The text and paintings on The Trowbridge Chronicles are taken from the illustrated journal of Violet Trowbridge, a shrew that once lived in a village deep in the Olympic Rain Forest. Each new post will represent a portion of Mrs. Trowbridge’s journal.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Getting Ready for Winter



Fall is now here, and the winter snows will soon be upon us. It seems the summer season was much too short.

Were it not for their lupine seed oil lamps, Mrs. Trowbridge and the citizens of Huckleberry Hollow would have endured the harsh winters in utter darkness. They carried on their busy lives under a deep blanket of snow, traveling about by way of crooked, winding tunnels. All of her winter journal entries, such as the one above, were scribed and painted by candlelight or oil lamp during the long winter months. The small creatures used lupine seed oil  because lupine flowers were plentiful and easy to find. One of their primary late summer tasks was harvesting lupine seeds and crushing them to extract the oil, enough to last all winter long.