Link to Day 2: Magda muses on trades; delivers a message to Bren
Link to Day 3: Bren wanders the forest and heads home, but veers too far south; has an accident
Link to Day 4: Bren convalesces
Link to Day 5: Bren resumes gathering; Magda visits the boulanger
***
Commentary: I'm sort of proud of these 475 words. Because it was really tempting just to skip altogether, and to accept failure on Day 6 based on my inability to write at all on that day. Such is the psychological temptation with NaNo. So here we have a scene that directly contradicts the initial description of the clearing--but this, my friends, is why it is a draft. Right?
***
The clearing had been used for many generations now. Wood for many of the houses in the village had come from this area of the forest, when the forest was more dense. But for no one knew how many years, they had been culling--selecting the trees that were growing too close to others, or had deformities, diseases, or cancers and removing them, roots and all, and carefully cultivating the saplings, relocating them to optimal distances from the parent tree. In the clearing, some stumps had been left--but they had not been left alone. They were still rooted firmly in the ground, and protruded to different heights. Then, over the years, the wood carvers had come to the clearing, to shape, and smooth, and carve.
While many of the houses and furnishings were plain, here they were able to exercise the full extent of their skill and creativity. They shaped the remaining stumps into rooted seats of exquisite artistry. The seats themselves were curved so that to sit in them was to be cradled. Some were no more than short stools; these had designs and sometimes pictures of mushrooms and animals carved into their bases to delight the children. Others were carved so that the back rose up and curved at the small of the back; toward the outer edges of the clearing, seats were carved with high backs and head rests. Some of the trees, while alive, had grown close together--even touching. Three had grown with twin trunks. Their carvings were the most ornate, with scrolls and vine patterns. It was considered good fortune for a young woman to sit with the one she admired--and perhaps better fortune for him.
Though it had rained for three days, the seats would be dry on the evening of the gathering. After the carving, they had been covered with a thick resin that settled in the cracks and dried hard and smooth. Some were even faintly tinted in greens, blues, and red. If dew or rain pooled on the seats, they could be
There could be as many as thirty families at the gathering, made up of the matriarch, her husband, their grown children, and their grandchildren. Often, there would also be great-grandchildren. So a family, who lived in a large dwelling or two or a cluster of smaller houses, might have twenty members. There would certainly not be seats for all, so families brought their own tables and seats, blankets and pallets. They assembled in their traditional space, which included at least one carved, rooted seat--for the matriarch. Each family would have food for its members, and often more to share, particularly if they had a specialty, like bread, or cake, mushroom loaf, herbed grass-hen, or the thick, brown fricasseed fowl. Everyone would have various pickles, elder jam, sorrel and bitter greens.
Link to Day 5: Bren resumes gathering; Magda visits the boulanger
***
Commentary: I'm sort of proud of these 475 words. Because it was really tempting just to skip altogether, and to accept failure on Day 6 based on my inability to write at all on that day. Such is the psychological temptation with NaNo. So here we have a scene that directly contradicts the initial description of the clearing--but this, my friends, is why it is a draft. Right?
***
The clearing had been used for many generations now. Wood for many of the houses in the village had come from this area of the forest, when the forest was more dense. But for no one knew how many years, they had been culling--selecting the trees that were growing too close to others, or had deformities, diseases, or cancers and removing them, roots and all, and carefully cultivating the saplings, relocating them to optimal distances from the parent tree. In the clearing, some stumps had been left--but they had not been left alone. They were still rooted firmly in the ground, and protruded to different heights. Then, over the years, the wood carvers had come to the clearing, to shape, and smooth, and carve.
While many of the houses and furnishings were plain, here they were able to exercise the full extent of their skill and creativity. They shaped the remaining stumps into rooted seats of exquisite artistry. The seats themselves were curved so that to sit in them was to be cradled. Some were no more than short stools; these had designs and sometimes pictures of mushrooms and animals carved into their bases to delight the children. Others were carved so that the back rose up and curved at the small of the back; toward the outer edges of the clearing, seats were carved with high backs and head rests. Some of the trees, while alive, had grown close together--even touching. Three had grown with twin trunks. Their carvings were the most ornate, with scrolls and vine patterns. It was considered good fortune for a young woman to sit with the one she admired--and perhaps better fortune for him.
Though it had rained for three days, the seats would be dry on the evening of the gathering. After the carving, they had been covered with a thick resin that settled in the cracks and dried hard and smooth. Some were even faintly tinted in greens, blues, and red. If dew or rain pooled on the seats, they could be
There could be as many as thirty families at the gathering, made up of the matriarch, her husband, their grown children, and their grandchildren. Often, there would also be great-grandchildren. So a family, who lived in a large dwelling or two or a cluster of smaller houses, might have twenty members. There would certainly not be seats for all, so families brought their own tables and seats, blankets and pallets. They assembled in their traditional space, which included at least one carved, rooted seat--for the matriarch. Each family would have food for its members, and often more to share, particularly if they had a specialty, like bread, or cake, mushroom loaf, herbed grass-hen, or the thick, brown fricasseed fowl. Everyone would have various pickles, elder jam, sorrel and bitter greens.
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