The Shire

Andy Brockhouse
Southfarthing Gate
The Delving Fields
The Shire

Miss Yule of Shire Rose
Wagon Number 4
The Main Road
Waymeet,
The Delving Fields
The Shire

Winterfilth 1, 3019 by Shire Reckoning
 

-2^nd Day of  Winterfilth 3019 -

The sun was already up when I awoke this morning, the walk to Oatbarton yesterday must have taken more out of me than I thought.

Spent the morning doing a spot of cleaning and then preparing some herbs I had left over, they were no longer fresh so I had to finely chop and then leave them in an open oven to dry them.

As dawn was breaking Ammeline approached the outskirts of Oatbarton. The Bounder who kept watch on the road leading into Oatbarton from the Greenfields was just putting out the light in the lamp post that marked his watch post. He raised his slightly ill fitted tin helmet and Ammeline gave him a polite nod as she passed. She was on her way to the Appleby Farm as Ivy Appleby's youngest was ill with a fever. Ammeline had spent the previous evening gathering and preparing herbs.

It was normal for Tahitoa to feel a bit tired lately. He and the mistress had been working late into the night on music sheets and words for the performance. Tahitoa was  very happy to be back in the Shire ; simple hobbit folk enjoying a simple life, a bit like his own people back in Maur Tulhau. Tahitoa did not understand the people of Bree, tall or short, the Breelanders were a mystery to him, and not one he was in the rush to unveil.

The pale light of the full moon that lit the Great Road. yule was holding the reins of the pony harnessed to her wagon. She paced slowly onwards in the direction of Buckland, her bare feet treading out the path that was taking her back to the Shire and her memories on  this noiseless night under the moon. Her hair unbound, her robe uncintured. She knew she was probably watched by hidden eyes in the dark shadows.