Cam's Connection

Bellmount Wood ~Chapter 2 Lady Bluebelle woke up with a start and realized she had fallen asleep on the tree branch. She hurried into the Great Hall and up the narrow Oak staircase to the belltower. She pulled at the knotted rope hurriedly and forcefully. It roung out with a resounding BONG announcing to everyone in the fields that lunch was ready. The squirrelmaids Pansy, Petunia and Peony set out a picnic lunch of cold fruit salad, apple and walnut biscuits, hazelnut cream cake, filleted trout and currant juice on the long oak tables in the shade of the leafy maples by the edge of Rowan Brook. It babbled talkatively and splish-splashed lively around the stepping stones imbedded in the riverbed. Crimson, orange, red, burgundy and golden leaves meandered slowly down the brook, carried by the lazy current. They had recently fallen from the trees of the forests which stretched into the distance. The autumn leaves painted a brilliantly vivid picture of fall colour. According to the carefully scripted calendar the scholar mice had worked hard on for months, today was the first day of autumn! The diligent workers noticed the change in seasons too, as they deposited their produce on the steps of the cellars by the bottom of the rowan tree trunk. The fall wind picked up their spirits and carried their souls sky-high with the freshness, cripsness and busyness that fall signalled. They sat down contentedly at the tables and filled their plates with the delicious spread. The chubby hare cook Hazel, ladled out generous helpings of watercress stew from steaming tureens lying at the grand table where Lady Bluebelle and her daughter Lilia sat. Mothers with young ones emerged from cozy thatched cottages to enjoy the meal too. Older beasts, hobbled along using their shiny canes to support them. Everybeast washed their paws in the brook before sitting down impatiently along the tables. Finally Lady Bluebelle signaled for everyone to hold hands and say grace. She bowed her head and said... Thank you for this bountiful harvest And this sparkling day of fall Thank you for the food on the table And bless all the creatures of Rowanbrooke Hall With a cheer the hungry creatures dug into the food. In no time at all it was gone into many satiated stomachs. After the tables were cleared everyone moved along to their next job. There was still much harvesting, preserving and storing of food to be done, because winter was right around the corner! That afternoon Abraham and Rosetta were chosen to help out in the kitchen. They assisted Hazel, Pansy, Petunia and Peony at slicing and canning freshly picked pears, plums and apples. Then they moved on to peaches. The fruit would help tide everyone over through the winter, when the only food available was fish from the millpond. The canned fruit would be opened later and made into pies, preserves, jelly, tarts and fruit salad. Amberose the Rabbit carried large sacks of walnuts, acorns, beechnuts and hazelnuts up to the kitchens from the cellar. The nuts had all been harvested that morning. Half the kitchen crew set about grinding some nuts into flour, while the others dipped the remainder of the nuts into a honey and sugar toffee mixture. They were set on pans to harden. Later they would be bagged and set aside for snacks in midwinter. They toiled all afternoon, finishing just in time to start preparing supper! They put bread and biscuits in the huge ovens and started the turnip, beet and carrot stew simmering over the open fire. They also prepared oat farls, raspberry tarts, deeper 'n eve pie (for the moles) and honey roasted potatoes. Even though, you were surrounded by delicious smells, Abraham and Rosetta decided that kitchen work was backbreaking! From now on they'd stick with working in the fields. Chapter 3