Losing sleep over Harry Potter

I wonder if this snake speaks Parseltongue?*

I arrived late to the Harry Potter party.  I read the first book or two when they first came out.  M the Younger (aka Youngest Son) “outgrew” the books at that point, and since he gave up on them, so did I.  I’m not quite sure why as I’ve never been one to refrain from reading a book simply because it was meant for children.  Some of my favorite books are meant for children.  The Secret Garden.  The Phantom Tollbooth.  The Graveyard Book (the one book review I’ve done here at Ye Olde Blogge, but stay tuned — another one is coming up soon).

*If you’re unfamiliar with Harry Potter, find out more about Parseltongue here.  The snake, by the way, is a black rat snake we saw on one of the trails at the Holden Arboretum during our hike yesterday.  Isn’t he beautiful?

Last year, at Merdi’s (M the Younger’s wife) instigation, M the Younger decided to read the Harry Potter books from start to finish.  It seemed as good an excuse as any for me to read them too.  Not that I needed an excuse.  When the last few movies came out, I decided I wanted to read them.

I finished the books early this year.  M and I started watching the movies a couple of weeks ago, spacing them out a bit because I am pretty sure M really doesn’t have much interest in them.  It’s just not his thing.  Originally the plan was to watch the movies in a weekend marathon session with M the Younger and Merdi.  They had already seen the movies, but wanted to see them again when M the Younger finished reading the books.  However, life happened (thank goodness!) and they are once again living and working and out on their own, far enough away that a weekend marathon session of movie watching isn’t practical.  Not that it’s practical in the first place, mind you.  It’s fun, is what it is.

Rhododendron in the sunlight

The problem with watching the movies now is that is doesn’t get dark until nearly 9:00pm.  The movies themselves are somewhat visually dark which means it is difficult to see the images if it’s still light outside, even with the blinds closed.  So we have had to wait until 9:00pm or so to watch them.  (Note:  One of M’s indulgences after we moved here was to put in an entertainment area of sorts in the basement.  We have a projector so we’re able to watch movies on a large screen — or wall painted to be a screen.  Because we have a walk-out basement with a large picture window, it’s not very cave-like and even closing the blinds doesn’t shut out all the light during the late spring and summer months.)

The movies are over two hours long.  That means we don’t finish until nearly 11:30pm.  I realize this is not terribly late for most people, but when your internal alarm clock wakes you up at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning, 11:30pm starts to feel pretty late if you’ve gotten so excited about the last few movies that you decide to watch them three or four nights in a row.

All of this is my way of saying I am tired today.  Pooped.  And I still have the last half of the last movie to watch.  We got a late start last night, and decided the second half would have to wait until tonight.  (I would have stayed up and watched it all, but M has to go to work and it didn’t seem fair to finish without him since he was kind enough to watch the whole series with me.)

Remember this scene from last November? I’ll leave you a link to it at the bottom of the post.

As with all movies that were books, I could find lots to criticize in terms of what was left out, but I learned a long time ago to sever the link between book and film.  First of all, I’d be up all night watching them if they included everything in the books.  Second of all, it’s kind of nice to see something almost new, knowing the background well enough to fill in any possible blanks, and having that element of surprise when they change something completely.

Snapping turtle from the pond at the arboretum

We are experiencing another hot, August-like day here in the Bogs.  Yes, I know it’s May, but it feels like August.  There’s a slight chance of rain.  I’ve been doing my rain dance today in hopes of increasing our odds.  We need the rain.  The garden needs the rain.  The tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, chards, and broccoli need the rain.  The newly planted trees need the rain.  Desperately.

Do you suppose snapping turtles have their own form of Parseltongue?

No turtles were harmed in the taking of the last two photos.  Two guys (the Turtle Guys) who work for the arboretum were going around pulling turtles out of the ponds to check up on them, and make sure they’re doing okay.  This particular turtle got the bad end of a fight.  His nose has been bitten off.  Normally it would jut out to a point, almost hook-like.  The Turtle Guys seemed pretty positive that it was not a mutation.  I should also mention that the Turtle Guys are much braver than I am.  I would never grab a snapper with my bare hands.  Or gloved hands, for that matter.  I wasn’t even brave enough to step up close to take pictures.

That’s about it from the Bogs for today.  Thank you for visiting.  Stay cool.  And do a little rain dance for the trees and garden, will ya?  I know they would be grateful.

Today’s view of the pond. Clouds have moved in since this was taken, clouds that I’m hoping will eventually produce rain.

Related articles:

• Sunday at the Holden Arboretum
• In the Rhododendron Garden (from last November)
• Sunday Blessings (also from last November showing the gazebo in late autumn)

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