The Junk Drawer

The Pearl of the West by fleur_de_lis

Mont St. Michel-- the Pearl of the West, mysterious, ethereal, heavenly battleground, spiritual inspiration, mighty fortress. All of these phrases describe the first of several posts I will be doing on Architectural Wonders . Mont St. Michel is a beautiful, mystical abbey built at the top of a rocky islet one mile off the French coast in the English Channel. It is separated from the mainland by a mile of sand and quicksand at low tide, or a mile of water at high tide. In the past, the journey across the sands was treacherous, and frequently pilgrims lost their lives in the quicksand or the rapidly rising tides before they could complete their journey. It is said that the tides race in at the speed of galloping horses! Today there is a causeway that connects the mainland to Mont St. Michel, and guides if you insist on making the journey on foot. Legend has it that the archangel Michael appeared to the bishop of Avranches in 708 A. D. For 3 nights in a row, the bishop had the same strange...

My Favorite 'Dumb' Dumbledore quotes... by fleur_de_lis

Yes, it's silly, but I love Harry Potter, and Dumbledore has always been one of my favorite characters. Here is a selection of some of his sillier quotes: 1. "Numbing the pain for awhile will make it worse when you finally feel it." 2. "Don't count your owls before they are delivered." 3. "He cannot kill you if you are already dead." 4. "From this point forward we shall be leaving the firm foundation of fact and journeying together through the murky marshes of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork." 5. " What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally the whole school knows." 6. "Tell me one last thing," said Harry. "Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?" "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" 7. "Alas, ear wax.!" 8. "It's lucky it's...

Top Ten Architectural Wonders by fleur_de_lis

Wow! This was really a hard list for me to narrow down. Beautiful structures, like beautiful art, have their own stories, time periods, and cultures that make them unique. These are my favorites...I look at them with admiration for the drive and purpose of their creators. My favorite is the Taj Mahal, but the rest are in no particular order: Taj Mahal--Agra, India Chrysler Building--New York City, New York Sydney Opera House--Sydney, Australia Fallingwater--Bear Run, Pennsylvania Notre Dame Cathedral--Paris, France Machu Picchu--Andes Mountains, Peru Pyramids--Giza, Egypt St. Basil's Cathedral--Moscow, Russia The Colosseum--Rome, Italy Angkor Wat--Angkor, Cambodia That's it! I didn't even get to include the Eiffel Tower, the Parthenon, the Transamerica Building, Neuschwanstein, Hagia Sophia, La Sagrada Familia...and the list goes on! Do you have a favorite structure? Does architecture awe and inspire you? I may do a post or two in the future on some of these, my favorites,...