My girlfriend wanted to talk to me about how childish I am but she couldn’t because she doesn’t know the password to my pillow fort.

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This is my attempt at writing a user's guide to castles, forts, walls, ditches and generally ways of protecting yourself from the nasty things that are trying to kill you/ slaughter your dwarves/ steal the emerald/ take the briefcase etc. Part 2 Here Part 3 Here Anyway... First up, the Hill-Fort The hill fort is one of the earliest ways of defending your village/town/extended family, with a simple hill-with-ditches design as shown in the picture. This made it more difficult to storm the place by just walking in with your tribe/mates, and also is easier to construct than the next type of fortification. Looks cool but isn't really effective against most attacks that involve more than basic infantry. The Roman Fort This picture is a reconstruction of Vindolanda, a roman fort on Hadrian's wall. It's a simple design - one curtain wall (built of wood first, then stone if the fort needs to stick around) with the buildings within, all surrounded by a ditch. Fairly cheap and quick to build, if built of wood, this could be constructed very quickly to protect a camp. Good for armies on the march, won't hold against more than a primitive attacker. Next up its the classic Motte and Bailey Castle... Not particularly complex this one. Really, it's just a hill, with a wooden tower on, with a fenced off enclosure attached to it all surrounded by a ditch of course (seeing a trend with these ditches?) Fairly cheap again, good for invading armies wanting to protect themselves but not having many resources to build a massive fortress. To quote the famous song, "Burn, baby, burn, disco inferno..." Great unless your enemy has fire. Now for the stone keep... Pretty imposing isn't it? No? Well maybe its 'cos the picture's smaller than real life(Captain Obvious strikes again! Quick Tree Powers Activate!) Nevertheless, this work of engineering is the stone keep castle design - similar to the motte and bailey idea, but built out of stone, with the keep having much ticker walls (Rochester here can take trebuchet hits easily). Great castle design - takes a determined attacker to take out - watch out for undermining though. Now for a trip to Wales - the concentric castle! This is the peak of medieval castle design. The two castles above are Harlech (top) and Conwy (bottom). Effectively - the idea of this castle design is that two walls are better than one. They don't have keeps, they use buildings built into the walls and gatehouses for storing important objects - moneys, arrows, kings, your grandmother etc. and have smaller 9so they can be shot over) rings of walls around main rings of walls (or in Conwy's case a series of rings attached to each other). Great castle design - breaching this with medieval weaponry is nigh-impossible. Watch out for enemies with explosives or large armies willing to lay siege. Part 2 Here Part 3 Here

Fort Knox Army Base is in northern Kentucky, covering three counties, under Army command, Marine Corps shares sections of the base for training areas.

Extraterrestrial secrets, locked mysteries of religion, virgin wildlife and more make these forbidden places all the more intriguing.

Kinsale, Ireland is perfect for families Kinsale with Kids Kinsale is a great little town on the southern coast of Ireland, roughly 20 minutes from the Cork airport. As we have family in Kinsale we’ve traveled with our kids there several times now and enjoyed it every time. Our favorite

I am finally feeling settled in and I am loving the fall weather we have been having. I love the cool breeze while the sun is shining and just smelling fall in the air. I am hoping it lasts awhile but I have heard that winter comes on pretty quick in this part of the world. For now I am going to pretend that I didn't hear that and just enjoy fall while it lasts. One of my favourite things about living in the Kootenays is the view. Almost in every direction there are views of the amazing BC mountains. I have discovered that the view from our backyard is kind of fabulous. When a storm is approaching the light is amazing. and there is a hammock...a hammock that is wonderful for lying in and looking up at the treetops and sky. I think I may like it here after all. I hear there are a lot of trails to explore and outdoor activities to try... lots for us to discover over the coming years. This year, the kids and I have been enjoying exploring Fort Steele. I love history and this is probably one of the best places to learn about the history of the Kootenay region. We get to learn while taking in the amazing views... the kids get to run around outside... a lot... and they get to hang out with farm animals. Actually, I may be just as excited about the farm animals as the kids. Now that the boxes are nearly done we are having lots of fun exploring and spending time together while school is out. (Teacher strike here in BC - don't get me started on the school system in BC) The hubby took his day off this week to build the boys a really cool triple bunk bed. They love it. It was set up in their room last night and we are almost finished setting up their room...should be done tomorrow. They are so excited. I love having a handy husband who can solve the problem of not enough room and just whip up a bed in a day out of a bunch of old two by fours. The boys now have a lot of floor space to play on. I have started unpacking my cookbook collection...I've missed it. To celebrate I decided to try a new recipe... something simple. Just a salad... but, so yummy! I based it on an Ina Garten recipe..."Cape Cod Chopped Salad" from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics I didn't have all the ingredients for the salad so I had to make some substitutions and then I changed the dressing to go with my substitutions. Not sure what I call this one, but here is the recipe: 1 chicken breast - precooked and diced (I used a breast left over from a roast chicken) 1 large (double) handful of baby arugula 1 large (double) handful of mixed baby greens 1 large granny smith apple, peeled and diced 1/2 cup pecan halves - toasted (I just dry toasted them in a cast iron skillet) 3/4 cup fresh blueberries 6 oz. blue cheese - crumbled In a large bowl toss the above ingredients. In a small canning jar (I used a 500 ml. jar) pour in the following ingredients: 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar lemon zest from 1/3 large or 1/2 small lemon juice of 1/3 large or 1/2 lemon (approx. 2 Tbsp) 2 1/2 tsp dijon mustard 2 1/2 Tbsp pure maple syrup salt and pepper to taste ( I used about 15 grinds of each) 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil put the lid on the jar and shake vigourously. The recipe makes extra dressing. If dressing the entire salad I would suggest using half the recipe. Serve immediately after dressing and tossing or bring jar to the table and let everyone dress as desired. This served our family of six (all the kids ate it)...but we also had a cheese soufflé...so without the soufflé I would say it serves four. Although, it was so good I probably could have eaten the whole thing myself!

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The Fort Leavenworth Story. This is my story in chronological order. Each title is a link to the related post. I will continue to update this page

Stunning Emerald Coast Painting, view of Fort La Latte French Landscape plein air. painting rocky coast of France. Limited Editon on Archival Paper

Crawford Market, tucked away in Mumbai’s Fort area, is like a colourful symbol of the city’s lively vibe. It’s been around since 1869, making it one of the oldest markets in all o…

The drive from Mendocino to Fort Bragg is a beautiful combination of coast views and redwood trees. Here are some of my favorite stops.

Originally constructed to defend the British from Napoleon III's navy in the 18th century, these three sea-forts have since been abandoned and are now

I thought if were doing star forts than my citys deserves some love- The Halifax Citadel - city, doing, star, forts, citys, deserves, love-, halifax, citadel. Photorator photo.

L'artiste Francesco Ciccolella illustre les problèmes du monde avec subtilité et minimalisme, notamment pour la Une de grands médias internationaux.

Le fort de Chambly, Sulte, Benjamin, Montréal: G. Ducharme, 1922, 82 pages. Read at Archive.org – lire à Archive.org Download PDF book Aigremont, Ailleboust, Albanel, Allen, Amherst, Anbury, Andi…

José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior is considered one of the most important painters of Brazil. May 8, his birthday, is celebrated in Brazil as ‘Artist’s Day’. He is also sometimes declared as the ‘national painter’ of Brazil. His works, which mostly depicted the rustic life of Sao Paulo, without being overtly romantic or using jingoistic tones, portraying them simply as human beings,..

My girlfriend finished putting up her Christmas tree, luckily size doesn't matter to her. via Went to a white elephant party last night. As I predicted, the group fought fiercely over kitchen wares. Today, I wait for news of the discovery... via This guy is doing it right. via Now how am I going to

When you get a bae, then girlfriend memes will be relatable. We scoured the web and compiled a list of 59 cute and crazy girlfriend memes!

Originally constructed to defend the British from Napoleon III's navy in the 18th century, these three sea-forts have since been abandoned and are now

Looking for things to do with kids in Columbus, GA? Designed with families and budget in mind, our guide will keep you busy.

Le fort de Chambly, Sulte, Benjamin, Montréal: G. Ducharme, 1922, 82 pages. Read at Archive.org – lire à Archive.org Download PDF book Aigremont, Ailleboust, Albanel, Allen, Amherst, Anbury, Andi…

Le fort de Chambly, Sulte, Benjamin, Montréal: G. Ducharme, 1922, 82 pages. Read at Archive.org – lire à Archive.org Download PDF book Aigremont, Ailleboust, Albanel, Allen, Amherst, Anbury, Andi…

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