How About a Cozy Opium Den?

I don't know why or how these things happen, but they do. Last year I planned a psychedelic 60s party for my birthday. It was a lot of fun, but not nearly as many people came as I would have liked. I'm one of those who really needs to own a huge, rambling country house so that I can have tons of guests for an entire weekend. Anyway, tomorrow night we're celebrating my son Micah's birthday, as well as Dr. Kielbasa's...

Eye-Level on the Mainstream Shelf

We got some great news tonight. The Special Edition of Lynette's So Faithful A Heart is now for sale at the Stillwater Hastings. But that's not the best part. The best part is that the woman who selects the books for the store read it and liked it so much—the story, the composition, the cover, everything—she didn't shelve it in the Local Authors or Self-Published section, but with the mainstream novels (famous authors, and legacy published books)...

Middle Earth

What's this? A door in Rivendell? The gates of Moria? No, these are the doors of  St. Edward in Stow-on-the-Wold in the Cotswolds, Gloucester. It's pretty plain to see where J. R. R. Tolkien got a lot of his inspiration. Britain is a fabulously ancient and enchanting land! I think I could look at this all day and one day, when I can ever get back to England, I plan to sit and look at the real thing for a long time.

These photos were taken by Liz Ringrose and are used with her kind and generous permission.

At Brill on the hill
The wind blows shrill,
The cook no meat can dress;
At Stow-in-the-Wold
The wind blows cold,
I know no more than this.