Feeling a bit glum that you’re stuck on this side of the Wardrobe on a hot summer’s day?  Here are ten ideas to perk up a free afternoon.

  1. Make yourself a daisy crown or braid a circlet from the hangings of a weeping willow, if one is handy.
  2. Grab a pencil and design your own Narnian or Archenlandish coat of arms.  What will be the symbol of your house?  The colors?  What about your motto?
  3. Make something nice from ice, like the Calormenes do.  Orange juice poured into a small cup or glass with a popsicle stick will come out of the freezer in an hour or two as the easiest treat imaginable. (Or, if you want something a bit fancier and more authentic, try one of the many sorbet recipes that can be found online.  This recipe for strawberry sorbet has only three ingredients.)
  4. Spend an afternoon composing a really lovely letter with your fanciest pen.  Write in calligraphy if you know how. (If you don’t know how, you can find a tutorial online for any alphabet that catches your eye.  Gothic and Uncial are two quite Narnian possibilities.)  Make the first letter of your note extra fancy by making it bigger than all the rest and then adding ivy, flowers, or other decorations to it.  When you have finished your letter, seal it in an envelope with sealing wax or a metallic sticker.
  5. Curl up with a really good fanfic or two.  (Narnian fanfiction can be a frightening place, so get recommendations from readers you trust.)  I highly recommend Becoming Brothers and Someone Else’s Story, both by Andi Horton.  You’ll feel like you’ve just stepped away for a moment after reading The Horse and His Boy and continued on with the stories of Cor, Corin and Aravis.  Her voice is so like Lewis it’s uncanny, without feeling at all forced.
  6. Color some pictures in your Chronicles of Narnia Colouring Book, due out next month.
  7. Make some hollyhock dolls.  They might be very small dryads, after all.
  8. Try some Medieval embroidery stitches.
  9. To keep your hair up during hot summer months, make yourself some archery arrow hair sticks.  If gluing feathers to dowels is too much trouble, try this approach to fletching.
  10. Build a catapult.

Have you ever tried any of these things?  Tell me how it went in the comments below!