Saturday, July 31, 2010

Complete the Caption Again


What do you suppose he realized? And what is the gesture referring to? These two spankophiles are having an interesting conversation. What do you think they're saying?

Can you fill in the white spaces to complete the caption? Leave your creative suggestion in a comment, and I will post the entries soon.

Have fun!

From Hermione's Heart

Friday, July 30, 2010

Name that Tune


Can you name the song that this picture represents?


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Scroll down

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Moon River


Don't blame me. It was Ron's idea.



From Hermione's Heart

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Victorian Souvenirs III


More sketches are from Souvenirs of a Boarding School. The ladies above seem to be enjoying the meadow. No benches, then?



This disciplinarian has two maids to assist her. Perhaps they're next for a paddling.


From Hermione's Heart

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Pyramid of Spanking


We often play Guess the Implement here on my blog, and recently Ron and I played it too, but our version was quite different.

It all started when I wondered whether I could tell the difference between two similar leather paddles. Ron suggested we try guessing the implements, and I reminded him of his suggestion a couple of weeks later, right before a date for spanking. He took it from there.

Ron laid five different implements on the bed and let me memorize which ones they were: leather paddle, riding crop, red slapper, wooden shoehorn and bamboo spatula. Then I bent over the end of the bed with my head turned away so I couldn't see which implement Ron chose, and the game began. The only problem was, I wasn't sure what the rules were, except that I was going to be spanked with five different weapons.

"The red slapper," I called out after the third swat from the first selection."

"You guessed too soon," Ron admonished me. "Once you guess, it's over for that implement." He did give me several more quick swats to forgive me my beginner's error, then announced, " You have reached level one of the pyramid of spanking."

I recognized the second implement right away, but kept my opinion to myself while it made an impression on my bottom.

"How long do I wait?" I asked, between gasps and squeaks.

"As long as you like," the referee said.

"Shoehorn."

"Correct."

As Ron began the third level of the pyramid, I asked, "Shouldn't there be a set length of time--ow!-- for you to let me sample the--ow! How about a minute? Ow, ow! Like that show we watched with the couple--ow!--riding crop."

"Correct.

The bamboo spatula was next, and I guessed that as well. Even though I figured Ron was making up the game as we went along, I had never had such a variety at one time and let me tell you, it keeps the pain fresh and interesting.

Then it was time for the last level. I knew what was left, and didn't want the spanking to end, so I stayed silent until Ron asked, "Don't you understand the rules?"

"What rules?" I giggled.

"You have to guess."

"Hairbrush."

"What hairbrush? There's no hairbrush here."

Another pause for paddling. "Bathbrush."

"No bathbrush either."

Whack. Whack. "Ping pong paddle."

"We don't have a ping pong paddle."

"We should get one."

WHACK. "Okay, leather paddle."

"Good." Ron put down the paddle and helped me up. I rubbed my sore bottom and asked him sweetly, "What's my prize?"

"You've had it."


From Hermione's Heart

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Daisy's Meme


Our friend Daisy posted an excellent meme the other day, and I haven't done a meme for a long time, so here goes:

Your favorite fictional character - Mr. Bean

Your favorite villain - Boris Badenov, the arch-nemesis of Rocky and Bullwinkle

Your all-time comfort food - bread with melted cheese

Your favorite fictional family - the Barrones, from Everybody Loves Raymond

Your favorite non-masked heroic character - James Bond

Your favorite movie - A Christmas movie called Prancer. We watch it every year. (Actually, it's Ron's favourite.)

Your favorite writer - it's a tie: Sophie Kinsella and Maeve Binchey

Your favorite artist - Paul Klee

The first record album you ever bought - The Beatles "Twist and Shout"

The first writer you were hooked on
- Ray Bradbury

A person you wish you could bring back - Stan Rogers, a brilliant Canadian folksinger who died at age 33 in a plane crash.

Your favorite flower - lilac

The hobby that takes up most of your free time - blogging.

A game you enjoy playing - Mahjong solitaire

Your favorite singer - Carole King and James Keelahan

Your favourite TV show - Mad Men

Your all time favorite TV double act - Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman

Your favorite game - Guess the Implement

Your deepest regret - I don't have any regrets as such. The choices I made were right for me at the time.

Something that makes you sad - the relatively short amount of time that we have our beloved pets with us.

Something that makes you ANGRY - animal abuse and irresponsible owners.

Something you worry about - devastating ecological disasters

Your age when you received your first ever adult spanking - about 23

Your favorite weapon - words

Your first ever pet - a cat

Your favorite form of transportation - horse-drawn carriage

Your "happy thought" from childhood - playing imaginary games

Your favorite implement, and favourite place for a spanking - leather paddle, on my bottom.

Your most dreaded implement, and worst position for a spanking - dressage whip, and being in a position where spanking is impossible.

The most memorable death in your lifetime - JFK, with RFK a close second, because it was such a shock.

What stone(s) would you like in a ring - Opals

Your childhood ambition - to have a horse of my own

At what age did you achieve it (if at all) - 23

Your ambition now - to retire

Your dream holiday (money no object) - a visit to Britain

If you won £50,000,000, lottery, what would you do with it - First, change it into Canadian funds. Then I would give a large portion to the American rescue association for our favourite dog breed.

What would you like to do this very second - finish this meme so I can post it.

The next holiday you have planned - A week in the kitchen, to convert tomatoes and cucumbers into all sorts of yummy things.

The blogs you like to check out first - I check whichever blogs have been updated recently, either from my blogroll or from the blogger dashboard.

An ex-blogger whom you really miss - Spanked Hubby.

Something you would love to do - meet other spankos, to chat and get to know each other better.



Please feel free to do this meme on your blog or pass it on to other bloggers.

From Hermione's Heart

Monday, July 26, 2010

From the Top Shelf - Highlights III


Here's another interesting highlighted excerpt on the subject of pain, from
S-M: The Last Taboo, by Gerald and Caroline Greene.


Pain, Ellis wrote, should be differentiated completely from cruelty. Sadism and masochism could be seen "as complementary emotional states"... "Any impulse of true cruelty is outside the field altogether... In algolagnia*, as in music, it is not cruelty that is sought; it is the joy of being plunged amongst the waves of that great primitive ocean of emotions which underlies the variegated world of our everyday lives." Pain then becomes "intense emotional excitement", a stimulus sought as well as given: "the real object throughout was to produce strong emotion and not to inflict cruelty." Just as some birds call out courtship cries at sight of an enemy (some women find anger in a man turning-on), so our parched sexual instincts could be aroused to new heights by a recognition of the true relationship between love and pain.
*Taking pleasure in inflicting or enduring pain.

Cruelty in music? Certainly music produces great extremes in emotion, as does pain. I love the comparison.


A woman correspondent wrote to Havelock Ellis:


The fascination of whipping, which has always greatly puzzled me, seems to be a hankering after the stimulus of fear... Excessive fear is demoralizing, but it seems to me that the idea of being whipped gives a sense of fear which is not excessive. It is almost the only kind of pain (physical) which is inflicted on women by persons whom they can love and trust, and with a moral object."
The association of pain, fear and sex is one I find fascinating. How about you?


From Hermione's Heart

Sunday, July 25, 2010

You Completed the Caption


Here's how some readers of Hermione's Heart interpreted this picture:


Michael - She liked him bent over the arm of the leather chair best of all.

Karl Friedrich Gauss - She liked leather the best of all.

sixofthebest - She says, "When my everloving husband comes home from a hard days work at the office, he relaxes in this soft leather chair, then commands me to go over his knees, whereupon he raises my dress waist high, pulls down my knickers to bare my bottom, and spanks me painfully but lovingly.

Our Bottoms Burn - She likes the feel of leather best of all.

Bonnie - She liked a pink bottom best of all.

A. Lurker - She liked when her bottom matched the color of the flowers on the carpet best of all. (Why else would one choose that carpet?)


Ronnie - She's telling her husband that she likes to be made to bend over the back of his leather chair for her spanking best of all.

Season -
She liked her invisible spanker best of all.

Hermione - She liked being spanked in this chair best of all.


Daisychain - She liked sitting in this soft chair after her spanking best of all!!!

From Hermione's Heart

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Complete the Caption

It's time for another game of Complete the Caption. What is this young woman saying? Is she speaking to someone else in the room, or is she musing aloud? Will she be receiving a spanking soon, or administering one? Or is she simply justifying her bizarre taste in carpeting?

Submit your caption as a comment, and I'll post them in an upcoming post.



From Hermione's Heart

Friday, July 23, 2010

How Spankable are You?


You are 87% spankable!

You loved to be spanked, good and hard, with any available object. You will take it as hard as anyone is willing to give it. You are probably guilty of provoking your lover into spanking you, by flagrant misbehavior or verbal challenges. Your ass is probably red right now. We wouldn’t be surprised if you are standing at the keyboard, because it hurts to sit down.

I'm not surprised at my results! This quiz has been around for a long time, but it may be new to many of you. Rate yourself here.


Tip: When you get to the last page of the quiz - the optional for stats page - to skip signing up for OkCupid, select NO for are you single, then uncheck the box beside Still, save my result.



From Hermione's Heart

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Victorian Souvenirs II


More sketches are from Souvenirs of a Boarding School. The cherubs or babies appear for the first time in the above picture, then again below. Naughty little disciplinarians, are they not?




Both ladies seem to be enjoying themselves. The whip is a questionable addition. Nothing of the sort was ever used in the book, but then, perhaps the sketches were simply commissioned and the artist never read what he was illustrating.




From Hermione's Heart

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Tips from the Techie


There are many great spanking blogs on the interwebs, but sometimes the good ones are overlooked for a very simple reason. The font used on blog is too small to read.

If you're like me and have trouble reading tiny text, here's a very simple solution that will work on most computers. If you have a mouse with a roller in the centre (between the two buttons that you click), hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard with one hand, and with the other, roll the roller. The text will get bigger or smaller depending on which way you roll.


Once you have adjusted the font size to your liking, your computer will remember the setting, so the next time you visit the blog, it will be readable and you won't have to resize the text again.

I hope this tip is helpful. It's saved my eyes numerous times!

And here's another quick tip. Have you ever wondered how to get to the home page of a blog when you happen to be on a page that's displaying only one post, but you want to read some more posts? Usually, you can click the heading at the top of the blog, and that will take you home. For example, on my blog, if you click on "Hermione's Heart" (in big letters at the very top) you will be taken to my home page.

Tomorrow we return to our usual subject of spanking.



From Hermione's Heart

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Back to Normal



Our older dog, Fang, has serious health issues that are well-controlled with medication. But one morning last week, he was under the weather, and refused not only his breakfast, but also the tasty morsels in which I had hidden his pills. Ron immediately thought the worst was about to happen. I'm more pragmatic about these things, and diagnosed a digestive upset, based on generous evidence on the carpet.

After a morning of rest and two doses of tummy medicine, Fang was starting to come around. By lunchtime he accepted treats, and I knew he had bounced back after he scarfed up his afternoon meal and looked around for more. Ron was still concerned, though, and watched Fang carefully for the rest of the day.

Later, I had just given both dogs their evening biscuits and was walking past Ron when I felt a hard swat on my bottom.

"Ow!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that."

"I'm sure you didn't. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Yeah. It was there."

I was glad to see that Ron had bounced back too.


From Hermione's Heart

Monday, July 19, 2010

From the Top Shelf - Highlights II


Today I have another highlighted excerpt to share with you from
S-M: The Last Taboo, by Gerald and Caroline Greene.

Like the last selection, it involves pain, and expands on the notion of severity:
Memory can only preserve impressions as a whole; physical pain consists of a sensation and of a feeling. But memory cannot easily reproduce the definite sensation of pain, and thus the whole memory is disintegrated and speedily forgotten. It is probably true in general that a man who has known the cane at school might make a mental picture of a more severe type than a woman who had known only the infliction of a slipper. Indeed, most women might be well satisfied for masturbatory purposes with images of the ritual involved, bending over, raising the skirt, rather than any pain at all.
I agree with the part about the memory of pain being lost, and therefore is not remembered as overwhelming. But in my own personal experience, my fantasies and mental imaginings take on a much more severe form than anything I actually experienced in the past. What I find stimulating is something closer to hard canings than mild slipperings, to use the examples from the above passage.

What do you think?


From Hermione's Heart

Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Seat of your Pants

Scientists using seat-of-the-pants research - literally - say how something feels to you can affect how you act.

In one experiment, for example, 86 people took part in negotiations over a new car with a very high sticker price.

Some were seated on hard wooden chairs. Others had comfy padded seats.

After their first offers were rejected, the participants made a second proposal for the car.

People on stiff wooden chairs raised their offered price by only a little.



But the relaxed folks in soft chairs were willing to spend quite a bit extra.



The hardness, the researchers concluded, produced strictness and rigidity in the negotiation.

The chair experiment was one of a series of tests he and colleagues did showing that the sense of touch can have a significant impact on people's reactions, even though they may not realize it.

I can vouch for that. A spanking often has a significant impact on my reactions!


From Hermione's Heart

Saturday, July 17, 2010

A Butt-busting Followup


Some of you have asked me how I liked the anti-monkeybutt powder, and the short answer is, I liked it just fine!

Last weekend, Ron was standing beside the bed, holding the leather paddle in happy anticipation, when I spoke up.

"It's kind of hot in here," I said.

"Not too bad. Come on." Ron was anxious to begin.

"Before we get started, let me get something," and I walked over to my bedside table and pulled open the drawer.

"What? Does it vibrate?" Ron knew some of the secrets that drawer held.

I laughed. "No, silly. If my bum is too hot and sticky, try this." I held out the container of powder to him. He read the label and laughed. He laughed even harder when I pointed out the part about "butt busting activities" on the label.

"Where did you get this? How did you happen to see it?" He was very curious now.

"It was in the drug store, and when I saw it I thought it would work better than Gold Bond." Then I ended the conversation by getting into position.

Ron put the container aside and settled down to the business at hand. Once, I interrupted to ask if he thought my bottom needed powdering, but he said no.

After what seemed like a long time, but was probably several minutes, he decided that I had been thoroughly spanked. "Your bum has a luminous glow."

Yes, he really said that! I was even more anxious to try the powder, to see if it had any heat-reducing qualities. So I begged Ron to rub some on, and he agreed. It was lovely, so soft and velvety as Ron smoothed it onto my fiery posterior. It felt much nicer than any lotion, and I do believe it helped a little. We both chuckled some more at the name, and I put the container back in my drawer, where it will be handy for next time.

After all, we are in the middle of a heatwave.


From Hermione's Heart

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Victorian Souvenirs I


These pen and ink sketches are from Souvenirs of a Boarding School, a Victorian spanking book, written anonymously and published privately. The generously illustrated volume provided me with the inspiration to share with you the illustrations instead of the story (which was less than memorable).

Although the title of the book suggests otherwise, the pictures are of voluptuous adult women, an assortment of sadistic cherubs and even a satyr.

Without further ado, I present to you Chapter One.








From Hermione's Heart

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Wednesday WIN


Here's an amazing new product that will benefit spankees everywhere:


Why suffer discomfort from having to sit on a hard surface like a floor, bench or chair? Portable Critbuns solves the problem for those of us who have limited natural padding or who get spanked frequently. The gel-filled cushion has a built-in handle so you can carry it on those occasions when you think you might need it, like after a hard spanking.

I may have enhanced the advertising text just a little, but you get the idea.

The Critbuns slogan (and I didn't make this up) is "Put your cheeks on its cheeks".






From Hermione's Heart

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Recognizable


Last week I went to an outdoor craft show, and saw these lovely, inexpensive necklaces for sale. They were made to order, so I told the attendant what name I wanted, and she had it done in no time.

When will I wear it? Rarely, if ever. Perhaps under a turtleneck, or covered by a scarf. But I'm prepared if I ever attend a spanking party. You'll know who I am immediately.


From Hermione's Heart

Monday, July 12, 2010

From the Top Shelf - Highlights


One of my favourite books on the top shelf is one I bought at the campus bookstore while I was at university. It's called S-M: The Last Taboo, by Gerald and Caroline Greene. Published in 1974, it is largely a scholarly study, relying heavily on the thoughts and findings of Havelock Ellis, the Marquis de Sade, Sigmund Freud, Krafft-Ebing and several others.

The most enjoyable (and the most re-read) part of the book was the section devoted to examples of spanking erotica. The two scenes from O, Calcutta that I posted here and here came from that book.


What I want to share with you today and over the next few weeks are the passages that I highlighted with a pink felt marker over thirty years ago. My thoughts, desires and feelings have matured and evolved over time, and I find it interesting to be reminded of what was so important and significant way back then.





Today's excerpt involves the concept of pain.
But first, a word about terminology. Sadist and masochist are the words the authors use as general terms for the person who inflicts pain and the one who receives it. Those words might just as easily be spanker and spankee, or top and bottom in today's vocabulary.
Accidental pain is not perceived as pleasurable or sexual. The average sadomasochistic session is usually scripted: the masochist must have allegedly done something meriting punishment, there must be threats and suspense before the punishment is meted out, etc. Often the phenomenon reminds one of a planned ritual or theatrical production... When one appreciates this one realizes that often in the relationship the sadist is merely servicing the masochist. The sadist must develop an extraordinary perceptiveness to know when to continue, despite cries and protests, and when to cease.
Interesting that the writer calls TTWD theatrical. I suspect I highlighted this passage because of my desire for roleplay as part of spanking. The top servicing the bottom? I never thought of it that way, but he does have a point.

What do you think?



From Hermione's Heart

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Go, Team!


Ron says we're cheering for Holland today. I wonder what influenced his decision?

May the best team win!


From Hermione's Heart