Libraries I love

Hogwarts Library

The inspiration behind the Hogwarts Library - Trinity College Library in Dublin

Library in a phone booth...

Which makes me wonder what kind of library you could fit in here...

Which reminds me of this one -

From the Doctor Who episode 'Silence in The Library' Built in the 50th century The Library was a planet-sized library. It contained every book ever written.

 

 

 

It also happened to be swarming with the flesh eating Vashta Nerada, so maybe not the best place to visit...

 

And from the biggest library to the smallest - The Little Library under the Oak

 

'After all, a book is not “finished” when we turn the last page. It is finished for us only when we no longer have anything we want to say about it to others. A book has not fulfilled its destiny until it has been read, and shared.'

And last but not least, my local

Swindon Library

 

Show your libraries some love this weekend!

 

 

 



 

My time at Hogwarts

Gosh, two weeks of silence… well sadly I did not get to stay at Hogwarts, though I tried my best! Returning to the real world has been pretty depressing – once you’ve run down Diagon Alley, Swindon high street just ‘aint the same.

Sadly most of the best photos (i.e. all the ones with me posing!) were taken on other people’s cameras, so will have to post them another time. In the meantime though, here’s a little bit of magic for your Friday afternoon

The cupboard under the stairs

'Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.'

The Great Hall! My sister got overly excited at this point of the tour and we may have ended up re-creating the infamous ‘Troll in the dungeon!’ scene… complete with dead faint at the end… (and I wonder why they wouldn’t let me stay…)

  

The Gryffindor common room - how gutted was I that those stairs didn’t actually go anywhere!

The boys dorm – actually felt a bit naughty being in there! Not sure girls are allowed…

Dumbledore’s pensieve… Cannot stress how badly I need one of these at the moment!

This was actually the greatest optical illusion of the day – a corridor in the Leaky Cauldron – actually only goes back about three feet! That door at the end is tiny!

  

Diagon flippin’ Alley! The cobblestones are very uneven. Think twice before you decide to run the length of it.

We all had our pictures taken outside out favourite shops. Annoyingly these pictures are on my sister’s camera! My picture was outside Flourish & Blotts, naturally!

Magic is Might at the Ministry…

I also paid a visit to the Dursleys…



Hello? Social services calling…



I feel a little context is needed for what happened next… It was the end of a long day, I was tired, probably over excited, and already wishing that I never had to go home…

Throughout the tour they had been playing music from the films, and as I was making my way through a corridor full of the most amazing tiny models I have ever seen, surrounded by some stunning artwork, over the sound system came Patrick Doyle’s Hogwarts Hymn (from the Goblet of Fire… where Cedric dies… anyone see where this is going?)  

I looked up to see that I had lagged behind (again) so jogged down the rest of the corridor, turned a corner and was faced with this.

I did what any life-long Potter nerd would do.

I, um...cried.

Yep. Actual tears. And then I laughed, and then I made the tour guide take a picture of my whole family outside Hogwarts while the tears were fresh on my face! (Grrr – again I do not have this photo!)

I have to confess that these last few pictures are not mine – my memory card was full by then, I sent my brother off on photo duty whilst I gazed in wonder until I had to be asked to leave!

On the way home I knew how Harry must have felt going back to the Dursleys every summer.

Was pretty much the best day of my life!

All you Potter fans, go, go! You will not be dissapointed! Though you may become completely dissillussioned with your own hum-drum lives.

Bye for now!

Laura

I’M GOING TO HOGWARTS!!!!!

I had a lovely sensible post all line up for today, but it’s been bumped because I’m far too excited to talk about sensible things!

Firstly, if you are not aware of the extent of my Harry Potter obsession take a look here, then, if you are brave enough, come back for the rest of this post.

I’ve loved Harry a long time. A good twelve years and counting! Not only was I one of those fruitcakes who camped out till midnight to get the latest book, on more than one occasion I was first in line!

My sister and I have had endless conversations on our imaginary lives at Hogwarts. I would have been a Ravenclaw, Jo fears she’d have been a Hufflepuff. My Patronus would have been an elephant (awesome for stomping on Dementors, less effective at delivering stealth messages…) Jo’s Patronus was a hedgehog – curling up into a ball at the first sign of danger and having to be rolled into battle like a prickly bowling ball.

Neither of us fancied becoming an animagus – I always thought it sounded too much like hard work, and what if at the end of it all you turned into was a slug?

We both agreed that we’d have got into as much trouble as Harry though – how could you live in a castle full of secret passageways and not go exploring at two in the morning?

Well, after all these years of dreaming, we are finally off to Hogwarts!

Tomorrow I shall be boarding a train (sadly not the Hogwarts Express) and heading to the Leavesden studios for the Harry Potter tour! Quite frankly it’s taking all my willpower right now not to run around the office waving a wand and shouting EXPECTO PATRONUM at fellow employees!

If I get my own way, I will stay there forever. I  wonder if work will allow me to conduct business via Owl Post…

I think perhaps I will be forced to leave at some point though, so will be around next week to report back (and of course post about a thousand photos!)

Well that’s it. I’m off to pick my sister up from the station before we head off home to embark on a Harry Potter movie marathon!

Have a good weekend Muggles!