Drabble year

[rabidsamfan]

Summertime's a busy time if you're a hobbit with a garden to tend to. There's beds to tend and seedlings to thin and the first sweet fruits of harvest to gather. The grass grows so fast after the rains that there's days it's all I can do just to keep it from touching sky. Mr. Frodo, I say, what you need is sheep, and that makes him laugh, and say he would, if sheep had the sense to eat the grass and keep out of the begonias. Sheep wouldn't share their luncheon pie neither, he says, and tucks into mine.



Autumn starts with haying, really, though the sun is hot and most folks think it's summer. But the harvest starts in earnest with the grass. Earlier on, our gatherings go into our bellies, if you see what I mean, and 'tis only a share of the squash that's like to end up in the cellar. But hay we gather for winter fodder, and when once we've garnered enough to keep our creatures through the cold, our heads and hands turn to what we'll need ourselves. The days are coming shorter now. Each sunset reminds us not to waste time.



Wintertime is make and mend. Long nights sitting by the fire, with our hands busy and our hearts full of songs. The Gaffer can still work wicker into baskets, though it hurts me to watch his bent fingers taking dents from the pressure of the work. He won't give it up though, not as long as he can see, and I suspect he won't give it up even when he can't. Daisy and May and Marigold, they spin and weave and dye, and stitch, and thank me for the help I gave them with the flax with a linsey-woolsey shirt for Yule.


Spring's the hardest time of year, the Gaffer says, and I know he means for his bones and his belly, with the ache of winter still bright and the pantry getting thin. He's in high fettle otherwise, starting the planting he's thought on for months, and fussing over us who're a-doing it.
Me, I love being up with the sun and seeing her home each night, and the good green smells in my nose. But sometimes when I fall bone-tired into bed I see that book Mr. Bilbo left me and wonder if somehow I'll forget how to read.

Comments

[shirebound]

You are simply amazing when it comes to writing Sam.

Wintertime is make and mend. Long nights sitting by the fire, with our hands busy and our hearts full of songs.

I love being up with the sun and seeing her home each night, and the good green smells in my nose.

Amazing.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Every time I get stuck I find myself coming back to my first love.

[danachan.livejournal.com]

*happy sigh* You are just wonderful. As is Sam.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

*basks in praise*

[b-briarwood.livejournal.com]

Very nice!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

thank you!

[elendiari22.livejournal.com]

You're wonderful. I love how you right Sam, so down to earth and normal.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

It's what I love about Sam, really. And that icon is a scream!

[mariole.livejournal.com]

Neat! Thanks!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

You're most welcome

[lindelea1.livejournal.com]

Each sunset reminds us not to waste time.

*sigh* So true!
What poetry you make with your prose. You paint full pictures with a few deft strokes.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I love drabbles because they make me think about each word.

[fictualities.livejournal.com]

Beautiful, as always. I love the way you make us aware of the beauty of the Shire without ever oversentimentalizing it: Sam's work is joyous, but it's backbreaking labor as well. The last line of the last drabble is particularly bittersweet and striking coming at the end of this sequence.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I liked the original drabble, but it just wasn't right without more of the year to go with it.

The more I read about pre-industrial agricultural societies, the more hard work it looks like. (And the more I'm convinced that Sam must have help from some other hobbits in keeping Bag End up for Frodo all those years.)

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

I loved the observations in the 'Spring' drabble when you first posted it--especially Sam's wistfulness about his reading in the face of his true priorities. But it does have more impact as part of a sequence, and I'm especially fond of 'Summer', with its fleeting glimpse of the easy camaraderie between Frodo and Sam. Thank you. :)

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

*grin* I can just imagine Frodo sneaking some of Sam's lunch, given Sam's reputation as a cook, can't you? (And of course, sharing tea or second breakfast as compensation.)

[periantari.livejournal.com]

Me, I love being up with the sun and seeing her home each night, and the good green smells in my nose. But sometimes when I fall bone-tired into bed I see that book Mr. Bilbo left me and wonder if somehow I'll forget how to read.
awww~! i really like mentioning him seeing Rosie...sweetness indeed =)

very cute set of drabbles, and yes, i love your Sam voice. =)

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was thinking the sun, not Rosie (since Tolkien tells us the hobbits call the sun "she") But I kind of like the Rosie interpretation too...

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

Gloriously expanded, my dear. I would have to quote the whole thing if I wanted to show you my favorite part.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Oh good. Thanks!

[dreamflower]

These are delightful. Are you familiar with Thomas Tusser? He wrote about the agricultural year in the 16th century in a series of lovely poems that were nevertheless very practical and full of good advice. These kind of remind me of that.

And that last drabble? You are right at how well it works as the end of a series: it makes that final line that much more poignant and bittersweet.

When it comes to writing Sam, you bow to no one, RSF!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not familiar with Tusser, but I'm going to have to learn, aren't I? Do you know if his works are online anywhere? The only copy in my library is in the Rare Book Room.

[dreamflower]

Well, I am mostly familiar with them from a book I once had (and wish I still did) called Lost Country Life by Dorothy Hartley, which included some extensive quotations, but I did a quick Google and came up with:
http://worldebooklibrary.com/eBooks/Poets_Corner_Collection/poem-st.html#tusser

I'm sure there might be more out there as well. The poems are chuck full of sayings that sound like they could have come from the Gaffer, LOL!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Lookie what I found!

http://www.pastonsites.co.uk/cla/history/tusser.html

[dreamflower]

Oooh! How clever of you! Thanks so much for the link!
Do you see now what I mean about Tusser's poems?
And that glossary of archaic words is going to come in handy!

[ansostuff.livejournal.com]

Excellent! :) Lovely as always! I do love your drabbles.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[gentlehobbit.livejournal.com]

Ah... Sam and the Seasonal Round. Sam is so intimately connected to the Earth and seasons. Wonderful!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

It's hard not to be "earthbound" when you're a gardener, I think. *grin*

[illyria-novia.livejournal.com]

What a gorgeous insight into Sam and his love for the green country around him and for his part in it. I love spring most of all because of your portrayal of Gaffer and what he does and feels in spring. Thank you for this!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I love the Gaffer. I may be the only one who does, but he's alays delighted me with his solid hobbitsense.

Thanks!

[melilot-hill.livejournal.com]

This is truly wonderful.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I had a good time thinking it up.