Tolkien Blog Party 2024 || My Tag Answers

Squeaking in under the wire, but very happy to answer Rachel's lovely tag questions for her (12th!!!!) annual Tolkien blog party. (Which great party you can find here.)

~ Tolkien Blog Party Tag ~

1. The Shire: What place in Middle-earth do you think would feel the most like home for you? 

The Shire is, of course, very much the homiest thing ever, but, other than that, Ithilien. I'm very much an Ithilien girl. ;)

2. Bree: If you could create a Middle-earth-themed restaurant, what would you serve there?

Oh boy... so many choices. Well, while hosting (and helping with) some largish events in this last week (we're in the midst of a crazy 10 days or so here -- it's all been absolutely lovely, but just one thing after the next)... Anyway, in the midst of all that, I realized I literally feel like I can identify very closely with Barliman Butterbur and his inn at Bree. XD 

But that doesn't narrow down cuisine, so putting that aside, hmmm....

Cranberry-orange cider for our event last Saturday --
definitely very Shire-ish

Home atmosphere wise, I do want to create a combination of Shire hospitality and Rivendell, but also.... Tom Bombadil's house has always -- always -- intrigued me. And I love the menu -- the bread and cheese and honeycomb and berries... and the clear water, heady as wine. Not sure exactly how you would encapsulate all that in a restaurant, but it kind of reminds me of what I've heard regarding (simple) French cuisine. So maybe some basics like the above (bread, wine, cheese, honey, cream, and berries), and maybe some light soups, changing with the seasons + pastries or something? I do like baking (and eating) pastries.

3. Rivendell: Where in Middle-earth would you like to hang out with your friends for a week or so?

Rohan, with its wide spreading land bounded by mountains. And either when it's green and rippling with thick fresh grass, or when the snow flies and that same grass is all crunchy with frost underfoot.

4. Moria: Have you ever delved into the history of Middle-earth (or the history of Tolkien's creative process)? If so, did you learn anything cool you'd like to share?

I have delved into various things over the years. It's been awhile, but I do remember doing a deep-ish dive and finding out some interesting things re his women characters. I wasn't able to encapsulate everything, but I did write down a bunch of subsequent thoughts here. (Don't take it all as my final opinion on the subject, but I do still find everything I touched on in there fascinating. And again, not that Tolkien did any of it on purpose. I just think one could make an argument that his imagination was saturated with certain imagery.)

5. Lothlorien: Would you like to sleep in a tree?

The idea sounds marvelous, but in reality I probably wouldn't get a great night's sleep. 😅

6. Edoras: Do you like horses?

Yes. I am worried they make me sneeze (though also hoping that's just the hay 😂). But yes, I love horses. <3

One of the gorgeous animals at our local draft horse show

7. Minas Tirith: Have you ever dressed as a Tolkien character, whether for a convention or Halloween or anything else? (Bonus fake internet points if you share a photo!)

No, haven't done that.

Tempting display of succulents at our local greenhouse
-- something about it just made me think of LOTR

8. Erebor: Do you have any Middle-earth merchandise you particularly treasure?

I have quite a few wooden wall hangings with quotes. One favorite is our "I'm looking for someone to share in an adventure" one. We've created a family tradition of pulling it out and hanging it on the doorknob on days we're planning to do something new and exciting. We don't remember to pull it out all the time, but it's a lot of fun.

The actual sign and door

9. Mordor: Have you ever read anything by Tolkien that wasn't about Middle-earth?

Yes! Farmer Giles of Ham (multiple times) and, it's not quite the same, but I'm also a fan of his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, etc.

10. The Grey Havens: How long has it been since you last ventured into Middle-earth via book or film?

Far too long. I have the aforementioned wall hangings up around the house, but since I actually delved into LOTR properly... I think it's been a couple years actually.

~     ~     ~

Thanks again so much for the tag, Rachel -- they were great questions and most enjoyable to fill out! :)

Inklings || September 2024

Happy September! Below you will find this month's prompt. <3

Rules:

1. At any time during the month, on your own blog post a scene from a book or film that matches the prompt, including a link back here in your post.

2. Make sure to come back and leave a link to your entry in the box on this post. That's it!

~

September's prompt is:

A scene in a kitchen in book or film

So after much deliberation, I decided to go with this scene from Anne of Green Gables. Though I'll be very disappointed if someone *giving a long side eye multiple directions* doesn't also highlight the dwarves' song while cleaning up Bilbo's kitchen in The Hobbit. (Sorry, it's ok. I'll get over it if no one wants to do it. At the same time... *coughs pointedly*)

Internal conflicts aside, I just kept coming back to this Anne scene. I haven't read or watched Anne in quite awhile and I've been thinking of her often these last few weeks -- especially with a few fall colors juuuuust starting to appear. (I've also been researching and implementing a new feeding regimen on our geraniums / pelargoniums so was tickled, as always, by the naming of Bonny here. Anyhow, just seemed like we needed an Anne highlight!

“I don’t dare go out,” said Anne, in the tone of a martyr relinquishing all earthly joys. “If I can’t stay here there is no use in my loving Green Gables. And if I go out there and get acquainted with all those trees and flowers and the orchard and the brook I’ll not be able to help loving it. It’s hard enough now, so I won’t make it any harder. I want to go out so much—everything seems to be calling to me, ‘Anne, Anne, come out to us. Anne, Anne, we want a playmate’—but it’s better not. There is no use in loving things if you have to be torn from them, is there? And it’s so hard to keep from loving things, isn’t it? That was why I was so glad when I thought I was going to live here. I thought I’d have so many things to love and nothing to hinder me. But that brief dream is over. I am resigned to my fate now, so I don’t think I’ll go out for fear I’ll get unresigned again. What is the name of that geranium on the window-sill, please?”

“That’s the apple-scented geranium.”

“Oh, I don’t mean that sort of a name. I mean just a name you gave it yourself. Didn’t you give it a name? May I give it one then? May I call it—let me see—Bonny would do—may I call it Bonny while I’m here? Oh, do let me!”

“Goodness, I don’t care. But where on earth is the sense of naming a geranium?”

“Oh, I like things to have handles even if they are only geraniums. It makes them seem more like people. How do you know but that it hurts a geranium’s feelings just to be called a geranium and nothing else? You wouldn’t like to be called nothing but a woman all the time. Yes, I shall call it Bonny. I named that cherry-tree outside my bedroom window this morning. I called it Snow Queen because it was so white. Of course, it won’t always be in blossom, but one can imagine that it is, can’t one?”

“I never in all my life saw or heard anything to equal her,” muttered Marilla, beating a retreat down to the cellar after potatoes. “She is kind of interesting as Matthew says. I can feel already that I’m wondering what on earth she’ll say next. She’ll be casting a spell over me, too. She’s cast it over Matthew. That look he gave me when he went out said everything he said or hinted last night over again. I wish he was like other men and would talk things out. A body could answer back then and argue him into reason. But what’s to be done with a man who just looks?”

~

Do you love Anne as well? Have you read or watched any of the series recently?

You can pop your links below:

Have fun! <3

Inklings || August 2024

Happy August everyone and thank you so much again for your patience! I hope your summer's going swimmingly well. As you can see, I've taken the plunge (why I keep thinking of water metaphors... it's ridiculous; I'm sorry, I really am), but anyway, I've taken the plunge and we have a couple major changes to our link up! The previous graphic was always beautiful, but I felt the need to mix things up a bit, so decided to make a new one for us with this beautiful picture I took on our trip in June. (Brings up lots of happy thoughts. <3)

And as you will see below, I've made a serious upgrade to the way you can leave links. Going forward, you'll just leave your post urls in the widget for everyone else to immediately and easily access (v. leaving them in the comments section). The new method has the added advantage of keeping the prompts and corresponding posts all together too, which is nice. I think it'll work really really well. (I did post all the June entries in this post as before, though. So make sure to check those out if you haven't been able to yet.) 

I think that's it for the big changes. And below you will find our August prompt!

Rules:

1. At any time during the month, on your own blog post a scene from a book or film that matches the prompt, including a link back here in your post.

2. Make sure to come back and leave a link to your entry in the box on this post. That's it!

~

June Round-Up:

(prompt: an archery scene)

Chloe // Brave

Heidi // Emma

Ivy Miranda // The Princess Diaries 2

Lizzie Hexam // Prince Caspian

~

August's prompt is:

A scene by the ocean in book or film

(I just couldn't resist. xD) My entry is this moment from the 2007 Persuasion, when the party from Uppercross first comes out on the beach while visiting Lyme. 

I always think of this scene whenever we go to the ocean, especially during those first moments of seeing the sea again -- spread out to the horizon -- and then of running out across the sand to meet it. 

(And then, of course, there are all the additional Story Reasons why I love this scene in the film. ;))

You can pop your links below:

Have fun! Would love to hear if you've been able to visit an ocean or which one you'd most like to visit in the future. (And let me know in the comments how the new system is working for you. <3)