What do you "assign" to the Shire?

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

It takes dirt roads to get there. The air has been heavy for days; you're beginning to think it's raining when it's not: your eyes play tricks, moving the opaque moisture in the air into imaginary sheets of slate and silver. It doesn't rain, it just is, and the pressure is intense. The corner of your eye catches ghost motions. Everything is green and shadow.

A high deck, looking out over fields and forests, ending in mountains that jag into the horizon. The sky above you was blue ten minutes ago; you see the last of the clearness fading away toward the mountains. Darkness envelopes you, and lightening flickers absently behind you. Thunder echoes faintly through the countours of the land. Ten year old boys throw balls in the grass below you. An old dog, wet from a recent frolic in the creek, naps on the hot wood. You watch the blue sky recede. You feel the energy in the air.

Without warning, the sky opens; you remember your book, your electronics; you remember that you forgot a change of clothes. You regretfully retreat indoors.

You stand, in a darkened room, in an open door, watching the sky fall, listening to a redwing blackbird berate the wind from the safety of an overhang.

Fresh coffee, the first you've had in a week, made just for you, is pressed into your hand. As you watch the violent storm break calmly from the dry indoors, you smell steam and feel the faint warm glow inside your chest that comes from your favorite indulgence.

Summer storms. I adore summer storms.

[the guy who be short]

Doctors. They do an inspiring job...

[Orominuialwen]

Home-grown raspberries. I love that they grow so fast, you end up picking tons every day or two.

Fireflies. They're beautiful on summer evenings

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

The temperature soars to 96 humid degrees. The sun is roasting. It rained for just long enough to saturate the air and fill it with the smell of steam on pavement. The early afternoon has been spent laying on the floor under a lazily spinning ceiling fan watching Optimus Prime die surrounded by his beloved Autobots after battling Megatron and the Decepticons for one last heart-wrenching time... This is about to sound like an advertisement.

Dunkin Donuts. Because they're air conditioned, they have really good coffee that's just as good iced, and they're across the road from a gas station that's only charging $3.02 per gallon. Hecks yes for cheap[er] gas and cold coffee.

[Elmo]

lying in my garden, listening to Neil Young on my ipod, watching the clouds go by

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Finding a used book store you've never been in. Realizing it's your dream store, at the end of a long driveway surrounded by untended rose and lily beds, with flourishing peonies and weeds, with cats wandering through the towering shelves of books that reach far over your head. Three stories in a renovated barn, with labyrinthine aisles and steep staircases with rickety railings. The smell of must and books that haven't been opened during your lifetime, being sold for a dollar a piece.

Spontaneous sushi lunch outings.

A Superman t-shirt that cost less than a gallon of gas.

Cooler weather than yesterday.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

Finding a used book store you've never been in. Realizing it's your dream store, at the end of a long driveway surrounded by untended rose and lily beds, with flourishing peonies and weeds, with cats wandering through the towering shelves of books that reach far over your head. Three stories in a renovated barn, with labyrinthine aisles and steep staircases with rickety railings. The smell of must and books that haven't been opened during your lifetime, being sold for a dollar a piece.

Oi, missus! That's my house, not a bookshop!

I assign to The Shire when they put Lord of the Rings references into Doctor Who. They have truly surpassed themselves with this last series and that just added a cherry on top of the cake....

[Orominuialwen]

Lemonade on hot days.

Fireworks after a baseball game. Even if the game was phenomenally bad (my team lost 16-7, after making 9 errors!), it's lovely to sit in the outfield on an old sheet and watch explosions set to music.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

Finding a used book store you've never been in. Realizing it's your dream store, at the end of a long driveway surrounded by untended rose and lily beds, with flourishing peonies and weeds, with cats wandering through the towering shelves of books that reach far over your head. Three stories in a renovated barn, with labyrinthine aisles and steep staircases with rickety railings. The smell of must and books that haven't been opened during your lifetime, being sold for a dollar a piece.

Hmmm...your find sounds much more picturesque, but I just found a regular storefront edition not 5 miles from my house (but it does have cats -- I suppose necessary to keep the rodents from nibbling the treasures), operated by a feisty old lady who I believe has memorized each of the thousands of books crammed to the rafters. I found a folio copy of Duc de Berry's Les Tres Rich Heures in excellent condition (I'm a 14th century fanatique), a four-volume set of Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples, an early English translation edition of Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris, and various and sundry hardbound novels to replace tattered paperbacks (Huxley, Dee Brown, Orwell, T.H. White).

I came home excitedly with my finds, only to have my significant other roll her eyes and walk away mumbling something about my books spilling out of the study and encroaching on her living room space, the spare bedroom, the dining room and the first floor bathroom. She's so easily irritated.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

Finding a used book store you've never been in. Realizing it's your dream store, at the end of a long driveway surrounded by untended rose and lily beds, with flourishing peonies and weeds, with cats wandering through the towering shelves of books that reach far over your head.

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Hmmm...your find sounds much more picturesque, but I just found a regular storefront edition not 5 miles from my house (but it does have cats -- I suppose necessary to keep the rodents from nibbling the treasures), operated by a feisty old lady who I believe has memorized each of the thousands of books crammed to the rafters.

PS. Sorry for the size. I have tried to make this smaller, but somehow that ain't happening here.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

PS. Sorry for the size. I have tried to make this smaller, but somehow that ain't happening here.

Hmmm...it would seem this philosophical feline is deeply engrossed in his catechism.