pumpkinhollow: (Default)
pumpkinhollow ([personal profile] pumpkinhollow) wrote2024-07-21 01:43 pm

July Mini Event - Seaside Sway

Pumpkin Hollow Community Bulletin
It’s the end of July. Summer is peaking, hitting its stride. In the forest, frogs sing and fireflies dance through the night, and dragonflies go about their business in the sun. In town, farmers roll up their sleeves and young ladies swap out their many layers for breezy floral gowns. And on the beach, swimmers take to the sea for water at its warmest and young crabs climb up from the sun-drenched sand. Kora’s glory at its finest!

For about a week now, a flier has been up on the community bulletin board. :
Midsummer Beach Festival!
Join us on July 21st and 22nd for our annual beach bash!

Organized by the Temple of Sacred Roots in tandem with Town Hall, all townsfolk are invited to join in for seaside festivities in honor of the height of summer. Activities will include:
  • Live music (Sign-ups for performers will be available at Empty Pockets Music Bar)
  • Locally made strawberry wine from last summer’s strawberries
  • Beach pit barbecues for lunch on both days
  • A hot food banquet for dinner on the 21st
  • A fish fry breakfast on the 22nd
  • Paper lantern float
  • Beach games
  • Tents and bed rolls for beach camping
We look forward to seeing you there!



And, as promised, the festival opens up on the afternoon of July 21st, where the smell of barbecue rises up from Tawny Beach. Tables sit on wooden plinths to avoid sinking in the sand, bearing fresh summer fruit and drinks. Pork, fish, and lamb roast in a sand pit. Enchanted barrels covered in magic frost keep frozen treats like orange juice shaved ice and strawberry sorbet cold. A station for assembling little wood-and-paper floating lanterns can be seen off in the distance and Cormac and the Banshees are setting up for their opening set. Tents and bed rolls have been set up toward the Marina. Literally everything is decorated with thin golden coins on strands of twine, sea shells, and sea glass. In the center of it all, stones have been laid into the shape of a massive compass rose, whose center houses the makings of a bonfire.

Those who were here last year will recognize that this festival is much larger than last year’s, and was not preceded with desperate pleas from Town Hall for help providing food and decor. It speaks plainly to the health of the town now. Even with all that has been going on, the growing population and renewed sense of community and purpose have improved matters around the island considerably.

Near the tent area, a family of crabs (one red, one blue, and three purple) can be observed. The small purple ones are poking each other with sticks. The Limoncello has made port, and Royal and his crew are splitting helper duty with the staff of Town Hall, and are dancing and partying the rest of the time. All is as it should be. For once, there is no dangerous surprise lurking in the shadows.

So, what’s on your agenda? During the day, volleyball, swimming, and a game that involves throwing small fabric sacks of dry lentils into wooden hoops in the sand can be enjoyed, alongside a plethora of frozen treats. At night, food and wine and lemonade are served at the banquet tables and lively music plays on the temporary wooden stage for dancing by firelight. There is also the lantern float, which encourages participants to send a glowing lantern out on the water in honor of the lost and the distant, ending the first night in a moment of peaceful sobriety. You may also notice a charming stranger milling around, cozying up to Royal, and drinking after nightfall--- a woman with dark olive skin, raven hair that soaks up the firelight, and rum brown eyes who wears a billowing blue dress and (whenever she hasn’t placed it onto someone else’s head for fun) a wide-brimmed black hat.

Then, at night, camp on the beach under the stars or head home by additional lantern light. The festivities will continue until the following afternoon! Feel free to share your beach fit in the fashion show thread below, as well. Enjoy!
tehilim127_1: (Default)

[personal profile] tehilim127_1 2024-07-25 05:58 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yep! I thought about hauling in a stockpot and doing boiled potatoes too, but I changed my mind, I think we've got enough without it. Though, might do that for the fish fry breakfast tomorrow. Right now --" and she pats the sturdy sand wall she's molding, and grins -- "I've got important sand construction work to do."
incomingchoppers: (reporting for duty sir)

[personal profile] incomingchoppers 2024-07-27 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh, good," he says, relieved. "I don't want you to miss out on anything 'cause they got the wrong food."

By now, he knows the gist of what Ms. Birnbaum can and can't do. Sometimes it feels like she's gotta follow more rules than the army, but if there's one thing Radar knows how to do, it's learn all the regs inside and out and make sure everybody's got what they need.

He takes a sip of his wine. "You building anything in particular?"
tehilim127_1: (Default)

[personal profile] tehilim127_1 2024-07-28 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
"Like, a reproduction of something? Nah. Just trying to make something that looks like it'll stand, even though it won't."

She surveys her incomplete work with both satisfaction and calculation. "You know what I might do," she says, "is make a paved path. If there's enough good pebbles for it."
incomingchoppers: (oh boy sir!)

[personal profile] incomingchoppers 2024-07-28 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Radar perks up. "Hey, that's a neat idea! I bet there's a lot of good pebbles over near the cliffs. ...It's kinda far to walk, though."

Okay, it's not that far, but who knows what might happen to an unattended sandcastle. He rubs his chin, thinking.

"What about seashells? I seen a lot of broken ones around, and I could go swim to find more."
tehilim127_1: (Default)

[personal profile] tehilim127_1 2024-07-29 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
"There might be pebbles on the beach too," she points out. "Smooth ones, getting rolled around by the tide -- here, let's take a look just over here."

She gets to her feet with more efficiency than grace, and dusts some of the sand off her caftan -- a losing battle, she's perfectly aware. "Seashells might be nice too, now that you mention it."
incomingchoppers: (choppers sir)

[personal profile] incomingchoppers 2024-07-29 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh, yeah, I forgot beaches do that too." A little sheepish, as he gets to his feet alongside her. "I always think they just got sand, you know? You get pebbles from swimming holes or if you go all the way out to the river, not from a beach."
tehilim127_1: (Default)

[personal profile] tehilim127_1 2024-07-30 01:59 am (UTC)(link)
Zivia scoops up the cup, so as to have something to gather pebbles in, and starts for the shifting border between sand and water.

"Depends on the beach," she says. "Some have really got barely any stones at all, just sand. And some barely any sand, just rocks. Here we are ..."

She crouches and comes up with a handful of mixed sand and pebbles, some smaller than her pinky fingernail. "Oh, perfect. These tiny ones, see?"
incomingchoppers: (oh boy sir!)

[personal profile] incomingchoppers 2024-07-31 03:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hey, yeah, look at that!" Fascinated, Radar skates his fingertips over a couple of the pebbles, grinning bright. "They're so tiny. It's like real big pieces of sand, not real small rocks. Oh -- !"

As he brushes a little of the sand aside, he reveals a minuscule seashell no bigger than the pebbles. It could fit on Radar's thumbnail with plenty of room to spare.

"Wow, look. Can you imagine a clam that small?"
tehilim127_1: (pleased)

[personal profile] tehilim127_1 2024-08-01 02:46 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh, look at that." Her tone is soft and marveling. "Is it -- can you turn it over, see if it's just half the shell or still intact?"
incomingchoppers: (mail call sir)

[personal profile] incomingchoppers 2024-08-02 08:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, lemme see -- "

He nudges the shell just enough to flip it. "Aw," he says, a little disappointed, "just a half. But we gotta save it with the pebbles and pick a good place to use it."

No way can they drop something that neat back into the water.
tehilim127_1: (pleased)

[personal profile] tehilim127_1 2024-08-04 04:34 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh, definitely," she agrees. "And maybe there'll be more, let's find out."

Crouching to pick up another handful of stones as she speaks, and she'll swish them briefly in the incoming wave like a prospector panning for gold.
incomingchoppers: (oh boy sir!)

[personal profile] incomingchoppers 2024-08-04 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Beaming, Radar joins in without hesitation. So many of the little pebbles shine like gems as the water washes over them. They clink softly in his hands as he shifts them from side to side, peering for any hidden shells. Even if they don't find any, he kinda wants to take a handful of the pebbles home just to keep; they're still pretty when they dry, even if they don't shine as bright.

(If this were Korea, or Japan, he'd put a few in an envelope and mail them home to his family. Wish you were here. Wish you could see this, too.)

Radar does locate a few more tiny shells eventually -- and a piece of blue seaglass, which prompts another soft oh! as he unearths it from the palmful of sand and rock.
tehilim127_1: (Default)

[personal profile] tehilim127_1 2024-08-05 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
"What, let me see --" She leans over to see what he's found, as unselfconscious about it as a child. "Oh that's beautiful! Okay, yes, gotta use that somewhere."

She grins at him approvingly. "Well spotted."
incomingchoppers: (no sir i'm not being smug sir)

[personal profile] incomingchoppers 2024-08-07 01:57 am (UTC)(link)
"Thank you ma'am," says Radar, largely on reflex, but he's still grinning just as bright as her. Carefully, he tips the shells and the seaglass into her cup. "Maybe it can be a window. -- Hey, if we find more maybe we could make a stained glass window!"
tehilim127_1: (Default)

[personal profile] tehilim127_1 2024-08-07 03:53 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh, if we use glass and the shells -- yes, perfect, we're doing this." There's outright glee in her voice, as though she's no older than he is. "Let's search just a little longer, then start putting them in."
incomingchoppers: (oh boy sir!)

[personal profile] incomingchoppers 2024-08-09 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
See, this is exactly why he likes Zivia so much: she never laughs at him when he acts like a kid, and half the time she even joins in.

"Yeah! I found it around here, c'mon -- "

He starts digging with renewed fervor close to where he found the sea glass.
tehilim127_1: (Default)

[personal profile] tehilim127_1 2024-08-11 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
They find a couple more pieces of sea glass, and quite a few more tiny shells, before Zivia calls a halt to the search. "All right, we could keep looking for hours, but we gotta get back to construction if we're going to get a good amount done before the tide comes in."

One last thing she snags before they head back: a ribbon of some kind of seaweed, bright green and rippled along one edge, trailing in the sand.
incomingchoppers: (no sir i'm not being smug sir)

[personal profile] incomingchoppers 2024-08-14 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
Radar nods, happily trotting close behind. "Especially after you put all that work into it already," he agrees. "Hey, so what's the biggest sandcastle you ever built? You made a lot of 'em?"

They settle in back at Zivia's creation. Luckily (or unluckily, as time will eventually attest), Radar's wine cup is still there; he grabs it for another sip before he begins sorting through their treasures.
tehilim127_1: (Default)

[personal profile] tehilim127_1 2024-08-15 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh, a good few over the years," she says, with a tone of pleased reminiscence. "Biggest one? Probably the one I did with a bunch of college friends and some strangers' kids who joined in. That was on Long Beach, maybe ... thirteen years ago? Fourteen? God, I'm old."

That last is quite cheerfully said, as she starts lightly pressing a circular pattern into the front wall of the sandcastle's central rise.

"That was bigger than a castle really, we had a whole landscape stretching out. Roads, walls, tunnels ... we definitely got carried away."
incomingchoppers: (i'm listening sir)

[personal profile] incomingchoppers 2024-08-17 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"Wow, that sounds neat, though," says Radar with great admiration.

(And politely not agreeing with the bit about Zivia being old. At least not out loud. Fourteen years ago?! He was only five years old then! He wasn't even in kindergarten!!)

Having collected all the seaglass into one spot, he experimentally starts arranging it in a few different patterns, trying to figure out what'd look nice on the castle itself. "How'd you get all the tunnels to stay up? Every time I've tried digging something like that it's fallen down pretty quick."
tehilim127_1: (explanatory)

[personal profile] tehilim127_1 2024-08-18 03:54 am (UTC)(link)
Zivia watches his arrangement with interest, but gets neatly distracted by the question. "Oh, the trick is you gotta dig down to where the sand's already packed really firm, and only then start moving horizontally. Works best if you dig from two places at once, and meet in the middle. Want me to show you?"
incomingchoppers: (oh boy sir!)

[personal profile] incomingchoppers 2024-08-19 12:19 am (UTC)(link)
He brightens. "Yeah!"

Abandoning the seaglass for a second, he scoots a little closer to Zivia, paying avid attention as she works. It's way more fun to dig this kind of thing than dig a latrine, for sure.