Primrose Evergreen's Winter Forecast

Hello! It's Darcy again. Back at work and quite happy how business has been handled during my extended Christmas break. I hadn't decided what to write for you but inspiration came after a visit from Primrose Evergreen.

Primrose Evergreen in Upper Mellowdene

Primrose Evergreen is Mellowdene's weather forecaster. I understand she's always had an affinity for meteorological predictions but that has been honed over her life so that her accuracy is uncanny. She regularly travels to Upper Mellowdene to observe Coldmount Peak and records movements of ice particles whirling about the pinnacle. She says this helps her long-range forecasts. I've no reason to dispute that. 

 

Anyway, Primrose had visited to bring me a forecast for the next week, ready for inclusion in the Mellowdene Examiner.

"We're going to get some winter snow, Darcy," she had said. "I'm going to see HHG after I've left here. They'll need the heads up to clear the county roads."

"That bad?"

She nodded as she handed over the forecast report.

"Only a smattering of snow in the village - and that is likely to melt within a couple of hours. But further into the county the snowfall will last longer - two to three days - and as a result it will be deeper and take longer to clear. I'll update you in a few days."

She remained briefly as I went to key the report details into the newspaper's typesetting system.

With Primrose gone my thoughts turned to HHG.

HHG Enterprises' workshops and stores

HHG Enterprises are the brainchild of Magnus Hamilton. Upon moving to Mellowdene this enterprising hamster saw the need for a better organised plan for maintaining the village infrastructure. He also wanted something for his son Huckleberry to take forward should he eventually come to the village; a decision he'd have to make with his fiancée. In the meantime he took on two young partners - Perkin Harvey and Richard Grunt (hence HHG) - and created the company. Whilst these three families form the core of the organisation they have a flexible workforce to service the needs of the village, working closely with the council. Despite the growth of the company, Huck, Perkin and Ritchie were determined that they would not become purely administrators. Their time management ensures they still do plenty paws-on work! At the newspaper, my right-paw critter is Harry Hawthorn and, as Huckleberry Hamilton's brother-in-law, he keeps me updated with HHG's plans.

HHG out on a job

Winter weather provides particular challenges and HHG are prepared to meet them. Although crittizens in the village don't tend to suffer from a cold climate, those living further afield in the county can be affected. Snow cannot be allowed to isolate them. Most live within reach of the three main roads, Mellowdene Road, County Road and Rivercourse Road, so HHG consider it a primary need to keep those roads clear.

HHG clearing some snow

Of course, roads aren't the only routes through the county. Recently, Jackson highlighted our rail connection to the rest of Sylvania. You can be assured that the tracks are always kept clear. Fireglass channels run parallel to the railway lines. The Hunter-Smyth family process this resource in inventive ways and the interaction of rain or snow on a fireglass derivative within those channels keeps the tracks clean, warm and free from ice or snow. The channels are regularly maintained so that the Maple Town Express can keep running to schedule.

 

Reilly Hunter-Smyth takes Formula 4 Fireglass to the rail track

With the main routes clear, we still need to ensure that provisions are accessible to the county dwellers. Fireglass is again used to keep wells from freezing but what about food?

Timbertop Farm, Blackberry Orchards, Buttercup Dairies (with their farming of lactolia plants) all have longstanding plans to combat poor weather. Again, Primrose Evergreen's forecasts give them sufficient notice. 

Bud Timbertop takes out the tractor

Bud shifts some snow

 

Zeb, Taylor and Tyler go shoveling

Tyler Timbertop and Zebediah Cody carry some fireglass

But what about shopping for everyone else?

 

Rocky Babblebrook to the rescue. Rocky is a descendent of our first mayor of Mellowdene, his lineage extending to one of the four founding families of our village. He doesn't share his ancestors' political ambitions. Long ago the Babblebrooks became more concerned about providing food for our villagers. Not everyone can spend their time on farming, fishing and other food production tasks. Babblebrook's Store was born. A few years ago, the store was expanded and rebranded as the Village Supermarket with new managers running the day-to-day business, these being Bert, Joyes and Macey Harvey. Rocky, his father Cliff and uncle Gerald decided that their traditional smaller stores should continue in the form of branches, still bearing the Babblebrook name, peppered about the expanding village. There are three branches in Mellowdene, and one conveniently positioned in the county.

Babblebrook's county store

In bad weather, Rocky not only takes extra care to ensure the county branch of Babblebrook's is well stocked, he is known to take his four-wheel-drive car and personally deliver food to the less accessible homesteads.

 

Rocky and Cliff driving into the county

Rocky on deliveries

 

Actually, Rocky is not alone. There is the community convention where all villagers choose to pile in when there is need. The worst of winter may pose challenges for the county but we are Sylvanians through and through.

o 0 O 0 o

Speaking of the "worst of winter" I had a conversation with Ricardo Porcini about how such conditions affect Chunglewood.

"We don't get snow," he said. "It doesn't get through."

I remembered what Jackson had said about the weird spatial effects above the forest. Rain didn't have a direct path downwards to the clearing, resulting in patchy but predictable irrigated areas and even one sky cascade. There were sky pools too.

"Right," I replied. "The barrier thing. But don't the sky pools ever freeze over? Snow settling and blocking out light?"

Ricardo laughed. "I'd never thought of that. It does sound reasonable now that you mention it. But no, we don't see that happening. The sky lightens a bit from time to time and we get cold rain, that's all."

"Could the barrier be melting it?"

 

"Darcy, you do ask some crazy questions. Maybe it does. We don't think about it. In fact I don't remember snow ever coming up in conversation. Nobody's seen it since they left the Woodzeez realm. Except me, of course. With me able to leave Chunglewood and travel around Sylvania, I've witnessed my fair share of snowy landscapes. Saw a blizzard once."

Ricardo's words made me think. The Chunglewood villagers were still reticent to leave the clearing - for whatever reason, and I have my suspicions - so how would they react seeing a blanket of winter snow after well over a decade of being sheltered from the excess of weather?

Maybe they'd better stay cloistered until Primrose Evergreen gives a favourable weather forecast!

o 0 O 0 o

I Need a Holiday!

Story to follow. I'm having a break over the Christmas period.

Darcy Fielding.

o 0 O 0 o

So, What's Been Happening?

Hello my friends - and apologies for our silence over the last month. It's Darcy Fielding, in case you were wondering. And if you were also wondering about the reason for my particular absence, read on!

o 0 O 0 o

In summary, I needed a holiday.  That in itself may surprise you, workaholic that I am, but one can reach a point when the amount of work becomes too much. In fact I had reached the point where, when I was leaving home for work, I found myself looking back and longing to remain with my family.

I have always managed to balance my home and working life - until recently. The population growth in Mellowdene - including crittizens in both the village and the county - has steadily been eroding that balance. You may remember how busy I was last Christmas and my family time was going to suffer. Fortunately, my good friend and work colleague Harry Hawthorne stepped in to share the load. Everything worked well but it made me think. I needed to make changes.

That became essential following the opening of Chunglewood. Now, even though we haven't mentioned the people of that village much this year, their influence has been felt, particularly in some quarters. Granted that most of their residents still haven't left their home in Tall Tree Forest, but - possibly because of that - there is an official policy to ensure they will feel welcome when they do. The Mellowdene Examiner has been publishing a small weekly magazine specifically for the Chunglewoodians, gently giving them an insight into Mellowdene. We've taken selected articles from back issues of my newspaper, suitably edited, with a view to acclimatising them to our nature. As you might imagine, this has significantly added to our workload.

It became clear that a holiday was needed to give me a break. It was also clear we'd need help to keep the paper running in my absence but we had to acknowledge that would only be a temporary respite. A long term plan was needed. I would need a permanent increase to my staff numbers.

And that's what I did. For the past six months we have had three additional employees at the Mellowdene Examiner. And wow. They are good.

o 0 O 0 o

I'll get to the three additions shortly but first I'll remind you of my current colleagues.

Harry Hawthorne may be my lead reporter but he does so much more. I decided to make him deputy editor but that was only when we'd agreed on the balance of his duties; he does like reporting and interacting with the public.

Antonia Petite does a little news reporting but she concentrates on community articles including her popular "People" column where she interviews villagers about their lives.

Although a freelance travel writer on paper, Ricardo Porcini goes beyond his syndicated travel column to help Mellowdenians learn about other Sylvanian communities.

I must include my friend Jackson Butterglove as he plays a small role in my newspaper. Of course he writes the majority of this blog, but as far as Mellowdene is concerned he writes occasional articles for the Mellowdene Examiner. It helps explain our association here at the office. I've not mentioned it before; it's not really relevant to the blog. His articles involve short interviews with villagers to discuss their musical tastes, asking for examples of songs they like and why that might be. He's rather efficient at it now and can pile up a number of articles that I can publish periodically. He says he quite enjoys it. There's the social aspect and it also helps as market research for his songwriting.

My three eldest children like to help out with small tasks for their daddy. Una, as previously indicated, goes way beyond that. She wants to be a top reporter and I think she will take over the family business one day.

So that's the current mob. And with the workload increasing, I can now introduce you yo my new gang.

o 0 O 0 o

I needed someone to handle the administrative tasks that I had traditionally addressed without assistance. Some of the necessary work was tedious but it was increasingly taking too much of my time. For a couple of weeks Edith Snow-Warren looked to be a candidate but that wasn't to be. She had missed much in the years she was absent from the village, and was spending time both at the library reading our archives and here at the office delving into the recent back issues, trying to catch up on events. She wasn't interested in being employed personally but her research prompted her to suggest someone she had met when reintroducing herself to the village. 

The Faraday sisters are well-educated twins and when they came to the village it was no surprise that one sister - Felicia - would become part of the school teaching staff. The other - Fenella - had not found her niche, spending most of her time in the library. It was there she met Edith and this led to her coming to meet me. Discovering what I needed, Fenella became interested and agreed to help.

She has proved to be a whizz at administration. That included the essential tasks I found both tedious and time consuming. And she likes doing them!

Calbert Porridge is the second new employee. He has always been interested both in electronics and in machinery but hadn't found the right place to utilise his skills. Since Newton Butterglove upgraded our print room a few years ago we have increased our output but it's fair to say none of the Mellowdene Examiner staff were techies. We were tinkering around the edges. Calbert, on the other paw, is technically brilliant and the print room now runs at optimal efficiency. 

That brings us to reporting. Harry Hawthorne remains our best reporter but he was also faced with doing some of the editing when I was pushed. As already mentioned, that role is now official. We are more organised now that Fenella is saving me time, but my analysis highlighted that we needed more reporters. Edmund Tailbury was engaged as another reporter and he's an astute investigator snd a good writer. 

In addition, my daughter Una has formally become an apprentice with the newspaper. This is part time because of her school work, but prior to this change she was like my other children Daniel and Helen - willing gophers but not deeply involved. Now, Una is shadowing Harry or Antonia Petite on their assignments.

The newbies settled in better than I could have hoped. They were happy to do their work over Christmas and Harry agreed to be on call as deputy editor - if needed. That meant - for the first time in many years - I could take a break from my family newspaper and actually dedicate all my time to my family.

o 0 O 0 o

So that's how it became possible for me to take a winter break. I gathered the family and made an announcement to that effect.

My wife Bridget said she'd have a break too, and that meant an adjustment to the proportion of household chores. Fair enough.

We didn't go away, limiting ourselves to day trips. My suggestion to take a vacation beyond the village was tactfully refused. Well, I say 'tactfully' but Bŕidget prefers clarity.

"I'll miss my programme," she said. I didn't need to ask which one. Of the television entertainment she enjoys, her 'programme' is a domestic drama series called 'Meece Tenders'. She is highly invested in the convoluted fictional lives of its characters and our home life is suspended whilst she avidly watches the show.

Outside the family, I again helped Spencer Maces organise the traditional Mouse Run. Together, we interview all the rodent families to determine availability and then Spencer does an amazing job with his tables of names, workflow diagrams, risk analyses and flexible alternatives. We then notify each family of the plans for the festive visits.  Even when more families are brought into the tradition, Spencer always delivers and, as with previous years, the event was a complete success.   

The children had a post-Christmas visit to Santa's Grotto.  For each of his "elves" (each semi-adopted into Mellowdene families) Lennox Murr-Grand invited their new siblings to see toys being made.

Bridget and I went out for a couple of meals - just the two of us. We arranged for my cousin Alonso to babysit our children. Una wasn't keen on the term "babysit" but when she was told there would be pizza she decided to live with the term.

None of this was exceptionally exciting but it definitely served its purpose. For me that was a break from work. Time with the family. When I eventually returned to the paper (two week's longer than originally planned) I was fully refreshed!

Watch out!

o 0 O 0 o

 

 

The Maple Town Express

 

Brendan had been helping me - to a fashion - singing along to a new composition that Chris Snow-Warren and I had been creating. We had been engaged to write a school song and Brendan was having fun altering the words. My boy's inventiveness was making me laugh and we must have sounded terrible. Not to everyone, though.

"I like that!"

 

We turned to see Hughie Grunt and Nolly Persis; Nolly had been jigging to the music. In fact he was still jigging and humming the tune after I'd stopped playing the piano.

Hughie nudged Nolly to stop.

"What?" said Nolly. "The words are funny."

The boys were expected. Brendan went to greet them.

"Hi, crits," he said. "Don't settle down. There's been a change of plan. We're playing at Lucky's house. He's got a new climbing frame in his garden."

"Should be good," said Hughie, giving Brendan a playful push. "I guess you have something in mind.'

 

"Oh!" said Brendan. "What's that smell, Hugh? A sort of spicy orange!"

Nolly laughed. "I told him he ponged."

Hughie closed his eyes. It was clear he'd had this conversation before. With a sigh he explained in a monotone.

"It's not a pong. It's supposed to be sophisticated."

At this, Nolly clamped a paw over his mouth, suppressing a guffaw. 

Hughie ignored this and carried on. "I've been visiting my Uncle Frey. He'd just finished washing after work and was putting on his eau de cologne..."

"Oaty clown," giggled Nolly.

"...as he likes to smell nice," Hughie continued, determined not to be distracted. "You see, Brendan, his job can get a bit stinky handling concentrated fireglass."

"On the train," nodded Brendan.

"Right. Anyway, my Uncle sprinkled a bit of his eau de cologne..."

"Oaty clown."

"...on my paw, as a joke."  

 

"Well, it does smell funny," said Brendan, winking at Nolly. "Anyway, come on. Let's make a move. Let Lucky sniff you and give him a laugh."

"You're rotten, you two," smiled Hughie.

"But you love us," said Brendan as he escorted his pals towards the door. "Bye, dad."

Alone at last, I pondered over the boys' conversation. Frey Grunt. An apt name, albeit coincidentally. Frey drives the Maple Town Express and is also responsible for controlling the fuel that powers the engine. Concentrated fireglass can get smelly when ignited. No wonder Frey is sensitive to the stench and wants to mask the odour with his cologne.

 

All of which reminds me. I've never mentioned the Maple Town Express before.

o 0 O 0 o

Yes, we do have a train that comes to Mellowdene. It's just that it hasn't come up in conversation before now. I've undoubtedly mentioned that we've got riverboats at our docks, a canal following the edge of the foothills, and roads that continue out of the county through woodland or across the river bridge. You can now add a railway line to that list.

The track was laid in order that Mellowdene could be connected to the Sylvanian Rail Network. This is run by a company that has its origins in Maple Town. They have major stations all over Sylvania and they call these hubs. The nearest hub to us is beyond the boundary of Mellowdene County and there was an agreement - some years ago - to run a single rail track from that hub into our county all the way to our train station, Lucerne Halt. There is a solitary train that uses the track - Maple Town Express Number Five - and after visiting the station it loops back to return along the same track.

The station is just outside the village and it is managed by Station Master Diesel Traynor. I've mentioned Dock Lane before; my home street of Dandelion Lane connects with it. Well, Dock Lane extends to the crossroads at the Village Circle. If you ignore the left turnoff towards the canal and the right turnoff that is Mellowdene High Street and continue straight on, the road changes its name to Lucerne Road. It is on this road you'll find Pickleweed's Pizza Emporium but stifle your appetite and carry on past the Mews and you will exit the village. Lucerne Road bends to the right and eventually joins up with County Road. En route you will find Lucerne Halt.

Although Lucerne Halt is the terminus for the Maple Town Express, there is another train stop within the county. This is shortly before the line pierces the woodland at our border. Sometimes our Cornflower relatives will seek an alternative to their pony and trap, walking to Greenwood Station and catching the "Number Five" to reach the village. It must be said that Greenwood Station is an exaggerated name - it merely comprises a small shelter besides the platform. 

Maple Town is rightly proud of the Sylvanian Rail Network and you'll often find representatives of the town will move to any place their railway reaches. We have some descendents of Maple Towners living here. Most live on a crescent called Mapleton Road. I wonder if the road builders had any association with the railroad construction? Merlin would probably know.   

It is a while since I travelled on the Maple Town Express. Given Hughie Grunt's family connection to the train I wonder how long it will be until Brendan wants to go on a railway journey?

o 0 O 0 o