Tom Bombadil!!

You have walked 116.74 miles.
You have passed The House of Tom Bombadil.
It is 15.26 miles to the next landmark.
You have 341.26 miles to reach Rivendell.

The grass under their feet was smooth and short, as if it had been mown or shaven. The eaves of the Forest behind were clipped, and trim as a hedge. The path was now plain before them, well-tended and bordered with stone. It wound up on to the top of a grassy knoll, now grey under the pale starry night; and there, still high above them on a further slope, they saw the twinkling lights of a house. Down again the path went, and then up again, up a long smooth hillside of turf, towards the light. Suddenly a wide yellow beam flowed out brightly from a door that was opened. There was Tom Bombadil's house before them, up, down, under hill. Behind it a steep shoulder of the land lay grey and bare, and beyond that the dark shapes of the Barrow-downs stalked away into the eastern night.

Old Man Willow! Run AWAY!!!!

You have walked 112.14 miles.
You have passed Old Man Willow.
It is 2.86 miles to the next landmark.
You have 345.86 miles to reach Rivendell.

After stumbling along for some way along the stream, they came quite suddenly out of the gloom. As if through a gate they saw the sunlight before them. Coming to the opening they found that they had made their way down through a cleft in a high steep bank, almost a cliff. At its feet was a wide space of grass and reeds; and in the distance could be glimpsed another bank almost as steep. A golden afternoon of late sunshine lay warm and drowsy upon the hidden land between. In the midst of it there wound lazily a dark river of brown water, bordered with ancient willows, arched over with willows, blocked with fallen willows, and flecked with thousands of faded willow-leaves. The air was thick with them, fluttering yellow from the branches; for there was a warm and gentle breeze blowing softly in the valley, and the reeds were rustling, and the willow-boughs were creaking.

My food rules

I'm been thinking about these and trying to organizing them in my head so that I could share them with you, my faithful blog readers.  :o)

So, without any further delay, may I present "Terrie's Food Rules":

1.  No high fructose corn syrup
2.  No artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors or preservatives
3.  No "frankenfoods" (iow, things made from chemicals and other artificial ingredients so that they look like "food")
4.  No hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oils (no trans fats)
5.  No antibiotics or synthetic growth hormones in the meat products
6.  No inhumane treatment of the animals the providing me with dairy, meat and eggs

Seems pretty simple, right?  Honestly, most of them have been pretty easy to stick with, but, readers, I'm here to tell you that high fructose corn syrup is in EVERYTHING!!!  Luckily, though, there doesn't seem to be such a thing as ORGANIC hfcs, so as long as I can afford to choose organic alternatives, it should be easy to avoid.  Right?  Of course, right!

Did anyone else watch the season premiere of "Next Food Network Star" tonight?  I totally LOVE Aarti and Herb!  I think if Aarti can overcome her self-doubt, she's going to go all the way.  What do you think?

Bald Hill in the Old Forest

You have walked 99.58 miles.
You have passed The Bald Hill in the Old Forest.
It is 10.42 miles to the next landmark.
You have 358.42 miles to reach Rivendell.

The hobbits led their ponies up, winding round and round until they reached the top. There they stood and gazed about them. The air was gleaming and sunlit, but hazy; and they could not see to any great distance. Near at hand the mist was now almost gone; though here and there it lay in hollows of the wood, and to the south of them, out of a deep fold cutting right across the Forest, the fog still rose like steam or wisps of white smoke.