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An Inspirational Tale

January 10th, 2012

Mr Chiots and I have been spending a little time each evening watching through the Lord of The Rings Trilogy. I bought him the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions on blu-ray for Christmas (well worth purchasing if you’re a fan). He’s a HUGE fan, having read the books a few times and all the related books as well. I like the movies, but haven’t been able to sit through the books for some reason.

I find myself paying close attention to words and quotes as I watch movies. As I do when I read, I’m always writing down quotes and this movie has some great passages. A few times Mr Chiots had to stop it, rewind and let me listen to the quotes a couple times to make sure I got them down just right. Here’s one of my favorites sections, inspirations words to remember:

Frodo: I can’t do this Sam.

Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.


I like to pair quotes with images too (hence the quote calendar), I thought this image from yesterday’s post was perfect for the last part of this quote:

This is a winter tradition for us, after we’re done with the 007 Days of Christmas, we move on to the Lord of the Rings. One of the things we really appreciate about winter is the little extra down time we have. We sometimes use this to sit down in the evenings to watch something entertaining. Now that this series is done, there’s nothing on our list. We don’t have cable, and we live in a rural area so our antennae doesn’t work so well. We prefer waiting till shows are over and on DVD to watch them so we can get through them quicker.

Do you have any great recommendations for us of interesting documentaries, movies, TV series that we should add to our list?

35 Comments to “An Inspirational Tale”
  1. Henry on January 10, 2012 at 5:36 am

    I would recommend the BBC six-hour Pride and Prejudice – perfect if you like period drama. I love it!
    Otherwise, perhaps Harry Potter now that they’re all done?

    Reply to Henry's comment

  2. Dani on January 10, 2012 at 6:06 am

    James Wong’s “Grow your own drugs” and
    “Tales from a Green Valley”
    “Victorian Farm”
    All the “Grand Designs” episodes
    Sir Richard Attenboroughs’ “Frozen Planet”

    All are available on DVD :) In addition, the recipes from James Wong’s TV series have been captured in recipe books to help with your home health / healing

    Reply to Dani's comment

    • Mich on January 10, 2012 at 10:12 am

      ‘Tales from the Green Valley’ is definately worth watching.

      Reply to Mich's comment

  3. B ryan N. on January 10, 2012 at 6:20 am

    I second the recommendation for “Victorian Farm” also the Ken Burns documentary “Gettysburg” both are really good.

    Reply to B ryan N.'s comment

  4. B ryan N. on January 10, 2012 at 6:37 am

    Actually the title was Ken Burns “Cival War” it depicts the whole Cival War not just Gettysburg.There is the movie “Gettysburg” and also “Gods and Generals” if your a Cival War history fan.

    Reply to B ryan N.'s comment

    • Mr. Chiots on January 10, 2012 at 6:02 pm

      Thanks for the suggestion. We watched it a long time ago which then led to me reading the ‘The Civil War: A Narrative’ by Shelby Foote which I highly recommend.

      Reply to Mr. Chiots's comment

  5. kristin @ going country on January 10, 2012 at 7:03 am

    How timely. We just watched a full-length documentary on YouTube last night called, “Happy People: A Year in the Taiga” about a village–but mostly about trappers–in Siberia. It was really good. Might be available on Netflix or something too.

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  6. Kathi Cook on January 10, 2012 at 7:40 am

    Have you ever seen the PBS “reality show” Frontier House” It is 6 or 8 episodes long and recreates a frontier environment for 3 families to see how they would survive on the frontier in the 1800s. They also made a “Colonial House” and ” Vicotrian House”, but I really didn’t think those were that good.

    Reply to Kathi Cook's comment

    • Susy on January 10, 2012 at 8:34 am

      YES – we loved it (and we watched the British counterparts too – think there are 2 or 3).

      Reply to Susy's comment

    • Rhonda on January 10, 2012 at 9:02 am

      I saw all of those except Victorian House. I’ll have to search for it.

      Reply to Rhonda's comment

  7. Carol on January 10, 2012 at 8:10 am

    Paul and I just watched “Arranged” and enjoyed it immensely. An Orthodox Jewish woman and a Muslim woman are each first-year teachers at a Brooklyn public school and become friends. Each is also going through the marriage process in her own tradition. Warning for two naughty words (in case you need to cover Lucy’s ears), but seriously a real gem. Paul enjoyed it as much as I did.

    Reply to Carol's comment

  8. Rhonda on January 10, 2012 at 9:08 am

    Well … I lean toward more “low brow” entertainment. :-) I like “An Idiot Abroad” & “Deadliest Catch” and even more lowbrow … “Spaced” & “Justified” And there you go. A little glimpse into my goofy world.

    Reply to Rhonda's comment

  9. Eli on January 10, 2012 at 10:07 am

    I’m de-lurking in order to spread the fantasy-sci-fi-dramedy love :-)

    Here are my recommendations, but my list could go on forever:
    Firefly the series, followed up with Serenity the movie
    Battlestar Galactica (the recent TV series, not the old-school version)

    Both these series are over so you can find all episodes on DVD.
    I cannot even begin to explain the love/obsession that will inevitably follow after watching these.

    But this shows it pretty well: http://preview.tinyurl.com/773wsvo

    Reply to Eli's comment

    • Mr. Chiots on January 10, 2012 at 6:08 pm

      We watched all of the above. Firefly and BSG were both great! On our trip to Seattle this past summer we went to the Sci-Fi museum in Seattle and they had a BSG display. It was very cool!

      Reply to Mr. Chiots's comment

  10. Songbirdtiff on January 10, 2012 at 10:11 am

    One of my favorite quotes in the whole series is when Frodo tries to leave the group and yells back to Sam, “I’m going alone!”. Then Sam replies, “Of course you are. And I’m coming with you!”. We all need a friend like that sometimes.

    Reply to Songbirdtiff's comment

  11. Mich on January 10, 2012 at 10:22 am

    I loved the Victorian Garden/Kitchen dvd, released by Acorn Videos (I think).
    ‘The River Cottage’ series are great fun too.
    I really loved ‘Frontier House’ and ‘Tales from the green Valley’.
    As a child I watched BBC series called ‘Flambards’….recently got it on dvd and still loved it :)
    I too love the series ‘Firefly’…..

    Reply to Mich's comment

    • Susy on January 10, 2012 at 10:24 am

      We too loved ‘Firefly’ & ‘Battlestar Galactica”

      Reply to Susy's comment

  12. Donna B. on January 10, 2012 at 10:48 am

    Samwise has the best quotes in the movies. I’m being scolded constantly for not reading the books… I bought my boyfriend the hardcover set two Christmas’s ago. They’re quite lovely.
    I second the reccomendation of “Spaced”, it’s such a quirky weird show… I’m currently watching “Six Feet Under”, which is fantastic. Well, that and “Dirty Jobs”, gotta love that Mike Rowe. ♥
    [Can I give you a book reccomendation? George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. Ignore the TV series, just read the books. I love dark political fantasy stories.]

    Reply to Donna B.'s comment

    • Mr. Chiots on January 10, 2012 at 6:10 pm

      I am on book 3 ‘A Storm of Swords’. I am listening to audiobook version, which is really well done. “You know nothing Jon Snow!”

      Reply to Mr. Chiots's comment

      • Donna B. on January 11, 2012 at 10:17 am

        Good, goooood! Book 3 was probably my favorite… “Feast for Crows” leaves much to be desired, but it’s still a good read… [sans the Cersei chapters… there’s never a woman I disliked more than her!] I haven’t started “A Dance with Dragons” yet, although I get daily pestering from my boyfriend… hehe!
        Would these be novels Susy would like? I, for one, would LOVE to see her take one of the meal descriptions and prepare that as a feast… [I’ve been tempted to, very much so…] G.R.R.M. has a way with describing food… mmm…

        to Donna B.'s comment

  13. Annie on January 10, 2012 at 11:37 am

    My boyfriend bought me the entire set of ‘Fraiser’ DVD’s for Christmas . I’m not much into TV at all but this was one show I did really enjoy and he has become a big fan too. We’ve been watching 2 or 3 episodes every so often in the evenings. The show ran for 11 seasons I believe, so this may take a while!

    Reply to Annie's comment

  14. goatpod2 on January 10, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    I don’t have any suggestions since we watch a lot of different things over and over on TV and on DVD, we have satellite TV since that’s all we can get where we live.

    Amy

    Reply to goatpod2's comment

  15. itchbay on January 10, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    So many good recommendations here, I’m adding them all to my viewing queue.

    I have to put my 2 cents in for the Firefly series, and then the movie Serenity. I just love the dialog, and quirky characters. We quote that one around here about as often as we quote The Lord of the Rings or George RR Martin’s books.

    We have also enjoyed the few Disc World shows we’ve been able to find on DVD/Netflix. In particular, The Hogfather is quite enjoyable for holiday/winter viewing, as it is the Discworld’s version of Christmas.

    Of course, anything by Ken Burns is good to watch. Usually in February, I pull out my copy of Baseball, to get myself psyched up for Spring Training.

    My friend talked me into re-watching West Wing with him, and it’s like visiting old friends. And I just love Aaron Sorkin’s writing/directing style.

    I watched all seven episodes of Downton Abbey’s first season last week, in preparation for this week’s premier of season two, and was enthralled the whole time.

    Breaking Bad is quite good, as is The Wire. Both are a bit “gritty” but I love the character arcs.

    So many good shows.

    Reply to itchbay's comment

    • Susy on January 10, 2012 at 1:10 pm

      We watched Breakind Bad a couple months ago and The Wire a few years ago – we enjoyed them both.

      I’ll have to look around for the rest of these!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  16. Mike on January 10, 2012 at 1:04 pm

    My wife and I watch the Anne of Green Gables (Avonlea) series about every other winter. The Road to Avonlea is also excellent, we watched the series originally, but I haven’t gone back and watched that one again yet.

    Reply to Mike's comment

  17. Grannie M on January 10, 2012 at 5:11 pm

    The Secret Garden is one of the books and IPTV movies I like to revisit about once a year. It’s a comfort book and reminds me of how much I love enjoying a piece of this earth, an experience not all people get to have.

    Reply to Grannie M's comment

  18. alison@thisbloominglife on January 10, 2012 at 5:15 pm

    We just worked our way through the first series of Downton Abbey. If you like period, it is superb.

    Reply to alison@thisbloominglife's comment

  19. judy meade on January 10, 2012 at 6:16 pm

    Love anything Ken Burns or American Experience. There was one PBS series that dealt with Christopher Columbus. It was fascinating to see what affect his discoveries had on history. One example is the Irish potato famine which resulted in massive Irish immigration to the US – I’ll leave it at that. So amazing!

    Reply to judy meade's comment

  20. Rocky Top Farm on January 10, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    Agree with many of the above, especially Ken Burns, just watched his series on the west, great as with all his work. BBC Pride and Prejudice, was excellent, love Anne of Green Gables, also love the movie Second Hand Lions. Thanks for the new ideas for our family also!

    Reply to Rocky Top Farm's comment

  21. Rocky Top Farm on January 10, 2012 at 6:24 pm

    oops, Persuasion, often overlooked but excellent movie!

    Reply to Rocky Top Farm's comment

  22. Norma on January 10, 2012 at 8:43 pm

    Oh yes, love Anne of Green Gables too.
    The Secret Garden is fabulous and a big series called the Darling Buds of May is wonderful.

    Reply to Norma's comment

  23. The Sorry Gardener on January 10, 2012 at 8:58 pm

    I found the documentary “Babies” (2009) fascinating. Also loved “Grey Gardens,” both the documentary and remake. Since you’re fans of the Wire (so sad it ended), Treme is good if you haven’t tried it yet and Luther season 1 was exceptional.

    Reply to The Sorry Gardener's comment

  24. angela on January 10, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    Dowton Abbey http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/downtonabbey/ We loved this, the acting is espetacular. Husband and son just saw BattleStar Galactic and enjoyed it. We get them via netflix.

    Reply to angela's comment

  25. stefaneener on January 11, 2012 at 2:00 am

    I can’t be the only fan of “The Wire” out there. Possibly the best TV I’ve ever seen. “The West Wing” as has already been mentioned. “Mad Men” is terrific, and ongoing, and both versions of “The Office,” and every time I rewatch some “Arrested Development” I find more terrific writing.

    Reply to stefaneener's comment

  26. Susy on January 14, 2012 at 8:50 pm

    All fantastic recommendations – looks like we’ll have enough to keep us busy until next year at this time!

    Reply to Susy's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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