Friday, November 20th, 2009
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10:42 pm - Colors and Turtles Across the Lake
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The focus isn't very sharp in these pics, but the colors are so vivid I figured I'd show them to you anyway. We started on the east end of the lake, and we're going along the northern shore and are nearing the west end now. Across the lake from this picnic shelter you can sort of make out the opening of the south branch or fork of the lake.
( Following the kaleidoscope on the southern shore . . . )
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Thursday, November 19th, 2009
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11:12 pm - Geese Floating on Glass
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Happy Birthday to ![[info - personal]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) mererid who loves birds and the sea. We're about half way down to the far end of the lake. The park around the lake is called Buddy Attick Park--kind of a hobbity name, don't you think? This has been a stressful week, so I'm just going to float along with these Canada geese here. And I'm having a mug of almond milk, with a shot of amaretto and rose water as a thunder storm passes over outside, and Saki is lounging on the ottoman in front of me keeping guard. The rain's picked up, falling louder on the windows, so Tuxie has just dashed into his bunker behind the futon for safety, and Moo just wandered by wondering if she should be worried.
( A time to reflect . . . )
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Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
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11:28 pm - Tree and Sky and Water
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
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10:17 pm - But for a moment, then gone . . .
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From the path, we're looking at a little peninsula that juts out from the place we started round the lake. The bright sea green color on the water is a layer of algae covering this shallow, still part of the lake.
( And a little further . . . )
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8:33 pm - DA WURLD AKORDING TU TUXIE:
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Click to embiggen.
HAND OVR TEH KAMRA KORD NOW N NOBU-D GETZ HERT!!! K?
Saki: Yeah, you better do what Tuxie says, or he's gonna fuck up your face good!
Moo: Mmmmmmmm, box. I love my box. Yeahhhhh.
When he was a stray kitten outside my building, following his mom Moo around, Tuxie Tinuviel Proudfoot didn't let anyone touch him, or even approach him. But the very first part of indoor life that called to him was the dangling chord on my old camera. It was more fascinating than any old snake, or worm, or delicious mouse tail, or twig he had ever seen, and he found that a toy made from artificial fibers, unalloyed by any touch of the natural world, was what he craved most. Toilet paper rollers, crumpled up pieces of foil, plastic bags, may be the found objects most other indoor cats love most, but for Tuxie, it's the toy specially made for cats that fills him with glee. And lasers are this boy's best friend. Still, a chord dangling from a camera maintains a special place in his furry little heart.
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Saturday, November 14th, 2009
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12:06 am - Through the Trees
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Now we're on the path going around the lake and you can catch a glimpse of it through these trees. There's a wider opening where you can see more of the lake, but I like looking out between these ivy-covered trunks. Ivy and moss always add a more primal and mystical touch to the setting, as does the late afternoon sun. There's undoubtedly some hobbits hiding among the undergrowth, watching for Elves to pass by.
( Along the path . . . )
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Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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10:05 pm - Setting Water on Fire
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I love the little glimpses of reflected blue sky at the bottom of this picture, like sapphires gleaming from the bottom of the pool (or Feanorian lamps, or Frodolijah blue eyes.) Do click on it to see it better. This is still the turtle pond right where the path we came up merges with the path that circles the lake.
( More fire on the water . . . AND DUCKS! )
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Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
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11:36 pm - One If By Land, Two If By Sea
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Today I bring you roads of earth and water.
We're still on the path leading down to the lake.
This creek is the one we crossed over two days ago and is flowing beside the path. This view is from the often algae-covered wading pool it flows into, just before you reach the path that circles the lake. On a sunny day in spring and summer, you can often see 20 to 30 turtles sunning themselves on the rocks, branches, and banks of the pool.
As always, click any pic to embiggen.
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Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
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11:33 pm - Path down toward the Lake
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Taking you now a little further along the path toward Greenbelt Lake than yesterday. I blurred the borders of the pic to deepen the depth in the center to send you on your way.
Metro decided to start the Veterans Day holiday early by sending less trains this evening, so getting home took double the time with double the crowds--thank you Metro for delaying the holiday for the rest of us. Buuuuut we have tomorrow off and I get to sleep in and catch up on lost sleep, so that makes me happy.
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Monday, November 9th, 2009
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10:49 pm - Fall at Greenbelt Lake and a Feathered Event
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I told mews1945 I'd try to post pics I took a couple of weekends ago as I walked around Greenbelt Lake, so I'll go do that one or two pics at a time, and try to keep them coming. The fall we had 2 years ago was probably the gold standard for beautiful leaf turning in this area, and I posted a bunch of pics then and never did upload all of them. We'll see how many of this year's I can show you. With the wind and rain the last couple of weeks, leaves have dropped and browned out more quickly this year, but 2 weeks ago was a good beginning of peak.
This is the creek I cross over at the entrance to the lake right behind the community center and down the woody hill I live on.
Tuxie here is overlooking that woody hill. Yesterday afternoon, we had an exciting, slightly frightening, but exhilarating event to watch as a huge flock of migrating grackles--sleek black birds with an iridescent sheen like the rainbows in oil puddles--took a travel break in the trees surrounding our building. The kids, Tuxie and Moo, took their stations in the windowed sun room, but Saki was sitting in the foyer oblivious to this prime time Feline Event of the Century, so I picked her up and put her purring on the watchtower scratching post in the sun room and we all settled down to watch them swoop and flutter all around us, their presence doubled by their shadows racing across the ground below. And the cacophony around us through the screens, loud, raucous, yet musical still, was wondrous. After about 20 minutes, the swarm took to the sky road and continued on south. Two thumbs, and paws, up for that natural performance.
It balanced out the more prosaic and unfortunate bird event later in the day, when I dropped the pan of turkey thighs I was roasting and spattered me and the floor with turkey grease and marinade. Could have been worse, as I'm thankful for the absence of cats in this scenario, who were also good about staying back from investigating the accident scene when I shooed them.
Yes, there were actually no hobbits mentioned in this post. It happens sometimes. Not too often though.
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Sunday, November 8th, 2009
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11:22 pm - TTT Symphony and Claudia Moot Cont. finally
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I never finished posting pics from claudia603's visit for the TTT symphony at the end of August so here 'tis. As Claudia reported, we took it easy the day after the concert, and our only outing was dinner at la Madeleine's in Rockville, a very hobbity place, and hence an excuse for hobbitdoll picspam.
True, Bingo and Sam should have been wearing their more traditional duds for this hobbity place, but they had just gotten those new t-shirts and jackets and shades then, and were eager to wear them on an outing.
( Dinner with Hobbits continues . . . )
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Sunday, November 1st, 2009
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1:01 am - Happy Halloween!
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Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
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12:32 pm - RotK Symphony 9/10-11/2010
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Just got an email that the RotK symphony at Wolftrap, VA will be Fri & Sat September 10-11, 2010 next fall.
The info is here.
Tickets go on sale a month from now.
Shall we plan a moot around it? What say you, hobbit posse?
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Saturday, October 24th, 2009
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11:52 pm - NYC Hobbit Moot 2009, Part 4
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Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
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10:39 pm - NYC Hobbit Moot 2009, Part 3
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So it was Friday night in Radio City Music Hall before the the FotR symphony began, and these were excited hobbits. They may not look it, but I can assure you, they were. The hobbit wranglers, bellehobbit, frodosweetstuff, and I all got our tickets separately but still wound up in the same row a few seats apart from each other, and we managed to rearrange and sit together without any fuss (would YOU want to sit between a couple of hobbit wranglers?), so, luckily, the Frodo's and Bingo didn't have to do a reenactment of Heartbreakingly-Crushed-in-Dimril-Dale to persuade anyone to move.
( Bring forth the report, Frodo . . . )
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Monday, October 19th, 2009
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10:14 pm - NYC Hobbit Moot, Part 2
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Sunday, October 18th, 2009
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12:03 am - NYC Hobbit Moot 2009, Part 1
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Last weekend I had the great fortune to join up with some of my hobbit posse in Manhattan to see the FotR symphony, a Tolkien manuscript exhibit, a talk with Howard Shore and some other Tolkien experts, and Billy Boyd's band Beecake. I'm still recovering from a sore throat, congestion, and tiredness, but it was totally worth it, as it was a wonderful time.
I drove up to lbilover's Thursday evening, where I met up with her wonderful self again, and met for the first time the delightful frodosweetstuff and belleferret. They had just gotten back from a Woodjin tour of the Pine Barrens. Having gotten lost in the Pine Barrens when I was a lil kidling, I was with them in spirit on that. Lbilover drove us into the city--bless her--to the Holiday Inn Midtown where we stayed for 2 nights with 8 hobbit dolls. It was quite comfortable, in a good location, and there was enough room for the hobbit dolls to skate back and forth on ice cubes without getting in our way.
( It's dangerous business walking out your front door . . . )
current music: FotR- The Nazgul
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Sunday, October 4th, 2009
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6:55 pm - Hobbit Month Post: Teaser for MotM, and "From Bag End's Garden"
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Happy Hobbit Month to all my fellow Hobbit Fanciers, Pervy or Otherwise!
I wanted to have a new chapter of Bingo's picfic WIP March of the Mumakling for today, but as the day is running out on me, a teaser pic of that will have to suffice for now:
Bingo's journey, to a destination only known to his trusty mumakling Saffron, will continue soon at an LJ near you.
March of the Mumakling
See Chapter 1 here.
See Chapter 2 here.
See Chapter 3 here.
See Chapter 4 here.
See Chapter 5 here.
See Chapter 6 here.
See Chapter 7 here.
And now I leave you with a little picfic vignette from a later time in Bingo's Tol Eressea story cycle, called "From Bag End's Garden":
( From Bag End's Garden . . . )
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Monday, September 28th, 2009
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11:17 pm - For Claudia's Birthday: "The Ranger's Revelation"
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Thursday, September 24th, 2009
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10:40 pm - Happy Birthday Romeny!
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exhausted
