Happy ROW80 Check In! Plus Stickers, Outlander-related Photos, and Amazon Reviews...

ook what I got the other day:

That's the first time I've gotten such a notification; happy that it was for Talli!

Last week Google featured a cute Doodle for Edward Gorey's birthday:

I've noted three Doodles in the past, the ones for Agatha Christie, the Royal Wedding, and Mark Twain. Which ones have you enjoyed?

So, ROW80. Druid's Moon is, how shall I put this... getting there. I feel like I'm pulling a sled. Every time I turn around, I find it's tipped over on its side again. I have to right it, and resume dragging it along behind me.

On the one hand, I've finished the on-screen edits! Only a couple weekends behind schedule.

On the other hand, I still have edits on paper for the first few chapters to enter, plus a few more dialects to check/fix (I've got at least one character with a Cornish accent), and some spells and curses to write!

I also need to find an example of an archaeological discovery involving Merlin, from the past hundred years or so...

Speaking of archaeology, the other day I visited the Chateau Ramezay museum here in Montreal. I hadn't been there before! The 300 year old house is directly across from City Hall:

There are a number of interesting artefacts, some of old Montreal, some of which reminded me of the Outlander series...

Here's the house...

A list of the owners over the years

Bit of description of the house...

Dickens! He visited Montreal on a lecture tour

Mr Jean Talon

A little information about him. The thing is, we have a Jean Talon market, and a Jean Talon metro station, but I'd never thought of him as a real person before...

Views of Montreal, this one looking towards the harbour and the mountain

This one looking down on the town from the mountain

And another one looking towards the town and the mountain - how empty and green it was!

Two shots of Alfred E Neuman!

Really. They had a mini-exhibit on smallpox and other diseases that the earliest townsfolk had to face, all the way up to the beginning of the 20th Century. I was surprised to see Alfred's face on an old calendar!

Turns out it wasn't always a MAD Magazine image, but a very common face used to advertise all sorts of things.

A pretend-apothecary wall - reminds me of Claire Fraser shopping in Edinburgh...

Benedict Arnold. I have a feeling he's going to be in the next book in the Outlander series, too...

I don't really know much about this battle, even though it happened just over the river from Montreal

Ramezay himself is seated at the table...

Some Highland artefacts

Dagger and letter from a Mr. Murray...

Dagger and powder horn

Old car! It bears the first licence plate in Quebec, painted on the back: Q1

And this guy I liked because he's a 19th Century sailor.

This must be what the Count of Monte Cristo looked like while he was still a lowly sailor.

I'm still only halfway through Volume I. It's slow going, reading the original French...

And finally... this isn't an artefact, but the photo I forgot to share over the weekend, of some of my prizes. Exciting!

Also there's these:

Stickers! I love stickers. Except for scrapbooking, though, I don't quite know what to do with them. So I thought I could at least share them with you.

Have you ever been notified that your review helped someone? Which historical periods are you interested in? Don't you love stickers?