Kaley 🍂 Midhiel
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erynlasbelin.bsky.social
Kaley 🍂 Midhiel
@erynlasbelin.bsky.social
🗡️ Triangle Tolkienists Smial organizer
🌿 @triangletolkienists.org
📚 bookselling → academic publishing
🎓 European history + English literature
☕ she/her • nd • pagan • intj • 5w4
Seriously, look at this place.
October 25, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Continued the theme by visiting Otter Falls on Thursday. This trail near Seven Devils leads down to what has got to be one of my favorite places in the Blue Ridge.
October 25, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Started out strong by visiting the Cascades on Wednesday. Part of the trail is still closed post-Helene, but we could still make it down to the upper overlook.
October 25, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Autumn views from the Blue Ridge Mountains this week. Couldn't have asked for better weather.
October 25, 2025 at 3:51 AM
I've gone back and forth a lot on whether it's wise to take or share protest photos, but I got a lot of requests to take pictures of my sign this weekend, so I did end up taking one myself. I need a little thematic levity to maintain the last vestiges of my sanity right now.
October 20, 2025 at 10:51 PM
It's gotcha day for this strapping young lad who has somehow been living with me for 8 years now. My soulmate cat. Woke up this morning to him curling up with me and purring himself to sleep 😭🐈‍⬛💚
July 15, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Previous iterations of this series that I've attended have focused on Beowulf (Dr. H.M. Cushman of UNC) and on Tolkien's influence on metal (Dr. April Henry of Duke).
June 7, 2025 at 5:30 PM
DCoL once again proving they run the coolest events. Attended this lecture on the history of the apocalypse (Dr. John Martin of Duke) followed by a performance by @doomsdayprofit.bsky.social at Beer Study.
June 7, 2025 at 5:30 PM
This did in fact lean so masculine that I feel compelled to add some of the top lady characters to balance it out.
May 19, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Take the fictional characters quiz and post the first four you know.

openpsychometrics.org/tests/charac...

Well, they've clocked me as a socially awkward but well-meaning man, haven't they? I wish I could fit 5 images so I could include Bruce Banner.
May 19, 2025 at 11:45 PM
The privet behind my house is blooming and it smells SO good. It's been buzzing with pollinators all week.
April 28, 2025 at 4:59 PM
I have slept for approximately 2 hours in the last 36, but it's certainly been a very pretty day in Boston.
April 23, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Took a day off yesterday and spent much of it at Duke Gardens. The weather was perfect, everything is so colorful, and the flowers smell amazing right now.
April 17, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Birthday wrap-up: took a day off from work to relax, went to the library and for a walk with a friend, and received my pre-orders of these two new books in the mail. I'm pleasantly surprised by how huge the Tolkien 2019 book is!
February 26, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Karlach really said it best.
February 15, 2025 at 7:38 AM
February 7, 2025 at 4:47 PM
The employee sale books have finally started arriving... 🥰
January 29, 2025 at 4:00 AM
It was pretty and warm outside today, but much of Yates Mill Pond was still frozen over. Some of the ice was thick enough to stand on.
January 26, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Last year's choice: The Map of Wilderland: Ecocritical Reflections on Tolkien's Myth of Wilderness by Amber Lehning

An exploration of JRRT's primary wilderness influences: Germanic, Celtic, & English. I appreciated the visualization of mythological influence as a braided river through a floodplain.
January 25, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Trying to decide which book to read/present for our choose-your-own-adventure Tolkien nonfiction book club meeting in March. These are my top 5 frontrunners. Do I cover bases I've missed out on or try something more recent? The centenary conference also has me excited about the Bodleian book...
January 25, 2025 at 6:14 PM