Wordless Wednesday: Autumn

Book 7 of 2015: Quidditch Through The Ages by J.K. Rowling

At the beginning of December 2014 I read Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, one of the two Comic Relief/Harry Potter tie in books J.K. Rowling released back in 2001. It only seemed natural that I followed it up with the companion book Quidditch Through The Ages the following January.

It's one of the books that is mentioned early on in the Harry Potter series and is designed to be a reproduction of a library copy from Hogwarts, complete with additions from the students who have read it. It's packed with information about the history of the game, going right back to its origins, as well as famous teams from around the world, and interesting moves and plays in the game.

I mentioned last week that I read Miramont's Ghost which left me mostly disappointed but slightly creeped out. Well, I live in an old house, in the grounds of an even older house, and it was January so night time was very dark (and therefore even creepier). I decided that before I could actually go to sleep I needed to read something a little less creepy. It was about 9:30pm so I needed something quick and easy; Quidditch Through The Ages fit the bill.

I have to admit, I don't enjoy this book as much as Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. I put it down to the fact that I'm probably the least sport-minded person in the history of the world and apparently that extends into fictional sports as well. All the same, it's funny and interesting.

I like that there are mentions of things that come up much later in the series. I love that J.K. Rowling laid so much groundwork to set up the world. You don't have to read these books to enjoy the others, but you get an extra level of the Wizarding World and that's always a good thing. There's so much depth in these books that you know these things are in the story somewhere, I wish there were more of these books to take us further into the world.

Speaking of which, I stand by my insistence that if they ever produce any more of these books, they have to release Hogwarts, A History. I would love to learn more about the history of Hogwarts, even if it was as slim as this book (a mere 56 pages). That's another complaint, of sorts, I wish these books were longer. I know they were released for charity and were just designed to be little books, but I can't help but want more. I'm never satisfied.

One thing did really make me smile while I was reading this:

Caerphilly Catapults
The Welsh Catapults, formed in 1402, wear vertically striped robes of light green and scarlet. Their distinguished club history includes eighteen league wins and a famous triumph in the European Cup final of 1956, when they defeated the Norwegian Karasjok Kites

Because at the time of reading this book I'd been to Caerphilly about a fortnight before.

Which is something else I like about this book. The list of the teams means that there's something there for almost everyone to relate to; there'll be a place where they live or have been or which is near to them and they can imagine where that Quidditch team might play. It's a little bit like giving something back to all of the Harry Potter fans who obsess over the series and wish they could go there too.

Reading a reproduction Hogwarts library book is about as close as I'm ever going to get to going to Hogwarts, so if that's the case, I'll take it!

Windows 10 - My Thoughts

I got my new laptop, affectionately named Bloo, for obvious reasons, a couple of months ago because my old one was slowly dying. I didn't get it a moment too soon either because when I booted up my old laptop a few weeks back it had entirely died on me; it's either the motherboard or the harddrive, neither of which I've got the time nor the inclination to investigate further.

One of my concerns with getting the new laptop when I did was the fact it would mean having Windows 8.1; and I'd heard things about Windows 8. Part of me wanted to hold off just a little while and wait until Windows 10 came out (because I know the rule of Windows Operating Systems). The other part of me, and my family, knew that a new laptop was needed immediately, so I sucked it up and kept hold of my copy of Windows 7 just in case a downgrade was needed.

And Windows 8.1 didn't actually bother me that much. There were a few things that frustrated me about it; the tiles screen could have been a little more flexible, the lack of a Start button was a pain (but I had an add-on that took it's place pretty well), I could never find the calculator when I wanted it. But I got used to it and I loved my nice smooth running, fast laptop especially when compared to my old one.

But then I got a message telling me I could get Windows 10. I nearly ignored it because I thought it was going to be a free trial or something, or you'd end up having to pay some sort of subscription. But nope, if you had Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 you were eligible for a free upgrade to the (so-called) last Windows OS.

When I got the message to download it, I did, and then I waited and waited and waited, and waited a little bit more.

I know how these things work when it comes to technology. There are always a whole host of bugs that need to be ironed out before you can actually use the stuff properly. I kept an eye on what people were saying about it; I googled what actually happened when you hit the button to go through with the upgrade; I googled what I needed to do before I went ahead.

I was prepared to download all the Windows 10 drivers for my laptop, I backed everything up, I googled a little more. Then I decided to go ahead with it last Sunday. I planned to devote the whole day to the task. I didn't need to. It was done within an hour and a half.

And so far?

Well, it's kind of like Windows 8.1 but different.

I like the fact that everything was exactly where I'd left it when I started my laptop up for the first time afterwards. I like that I've got my Start button back. I do kind of miss my page of tiles, but I'm sure I'll come to terms with it. Everything seems to be much as it was before and, as I don't have internet access at home, I've not had much of a reason to play with features such as Cortana.

The one thing I had a slight issue with was when I started up trusty Blue for the first time after doing a full shut down. It seemed to take F.O.R.E.V.E.R.

This is maybe a slight exaggeration. It's definitely an exaggeration. Especially when you consider the fact that my old laptop used to take upwards of half an hour to start up fully and let me do anything (rushing it resulted in the poor thing locking up or having a hot flush and needing to have a shut down to get over it).

In reality F.O.R.E.V.E.R. is probably a lot closer to about two minutes. But it's a long time to sit starting at a black screen when you're not used to your laptop doing things like that.

It was back to Google again for the fix. Ironically the issue seemed to be in part caused by something called 'Fast Start-Up' which is actually anything but. That shaved some time off it. The other cause is to do with graphics drivers, which I'll investigate when I get around to it.

Other than this, I'm coming to really like it. I keep finding little things that just makes sense; like when you select the Start button and 'All Apps' and they're in alphabetical order, it makes things easy to find; or when you're opening or saving a file in a programme it gives you your recently used folders, I know past versions of Windows have done this, but it just seems to work so much better in Windows 10.

Sure there's hiccoughs and teething problems, but the kinks are ironing out nicely. I've not found a single programme that I used before that doesn't work on the new operating system (even my ancient version of Photoshop Elements which I thought was going to cause problems since it jumped up complaining that I didn't have Internet Explorer 5 on my computer). I'm tempted to dig out some of my really old games to give Windows 10 a run for its money with them at some point.


Have you upgraded? How are you finding it?

Weekly Rundown: Autumn Walks

Autumn is well and truly upon us and I love it.

For me autumn is sweeping leaves, getting cold and damp, warming up with hot chocolate and an old Disney animation.

It's cold mornings and blue skies and seeing your breath. It's woolly hats and welly boots and gloves and scarves.

It's going for walks with the people you love, kicking up leaves and taking photos of all the colours.

And there are so many colours in autumn. I mean, spring makes an effort, and summer tries hard, but autumn has really got it covered in the colour department. And they all change so quickly. The road you travel along in the morning might look completely different by the time you head along it in the evening.

It's like magic.

We've taken a couple of autumn walks this last couple of weeks. And I've brought my camera along with me for some nice autumnal photos.

Autumn isn't even my favourite season of all. I like winter best; but autumn is the prelude to winter. It's the build up to NaNoWriMo, Mr Click's birthday, our anniversary, Christmas; all of my favourite things.

Yesterday the weather was so nice that, even though the sky was a little bit grey, we were able to walk without jackets. I also got a whole bunch of photos of Tara as well. She's a really photogenic labrador, but you have to catch her at the right time; when you're on the way back from the walk is best, when she's too tired to be too playful.

Of course, up there I mentioned autumn being a time for hot chocolate. Well, in the run up to NaNo I've decided to give up chocolate (just because I can, I'm not addicted, I can stop any time I want to, see) but this is proper hot chocolate weather and it's making it hard to stick to my resolve (not because I'm addicted, because of the weather). I've also dug my knitting out again because it's the right sort of weather for that as well. The nativity is getting back on track after about a month off and I'm starting to make more plans for my next project after this.

I've fished my OU hoody out of my wardrobe (it's been nearly a year since I got it), I've got my thick socks on; neither of these things mean a huge amount since I live in Scotland and wear hoodies and thick socks year round. We've had the heating on and extra cups of tea and a hot water bottle in bed. The nights are getting darker and chillier.

I love this time of year.

Film Review: The Return of the King, Part 4

Time for the next part of The Return of the King. It's another long one because it's a very long film.

Last week Gandalf had Pippin engage in a little light arson in order to summon the Riders of Rohan, meanwhile Denethor was disappointed with his one living son, and Gollum got Frodo to kick Sam out their little trio. With the exception of the summoning of Rohan, it was pretty depressing.

134. Oh look, cameo from the Jackson children. And I'm sure on the commentary it mentions some other family members who you can see in the crowd.

135. The way they're throwing down flowers at the feet of the soldiers is like it's a funeral. Everyone knows they're going to their death.

136. Gandalf's insisting that Denethor loves him. He's got a funny way of showing it.

137. The sound of the gates opening sounds a lot like one of Treebeard's sighs. Maybe that's where the Entwives went? Gondor turned them into fixtures.

138. You know this is a serious battle because of the swelling music, the glimpses of the enemy and the fact that they're riding in slow motion.

139. I love Billy Boyd's song. Whenever I get to the bit where the words were taken from in the book (I think it's in The Fellowship of the Ring) I can't help but read it in time to this song. They couldn't have picked anyone better to sing the end song for the final Hobbit film.

140. Of course in the book, this is a much happier song. The way it's sung here and the context makes it so sad.

141. It's so different from the Green Dragon song and 'Hey Ho to the Bottle We Go'.

142. Aw, and Gandalf is sitting all alone and looking sad. He's all powerless to help at the moment.

143. Rohan's camping trip is going well. There's quite a few of them, just not quite enough.

144. Aragorn's being quite critical. I mean, I know he wants to save the kingdom he's due to take over, but Théoden didn't really have to help. He should be a little bit more grateful.

145. We'll be learning about the Paths of the Dead soon. The horses don't like to be near the entrance to it, but Aragorn seems drawn to it.

146. Merry nearly eviscerates Éowyn after she dresses him up in armour. She sounds a bit Australian when she speaks here as well.

147. Éowyn's a bit annoyed with her brother for laughing at Merry. She's so determined to go to war. Éomer should be nicer to his sister, he'll feel bad about it later if he doesn't.

148. I guess he just wants to look out for his little sister.

149. A mysterious rider has arrived at the camp and Aragorn is dreaming of Arwen. These two things appear to be connected.

150. Théoden's tent is really well furnished. It's more decorated than Edoras!

151. Future father-in-law has shown up with the new that Arwen is dying. Elrond's surprisingly calm about all of this. He knows about the Corsairs coming up the river to attack Minas Tirith and tells him that there is somewhere that he can go to get more men. There's a creepy wind that blows through the camp when the Paths of the Dead are mentioned.

152. Elrond's pretty awesome here as he presents Aragorn with Anduril. Aragorn's way of saying thank you is to practically chop off the end of Elrond's nose when he unsheathes it.

153. That is a really long sword. There's a joke to be made there. I'm not going to make it.

154. Perhaps Elrond is just trying to get rid of Aragorn so he can ship Arwen off to Valinor. He's like, 'go on, go to the Paths of the Dead, you know you want to'.

155. Éowyn's trying to talk him out of going. Aragorn has to talk her out of fancying him. Poor Éowyn.

156. Gimli catches Aragorn trying to sneak off. Legolas invites himself along on the trip as well.

157. Perhaps Aragorn should explain where he is going and why because all the whispers start as they leave. Clearly they think the battle is doomed and they're off on a suicide mission. At least Théoden seems to understand why he has to go.

158. Théoden is really a cool old man. He knows they don't stand a chance against Mordor, 'but we will meet them in battle nonetheless.'

159. Éowyn's just a sad shell now she knows she won't get it on with Aragorn. Théoden's being all nice to her. I wish they had more time together, it's all Gríma's fault.

160. If you watch the rock formations that Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli walk past in the background they go past the same ones a couple of times.

161. While I've been watching the background, Legolas has been telling Gimli (and the viewers) that the people in the mountain were cursed for not going into battle and only Aragorn can call them to fulfil their obligations.

162. The music is all creepy so we know that this isn't going to be a fun excursion. As they wait outside the entrance there's another creepy gust of wind and the horses take off.

163. It's just as well Aragorn has his sword in his hand because it looks like the horse has gone off with his scabbard.

164. Gimli has to talk himself into going undergrown, especially as Legolas went in without complaint.

165. Éowyn's not the only one being ordered to stay behind. Théoden doesn't want Merry to go with him. Luckily a stranger rides by and lifts him up on the horse in front of them.

166. If Éowyn is heading off to battle, who is ruling the people of Rohan while she's away. If the battle had gone really badly would she have just left the people she was supposed to lead to face invasion without anyone in charge? I wonder if she's like Queen Amidala and she has a bunch of lookalike handmaidens or something.

167. Legolas is seeing things as they journey underground. Gimli's freaked out by this because he can't see anything. I'd be freaked out too if someone told me the dead were following me!

168. And now they've walked into some low fog. Low fog from which creepy skeletal ghostly hands keep stretching up. Gimli's technique is to blow them away. If he keeps huffing and puffing like that he's going to hyperventilate.

169. As if this place couldn't get any worse, they've got to walk across a carpet of skulls which fracture and break beneath their place. It's a bit of a fixer upper.

170. The Leader of the Dead meets them in a big hall. He reminds me of the ghost in The Frighteners who kept losing his jaw. It's clever the way that he seems to vary between looking like a skeleton and looking like a desiccated corpse.

171. The trio is surrounded by ghosts as their leader tells Aragorn that the only person who can summon them is the King of Gondor. So Aragorn casually puts up his sword and points out that he is the King.

172. Aragorn is so awesome that he can grab ghosts by their throats. Mordor doesn't stand a chance.

173. The Dead don't agree either way. Instead they all disappear and then an avalanche of skulls is unleashed. Are all of those skulls from people who retreated to the mountains instead of fighting? There were an awful lot of them.

174. For a moment it looks as though the trio are going to be buried alive, but they make it out, in prime position to see settlements burning and the Corsairs making their way up the river.

175. Aragorn's upset so Legolas offers a comforting hand on his shoulder. It's all very sad.

176. Then the leader of the Dead shows up and announces 'We fight'. And we know things are going to be okay.

177. Except they're not so okay in Gondor since Faramir's horse has just come back dragging a badly wounded Faramir behind him. What is it about Denethor's sons and Orcs using them for arrow target practice?

178. The Orcs outside are unleashing a bout of psychological warfare on the inhabitants of Minas Tirith. They're throwing heads of Gondor's soldiers into the city. Nice.

179. Denethor's pretty much lost it now. He's convinced Faramir is dead, that Théoden isn't coming (which is rich considering he didn't want to light the beacons to ask for help), and he starts telling everyone to run away.

180. Luckily Gandalf is there with his staff to beat some sense into the Steward.

181. What he should really have done there is locked Denethor up somewhere that he couldn't do any harm and then taken over the city. Instead he's taken over command but left Denethor nursing his bumps so he can do what he wants with his severely injured son.

182. Poor Pippin is running around trying to follow his company whilst the whole city is under siege.
We'll leave Pippin where he is because he's kind of falling behind and I think he might need a week or so to catch up.

Next week'll be pretty much all fighting because there's a lot of battles going on in Gondor. Or rather, it's the same battle but in lots of different places.

Chapter-by-Chapter: New Moon, Preface

You probably would not believe how long I've been putting off this book. It's not been helped by the fact that, at the end of last week, I started reading The Time Traveler's Wife which is easily my favourite book written by someone who is not J.R.R. Tolkien. It's a wonderfully constructed tale of love, loss and time travel. It's beautiful, well thought-out, deeply researched, and cleverly written.

And then I put it down and realised I had to read this. New Moon. It was a bit of an anti-climax.

Plus I wasn't feeling one hundred percent on Saturday, and upgraded my laptop to Windows 10 on Sunday and somehow there just wasn't time to read it. Not to mention a distinct lack of motivation.

But I'm reading it now.

And we'll start with all the guff stuff at the beginning of the book. Meanwhile, I'll eat a couple of bikkits and try to get my attitude in gear and be a little more enthusiastic about my latest Chapter-by-Chapter reviews. After all, it's been a couple off weeks since we last saw Moodswing Boy and his lover, The-Pale-And-Clumsy-One, I'm sure they're practically different people by now.

So, I open the cover of New Moon. As I mentioned last week, it's white with a red and white flower and no title. Luckily the first page says New Moon so we know we're reading the right book. The pages' red edges have bled onto the rest of the page a little bit here so it looks like Edward has used it as a napkin after supper.

The next page reminds us that these are written by Stephenie Meyer. I've always wondered about the spelling of that, but the third page kind of solves that for me:

For my dad, Stephen Morgan --
No one has ever given more loving and unconditional
support than I have been given by you.
I love you, too.

Stephenie is named after her dad Stephen. It all makes sense now.

But Stephenie isn't done yet. After dedicating the book to her dad, she devotes a whole page, in teeny tiny print no less, to a whole host of Acknowledgements. One of these piques my interest:

Thanks to all my siblings, Emily, Heidi, Paul, Seth, and Jacob,
for letting me borrow your names. I hope I didn't do anything with them
that makes you wish you hadn't.

My first thought on this is that it's a bit late now if they're not happy about it; my second thought is that the siblings really lucked out on the name front!

I seriously can't imagine using a person I know for a character. When I came up with Behind the Scenes I called Jack 'John' for a whole page before deciding that Abby couldn't have an Uncle John because I had a couple of Great Uncle Johns and it just felt weird using their names. I'm doubly glad now that I've gone on to be married to a John, but it's also meant that Jack has been well and truly crossed off my name list.

Anyway, back to the Acknowledgements. Stephenie has to thank each of her brothers again individually. I wonder if her sisters are miffed at the fact that they've not been given an extra mention.

The final mention is:

And, finally, thank you to the talented musicians who inspire me,
particularly the band Muse – there are emotions, scenes, and plot threads in this
novel that were born from Muse songs and would not exist without their genius.
Also Linkin Park, Travis, Elbow, Coldplay, Marjorie Fair, My Chemical Romance,
Brand New, The Strokes, Armor for Sleep, The Arcade Fire, and The Fray
have all been instrumental in staving off the writer's block.

This is beginning to read a little like the Author's Notes at the start of something you'd find on FanFiction.net. I feel like I'm about to start reading a songfic!

You'll be pleased to know we're almost at the actual beginning of the story. A quick glance at the Contents page shows that we're following the familiar pattern from Twilight, most of the chapters have single word titles. I can kind of guess what's going to happen in some of them already ('Party', 'Cheater', 'Intruder', 'The Funeral', etc.). Looking down the list though, I'm not seeing anything that screams 'Bella gets turned into a vampire!' so perhaps that's not going to happen in this book.

Next we get a quote. This time it's from Romeo and Juliet:

These violet delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder
Which, as they kiss, consumeRomeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene VI

If I was a mean person I might make a comment about this being some of the most well written prose in the entire person. But I'm not that person, so I'll refrain from saying something like that.

And finally, six pages later, we land on Page 1. The Preface.

I'm guessing that we're following the same formula in this book as in Twilight since Bella, I'm guessing it's Bella since she narrates the story from a first-person point-of-view, is in another life or death situation. She seems to be awake but she's talking about dreaming, well, nightmaring.

This time she's not the one in peril, someone else is and she has to save them. Alice is there as well. Or at least, she's in the area and there's a risk that she might die. I don't want Alice to die. Alice was the best character in the whole of the last book! Bella might die as well though, so at least it's not all bad news.

Things take a turn for the dramatic in the penultimate paragraph:

So it didn't matter to me that we were surrounded by our extraordinarily dangerous enemies. As the clock began to toll out the hour, vibrating under the soles of my sluggish feet, I knew I was too late – and I was glad something bloodthirsty waited in the wings. For in failing at this, I forfeited any desire to live.

Ooh. I'm kind of curious to find out what's going on here. I'm sure we'll find out somewhere in the next 300 pages.

So what do we know so far?

• Someone is in danger
• Bella is running to save them (thereby putting herself and anyone else around her in danger as well)
• Alice is somehow involved
• Alice has to stay out of the sun
• It's midday
• There are multiple bad people involved
• They are bloodthirsty and are therefore probably vampires
• Bella's not going to be able to get to wherever she needs to go in time to save whoever she is supposed to save

I feel like I know more about what's going on now than I did for most of Twilight.

Colouring In: Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford

I've mentioned colouring in rather a lot recently. This is because I'm obviously spending quite a lot of time doing it at the moment. I've got quite the collection of colouring books but my copy of Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford is kind of my go to one at the moment.

I'm not sure what it is that makes some colouring books more attractive to me than others. My other favourite is my Art Therapy one which my Mum got me for my birthday, I think the two books are sort of similar in style since there are pictures which are made up of lots of little details. I can't put my finger on just why these ones are preferable over the Colour Me Calm one, but I think it's something to do with the intricate details.

I like to work on a picture that takes me a week to finish. One which requires me to keep on sharpening my pencils to get into the small corners. One which looks like an actual work of art when it's finished, not just like a picture that I've coloured in.

The pictures in Enchanted Forest fit the bill perfectly. I'm due to get Secret Garden and Lost Ocean at the end of the month. I'm not sure how I'll divide my loyalties between all my colouring books with another two being added to the collection. My problem at the moment is that I finish a page, and immediately want to go on to the next one, rather than using one of my other colouring books.

I picked up Enchanted Forest on my way to Wales and discovered Johanna Basford's website while I was down there. She has a 'Colouring Gallery' page where you can upload your finished pictures for other people to 'like'. Of course, once I'd finished my first couple of pages I had to share them on the site.

That's the title page of the book. I mostly worked on this using my Crayola Blendables colouring pencils. I got them for my twenty-first birthday when I was on placement at a teeny tiny primary school and have been hanging on to them ever since. This seemed like a good time to crack them out.

It took about two days alone to colour in all the leaves making up the name of the book! I basically just lined up all my pencils and worked through them all because in that pack I only had two different shades of green so I realised it'd get boring fast if I just did green leaves. I love the effect of all the different colours.

I've not taken a picture of the next page, which isn't quite complete, but the one after that is one of my favourites. By the time I got to doing the Map Page I'd taken to looking at the Colouring Gallery every few days to see the latest uploads and noticed that quite a few people were doing rainbow gradients. I liked the effect so decided to try it out on this one:

For this one I branched out from the Blendables to give me more choices of shades and got the Scribblicious pencils my Mum got me for my birthday. These include a metallic silver and gold which I'm having fun with using for embellishments, like at the corners.

Something I've noticed from scanning ahead in the book is that all of the things that feature in the map are seen again later in the book. The page immediately after this one is a compass (which you can see in the bottom left corner of the map), later there's a maze and a bird holding a key. It's going to be good fun seeing them all in more detail.

Speaking of the compass, I have actually finished that one as well, but I've not got a photo of it yet. I'll share a sneak peak of it though, see if you can spot the cameo appearance I've coloured in there.

Nothing like a bit of colouring in to start the day. #colouringin #JohannaBasford

A photo posted by Cait (@clicksclan) on Sep 29, 2015 at 12:13am PDT