What a lovely little setup you've got there, Neferchoirwen! So hobbity.

I completely agree about the bread. Any bread, but especially warm, fresh-from-the-oven, apple bread, still steaming gently as you break it apart. Mmm... Or warm white bread, with soft butter spread across, drizzled lightly with new honey.

But I've got to say... there is nothing as connecting and soothing as a fresh cup of tea, lightly steeped so as not to be over-powering, with just a small amount of sugar and milk, to sip on a windy day.

Fea

Remember the Random Title
 

Some more Middle Earth-ish items or ideas that make me remember:
People with long hair, mostly down with a couple of braids. If they're tall enough, I think "Elf."

Tall Snowy mountains, always bring back thoughts of the Misty Mountains, and the journey to Mordor.

I'm deathly afraid to walk near a puddle in which I see lights, even if it's only the streetlight's reflection. One can never know if there's dead elves and men beneath the surface....

sigh........
 

As a teenager october and september were always very special for me. In pennsylvania the fall weather is remarkable. the bright orange and golden hues of the maple trees can turn an entire mountain range into a kaleidoscope of colors. With a few clouds chasing each other across the sky I would grab a light coat and maybe an apple out the door I went. With no destination in mind but a path thru the forest which edged my smalltown. I really don't have the words to describe the beauty of those carefree days, and the lofty heights of imagination JRRT helped me find. except maybe to say on those walks thru the woods a cloud would break, or a shaft of sunlight would sneak thru the vault of treetops and suddenly I was in the fair gardens of lothlorien; or maybe creeping thru the gloaming of mirkwood.
Later in life I borrowed from Jrrt's literary skills to woo my onetime fiance. to great effect i might add. ;)

I think of Beorn every time I eat bread and honey.

That, of course, being my inspiration for eating it in the first place. I thought, "Why not try it?" and then ended up attached to it. I rather like lembas as well (although I can't remember where I found the particular recipe anymore), but my mother doesn't much like when I use copius amounts of honey for it.

Fea

Oatmeal
 

It always happens right before I eat a bowl of oatmeal (the rolled oats kind). Just before I dig in, I feel as if I'm having a breakfast at the Shire.

My desk doesn't look like the photo I shared, but I'm happy that I won't be cramming during the rest of the trimester. :D I hope. :p

Those are all very wonderful...

I said it once before and I'll say it again:

Really good friends..friends through thick and thin and who won't leave you alone when you don't realize you need them..friends who will always be there..who will always be around...who will never insult your intellegence or your beliefs..they LOVE you for WHO YOU ARE...they immediately accept you.

Omigosh, ninlaith... I agree with you about the friends.

Yesterday I gave blood for the very first time, and I was terrified. You see, I'm very afraid of needles... But my friend Sharon stayed with me as long as she could, and then when I was on the table, she stayed in view. They um... screwed up... on the first attempt... The nurse forgot to clamp the tube, so they had to take out the first needle, and right away, Sharon was next to me telling me I was doing great and bringing me a can of V8... my favorite... (she's slightly older than me, and has given blood a few times before). When I decided to let them try my other arm, she applauded me from a distance, and when they finished vampirizing me, Sharon was the first one to help me over to the food table (I'm rather small, so I was feeling a little woozy at first when I got up). All the while, knowing that she was there to help me wherever she could, I was thinking "Sam and Frodo, Sam and Frodo, Sam and Frodo." That is our relationship... we help each other with whatever the other needs, whether it be finding butter for mashed potatoes, committing minor acts of frowned-upons... or moral support to fight our way through fear.

Friendships... true friendships... remind me vividly of The Lord of the Rings.

Fea

More things which make me think of Middle Earth.

When my Dad rings me up and says "Do you want me to fetch yer some taters and cabbage from the farm shop?" I always think of Hobbits, naturally.

Whenever I eat lovely butter shortbread I think of Lembas.

On Monday evening, after the clocks had 'gone back' it was twilight when I left for home. My car was covered in a deep drift of huge golden sycamore leaves which flew off in great flurries when I set off. I always think everything sparkles with the first signs of winter, and I feel a sense of excitement. Once the Christmas decorations are up in the shops, it not only makes me think of Middle Earth, but also, strangely, of John Betjeman! I have moved to a new area at work, overlooking a miserable courtyard; it is only enlivened by the appearance of the crows who roost in the forlorn tree in the middle. But on Monday it took on a new appearance. As the lights came on with the twilight, I looked out to see a towering cliff face, the windows sparkling in the gloom. It was quite monumental and almost noble - but I'd die if anyone at work heard me say that. ;) Another new thing which reminds me of Middle Earth is my manager's guide dog - we have started calling him 'Bill' after the infamous pony!

I saw toffee apples the other day, and these are always something I imagine Hobbit children eating - and then having to visit the Hobbit dentists to attend to broken milk teeth. ;)

We have a Fairy Ring growing in the yard! That's when the mushrooms grow in a circle.

Mushrooms always remind me of Hobbits, but Fairy Rings especially remind me of Middle Earth.

I happen to have naturally blond hair that's longer than average (although I don't think my avatar shows it very well) and bluish-gray eyes, so I do seem to resemble some of your ideas of what reminds you of Middle-Earth... I had no idea that I was this year's Mr. Middle-Earth or something.

My family often takes vacations out in the Blue Ridge mountains in western Virginia, and when I've gotten a bit ahead on a hike and nobody else is around, it's kind of like Middle-Earth, and for some reason I am reminded of Ithilien in particular. I don't know why, maybe it's because all the weathered rocks remind me of fallen statues.

Also when I am on a road trip or other long journey late at night I get that feeling of adventure..or something. It's kind of hard to describe. I'm usually half-asleep at that point while my parents are driving, so I just sometimes look out and see the landscape going by, then go back to sleep. It kind of reminds me of Gandalf and Pippin's journey to Minas Tirith in several ways.

Going outside on a clear evening or early morning and seeing the stars shining brightly is a very Elven experience for me - beautiful, moving and uplifting! I think what it must have been like for them to awaken to the stars, though I can't imagine living in continual darkness...

I'm hoping Eru would hvae been kind enough to design them without Seasonal Affective Disorder. :p

But (assuming he did) wouldn't it be cool to have such superb eyesight that you could see normally by starlight to live a normal life-- hunting, gathering, feasting, and whatever else a newly awakened elf does through the day-- er, endless twilight?

Going back a bit, but Neferchoirwen, you desk mad me smile. :)

We had a Fairy Ring growing in our yard at my old house before we moved. I didn`t see it until our last day there, and I had just bade my friends farewell. The first thing I thought was "Hobbit" when I saw it, because of the mushrooms. On inspecting it more closely I noticed that they were growing in a circle. Call me lame, but when I saw it, my hope was renewed.

Also, when I left my friends I was greatly reminded of Frodo`s last moments with his friends before he departed Middle-earth. At school, we had formed a fellowship (even though we were all female), and I was chosen to be Frodo, being the only one with a One Ring. So in leaving, I was like Frodo going into the west. (The place where I moved to really is west of where I lived before.) ;)

Nimrodel

Random Title#1034
 

I went to a place that was particularly foggy yesterday and loved it. Fog reminds me of ME. There's something mysterious about it, that captures my attention. It seems to have the essence of an elf, the surreal wisdom and beauty. Fog also feels old and enternal like the stars in the sky.

I'm feelin' the fog. It's always REAL foggy here at this time of year. Every morning I step outside no there's fog. Whenever I'm walking to class I always look back to make sure a Ringwraith isn't following me. It's so creepy but so awesome at the same time. It's swell.

I feel like a hobbit when my friends and I would talk at a coffee shop like we were the only people there. Or when I was still in college and 4 or 5 of us would invade the whole cafeteria with our laughter. Or when a friend and I would sit under a tree (ironically next to a McDonalds :rolleyes: ) and talk about life.

Good times. :smokin:

I don't know why but Harry Connick Jr's version of Danny boy always makes me think of ME. It has a very Hobbit-like essence. Especially the beginning where it says "From glen to glen and down the mountainside..." it makes me think of the Shire. Like the part where Bilbo talks about "the woods...the fields...the little rivers.." I think of the same things when I listen to the song.

Random Titles....BUMPED!
 

*Bump*

This actually happened 2 weeks or so ago, but I was busy with other threads to post it:
I was driving my mother to the Doctors office, and the route that I took led us from small city to country (which was weired being that this little canyon of sorts is in the middle of town.) For a moment I could have sworn that we had somehow gone through a dimensional rift, for before my eyes was the forrest/hills next to Farmer Maggots! The trees absolutely draped in bright-green moss, fog, thick fog, filling the area, and old wet leaves covering the ground. It was positively magical!

Nowadays whenever I see the sea I say to myself. "Here at the shores of the sea comes an end to our fellowship.

Also when I see people wearing a ring on a chain I automatically think, The Ring

Since I have to take the schoolbus early in the morning I always see the sunrise. If it is dark dark red I call it a Mordorian sunrise.