22. Near Water

I’m told Frodo built it with his own hands, and since he wanted a place for his friends to come visit comfortably, he had the house just above built as well, with a tunnel connecting the two. The kitchen garden has been kept up by someone, for there’s nary a weed and the bushes are heavy with fresh berries. A round green door with a knocker is framed by round windows and flower boxes full of delicate bluebells. 

Inside, the musty air is being let out by the ocean breeze through open windows. The floors are polished and the shelves dusted. Someone is keeping it up, for nothing appears to be falling apart from disuse. The entrance hall lets into a cozy parlor, followed by the kitchen and pantry. Across the hall is the bedchamber, bathing room and study.  

The furniture is sparse, just the basics, no clutter of mathoms from endless birthday parties. His wardrobe holds a few silk robes and some plain hobbit clothes for mucking in the gardens. The pantries are filled with sacks of flour and meal, fresh milk, eggs, cheese and meats, and herbs hang drying overhead.

I scan the books and scrolls on the shelves in the study. Many are in Elven but there are a few written in Westron in Frodo’s own hand. There’s also rolls of paintings, which Gandalf said Frodo would hang as the mood struck him, explaining the many empty frames on the walls throughout the smial. Many of the paintings and charcoal drawings are by Frodo’s own hand, and I’m heartened to see they’re of happy things, not that dark stuff I’d discovered in the Bag End study after he sailed.

I go back to the kitchen and look over my stores to plan luncheon for Gandalf and me.

GF 9/25/12

To be continued...