We love autumn with its gay festivities. We adore spring, when it is planting time and flowers are ever in bloom. And we love Summer, when it is warm enough for swimming and garden- growing. But sweet winter is the best of all, because there is no real work to be done, and we spend the long months indoors, relaxing and taking it easy.

Like other people, we decorate our homes for Yule. We make fresh garlands of evergreen branches and fill them with tiny lights, acorns and pine cones,and maybe some bright-colored ribbons. We shoot down (with a sling or an arrow) clumps of smug mistletoe that grow high in the tops of trees, and hang them in the doorways so that everyone will be obliged to kiss you whenever you walk under it.

But of course, there is much more to Yule than wreaths on the doors, garlands on the fireplace, mistletoe, scented candles, and hot, freshly-baked cookies.

Needless to say, there has been so much going on in the Shire this season that I am a little bit behind on decorating. But keep checking back often, and we will have lots of nice surprises over the next few weeks.

ne of the great unsolved mysteries of Middle Earth has long been the whereabouts of the missing Entwives. Entish legend has it that long ago they grew bored with the woodlands and ran off to find flowering gardens and pleasant hills, never to be seen again. But all the Ents ever had to do was to ask the Hobbits! No less than Sam Gamgee was told by his cousin, Hal, who once saw giant trees walking in the Northfarthing, while he was on a hunting trip. "...as big as an elm tree, and walking -- walking seven yards to a stride, if it was an inch." This was, of course, a very impressive siting, and other Hobbits painted these pictures, seen below. There can be no doubt that they are at least a few of the long-lost Entwives. You don't suppose they could be persueded to return home to their grienving husbands, now, do you?

Now, of course, we Hobbits have no large stores where we can buty beautiful and expensive holiday decorations, but we take great pleasure in making many of our own! If you check around, I will even show you how to make some very hobbity ornaments for your own trees and living rooms.

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