"A Long-Expected Party" (VIII)

"The tents began to go up. There was a specially large pavilion, so big that the tree that grew in the field was right inside it, and stood proudly near one end, at the head of the chief table. Lanterns were hung on all its branches. More promising still (to the hobbits’ mind): an enormous open-air kitchen was erected in the north corner of the field. A draught of cooks, from every inn and eating-house for miles around, arrived to supplement the dwarves and other odd folk that were quartered at Bag End. Excitement rose to its height".

I love this picture, taken from Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf and Bilbo enjoying the preparations, knowing what this birthday party will mean for the hobbit. I love the lights: that of the sun which has set and the lanterns which will make up for its absence. It smells of autumn, which is almost there, as it is almost here. I am extremely tired, having arrived from Alicante in time to have something to eat and rest a bit before my first class of this semester. I, too, am excited.    It's always thrilling to begin a new academic year, meet new students, see again old ones who have decided to take the optional course English Language Literature and Other Artistic Discourses. Granada is more alive in September, with the arrival of students. How can anyone say that autumn is a sad season?

I was thinking that, if it was not today 13 years ago, it was very much around this time that I met for the first time Berlioz and Princesse. Before then, they were just Matthias's dogs, names to which I add added faces, bodies and personalities in my imagination. From that moment, they became part of my family. I miss them so much, but I love them even more.