Above: The Inn at Virginia Tech, in beautiful Blacksburg, Virginia.

Below: Galumphing links this week includes a call to visit Mount Vernon (especially in the spring), a reminder about plants that are poisonous to dogs, recipes for all those James Bond drinks we read about and saw in the movies, …

Above: a beautiful stained glass window in Freeport, Maine.

Below: Reading links! Topics include an informative piece on home heating, some cultural items, and five things you should make time for in your life.

• Debunking fireplace heating myths
• A Tolkien professor’s new media approach to the …

The coming holiday season, especially Yule, is a very appropriate time to enjoy The Children of Hurin, by J.R.R. Tolkien—the first complete book by Tolkien since The Silmarillion in 1977.

Tolkien had started the story before 1920 and made several revisions after, but did not finish it before his …