Mushrooms (by Fortinbras Proudfoot)

At the December 22 (2011) Welly-moot, we were visited by Peter Kenny from the Fortinbras Proudfoot Esq. Foundation. Peter (aka Fortinbras Proudfoot) recited one of his poems for our group (reprinted here with his permission):

Mushrooms

By Fortinbras Proudfoot

Dark...Night!
Four hobbit lads set out.
The air it made them shiver,
The moon was just a sliver.

Sneak...Quiet!
There was no one about.
They crept along the hedgerow,
Staying quiet and keeping low.

Hoo...Hoot!
A strange noise in the night.
An old owl in a tree top,
Had startled them to a stop.

Look...See!
Lights shining through the trees.
The farmer's house was alight,
But their goal was now in sight.

Go...Quick!
So little time to pick.
There were mushrooms all around.
The youngsters grabbed all they found.

Bark!... Bark!
The farm dogs were awake.
Four Hobbit lads took to flight,
Running quickly through the night.

Run!... Run!
This wasn't so much fun.
Racing frightened down the lane,
Safely home they hoped to gain.

Hip!... Hooray!
"We whistled all the way.
Found the mushrooms in the park,
And bravely walked in the dark.
Nothing frightened us at all!"
Well, that's the story they told to all.

Welly-moot 0.6 (Dec 22, 2011)

(originally published on the NZ Noldor Blog)

It's almost 11:00pm, and I just got back from the Embassy Cinema in Wellington, where the 6th Welly-moot just took place. It was the second meeting in the last month - the previous meeting wasn't quite as well attended as I'd hoped, but this one made up for it. All in all I think there were 14 people there, and a lot of business was discussed.

Clockwise from me in the green shirt - Peter Kenny, Todd Rippon, Astrid, Erica, Kris, Viviane, Sven, Kim, Mervi, and Paul. The others joined later.

Apart from myself and my beautiful wife, we met up with Mervi from Finland, and Kris who is living here in the Wellington region. Mervi represented the two Finnish Tolkien Societies, while Kris and I are halfway through setting up the Wellington one (but more on that later). New Zealander Erica from TheOneRing.net joined soon afterwards, and then Peter Kenny (Australian's Brisbane Tolkien Appreciate Society) and Astrid (Austria's Tyrol Tolkien Smial) came in as well. Peter and Astrid joined me on a LOTR tour yesterday, in fact they are both interviewed on the TVNZ News segment about our reaction to the new Hobbit Trailer. Peter has also written about our meeting on his own blog.


Also in attendance were Paul from the UK, Brendon and his partner from Australia, and three lost backpackers I found on the side of the hill during yesterday's tour, Viviane, Sven and Kim.


If that lineup wasn't special enough yet, we had a ANOTHER special guest for the evening - Todd Rippon also joined us, and he spoke about his time as an Oliphaunt rider, and his ultimate demise at the hands of that cruel elf, Legolas (but "that still only counts as one!").


Todd had some exclusive photos from his time on the set, which unfortunately I can't reproduce here but were enjoyed by all present (so attend next time!).


During the evening, Peter Kenny also recited some of his Hobbit poetry, which went down a treat, as did the cake and the ice coffees.


Other business of course included a discussion about the new Hobbit Trailer released yesterday. I "happened" to have it with me - it's downloadable from Apple.com after all, and my iPad 2 does the job very nicely, thank you! In fact I think we played the trailer 3 or 4 times, in all. Also on hand was our newsclip from yesterday, of course (that's definitely bragging rights), and a small clip from The Hunt For Gollum as well, once the discussion mentioned it. It's a solid piece of Middle-earth film, and if you haven't seen it yet you definitely should!




One final point that was discussed was that Kris and I are definitely setting up the official Tolkien Sciety in some form here in Wellington, and that will be announced properly as things happen in the near future. I'm hoping that by the next meeting we will have the official approval from the UK as well. Exciting times!


  - Jack

Welly-moot 0.5 (Dec 09, 2011)

The smallest meeting - but very significant. Originally, tonight was supposed to be a meeting with two representatives from TheOneRing.net but it ended up not eventuating.

Instead, I met up with Kris, who has attended earlier Welly-moots, and we discussed setting up as an official Tolkien Society spinoff - a "Smial". The official plans are now underway, so watch this space!


  - Jack