I have noticed with interest the thread that you started Esty, but don't have the book and wouldn't be able to talk intelligently about it. Actually both that particular tome and 'Letters' have been high on my 'to get' list for too long! I need to blow the dust off my change purse!

Oh I have wanted Letter for ages .. thought it was out of print but tried ebay..think it is on Amazon though so really must...

...And it would be so good to find them in hardback, at a reasonable price of course....

I don't think I've ever seen Letters in hardback.

Anyone care for a visit to the ... er... was it seventies? A bit immodest of me, but I'm quite fond of it.

I have ordered a used copy, and am eagerly awaiting its arrival! The hardback version of J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator is quite a bit more, so it will be a bit longer before that will find a place on the bookshelf. I haven't the heart to buy it in paperback. It's hard enough watching LoTR fall to pieces!

So sorry, that I cannot see what this is about the seventies, Helen. You've got my attention, but my curiosity will have to wait until I am home!

Artist and Illustrator is a lovely book. I was confusing that thought with "Letters" and trying to remember a hardbound "Letters"...

Unrelated-- I was just vexed that the other thread sank so fast. And the timeframe-- Eh, Van Morrison sang Brown Eyed Girl in the sixties. Ooops. My mistake.

Just as a post script to my visit to the environs of Tolkiens home in Branksome... it has views over to the Isle of Wight ( the diamond shaped island of the central south coast of England) which is nice and appropriate. There is a pub called the Wight mouse which creates quite interesting ideas!!!!


Byt he way I saw that the Tolkien's Oxford home is for sale again having been renovated - at about twice the price.......

Mithalwen, can you provide more detail about this other home in Branksome?

Don't you just hate real estate developers? Now, there's another addition to Mordor! ;)

Oh yes.. I spend my life writing to the council......

The Branksome house is the "Bournemouth" one (though technically it is in Poole). It could not be more unremarkable. A bungalow (IE all on one story), if it was not new built when they bought it, I doubt it was very old. Quite big with an built on garage, stone clad, greyish brick. Not really a front garden - more paved parking with a few beds. Just a fab location....

Last week was the South County Fair. I scored six elvish dresses. Woot! At fairground prices, too.

You know, with Rae's lovely and comfortable cloak, I no longer ***need*** to switch to hobbit breeches in the fall. I may. Or I could alternate, and dress as an elf early in the week, and a hobbit at the end of the week.

The Downs are back!
 

Well, thank goodness I can get back to the 'Downs! I've been trying since yesterday evening, but the site was down. I feared the forces of Mordor had invaded the internet.

Three cheers to the BW for getting the site back up!

Rather than a "walk to RIvendell" I seem to be embarking on a "Row down the Anduin." I occasionally add in some bike-miles (cough, cough-- er, I'm riding a horse called "Bike"-- from Dunland; they talk funny down there!)

I s'pose I could start at Dol Amroth and go North...

Either way, Autumn will be here before long; the leaves will turn. What will you do? Pull a walking stick out of the closet? Clean off your Horse Named Bike?

I am of course hoping for a trip to Siberia to fetch my Snowhobbits. May the trip be in early autumn, and not the dead of winter....

I justs started the walk to Rivendell and biked (rode) the first twelve miles out-running a ringwraith... ;)

Welcome to the thread Ellewen!

Oh my...
 

:( This thread hasn't been posted in since last year???

Shoo, you nasty neekerbreekers !!! :mad:

*pulls Sting off the wall and cuts down cobwebs...*

How are all of you elder folk ? :D

Still puttering along!

Good to hear it, Miss Hilde! :)

I am "puttering" myself, though I find my bones doing their impression of Rice Krispies of late.... :p

*Snap ! Crackle! Pop!* :eek:

This old geezer is still here. :D

It's been rainy and cold here in the Pacific Northwest - so the ibuprofen bottle has seen its numbers decline to ease the effects of the weather on well-used joints.

Hilde - did you ever get the hardback of 'Artist and Illustrator'? Gorgeous book - I do have the paperback.

My next purchase is going to be a hardback copy of Fonstad's 'Atlas of Middle-earth'. My hubby would laugh at this want of mine. I'm notoriously bad at reading maps on our driving vacations. And am always 'lost'.

I can, however, pinpoint the location of just about any place or landform in Middle-earth - thanks to RP'ing and my well worn paperback copy of Fonstad's book.

Hullo, Samwise! Hi Pio, & Hilde!

I'm still lurking. Anybody hiking? Biking? Singing?

Hmmm, maybe I should name my mountain bike Shadowfax. Or Arod. Except it's black.

Pio! Mark 12_30! :D Hello to the both of you! I have been so busy, it seems, me ol' head has been spinnin. ;p Hm. Well, I've been singing...my bike is my transportation...hm...

sigh...seems like just yesterday I came of age. Where does the time go !?!?! :eek:

I'm still around, and still striding through Middle-earth. I haven't, however, bothered to figure out where I am there; since there are no mileage charts for the number of miles I've accumulated over the past three years, I just let myself meander.

I'm planning a big real life journey, and am now trying to decide whether the tours that are called "for the young and young at heart" are something I can still tackle. So I'm not quite ready to settle down in my rocking chair yet!

I could contribute a few quilts to decorate the clubhouse here - as my location currently says, I'm spending much of my time "in stitches, sew it seams"... (And no, I will not beg pardon for those puns - I like them!)

I took a hike out to the coast with my brother a couple weeks ago. it was a good hike despite iot being cold in land. It was actually quite springlike on the ocean. I'll have to post the pix.

How is everyone? I've not been in the Barrows in awhile.

We moved to BST a week ago and the unusual chill of the end of March has given way to traditional April weather - sunshine and showers but enough extra light to mean a lot of the week-end has been devoted to the garden. I have given the lawns a first rough cut with the hover mower and tidied the hedges. Having worked such long hours last summer I am determined to do more than keep on top of the basics this year. I went to the nursery yesterday for and edging tool and ont he return journey my gar was doing the "mobile greenhouse thing". :D

It was great to feel that Spring is hear even though you don't fully appreciate the size of the garden till you have walked round it with a mower then a rake. One of my pond-fish doesn't seem to clever so I have just bought it a tonic... I am ridiculously attached to my fish ....

Greetings Samwise, Helen, Pio, Esty, Mithalwen and Snowdog!

Ah, in wandering off for a day, and see I missed a gathering of minds here! No, I was not singing down a lonely trail yesterday, or gardening, but I was surrounded by a passel elves and hobbits in the form of a choir competition. And it was lovely voices and lovely songs all around. The day was capped off by watching my niece perform in West-side Story.

Now today I’m back to my puttering. :) In a hurry to get the indoor work done so I can enjoy the outdoor work!

Oh yes, the book came, and also a copy of 'Letters'. Unfortunately, my ‘hardback’ arrived as a soft back though, some sort of confusion with the description on Amazon. But still, it is wonderful! I can’t get over how many different styles and things Tolkien was good at!

Too funny! Sounds like you should either start using 7th Age settings for your RPGs Pio, or else find a way to start vacationing in M-E. I’d opt for the latter! :D

Well, I had better skedaddle. Save space a on the glider for me. I take it these meetings will be held out on the veranda more often these days, with the gardens and fishponds and Esty’s quilts to liven things up.

EDIT: Oh heavens, I've gone and lost my mind again! It's Letters in paperback and Illustrations in hardback!

I would like to get a hardback Atlass of Middle Earth, but I have all these post-it tags and a 3 x 5 card with the various map scales marked out on it that I would be lost in a new book. :)

And as far as spring goes, it snowed and rained all day Saturday... Brrrr....

Ah, Miss Hilde, a choir...
 

:o I'll bet it sounded lovely, 'specially with all those Hobbits and Elves...was it just Westron, or Elvish...High Elvish or common? It all sounds lovely to these old Hobbit ears, but just wonderin' ;)

I’m thinking they were mostly Westron, Samwise. Lovely classical folk songs they were, but more of the type you would hear in the streets of Minas Tirith than on an evening at the Golden Perch. Very well done. A very few were elvish of some sort, I would guess Sindarin. But then, begging your pardon, I’m no scholar to tell you aright! And again a couple as would fit the Shire just fine. :D

It's not been fit to do any gardening here since about last October! Still, this did not stop me dodging hail and sleet today to go and tackle some work, mainly consisting of jet washing containers to get rid of algae, and pruning the tree-like herbs (I am now going to see if I can actually train some of the lavender to grow like a tree). Picked up the gargoyles and Bruce Forsyth (AKA The Thinker :D) from where they had landed in the wind. No signs of frogs or toads yet, and there are already snails about - the curse of every summer for me. I found some Violas which have lasted the winter in little pots on the walls, even though they should have died last summer according to the label, so I didn't have the heart to throw them out! But my many geraniums have bit the dust. I eventually had to stash the new Violas and Aubreita (which I've been after having for years, and nowhere had anyuntil this year!) in the growhouse and retreat back indoors. :(

Violas! I’ve always wanted to plant some of those, but haven’t settled on where. Our daffodils and grape hyacinth are out, and the tulips are coming along soon.

Had an inch or so of snow over the last week, so I’m debating on whether to plant peas this weekend. I'm afraid I don’t know much about them, but the package says they can be planted as soon as the ground can be worked. If that is the case I’m running a bit late, but do have the cherry tomatoes started.(Getting ready for them to be put in hanging baskets with flowers this year!)

I always plant them in small terracotta pots (which I paint blue or white, or combinations of, with stripes or polka dots!) and then group them together on my picnic bench (also blue) so I can enjoy the scent when I'm sitting outside. Last year they were lilac and yellow and this year they are purple and cream, but I might have the fortune to have last year's grow again this year now!

The seasons are all wrong this year. My indoor hyacinths were out at Christmas, I have tulips coming up and the honeysuckle is growing like mad, but none of the trees have shown buds yet, and everything else is barely alive! It's frustrating because I don't know if my purple wallflowers are alive or dead, and they already have fully flowering ones in the garden centre - so I suspect mine are dead. :(

I hope that they are just slow and not dead! As for the trees, ours are just begining to bud now, which is a few weeks after the tulip leaves first began coming up. And the peepers started their songs a bit before that.

It was a strange winter, though, and still we are having spells much warmer than should be at thes time of year.

We had a hailstorm down in t'south too today. And it started just as I had managed (on the third attempt) to get a bonfire going. :rolleyes:

Still, we managed to keep it going and get through the piles of culled foliage that had been collecting. I am quite proud of myself. My first bonfire as an adult. :D

Having raked up a lot of dead stuff I was tempted to burn it in the incinerator but I decided it was too antisocial and incompatible with the laundry hanging on the outside line. It also isn't very eco friendly as well as narking the neighbours. So I indulge my pyromania only on still grey days. Our council does run a collection service to collect green waste and compost it for a small fee so I am hoping that will reduce the need for burning / trips to the tip but I there is no finer way to cook a spud than in the ash of a good bonnie :(

Well, our neighbours aren't averse to the occasional bonfire themselves, so I wasn't too worried. Although the Saucepan Boy (aged 5) did say that he was embarassed by all the smoke.

As for the ecological consequences, I am not too worried about the occasional bonfire, compared to all the stuff being put out into the atmosphere by heavy industry. When I visited Beijing last year, the permanent smog hanging over the city was alarming. It occured to me that, if rapidly industrialising and incredibly populous countries like China can't be persuaded into environmentally friendly means of production, we are all stuffed anyway.

Anyway, we do our bit. We recycle. :rolleyes: :D

I have wonderful memories of family bonfires as a child, so I was rather looking forward to it. I never realised that they were such hard work to start and maintain ...

Still, it's still smoking even now after some heavy rain. :smokin:

It does depend on how recently the foliage was culled. If you let it dry it won't smoke so badly. The stuff I was tempted to burn was cut in the autumn. and since it won't compost or chip I feel more justified in burning it. The incinerator makes life easier but it less fun than a traditional fire but it is a better option since increased planting means I no longer have a suitable bonfire glade. The heat is more intense though so I was quite glad of my workplace fire training when I seemed ready to create the towering inferno in microcosm.

And there is no point in blaming China when the states won't get its act together - rather do as I say not as I do..... :(

I rather agree. But still, the potential for such a populous and rapidly industrialising country to add fuel to the fire, so to speak, is scary ... :eek: :(

Ah, Miss Hilde, I'm sure it sounded lovely, regardless of the dialect anyhow. I don't hear too too much bad singin' (though I admit to listenin' to those awful tryouts on American Idol....). I sure couldn't have told which was which either.

Interestin'. I didn't know there was a Saucepan boy. ;) 5...ah, that's the age I work with (aside from the 4 and 3 year olds). As for children related to me, there's a most adorable 7 month old hobbit/man cross sleepin' on the living room floor at the moment. Better go see if he's still sleepin'....

This would be my nephew, Christopher James, the most adorable little person to ever be learnin' to sit up....;)

-----------> :D <-----------Proud auntie

Hullo to Christopher James and his proud auntie too! :D

Personally, I miss the smell of burning leaves very much, and am quite lucky to have a neighbor who doesn't mind burning our dead wood as long as we haul it over to his place. I think if we had I bonfire, we'd most likely burn the house down. Too many trees and too little experience!

As for industrialization and emissions, it is very frustrating not to have more influence in that regard. Makes one want to look into either the forging or destorying of rings. ;) They got to be out there to pull off that kind of magic.

Thank you, Miss Hilde! Christopher would like to say hi, too!
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