Starting To Read Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

Have just started reading The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and can't put the book down (I literally find myself taking every small opportunity to delve into the book).

Already, only 130 pages in, what I like about the book is the clear distinction between good and evil with Tolkien's Catholic faith shining through.

Find the hobbits fascinating, they're like small human figures with a few cat-like features (e.g. a powerful sense of hearing and deftness of movement).
 

My favourite part so far is when Frodo, Sam and Pippin hear singing "in the fair Elven-tongue", which, in effect, saves them from being directly confronted by a Black Rider who is pursuing them:

                     "... O Lady clear!
                     O Queen beyond the Western Seas!
                     O Light to us that wander here ..."

Couldn't help but view this as something of an echo from a famous Catholic Marian hymn (Hail, Queen of Heaven):

                    "HAIL, Queen of heav'n, the ocean Star
                    "Guide of the wand'rer here below ..."

Used to love listening to this hymn at St. Joseph's Junior School in Bury, Lancashire as a child during the mid-1970s, and occasionally get to hear it when I attend the old Latin Mass in England.

Yes, I think that I'm going to really enjoy the rest of The Lord of the Rings, as I need some straightforward literary enchantment after years of reading the (admittedly beautiful) disenchantment of Thomas Hardy (still my favourite writer).

From what I've seen already, I also sense that The Lord of the Rings offers an appropriate antidote to the Sodom and Gomorrah agenda of the monstrous politically-'correct' macro-ideology that discolours and destroys a once Christian Western world.

Eastern Poland: Statues of Jesus in the Cemetery

Statues of Jesus, praying in Gethsemane and carrying His cross, in a cemetery in eastern Poland.

The Revival (Cory Henry, Taron Lockett, and Isaiah Sharkey) at Warsaw Klub Niebo 24th January 2019

Hadn't been to a concert since early December so the Revival gig at the Klub Niebo on Thursday evening was a godsend.

Saw Cory Henry with the Funk Apostles while my brother was over from Australia last year, and it was possibly my gig of the year, so it was nice to see Henry again under The Revival format.

With Cory Henry, Isaiah Sharkey, and Taron Lockett being such masters of their instruments, at times, it felt like being at an Emerson, Lake & Palmer concert (I mean this as a massive compliment, as I once had the honour of seeing ELP at Manchester Apollo in the early 1990s).

Liked all the dreamscape kind of tunes that Henry, Sharkey and Lockett did, especially the opening one, 'Superstition'.
 

Being middle-aged, I've grown to value music across most genres, and really like it when some kind of prolonged soundscape makes me dream at a concert, and Thursday evening's gig had this desired effect.
 

Immediately after an almost two-hour set, Cory Henry lead his two colleagues and the crowd to the cloakroom section near the door:

Where people were free to converse with the band members as they made their way out of the Niebo.

Warsaw: A Lit-Up Nowy Świat

After the thoroughly enjoyable Cory Henry Revival concert at the Klub Niebo last night, I was greeted with a wonderful, lit-up Nowy Świat.

More Vegetarian Food

Now down to eating meat only once a week (usually a good quality beef or mutton kebab).

The two pictures here show the kind of vegan food that I'm regularly making. The meal above is delicious vegan sausage with potatoes, vegetables and salad, while the meal below is soy burger (which really does taste like a beef burger), pasta, vegetables, and olives.

Eastern Poland: Passing a War Memorial

Passing a war memorial in eastern Poland over Christmas.

Near the town hall in a small Polish town:

More Good Russian beer

More good Russian beer here, this one being lighter in colour and strength than the last one I had which was from the same brewery.

Again, the beer is very nicely bottled.