Light and Beauty

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while.  The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him.  For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach.  His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself.  Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master’s, ceased to trouble him. (901)

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien

October Sunshine

They were having a rest in a small sand-pit on the top of the Forest.  Pooh was getting rather tired of that sand-pit, and suspected it of following them about, because whichever direction they started in, they always ended up at it, and each time, as it came through the mist at them, Rabbit said triumphantly, “Now I know where we are!” and Pooh said sadly, “So do I,” and Piglet said nothing. (287)

The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh: The House at Pooh Corner, by A.A. Milne

??? {Mystery Quote #25} ???

Last week’s quote was from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, Chapter 18: “Lothlorien”.

Spencer J Rothfuss got the right trilogy, and Juliana got the trilogy, book, and author–and some brownie-points for saying The Lord of the Rings is her favorite book series.  Great minds think alike! 🙂

Another one of the best books ever written for this week:

”  One word.  All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder.  I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it.  So I won’t deny any of what you said.  But there’s one thing more to be said, even so.  Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things–trees and grass and sun and moon and stars. . . Suppose we have.  Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones.  Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world.  Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one.  And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it.  We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right.  But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow.  That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world.”

I always liked this quote!  (And, by the way, it’s less weird in context! 🙂 )

Happy guessing!

October Sunshine

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”  “What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh.  “What do you say, Piglet?”  “I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.  Pooh nodded thoughtfully.  “It’s the same thing,” he said. (158)

The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh: Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne.

??? {Mystery Quote #24} ???

One sweet big sister got back from China late Sunday night!

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Welcome home, Becca!

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Last week’s quote was from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Chapter 13: “Castles in the Air”.

Mama and Ellen guessed it right, and Ellen got the chapter.

I realized after I posted it that last week’s quote fit in with my new October theme.  I wanted to find another sunshiny one for this week, but nothing felt right, so I just went with a random quote from one of my favorite books:

‘They say that you breathe so loud that they could shoot you in the dark.’

Happy guessing!

P.S. Our “Random Writing Challenge” has been going for more than a week now.  I’m officially making the deadline this Sunday, the 25th.  I’m going to try to do a post with all the stories in it on Monday or Wednesday since “Mystery Quote” will be on Tuesday.

October Sunshine

It’s mid-October and Halloween decorations are popping up everywhere–and it’s driving me crazy.  I’ll just be honest, I don’t like Halloween, and we don’t celebrate it.  Costumes are all up my alley, but I don’t have any desire for ghosts–partly a moral issue, and partly because I’m more susceptible to creeps than most people. 🙂

And this year I decided that I was just tired of darkness and ugliness, and I was going to fight them in the easiest way: celebrating sunshine and beauty.

And what better way to celebrate on a story-packed blog than with quotes?  And what is the cheeriest, sunshiniest book on our shelves?  The answer was obvious for me: The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne.

So, on all the rest of the Thursdays in October I’m going to post a Winnie the Pooh quote, starting now:

“Oo, Tigger,” he said excitedly, “are we at the top?”  “No,” said Tigger.  “Are we going to the top?”  “No,” said Tigger.  “Oh,” said Roo rather sadly.  And then he went on hopefully: “That was a lovely bit just now, when you pretended we were going to fall-bump-to-the-bottom, and we didn’t.  Will you do that bit again?”  “NO,” said Tigger.  Roo was silent for a little while, and then he said, “Shall we eat our sandwiches, Tigger?”  And Tigger said, “Yes, where are they?”  And Roo said, “At the bottom of the tree.”  And Tigger said, “I don’t think we’d better eat them just yet.”  So they didn’t. (229)

The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

Random Writing Challenge

I drew this picture the other day, and thought it was good enough to share:

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And then I had an idea:

What if I posted it, and then had all you writer’s out there write a story about it?

So I thought I would open it up to all writer’s who follow me to write a short story about it.  The only limit is that it has to be short enough to comment.  You can write a one- or two-paragraph story (probably with a simple plot line, and not a lot of detail); or you can write a paragraph or so that would fit into a longer story, in which you could be more wordy (and most likely need less time to think 🙂 ).  Anyone interested?

Since I don’t know how to scan drawings, I just took a picture of this one with my camera.  The beauty of that is that you can easily get close-ups, so I decided to share some of the details with you all:

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I didn’t really like how the princess’s nose turned out, but I knew you guys deserve to see her face, since she’s the main thing in the picture! 🙂

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On the other hand, I loved how her dress turned out.  (Lavender is my favorite color!)

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The dragon is modeled after a Halloween decoration at Menard’s.  I wish I was kidding–we don’t even celebrate Halloween!  I just couldn’t decide if I should make it green or red, when that black and orange blow-up dragon came to mind; which led to this.

Oh! and I made the knight’s crest purple to match the princess’s dress, but if you don’t want them to be connected, be free!

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And there isn’t much of a story behind the tree–that’s up to you guys.  It was inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis and The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald.

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Well, anyone feeling inspired?  No pressure, of course; and if it takes you several days to think of anything, all I can say is: it would have taken me longer–trust me!

I’ll probably post some or all of the stories I get in another post, if I get a lot of them!

Have fun!

??? {Mystery Quote #23} ???

Twenty-three! 🙂

Last week’s quote was from The Birds’ Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin, Chapter 2: “Drooping Wings”.

Wonderful, wonderful book (if you don’t mind bittersweet endings that make you cry).  Brownie-points for Mama for being the only one to correctly guess this book!  And now this week we have one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite books.  Can’t you just see this gorgeous scene in your head?

It was rather a pretty little picture, for the sisters sat together in the shady nook, with sun and shadow flickering over them, the aromatic wind lifting their hair and cooling their hot cheeks, and all the little wood people going on with their affairs as if these were no strangers but old friends.

Beautiful, isn’t that?  Happy guessing!