ Georgette Heyer 
 A Wrinkle In Time ~ Madelaine L'Engle.
Song of the Sword ~ Hope Ann
(Redwall) ~ Brian Jacques
** The Wheat Princess ~ Jean Webster
Stories from Grandma's Attic ~ Alberta Richardson
Tilly ~ Frank Peretti
(The Children of Hurin) ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
The Romance of a Princess ~ Amy Redpath Roddick
# ** The Fellowship of the Ring ~ J.R.R. Tolkien *

*Note: Mel and I are reading LOTR out loud to Fred, Sam and Jill.  We have divided the characters and Mel also narrates.


Monday, September 12, 2016

Thrifting ~ 9-9-16

  When I went grocery shopping with Mum last Friday, we went to Goodwill and I found a few things to picked up.  Everything I found was half-off, which was rather surprising considering that it was the end of the week.  Usually the half-off color is pretty much cleaned out.



I found two of Gail Carson Levine's short story Fairytale re-tellings.  The Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep (Sleeping Beauty) and The Princess Test (The Princess and the Pea).  They are quite amusing.  Ms. Levine has a gift for taking the fairytales and putting a very unique twist on them.


A Love Inspired novel.  I enjoy these and Debra Clopton's stories are pretty good.
 

Lassie Come-Home.  I have seen the 2005 remake of the movie and loved it, so I was excited to find the book.


Adorable Scottie dog pajamas (or Prince John's, as we like to call them).  I was actually looking for a robe, and found not only this set, but also a peachy-pink/black pair.  I would chose red and black any day though.  Now I go around singing 'Red & Black' from Les Mis while wearing red & black pj's!


And then I found a gorgeous teal robe.  It is long, and cozy and wonderful.




Friday, September 2, 2016

Character Interview ~ Sage ~ He Calls Me Drew

  Today, I have the privilege of interviewing one of my good friend's characters.  She in turn, is interviewing Romolina Spencer, a character based on me from my portal WIP The First Family, over HERE on her blog.

  
 In a race against time, unsuspecting Josephine Wolf is torn form her normal life and forced to team up with her sister, Rachel, and Devon, also known as Sage, a boy she has met only once before. The three of them are pitted against a superior race of beings who will do anything they can to stop the little group from succeeding. With her friend’s identity in question and her sister quickly falling in love with a stranger, Josephine has to face a startling new discovery alone: she may be the key to saving the world. But with this pressure all on her and the time quickly slipping through her fingers, which of the plethora of choices presented at every turn will lead Josephine and her team to victory, and prevent the destruction of the Earth?


Sage, why did you become an Agent?
  Well, honestly, it was mostly a way to get away from home. My parents fight a lot, so all of us kids started our training as soon as possible.

How many siblings do you have? Are they older or younger then you?
  I have five siblings, three older and two younger. I only know Rose, who is two years older than me, and Andrew, who is six or seven years younger than me. The other two older ones are undercover in other countries, and have been since I started my training, the the youngest is three months old.

Is Rose an Agent and were/are your parents Agents?
  Rose is an agent, and both of my parents were agents, that is actually how they met. They’ve been retired for…..eight or so years now? They started fighting after my oldest brother decided to become an agent, and it was effecting their performance, so it was just a matter of time until they were forced to retire.

Did you ever feel guilty when you first befriended Raven, knowing that later she would feel that you had betrayed her?
  If I had gotten this mission two years ago, I would have answered yes. But now, I have become so desensitized to lying to people that I can honestly say no. I did not at all….at the beginning at least.

Have you ever wished could have had a ‘normal’ life?
  When I actually had to push the button that officially collected Phina and Ray? Yes. Absolutely.

How long did it take Phina and Ray to really truly forgive you?
  I think up until I helped them infiltrate the main base. I think that I was mostly forgiven before that, but I was really entirely forgiven then.

When did you first realize that you were falling in love with Raven?
  Well….I’m honestly not sure. At first we were friends, and it hurt a lot to have to betray her, but I wasn’t in love with her. But then after a few weeks……I was. I don’t think that there was a specific time. The first time I knew it for absolutely sure was when Raven was knocked out for so long after saving the world and all. I was afraid she wouldn’t ever wake up.

If you weren’t an Agent, what career would you choose?
  Hmm. I haven’t really thought about it, but I think I might go into police work or be a trainer for police dogs.

What are the most important things in your life?
  The most important things in my life…probably Loki. He’s had my back for years, and I would trust him with my life. Actually, I have done that on occasion.

Who are the most important people in your life?
  Raven, Rose and Andrew. I know, I’m a terrible son for not saying my parents, but I haven’t had contact with them in years.