Bonfire Glade

You have walked 80 miles.
You have passed The Bonfire Glade.
It is 18 miles to the next landmark.
You have 378 miles to reach Rivendell.

'I don't know what stories you mean,' Merry answered. 'If you mean the old bogey-stories Fatty's nurses used to tell him, about goblins and wolves and things of that sort, I should say no. At any rate I don't believe them. But the Forest is queer. Everything in it is very much more alive, more aware of what is going on, so to speak, than things are in the Shire. And the trees do not like strangers. They watch you. They are usually content merely to watch you, as long as daylight lasts, and don't do much. Occasionally the most unfriendly ones may drop a branch, or stick a root out, or grasp at you with a long trailer. But at night things can be most alarming, or so I am told. I have only once or twice been in here after dark, and then only near the hedge. I thought all the trees were whispering to each other, passing news and plots along in an unintelligible language; and the branches swayed and groped without any wind. They do say the trees do actually move, and can surround strangers and hem them in. In fact long ago they attacked the Hedge: they came and planted themselves right by it, and leaned over it. But the hobbits came and cut down hundreds of trees, and made a great bonfire in the Forest, and burned all the ground in a long strip east of the Hedge. After that the trees gave up the attack, but they became very unfriendly. There is still a wide bare space not far inside where the bonfire was made.'

Crickhollow

You have walked 73.72 miles.
You have passed Crickhollow.
It is 4.28 miles to the next landmark.
You have 384.28 miles to reach Rivendell.

At last they came to a narrow gate in a thick hedge. Nothing could be seen of the house in the dark: it stood back from the lane in the middle of a wide circle of lawn surrounded by a belt of low trees inside the outer hedge. Frodo had chosen it, because it stood in an out-of-the-way corner of the country, and there were no other dwellings close by. You could get in and out without being noticed. It had been built a long while before by the Brandybucks, for the use of guests, or members of the family that wished to escape from the crowded life of Brandy Hall for a time. It was an old-fashioned countrified house, as much like a hobbit-hole as possible: it was long and low, with no upper storey; and it had a roof of turf, round windows, and a large round door.

Chinese Food

Hannah and I were craving Chinese food for lunch today.  Since we'll be moving soon, we decided to get delivery from our favorite local Chinese restaurant.  It's been a couple of months since we ate there; certainly, we haven't had it since I made this major change in our eating habits.  It made me feel awful!!  For about 3 hours after eating it I was light-headed, jittery and my heart was racing at over 100 bpm,  even while sitting on the couch (I know this thanks to my handy-dandy new Heart Rate monitor  :o) )!  Bleh.  Their menu "says" they don't use MSG, but I can't imagine what else would have made me feel that bad for so long after.

It's grilled salmon on a red leaf lettuce salad for dinner tonight!  Woohoo!!!

Buckleberry Ferry

You have walked 66.42 miles.
You have passed Buckleberry Ferry.
It is 6.58 miles to the next landmark.
You have 391.58 miles to reach Rivendell.

They turned down the Ferry lane, which was straight and well-kept and edged with large white-washed stones. In a hundred yards or so it brought them to the river-bank, where there was a broad wooden landing-stage. A large flat ferry-boat was moored beside it. The white bollards near the water's edge glimmered in the light of two lamps on high posts. Behind them the mists in the flat fields were now above the hedges; but the water before them was dark, with only a few curling wisps like steam among the reeds by the bank. There seemed to be less fog on the further side.

The best beer in the Eastfarthing

You have walked 52.84 miles.
You have passed Stock.
It is 13.16 miles to the next landmark.
You have 405.16 miles to reach Rivendell.

'All right!' said Pippin. 'I will follow you into every bog and ditch. But it is hard! I had counted on passing the Golden Perch at Stock before sundown. The best beer in the Eastfarthing, or used to be: it is a long time since I tasted it.'

Woody End

You have walked 50.21 miles.
You have passed Woody End.
It is 1.79 miles to the next landmark.
You have 407.79 miles to reach Rivendell.

The day's march promised to be warm and tiring work. After some miles, however, the road ceased to roll up and down: it climbed to the top of a steep bank in a weary zig-zagging sort of way, and then prepared to go down for the last time. In front of them they saw the lower lands dotted with small clumps of trees that melted away in the distance to a brown woodland haze. They were looking across the Woody End towards the Brandywine River. The road wound away before them like a piece of string.

You're not going to believe this!

Those of you who read this blog and know me in real life will absolutely NOT believe what I'm about to tell you. I VOLUNTARILY PUT BEANS IN MY MOUTH TODAY......TWICE!!

I read the results of a recent study that showed that people who eat beans/legumes/lentils on a regular basis have an almost FIFTY PERCENT (yep 5-0%) reduced chance of developing diabetes in their lifetime. 50! So, just as I've decided that I'm not going to turn 44 this summer without finally learning to swim, I've also decided that it is time for me to conquer the beans and get them into my diet.

I can't say that I loved them (they were Hubby's refried beans at OTB which he said were not spectacular) and I made extra careful sure that I didn't get any of the whole beans or bean parts in my tastes, but the major victory here is that I didn't gag! Woohoo.

Now, don't any of you get your hopes up that this means I'll EVER get over my loathing of corn-as-an-ingredient thing, because you can just fuggedaboutit!

AT LAAAAAAAAAST!!!!

Yesterday, at the teacher appreciation luncheon, Hannah's science teacher was telling me about this place to go and pick-your-own strawberries. I looked up their website last night and found out that, not only do they have strawberries (both pick-your-own and ones they picked), but they also sell asparagus, local raw honey, local grass-fed beef and bison, local hormone-free milk from grass-fed cows, and they have their own flock of free-range chickens and they sell their eggs. They also have local made cheeses, local made jellies, jams and salsas (OH! The cilantro-lime was KICKIN'!!!) I honestly could have cried with joy when I saw everything they offer. Even better, it's only a little over 25 miles from our new house, so that definitely falls into my "buy my food from within 100 miles of home" guideline. WOOHOOO!! I can't wait to see what other crops they have this summer.

So, the athletic department for Hannah's school was having a fundraiser car wash this morning, so I dropped her off and went to find this farm. I drove through not one, but TWO, Civil War battlefields (cool!) to get there. It's the cutest little place! Since I had to go back and wait for Hannah to finish the car wash, I couldn't buy anything that needed to be kept cold, but, I will be going back on Tuesday to get milk, eggs, chicken, beef and some bison burgers (I've been dying to try this!). Bazingo!

Black Rider!

You have walked 27.88 miles.
You have passed Black Rider Stopping Place.
It is 18.12 miles to the next landmark.
You have 430.12 miles to reach Rivendell.

The other two ran quickly to the left and down into a little hollow not far from the road. There they lay flat. Frodo hesitated for a second: curiosity or some other feeling was struggling with his desire to hide. The sound of hoofs drew nearer. Just in time he threw himself down in a patch of long grass behind a tree that overshadowed the road. Then he lifted his head and peered cautiously above one of the great roots.

Last week of school!

How can I begin to express to my seniors how much fun I've had this semester being their teacher? Or how much I'm going to miss each and every one of them when they graduate next week? Or that I feel I've learned as much from them as I hope they've learned from me? Have I found my calling? Teaching *high school English*??? Really? Really really? Could be. :o)

Hannah and I tried a new restaurant with some friends for lunch today. It's a Mexican restaurant that just opened in a nearby town. I have to say that I did not like my fish tacos AT ALL! At first, I thought the bitterness was coming from the 1/2 pound of cabbage they stuffed in each little taco. But, I pulled one of them apart and took a bite of the fish by itself and it was BITTER. Yuck! I didn't eat the second one at all. I did take a little taste of the cheese/sauce on Claire's enchiladas and it was YUMMY! It was hands-down the best enchilada sauce I've ever tasted outside Texas. I will definitely get that next time. Oh, and BONUS: if you don't want rice and beans with your entree, you can get fresh fruit instead. I got fruit with my tacos and the pineapple was SO fresh and ripe (so, it had that almost-coconutty note--DELISH!). The grapes were not squishy or gross and my cantaloupe was perfectly ripe. It was the best part of my meal today. Hannah loved her chicken fajitas, too, so it gets TWO THUMBS WAY UP from us.

Buzz Boy and I had a great walk today. He did a great job keeping up with me and I didn't feel like I was dragging him up the street even once. We were able to go on one of our longest routes! I think walking early in the morning is definitely the key for us, so, once school is over, it will be awesome to be able to do that every day instead of just T/Th. So, I guess I am looking forward to the summer a little bit.