Harry Potter and my one year blogoversary

I've mentioned before that I only bake about once a year, well once a year has come! And I realized it's also just over a year since I started blogging (admittedly at a few of my favourite books, but still), on April 11, here. So partly in honour of that and because I love lemons, I couldn't resist buying some and then baking them into my only recipe for them -- lemon blueberry cupcakes. I wish I could share them with you, along with a nice cup of tea! (Chamomile lemon is what I've got in the photo and most of the time in general.)

I also got the latest Harry Potter dvd on the very day it came out (that would be today, my husband, dear man, got it for me this morning), as you can see, and have already watched it. I love how the relationship between the three main characters is developed and tested. I've also got some Trollope there, since I'm wanting a bit of a break from Lauren Willig's sugary spies. I do intend to finish the series, but spreading them out might be better. As much as I like things, I usually always have to take breaks from them. I loved seeing The Deathly Hallows in the theatre (twice), but since we were going to the theme park in February (hmm, maybe I'll post a few pictures of that today?), I stopped watching the movies or reading the books for a bit, just so I didn't get tired of them.

Right, so the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (it's in the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida) pictures and a giveaway I just remembered I could do!

My first stop in the magical village of Hogsmeade was the Owl Post because I had a postcard to send to Rachel of Book Snob and I'd heard I could actually mail letters there. Yes, you can, but maybe bring your own stamps, because theirs are expensive! Or just get them to stamp a few postcards with a fancy Hogsmeade owl postmark thing. I did both, more on that in a bit...

We also went to Honeydukes and got some sherbert lemons, Bertie Bott's every flavour jellybeans for my husband and a chocolate frog for me (complete with trading card! Of Salazar Slytherin.) Here's the inside of the shop:

And Zonko's joke shop is right next to it, full of remembralls and pygmy puffs.

There's also the rides -- Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, a ride inside Hogwarts that digitially flies you around the Quidditch pitch and the castle grounds and seems very realistic, Harry, Ron and Hermoine fly with you too and when you land back at the castle, Dumbledore, the Weasley twins and everyone else clap for you, it was really fun (and slightly scary, there are spiders and Dementors too). The line up for this ride is great too, because it's through Hogwarts, so there's the talking portraits, Dumbledore's study, the sorting hat, I only wish I could have spent more time there instead of being rushed through because the line was moving fast! Then there's the Flight of the Hippogriff which we didn't go on because we felt a little woozy, although it is for parents and kids, so ought to have been ok. Foolishly at the last minute we went on the much more frightening rollercoaster, the Dragon Challenge. Sigh. There are two rollercoasters, in red (Chinese Fireball) or blue (Hungarian Horntail) and they almost collide and do all kinds of stomach churning things besides, giving me a very bad headache. Or that may have been dehydration plus one too many butterbeers!

But all in all it was a fabulous day and I felt quite lucky to be able to be there. (Thanks to my in-laws for the trip to Florida and the tickets to the park!) We had lunch at the Three Broomsticks, above, and below here are a few more pictures of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts:

So the giveaway is Harry Potter themed (perhaps that's no surprise by now?) -- I have five extra postcards from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (specially stamped and all) and if you'd like one, let me know. I'd prefer to give them to book bloggers or people who've commented on my blog in the past, but don't mind mailing anywhere, and I'll do a little draw thing say next week Friday, April 22 if more than five people want them. Sorry it's not books or something, but I can't really afford more than that! Thank you everyone who's read my blog over the past year and took the time to comment, it's been nice to get to know you all, and thanks for being supportive of my move to this new blog, I am enjoying myself more already and look forward to more fun blogging.