Written By Amari
May 20, 2021, 10:48 a.m.(7/4/1015 AR)
I don't think the game at the Apple Blossom dance Adalyn and I hosted together was quite as fun as tongue twisters, or truth and lies. That was my misstep. It needed to be honed and simplified. Rather than a chain perhaps one person could whisper something, and everyone else guess at it. The closest to the original wins the round. That would have been so much simpler. The buzzing was fun though, and the dancing. I hope the guests enjoyed themselves, even if there was no fermented whale milk to drink.
Party favors of flannel will be a must, next time. Maybe an entire flannel ensemble. I can't believe now I didn't think to incorporate any into my own dress for the occasion, but it seemed to go over well enough without. I was a little worried it might not. The following day after a visit to the market, I admit that I strolled across the Sovereign Bridge for no reason, other than to get a reaction. There was wild spontaneous applause and cheering, which was far beyond the smattering of compliments and admiring looks I expected. Hopefully, this will all put House Clement's name out there in a glowing light. They're a fine family and certainly deserve the recognition.
Party favors of flannel will be a must, next time. Maybe an entire flannel ensemble. I can't believe now I didn't think to incorporate any into my own dress for the occasion, but it seemed to go over well enough without. I was a little worried it might not. The following day after a visit to the market, I admit that I strolled across the Sovereign Bridge for no reason, other than to get a reaction. There was wild spontaneous applause and cheering, which was far beyond the smattering of compliments and admiring looks I expected. Hopefully, this will all put House Clement's name out there in a glowing light. They're a fine family and certainly deserve the recognition.
Written By Amari
May 15, 2021, 11:06 a.m.(6/23/1015 AR)
I've painted something new for Veronica, my first work in quite some time. It's not the best, admittedly, but I tried. Hopefully this one won't go missing too. Who even steals paintings of donkeys? A very strange person, I should think.
Maybe I should attempt to paint new subjects. Uncle Norwood and his mules? Mules are close enough to donkeys that it shouldn't be too difficult. Jayus help me.
Maybe I should attempt to paint new subjects. Uncle Norwood and his mules? Mules are close enough to donkeys that it shouldn't be too difficult. Jayus help me.
Written By Amari
May 9, 2021, 5:27 p.m.(6/11/1015 AR)
I've been planting in Duskshire.
I didn't realize there was so much to it, nor how much labor was involved. I suppose I had a childish notion that you could just stick some seeds in the ground and you were done. Then there's the plowing. The ox didn't want to walk a line, but in all honesty, I couldn't turn a straight furrow of the proper depth even if he had. The field was a ruin. My only triumph was clearing bracken from an overgrown pasture, so that giant turnips could be grown there.
Oh, and I also replanted strawberries on a sunny slope by the river. Clearing the weeds and stones was no picnic.
I think I should visit Mistward next. Maybe I can take up fishing. How hard can it be?
I didn't realize there was so much to it, nor how much labor was involved. I suppose I had a childish notion that you could just stick some seeds in the ground and you were done. Then there's the plowing. The ox didn't want to walk a line, but in all honesty, I couldn't turn a straight furrow of the proper depth even if he had. The field was a ruin. My only triumph was clearing bracken from an overgrown pasture, so that giant turnips could be grown there.
Oh, and I also replanted strawberries on a sunny slope by the river. Clearing the weeds and stones was no picnic.
I think I should visit Mistward next. Maybe I can take up fishing. How hard can it be?
Written By Amari
April 28, 2021, 8:53 p.m.(5/17/1015 AR)
Relationship Note on Norwood
Of course he's not old.
Written By Amari
April 25, 2021, 3:32 p.m.(5/11/1015 AR)
The gardening continues. My hands haven't been this dirty since I moved to Arx. It's lovely. I've also taken to sleeping in the tent when the nights are warm enough, and it's not raining.
Today, I was able to surprise Uncle Norwood with the help of Adalyn, my partner in mischief. I suspect this will not be the last time he finds himself "...full of a feeling of fear and trepidation."
Today, I was able to surprise Uncle Norwood with the help of Adalyn, my partner in mischief. I suspect this will not be the last time he finds himself "...full of a feeling of fear and trepidation."
Written By Amari
April 18, 2021, 11:23 a.m.(4/25/1015 AR)
Runner up at both the Valardin Jubilee dance, and the Spring Joust this year. Given the competition faced, I can't be disappointed with the results. I was just happy to have given Uncle Norwood a serious challenge in the finals, and for not embarrassing Gianna too badly at the dance. Though I'll have to learn some new steps for next time.
Written By Amari
April 10, 2021, 9:39 a.m.(4/8/1015 AR)
Uncle Norwood has been kind enough to permit me to help in his garden this spring, and I've moved to Clement House so that I can be up and ready with him and the sun each and every morning, and work straight through the day. I admit, to my great embarrassment, that while I very much appreciate and admire plants of all kinds, I've never tried to purposefully grow them in any sort of organized and deliberate fashion.
I did attempt to plow a field once. It's much harder than it looks, and I felt so badly about the meandering furrows I made, that I gave the poor farmer some silver as compensation for the damage I'd wrought. That's something I'll need to practice. Perhaps there's a field in Duskshire fit to task when I'm ready to try again. I'll put aside some silver, just in case.
Not wanting to have my attention stuck on worries and frustrations beyond this humble work and learning, I've politely informed the Marquis and Marquessa that I will be immediately stepping away from the duties of Voice and Minister of Income, and any active participation in Keaton's affairs generally unless the need is truly great. I've also been amicably released from my oaths as Knight of Oakhaven so that I'll no longer be bound in that manner either, should my new life as a turnip farming hedge knight not fully align somehow with the ambitions of House Keaton.
I feel it a change that was very long overdue. I've more than done my part for the House. It's time to lend my aid to the family and friends I've grown to cherish most in this world, and recognize as the dear and wonderful treasures that they are. Life is far too short to labor at unnecessary obligations for long when they can be just as well handled by someone else. I'd much rather aspire now to have a full heart, good friends and a green thumb, than a list of titles to my name that bring with them no happiness or fulfillment whatsoever.
I did attempt to plow a field once. It's much harder than it looks, and I felt so badly about the meandering furrows I made, that I gave the poor farmer some silver as compensation for the damage I'd wrought. That's something I'll need to practice. Perhaps there's a field in Duskshire fit to task when I'm ready to try again. I'll put aside some silver, just in case.
Not wanting to have my attention stuck on worries and frustrations beyond this humble work and learning, I've politely informed the Marquis and Marquessa that I will be immediately stepping away from the duties of Voice and Minister of Income, and any active participation in Keaton's affairs generally unless the need is truly great. I've also been amicably released from my oaths as Knight of Oakhaven so that I'll no longer be bound in that manner either, should my new life as a turnip farming hedge knight not fully align somehow with the ambitions of House Keaton.
I feel it a change that was very long overdue. I've more than done my part for the House. It's time to lend my aid to the family and friends I've grown to cherish most in this world, and recognize as the dear and wonderful treasures that they are. Life is far too short to labor at unnecessary obligations for long when they can be just as well handled by someone else. I'd much rather aspire now to have a full heart, good friends and a green thumb, than a list of titles to my name that bring with them no happiness or fulfillment whatsoever.
Written By Amari
April 8, 2021, 11:56 a.m.(4/5/1015 AR)
I've sat down to write on three separate occasions and it wasn't ink that dripped from my quill, but great quantities of salt and venom. I need to be away from Arx again for a time to lessen my frustration and impatience. A jaunt out into the wilds might be just the thing. I can be as "pessimistic" as I care to be there. When returned to my proper element, I'll care not at all for the doings of the Compact and put firmly out of mind, all of my recent disappointments.
Such concerns fade quite naturally to nothing the deeper one goes into the wood. Do the ancient trees care for the hurt feelings of a lady passing beneath their boughs? The chipmunk for laws they've broken or the songbird for the latest fashions? Do the deer conspire among themselves in hushed tones, trading secrets they deny their lessers? Do the speckled trout in the stream plot dark machinations? Of course not. That's only for human minds to twist themselves into tight knots over.
I feel the time has arrived to shed the ill fitting skin that was necessary these last few years, but is no longer. I was never an obedient hound of perfect pedigree, but a stray who wandered in from the cold and forgot herself for a while, curled up by the warm hearth. If I snarl and bark when I shouldn't, it's only because I've finally woke from my long slumber and am remembering what I was, and was meant to be, and just how hungry I am.
Such concerns fade quite naturally to nothing the deeper one goes into the wood. Do the ancient trees care for the hurt feelings of a lady passing beneath their boughs? The chipmunk for laws they've broken or the songbird for the latest fashions? Do the deer conspire among themselves in hushed tones, trading secrets they deny their lessers? Do the speckled trout in the stream plot dark machinations? Of course not. That's only for human minds to twist themselves into tight knots over.
I feel the time has arrived to shed the ill fitting skin that was necessary these last few years, but is no longer. I was never an obedient hound of perfect pedigree, but a stray who wandered in from the cold and forgot herself for a while, curled up by the warm hearth. If I snarl and bark when I shouldn't, it's only because I've finally woke from my long slumber and am remembering what I was, and was meant to be, and just how hungry I am.
Written By Amari
April 4, 2021, 11:23 a.m.(3/25/1015 AR)
You can't pour gin on cake and call it pudding. Lesson learned.
Written By Amari
March 29, 2021, 10:47 a.m.(3/13/1015 AR)
Kedehern has been teaching me the fine art of telling people what to do in ways that will encourage them to actually listen and even obey. If I were a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier like him, I think I'd have an easier time of it. Rather than sheer physicality, I shall have to rely mostly on the authority a commanding voice and bearing provides. It should also help if my orders aren't absolutely ridiculous and wrong headed, hence all the reading lately.
I've noticed this same demeanor and manner of speaking is nearly as effective on my furry companions. Marigold nearly obeyed me once yesterday. I saw her begin to do as I'd asked for an instant, before promptly climbing onto my desk and leaving tracks across the open pages of the ledger I'd been reviewing anyway. There was a hesitation, a brief moment of consideration, so I count that as a victory of sorts. Hopefully, Shae can instruct me further. She is without a doubt, peerless at understanding the behaviors of animals.
I've noticed this same demeanor and manner of speaking is nearly as effective on my furry companions. Marigold nearly obeyed me once yesterday. I saw her begin to do as I'd asked for an instant, before promptly climbing onto my desk and leaving tracks across the open pages of the ledger I'd been reviewing anyway. There was a hesitation, a brief moment of consideration, so I count that as a victory of sorts. Hopefully, Shae can instruct me further. She is without a doubt, peerless at understanding the behaviors of animals.
Written By Amari
March 28, 2021, 2:41 p.m.(3/11/1015 AR)
You know you're doing good work and winning, either in the court of law or in the world more generally, when the opposition earnestly tries to stab you in the neck.
Or I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It was probably the latter.
Or I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It was probably the latter.
Written By Amari
March 28, 2021, 11:28 a.m.(3/11/1015 AR)
I've not been socializing quite as much as I once did, favoring instead long, peaceful evenings sequestered in my room or library, reading by candlelight. I still have much to learn, but I believe I've made good progress at acquiring what I need to know.
Yet, I still haven't fully read Scholar Blavier's expansive treatise on the hedgerows; 'The Care and Maintenance of Healthful Hedges and Meadows in the Oathlands'. It's maybe not as interesting as the one on various leaves Quintin gifted me, but should be of value. I also have 'Turnips, Carrots and Beets, The Humble Gardener's Friends', 'Five Simple Projects to Mitigate Unwanted Flooding' and 'The Home Dairy Volume I: An Introduction to Butter Churning' to finish.
Of the tombs I have read from front to back, I rather enjoyed 'Ditches and Walls, a Beginner's Guide to Fortifications', and 'Moats, and What to Put In Them', 'How to Maximize Your Towers', 'Essentials Of Fighting Volume IV: Morale and How to Build It', 'Ten Tricks of the Successful Hunter' and the ever informative, 'The Characteristics and Behaviors of Wild Boar'.
If only I could find a treatise on how to safely and effectively exterminate insects. Although fire is very efficacious, it can also badly damage what you meant to save from the infestation to begin with. There must be some other means or method. A substance or plant that repels or sickens them, perhaps.
Yet, I still haven't fully read Scholar Blavier's expansive treatise on the hedgerows; 'The Care and Maintenance of Healthful Hedges and Meadows in the Oathlands'. It's maybe not as interesting as the one on various leaves Quintin gifted me, but should be of value. I also have 'Turnips, Carrots and Beets, The Humble Gardener's Friends', 'Five Simple Projects to Mitigate Unwanted Flooding' and 'The Home Dairy Volume I: An Introduction to Butter Churning' to finish.
Of the tombs I have read from front to back, I rather enjoyed 'Ditches and Walls, a Beginner's Guide to Fortifications', and 'Moats, and What to Put In Them', 'How to Maximize Your Towers', 'Essentials Of Fighting Volume IV: Morale and How to Build It', 'Ten Tricks of the Successful Hunter' and the ever informative, 'The Characteristics and Behaviors of Wild Boar'.
If only I could find a treatise on how to safely and effectively exterminate insects. Although fire is very efficacious, it can also badly damage what you meant to save from the infestation to begin with. There must be some other means or method. A substance or plant that repels or sickens them, perhaps.
Written By Amari
March 21, 2021, 3:53 p.m.(2/25/1015 AR)
Barf still dislikes socks. He'll let me put them on him without a fuss, but then he refuses to walk anywhere. You wouldn't think someone who smells like a swamp skunk would cling to their dignity so firmly. Oh well. He still likes his spiked collar and I know that if I replaced his ratty old blanket, he'd never forgive me.
Yes, my social life is very active, thank you. I'm doing very important stuff and things, all the time. Why just yesterday, I had tea with Marigold.
Yes, my social life is very active, thank you. I'm doing very important stuff and things, all the time. Why just yesterday, I had tea with Marigold.
Written By Amari
March 14, 2021, 11:59 a.m.(2/11/1015 AR)
There's something deeply satisfying about applying an armored elbow to someone's face, especially if they weren't expecting it and deserved the smashed nose. I've come to realize just how sharp and hard my elbows actually are, and it's reassuring to know. It will be twice as satisfying to use these elbows of mine to carve out my place in this endless melee, and defend it without apology to the last.
Stand clear.
Stand clear.
Written By Amari
March 3, 2021, 8:02 p.m.(1/17/1015 AR)
No truer friend, indeed.
It was a valiant and noble choice, but a costly one. The tragic immensity of it makes my heart ache, especially knowing how quickly and thoroughly they were forgotten afterwards. They will be remembered now and honored, I promise that.
The long standing tree will survive this winter and bud again.
It was a valiant and noble choice, but a costly one. The tragic immensity of it makes my heart ache, especially knowing how quickly and thoroughly they were forgotten afterwards. They will be remembered now and honored, I promise that.
The long standing tree will survive this winter and bud again.
Written By Amari
Feb. 28, 2021, 5:53 p.m.(1/11/1015 AR)
My prayers of late have been for my friends, the Laurents. It's difficult to put to words what you wish to truly express in times such as these. Words alone never feel sufficient, nor are they much of a balm for grief and pain. If only they were. I could then do something tangible to lessen their suffering beyond offering whatever support I can.
Written By Amari
Feb. 11, 2021, 10:56 a.m.(12/2/1014 AR)
The other day I had this brilliant thought, that I should attempt to write a brief synopsis of the known history of the world. I sat down at my writing desk and realized just how daunting a task that actually is, and how hopelessly wrong it would end up being when it was finished.
I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to teach River to balance a piece of cheese on her nose and only eat it on command. She ate a lot of cheese, but is no closer to learning the trick. Still, it was probably the more productive use of time.
I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to teach River to balance a piece of cheese on her nose and only eat it on command. She ate a lot of cheese, but is no closer to learning the trick. Still, it was probably the more productive use of time.
Written By Amari
Feb. 6, 2021, 6:47 p.m.(11/21/1014 AR)
Have you ever seen a High Lady and a Duke successfully log roll across a lake together?
I have.
That was definitely a thing that happened.
Aside from all the lethal traps and near drownings, that was a productive and enjoyable expedition in the wilds of Artshall. Unless the artifacts are indeed cursed. I believe that they aren't. Like I explained to Uncle Norwood, they were in a crate sunk in a pristine lake, not a fetid bog of corruption. They should be fine.
I'll begin to worry only when the savage woodpeckers attack.
I have.
That was definitely a thing that happened.
Aside from all the lethal traps and near drownings, that was a productive and enjoyable expedition in the wilds of Artshall. Unless the artifacts are indeed cursed. I believe that they aren't. Like I explained to Uncle Norwood, they were in a crate sunk in a pristine lake, not a fetid bog of corruption. They should be fine.
I'll begin to worry only when the savage woodpeckers attack.
Written By Amari
Feb. 5, 2021, 11:40 a.m.(11/18/1014 AR)
I cannot conceive of nature as "mindless chaos". It is surely ordered, and all living creatures and the forces that animate the world follow innate and unbreakable laws. Some of those are readily observable in its oft repeating cycles and patterns, while others are entirely more mysterious to us and well hidden from casual observation.
While they are not the laws we'd wish nature would conform to at times, they still exist. That's little solace when disaster occurs, but it is some. A storm does not rage to punish us for some slight against someone claiming to speak for the gods, it rages because it's a storm that rages.
While they are not the laws we'd wish nature would conform to at times, they still exist. That's little solace when disaster occurs, but it is some. A storm does not rage to punish us for some slight against someone claiming to speak for the gods, it rages because it's a storm that rages.
Written By Amari
Jan. 31, 2021, 4:41 p.m.(11/8/1014 AR)
Relationship Note on Mabelle
Lady Mabelle, I'm afraid that naval warfare is not something I'd claim to have any expertise in. However, if the role of Admiral comes with an allowance paid in that new Artshall tweed and honeysilk, I'd be tempted to accept the post. The wonderful materials and fabrics you've brought to market with various, very talented craftspeople, are all wonderful. You should be commended for your efforts and if it's not already, your name really ought to be synonymous with Oathlands fashion.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.