July Bloom Day!

It's Bloom Day! This is my very first Bloom Day post. On the 15th of each month, people around the world post pictures of what's blooming in their gardens. To see all of these posts, or to leave a link to a post of what's blooming in your garden, go here. Below is my Bloom Day contribution for July. Here's what's blooming in my garden in northeast Ohio, USA:

The zucchini are blooming in my vegetable garden:


I was given this plant in its pot, It's a balloon flower (which I learned from one of the other bloom day post-ers), not a moonflower which my husband thought the previous owners called it when they handed it to him. It comes back every year with its beautiful purple blooms:

The day lilies are in bloom around the mailbox:

And other lilies of which the name escapes me:

This is wonderful groundcover for shady spots, but beware! It tends to want to take over! I'm very sorry that I've forgotten its name - I'm very bad at names:

The next two pictures are of a variety of viola that are supposed to be perennial. I just put them in this spring, so I'll see how they overwinter:

Okay, that's all for what's in bloom in my yard right now, except for things like impatiens and hanging pots, etc., which are always in bloom. The next set of pictures is what I find in bloom in the park next door when I go for walkies with my doggy. Most of these pictures are on the wild fringes of the park, where things are left to themselves.

Here are some cattails. I've never seen them as tall as they are this year:

Here is some pretty, yellow bird's foot trefoil:

I'm not sure what variety of thistle this is, but it's in bloom and seeding at the same time! It's a smaller variety, the larger thistle blooms later:

Queen Anne's lace, with its pretty, dark-purple center:

These aren't blooming, but these ripening blackberries are as pretty as flowers:


I don't know the name of these flowers. They are smaller than daisies and begin to bloom when the daisies are finishing up:


There is a bumble bee on this milkweed blossom. There is a lot of milkweed this year, more than I've seen before. For some reason, I really like milkweed, and I'm very happy to see it:


And there are still a few daisies left to enjoy:


Here is some chicory:


I don't know the name of these thing-a-ma-bobs, but we've all seen them in dried flower arrangements. This is the first one to open its little, lavender colored blooms:

And finally, this is not a bloom, but an oddity. A bat caught out in the daytime! I've never seen that before, but then again, I've never looked! I saw it flying over the little pond in the park while I was out taking all of these pictures around noon-time today:


Have a nice bloom day! And don't forget to follow the links found in the comments section here to see what's in bloom today all over the world!

Harry Potter 7 Extravaganza Pictures!

Last year around this time my nice little town celebrated the final Harry Potter book release by throwing an Extravaganza. It was a lot of fun. About 12,000 people showed up, which is about half the population of my nice little town. Most of them were dressed up as witches and wizards.

The Learned Owl Bookshop in my nice little town sponsored the last Extravaganza. For that night they turned into Flourish and Blotts.



The merchants in our quaint little downtown all turned into various wizarding shops for the night.It was like strolling around Diagon Alley, or Hogsmeade.



I've just learned that they were planning a Harry Potter Birthday Bash for the end of August to celebrate Harry Potter's birthday. They've moved the celebration, however, to coincide with the release of the 6th Harry Potter Movie in the fall and a date has not yet been set.

To see pictures of last year's celebration and to learn about this year's planning, click here. The pictures from last year are divided into Character Photos, Start of Term Feast Photos, Everything Else Photos, and More Photos.

The Start of Term Feast was held at a very old private high school in my nice little town, so there was a great hall to use, and you had to purchase tickets ahead for that. It sold out very quickly.

(All pictures from The Learned Owl Harry Potter Webpage.)

Garden Happenings

Here are a few images from my garden.

One of my rows of corn:
The following is a snippet of some peas. I have three varieties, two of which will only get about 18 inches high. This variety, however, will grow as high as 5 feet:
Bush beans flowering in the sun:
And a sunflower plant. I can't wait until my sunflowers bloom:
I'm also waiting for the time when my calendula matures enough to put out flowers.

I have trouble with one of my tomatoes. Although it rained twice yesterday as if we'd been dunked under a waterfall, and all this morning, one of my tomato plants looks like it's wilting. I didn't get a picture of it because my camera ran out of memory just at that moment. Why is that one tomato plant wilting?

Did Robert Graves steal ideas from his Mistress?

I'm familiar with Robert Graves through his books on mythology. His perspective on the female in deity really got me thinking when I was younger. Now it seems that he may have stolen some of those ideas from a former mistress. If you're interested, you can read the article about it here.

From the article in The Independent:

Dr Mark Jacobs, a research fellow at Nottingham Trent University who has spent two decades studying 700 letters he received from Laura Riding Jackson as well as her literary works, said when she discovered the uncanny similarity in his texts she condemned her former lover as a "robber baron". ...

Dr Jacobs said Jackson accuses Graves of "robbing" her of key ideas which he appropriated as his own for his seminal study of poetic inspiration, The White Goddess, published in 1948.

He claimed that the inspiration for the work, which equates God with women, related to an early essay Jackson wrote in the 1930s called The Idea of God and her book, The Word Woman, which preceded Graves's magnum opus.

Story About Love

I have a new story up at my other blog. It's about a broken heart as much as it is about love.

Heart-touching video clip - Christian the Lion

When I was young I was absolutely enthralled by George and Joy Adamson and their Born Free story about Elsa the lion. I even had my room painted lion gold. I had never heard about Christian the lion, but these links (via bookshelvesofdoom) will take you to some more information about Christian the lion and George Adamson. Here is a Wikipedia article about Christian. Here is a Daily Mail article about the lion in my living room. Here is more information on George Adamson.

Back from the battle at the end of the world - Ragnarok XXIII - with pictures

RAGNAROK XXIII

PICTURES

My daughter and I are safely back from our week at Ragnarok. There were several evening storms which meant we got a little bit damp, but it was, once again, an experience to remember. I don't fight, my daughter does. I did my fighting thirty years ago when Dagorhir was first starting out. Below are some more Ragnarok XXIII pictures.

Here are people gathering on the battlefield:

Many people put a lot of effort into their "garb" and their armor:

Here are some things on the ground:

And here they are on a person:

More interesting people:

Now for some action:

Looking down a front line during one of the battles:

More of the front lines:

Fighting is thirsty business:

Surveying the battlefield:

One of the most impressive sets of leather armor I saw the whole week - she's from the Narnia camp:

Ready for battle:

One last shot:


So that's Ragnarok. A full week of medieval/Tolkienesque battles. Any questions?

P.S. If you like fantasy, I have a short story up on my other blog for your enjoyment. It's called The Fairy's Tale. In it you'll find a little Celtic myth and legend, warrior women, manticores, leshies, and of course fairies.

Gone Camping - Ragnarok

I'm leaving today to go camping for a week. Hope everyone out there has a great week! I'll post a few pictures of Ragnarok XXIII when I get back - that's assuming I remember to bring my camera!

The best soap in the world!

I think that possibly the best soap in the world is made about twenty minutes away from where I live at a place called Daybreak Lavender Farm.

The soaps pictured above are some of their lavender soaps.

I'm not affiliated with them or anything, I just like their soap. Take a look at their site and read what they make their soaps with. They are elegant, indulgent cakes of luscious smelling, high quality ingredients.









Last Christmas my husband gave me a cake of spice soap that had things like cinnamon and cloves in it. It was the best smelling thing I have ever bathed with.



The pink soap pictured aboveis a rose soap.


Last Mother's Day I gave my mom a cake of lavender soap. She set it on her table for a while because it smelled like a bouquet of flowers.




The soaps don't smell 'soapy' at all, if you know what I mean. I think it's because of the high quality ingredients they use.



The marbled soap pictured above is an aloe soap.



I just wanted to do a post about Daybreak Lavender Farm and their soaps. They're a small , mom and pop kind of operation, but they do big things with soap.

Harry Potter Prequel, New Story Up

You can read about a Harry Potter Prequel, which was auctioned off, here.

You can actually read the prequel, which was handwritten on two sides of a card slightly larger than a 3x5, if you follow the directions at this site.

I found all of this good information in a post with several interesting links over at the bookshelves of doom blog.

On an unrelated note, I have a new story up at my other blog.

Tech Woes, Next Week Ragnarok

My computer is having some problems so I have to sneak time on other family members' computers in order to check email, check the blogs, etc. Also, I've been busy with my daughter's graduation party, so nothing new has been posted since the 10th. Until now.

This week I'll be getting ready to go to Ragnarok XXIII. Anyone familiar with Ragnarok will say, Ragnarok XXIII? Isn't Ragnarok the big battle that will happen at world's end, according to Norse mythology? How can there be 23 of them? This is how.

It's run by Dagorhir, a group that fights medieval battles using foam weapons. Ages and ages ago, when I was in high school, I participated in the original Dagorhir (see small TV dagorhir clip from 1982 with link at right under fun and interesting links).

I mentioned this to my kids a few years ago and we googled Dagorhir. I was surprised to find that the group still exists, and that it has gone nationwide. They get together once a year for an epic, week-long battle, which they call Ragnarok.

My daughter got involved with a local Dagorhir unit and she went to Ragnarok XXII last summer. I went with her because she wasn't allowed to go alone. We're going again this year. This year there will be an old geezer's night. Old people like me will sit around and tell battle tales from ages long past (only I can hardly remember that long ago). I don't fight anymore, I'm more into bringing a pile of books to read when I'm not watching my daughter fight and watching the fireflies come out in the evening around my campsite.

So that's where I'll be next week, and I'll have zero access to a computer. It's a week-long camp-out. But when I get back I'll post a few pictures. Last year just over 1,000 people participated. This year I think the're expecting about 1,500.

So this week I'll be getting everything together that my daughter and I will need for a week of camping. I'm sure I'll be able to get some more posts put up too, as long as I can manage to kick someone off of their computer - that shouldn't be hard, should it? After all I used to be pretty good with a two-handed broadsword :-)