Prof. Tarma Amelia Black

A favorite hot drink, new to me, is the hot chocolate created by a local bakery. They use hot whole milk, and actually melt hot chocolate, from a bar of some really good chocolate, and mix it together in some way so it's all smooth and luscious. It's utterly rich and decadent, warm and feels so good going down. I haven't made this for myself; it's a specialty drink of the bakery, and they use some kind of special chocolate (I forget what kind they said it is) and mix it together with some sort of 'drink' machine (maybe something like what is made to create lattes?).

Everglades Palm

I reached into one of my pockets. Yes, I had something to offer the Demiguise! I gingerly extended my hand, which was holding a ....

Curled up into a ribbon is one of those things that people who sew use, to measure feet and inches. It's called a 'measuring tape' and looks quite ordinary. It's sort of wound around itself, and looks like it has been used a lot; the edges of the tape (appears to be some some woven cloth) are a bit frayed as if it's rubbed against a lot of stuff over many many years. A plain yellow color, the lines and numbers inscribed on the surface are black. The black ink is faded a bit -- again, like it's been in use for many years, maybe even decades. Maybe it is long enough to be 60 inches (5 feet) in length. I think that this measuring tape not only measures inches and feet, but it measures for abilities, possibilities and what not to do. I've no idea of how it conveys the information to the person using the wand, but I think it can measure, not only the wood for a potential wand, and the abilities of said wood if made into a wand (and the optimal length of that wand) but also measure the potential user of the wand, to ascertain if there will be a compatibility of wand and user.

Incense Cedar

Wingardium Leviosa + Reparo - Accio: 2 Aguamenti: 17 Protego: 17 Reparo: 11 Wingardium Leviosa: 13

Rosewood

Wingardium Leviosa + Reparo - Accio: 3 Aguamenti: 17 Protego: 16 Reparo: 12 Wingardium Leviosa: 12

Then I heard low laughter, seemingly coming from all around me. I looked around, frantic. Then, I relaxed, because I saw that my centaur friend had returned, with some others of his kind. It was them I heard laughing, but it wasn't a nasty laugh, more of a reassuring 'we have you' rumble. "I'm so glad to see you!" I exclaimed. The noise came, again, from above, just then ....

Also, from where was the heavy breathing which I'd already heard, over my head? I didn't want to encounter whatever made that noise! I waved to the little creature and hastened towards the best guess to where the centaur had gone.

Elder Berry

Happy Birthday, Sky! So many hats you wear ... take some off today and maybe practice some sword play? Have fun!

This is somewhat of an extension of what Harry wrote about. I encountered, in a book store, ... no wait. I felt drawn to a portion of a book store, and then to a particular book. The name of it is The Life You Were Born to Live by Dan Millman. (This is the same person who wrote Way of the Peaceful Warrior.) So I picked up the book, scanned some of the words at the beginning. Evidently the theory behind the method of this book is that the numbers add up to certain things, and ... if you live by the 'guidelines' of that birth number, things would go smoothly. If you didn't, things wouldn't be so smooth, and it actually gave examples of what would happen if a person didn't live by the guidelines written about by that birth number! Interesting ... and I thought 'how could this be true?' However, I then thought - why not try it out? So I added up my numbers, to give it a try. Hmmm. How odd. It seemed right on. So then I added up the numbers of someone I know (or thought I know) rather well. Oh dear. Well, that sure clarified some things! Then I added up the numbers for someone who had been a very large part of whatever drama I had in my life, and the source from where a lot of it originated. I bought the book.

... a rustling sound, and something which sounded like heavy breathing. The problem was, the sound came from over my head! I peered up and saw ...

Wingardium Leviosa + Engorgio - Accio: 9 Aguamenti: 11 Engorgio: 7 Protego: 12 Reparo: 11 Wingardium Leviosa: 10

gingko

I think that, in most cases, the wand chooses the wizard. I think that this has the best possible outcome. I think that the wand, the material of the wand, has its own resonance, its own gnosis of what would be the very best match or compliment to its own beingness, and when a witch or wizard shows up with a complimentary beingness, it knows it and chooses that person. I also think, though, that a witch or wizard could go into a store, with an idea of what they want to become, which perhaps isn't how their morphogenetic field predisposes them, but that they want to change to, and could quite deliberately generate a 'pretend' field of those qualities, like an actor in a role, and see if any wands show any tendency to align with these different frequencies. Thing is, I don't know how well that would work.

One way that a person could gather phoenix feathers is to wait until they molt and gather up the feathers as they fall. But that is a problematic way of obtaining them, because 1) you'd have to know when a phoenix is about to molt (and die and be reborn) and 2) hanging around waiting for that could be tedious and 3) also the phoenix might not want you around. Another way, already mentioned, is to ask! Gather up some fresh and fragrant herbs (since that's what they eat) and offer the herbs in exchange for a feather. Who knows, it might work?

wait until it got close enough to talk with and ask it for permission to take a picture. Who knows? Maybe it understands English? A loud noise came from the right, and I jumped -- the unicorn ....