ENGLAND!!!!!!!!!!!

So, to be honest, I shouldn't even be posting about my weekend jaunt to Yorkshire until I finish blogging about Edinburgh! But I can't not post! It was a fabulous weekend! And the travel was the easiest, most stress-free I have ever experienced! (It was my first time flying without my boys, and I've only ever flown with them by myself.)

The adventure began Friday, late afternoon/early evening. The husbands cam home from work to care for the poltergeists, (which Mr. Bagnold showed up driving our brand new car!!!!!!!!!!!!) and then Poppy and I walked down to the train station.

We went down to Venice, and then hopped on the Knight Bus to a secluded area before hopping onto our Firebolts and heading to beautiful Yorkshire!!!! I honestly don't think the travel could have been much smoother! Oh wait, I take that back...if we didn't have to go through any security checks, it would have been smoother, but we all know that's not happening anytime soon! LOL We had to wait before taking to the skies, due to a massive storm that rolled in, so we were a bit late in our rendezvous with Emma and Lizzie, but all went well. Poppy was quite exhausted from the trip (she had had a looooooooooooong day!), so we had to end up pulling out our wands and levitating her into the house! We had a lovely cup of tea before going to bed. I don't tend to be a tea drinker, but that was quite tasty!

The next morning I got to sleep in without having to care for the poltergiests, which was a bit weird, but very pleasant! We got to meet Emma's little wizards before they traipsed off to their grandparents...very adorable little wizards! Poppy and I got to have tea and crumpets! Sooooooooo yummy! Poppy tried a bit of marmite on hers (I tried it while in Edinburgh), and it turns out that neither of us like it. At all. LOL But the marmalade on the crumpets was certainly more than satisfactory! Following breakfast, kind Mr. Wigworthy drove us around a bit. We went to the train station in Hogsmeade and rode the Hogwarts Express down to Haworth. We even had an encounter with a dementor along the way!!!

Haworth was beautiful beyond description! My photos don't do them justice, I fear.



But before we went on to the museum, we stopped by an inn to have a real British lunch. Poppy had the fish and chips (with mushy peas!) and I had the Yorkshire cheese platter (the Wensleydale was particularly scrumptious!), which also came with a side of tasty bread. The chicken and chutney were superb!




I must admit that visiting the Bronte Parsonage Museum was an experience that leaves me close to speechless...or maybe not speechless, but at least without the proper words to describe it all! They didn't allow photos to be taken inside, unfortunately, so I can't even let those thousand words be heard, but it was something that definitely took my breath away and brought me to tears at more than one point.


After seeing all the exhibits, I began to wonder if one (or more!) of the sisters perhaps had some magical talent, seeing as how they have these tiny books with miniscule writing (which is clearly legible if you use a magnifying glass!) that look to me to have had a shrinking charm used on them. I'm not as brilliant as Dumbledore, though, so I can't detect traces of magic like him, but I don't know how else they could have written so small!!!!

As we were retracing our steps back toward the train station, we stumbled across this:



The visitor's entrance to the Ministry itself!!! We went down right away!



And, sadly, Mr. Bagnold seems to have returned home from his work day, so I shall have to continue this tale at a later date...

Summer...

When I think the word "summer," I think of watermelon, swimming pools, ice cream, flip flop sandals and reading summer programs...

One hot, summer day, I was walking along in my flip-flops, reading my newest book of spells for the local Muggle library's summer reading program (though I had to come up with an alternative title, of course...), when I stepped in an ice cream cone a child had dropped! Making sure no Muggles were nearby, I used "scourgify" to cleanse my foot and continued on. Suddenly, without warning, someone snuck up behind me and turned me into a watermelon! Before I knew it, I was thrown into a swimming pool, and sinking fast! Sadly, no lifeguard thinks to save a drowning watermelon...and then I woke up. Couldn't you tell it was a dream? I mean really, why would I be reading a spell book in broad daylight? ;)

Riddikulus!!!

Wow! After Draco's unfortunate adventure in the nearby forest, I'm glad I decided to keep my wand on me at all times! (Not that I'm often without it, but you know...) I was on my way back from a lovely visit with Azurina, and I stumbled across what was clearly a boggart!

The giant syringe (with the humongous, frightening, sharp needle! ::shudder::) started to roll toward me (think Indiana Jones-style), and I was happy I had my wand whipped out as soon as it started my way! What happened when I shouted the spell? Well, I'll show you as best I can (please bear with me, I don't have photoshop, just Microsoft paint...a poor substitute)....the syringe stopped, stood straight up, and the needle went flying away as copious amounts of butterbeer came gushing out!

And in good time, too...the butterbeer in he Manticore cabin has nearly run out!!!

My Hermione Hat

IT'S DONE, IT'S DONE, IT'S DONE!!!!!!!!!!


MY HERMIONE HAT IS FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so proud of how well it turned out! I am, in fact, in love with a hat...LOL I'd never used the twisted rib stitch before, and I love how good it looks! So tight and uniform and straight! I may never do a regular rib stitch again! And the cast-on! It took seemingly forever to do the alternate cable cast-on, but I love how there's not the huge, loos loops at the bottom of my hat. I may only use that style of cast-on from here on out, too! But, as they say, "practice makes perfect", so I expect I'll get considerably faster at it! I couldn't get the gauge with size US5's for anything, so I added the stitches for the extra cable and went down to size US3's...and then only had to do the number of repeats for the child's size! LOL It's definitely not your typical hat! LOL And, looking back, I could have done about 2 fewer rows of ribbing (I knew it was looking tall...), but it still fits just fine. Now I only hope that the weather in England permits me to wear it to Half-Blood Prince!!!

Too little, too late...

Things got a bit hectic at the end of the week for me, so I didn't get part 2 up in time (and I saw the right answer because I didn't know it was posted in the HSKS main lodge post) so even though it doesn't count for any cabin points, and even though I know the right answer before figuring out the quote, I'm posting it anyway!!!

17-4(W), 14-1(H), 9-6(E), 3-3(N)

18-2(I), 3-3(N)

19-4(D), 11-2(O), 9-3(U), 8-5(B), 15-9(T)

7-1(G), 11-2(O)

15-9(T), 11-2(O)

15-9(T), 14-1(H), 9-6(E)

13-8(L), 18-2(I), 8-5(B), 16-3(R), 6-5(A), 16-3(R), 5-3(Y)!

The quote:

"When in doubt, go to the library!"

To be honest, my first thought would have been that it was Hermione that said it, given the library bit and all...but I hope I would be thorough enough to double-check myself by the quote in the book and get the right answer: Ron Weasley!

In other camp news, I've been spending a lot of time in the arts and crafts cabin! :D My wrist is better (it was actually better around...I think it was last week Sunday. But I was down for the count for about 4 or 5 days), so I've been making up for lost crafting time! I thought I was going to get to Apparate to England for the HBP, but now I'm not so sure I'll get to. :( I guess we'll just have to see. But regardless, I've been working on my Hermione hat, just in case I get to go after all!!! Mine's in a lovely chocolate brown! :) Anyway, if I don't get to go, I may just have to have a Potter-movie-a-thon with my friend (that I recently found out is a witch, after all this time thinking she was a Muggle!), especially since her birthday falls on the day we'd be returning from England...I think, actually, I will be researching the trip some more to find out if I can't find a way to get it done...See you later!