But, there, I’ve gone and forgotten to introduce myself!

     *blinks in surprise, then leaps to feet and gives a low curtsey*

     My name is Madalyn Jones - though I have a variety of nicknames - some given to me, and a few I assumed because I liked them. *smiles* I am known as Misha to my Russian comrades - (Greetings to you all!), Sunshine #1 to our friends at VOM , and Meg to my little brothers. (I have a few other ones, too, but they aren’t used often.)

     I’m 24 years old, and I have the privilege to be the second oldest of 9 children. We have great times together - I pity single children - I mean, if we want to play, there’s almost always someone happy to oblige, and usually there’s a whole troop ready to pitch in and have fun! Seriously, though, the Lord has really blessed me with a very wonderful family and absolutely marvelous parents. (Personally, I think I have the best Mom and Dad in the world. Not that I’m biased or anything.*grin*)

     I live with my family on five acres outside of Austin, Texas. It used to be out in the country, but bit by bit, Austin has grown out closer to us, and while we aren’t quite the suburbs yet, it certainly isn’t country anymore. *sigh* I love the country - the farther away from the city, the better, as far as I am concerned! But our land is very nice, after all. I’ve lived here for 19 years, so I’m rather attached to it. It is very rocky, but it has lovely trees - an essential ingredient to nice land, in my opinion. Anyways, I like it here.

     I’d like to mention a few other interests I have. I didn’t think they were worth making a whole new page for them, because really, you see, they are just odds and ends, but they are things I enjoy, regardless, and so, I wanted to put them somewhere , and this seemed like the most logical place to do it. So here you are -

     I really enjoy reading. I don’t do it so much now as I used to, as I have so many other things I like to do as well, but there is still nothing that can beat curling up with a good book and a cup of tea on a cloudy day. At least, not in my opinion. (Unless it’s playing my flute in front of a blazing fire.....hmmm, I’ll have to think about that...) Anyways, I very much enjoy reading. Some of my favourite authors are George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, Lloyd Alexander, Sir Walter Scott, J.R.R.Tolkien, Terry Brooks, and, and.....blast, I can’t remember who else. Sppfffppttt. Ah, weel.

     At any rate - George MacDonald was a Scottish preacher in the 1800s. He wrote some really great novels, as well as some pretty nice poetry. I really like his books, because several of them are written in a Scottish dialect. It takes some getting used to, but after you figure it out, it has a sort of charm all its own. I enjoy it, anyhow.

     C.S. Lewis is pretty well known. He was a college professor at Oxford in the 1920s - 50s. I grew up reading his Narnia series - if you haven’t read Narnia yet, I highly recommend it. Although it was written for children, it is a very enjoyable series for all age groups. I also enjoy his non-fiction works, Mere Christianity in particular. I think one reason I like C.S.Lewis so much is that he presents his stuff in such a logical manner. I am absolutely hopeless at presenting things logically, so I just love seeing how he does it.

     Lloyd Alexander was the reason I got this domain name. (As you will already know if you have visited the Eilonwy page.) His Prydain Chronicles is another series that was written for children, but holds appeal for all ages. I grew up reading it, too, and highly recommend all of the series except the Black Cauldron, which is somewhat dark.

     Sir Walter Scott is another Scottish author (as you probably knew). I don’t like all his books, but I do like most of them. They are a little harder to read than the things most people read now-a-days. You have to be in the right mood to read them, and it’s best to have plenty of time, and a lot of patience. Most of his books take the first half to set the scene, and then the rest of the book to tell the story. There’s a lot of good stuff in there though - splendid descriptions of Scotland and other places, too. This isn’t fast reading, though. You have been warned!

     J.R.R.Tolkien - now there’s a name that’s received a lot of publicity lately, what with the Lord of the Rings movies coming out and all. I grew up reading the books, and loved them long before they even started production on the films - which was over 7 years ago. I guess what I mean is, don’t think I’m one of the “recent converts” to LOTR - I grew up with it. (I guess I grew up with a lot of books, eh?) I like the other things he wrote, too. Like Farmer Giles of Ham. Now that is a great story! A fairy-tale, sort of.....but on second thought, not really. It’s good, though. And you really ought to read the “Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”. That was complied by Humphrey Carpenter, but it’s a bunch of letters by Professor Tolkien, and makes for great reading. Now there was a man who knew how to communicate! I wish I had half the command of the English language that he had.

     Terry Brooks.....first, let me say I will only read the Shannara series by him. I would not recommend his other books. They aren’t - well, let’s just say, they don’t have the best content. And of the Shannara series, do not read the new ones - they are awful. Gruesome, and vulgar, too. The first two Shannara series, though! Ah, now those are books worth reading! The first series is: The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, and The Wishsong of Shannara. The next series is called the Heritage of Shannara, and has the books: The Scions of Shannara, The Druid of Shannara, The Elfqueen of Shannara, and The Talismans of Shannara. The First King of Shannara was written after all of these, but chronologically, it comes before the Sword of Shannara. It was okay, but not his best, by any means. My favourite of the Shannara series is probably The Sword, with Elfstones as a close runner up.

     Another thing I like to read is history. Not any one particular author, you know, just history in general. Especially Scottish and English history. But I’ll read about just about any country - as long as the book isn’t too dry!

     All right, I’m done boring you to tears with my crazy reading taste. *cocks head and smiles* Another thing I like to do is sew. I think my Mom taught me how to sew out of self-defense. Before I had to sew, I was absolutely horrible about taking care of my clothes - I could enter a perfectly empty room with immaculate clothes, and somehow I always managed to emerge in tatters. *grimace* After Mom taught me how to sew, though, she made me sew all my own clothes. And for some reason, it was a lot easier to remember to pay attention to how my poor clothes were faring when I knew that I was going to be the one fixing them if they got messed up. Ha! Anyway, in the process of learning to sew, I discovered that I really enjoyed sewing. I also like mixing patterns up and redesigning them into new patterns. *mischievous grin*

     Another thing I like to do is cook. Mostly bread. And to be sure, I have lots of people who are always happy to eat whatever I cook. Always providing, of course, that the recipe comes out right. *laughs* Sometimes my bread comes out a bit odd - especially if someone happens to be looking over my shoulder while I cook. For some reason, I get somewhat rattled when people stare over my shoulder, and I often lose count of salt, or flour, or whatever I happen to be measuring. Once, one of my friends was watching me cook, and I added way too much salt. We tried to salvage the bread - flinging in more flour, pouring milk in liberally and generally trying to make the best of a desperate situation. *grins* - Remember, my friend? - We finally got the salt down to a manageable proportion, although the bread was somewhat - well.......different. *throws back head and laughs helplessly* Ah, weel - it had been a hard day. I had just flunked my driving test, and we were having company for dinner......long story. (For the record, though, I have now passed my driving test, and am the proud driver of a gallant little Subaru.)

     Sorry, I didn’t mean to get sidetracked there. Hmmmm.....weel, that’s all I can think of, as far as hobbies goes.....

     Leaving already? I say, I hope I didn’t chatter too long. Mom said it took me forever to learn how to talk, but after I learned, I never stopped. At any rate, it was lovely of you to stop by - if you liked my site, do drop me a line, if you’ve a moment. My email is sunshine@eilonwy.net

     Have a brilliant day!