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maximumwobblerbanditdonut · 6 months

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I HAVE AN obsession with the color green. It’s a color of opposites. Green is life, growth, and health. It’s also sickness, greed, and envy. It’s good and bad at once. And it’s everywhere this afternoon as I sit down with actor, producer, author, and entrepreneur Sam Heughan — most recognized for his starring role in the Scotland-based time travel drama “Outlander.” His shirt bears a green tartan pattern, somewhere between jade and emerald. To my right, the glass bottle of his new gin is a transparent seafoam. Above my head is the leafy expanse of a tree, planted in the courtyard of New York’s Crosby Street Hotel. The gin we sip tastes green: grassy and alpine, fresh as menthol and bright as a sour apple. Most vividly is the green in my mind’s eye: the wet, rich, misty green of Scotland, a place Heughan speaks of with rapture.

Missing home is what drove Heughan to launch his spirits brand Sassenach, after the Scottish Gaelic word for an English person, or rather, an “outsider.” “When I was in London away from home, a jobbing actor, missing Scotland, I remember my first time trying a single malt whisky and I had such an emotional reaction,” he recalls from across the table, his bright blue eyes wide. “It reminded me of Scotland.”

I remark on the gin’s legs, thick and viscous, streaking the sides of my glass. Heughan nods, “I increased the strength. It just gives it a bit more weight. I love a bit of weight on my tongue.” Toasted oats give a creamy feel to the cornucopia of flavors present in the liquid: pine resin, heather, blackberry leaf, blaeberry — and, again, that sour green apple. “There’s no citrus in Scotland. That’s why I chose apples,” Heughan explains. “I remember as a kid, picking them and throwing them at people, eating them, then being really ill because they’re so sour.”

Heughan’s family — his mother, brother, and uncle — still live in Scotland. His uncle used to have a ceilidh band. “[Ceilidh is] a traditional Scottish dance,” he explains. “It’s madness. Everyone’s drinking whisky and the dancers get faster and faster and there are lots of spinning people around.” Heughan listens to a lot of Scottish music. He later sends me a song called “Blackbird” by Martyn Bennett, known for mixing dance tracks with traditional Celtic music. I tear up at its aching slants. “It makes me homesick for a home that’s not mine,” I message him. “That’s Scotland,” he writes back. “It does that to people.”

Sam Heughan Is in Good Spirits Image Float

Heughan was raised by a single mother in the south of Scotland — the rural stretches of Dumfries and Galloway. “Spent a lot of time on my own pretending I was a knight or Robert the Bruce.” The land’s botanicals now flavor his gin. Courtesy of Sam Heughan.

“It’s one foot in the present, one in the past,” muses Heughan about his country, adding a splash of tonic to my gin, whose flavor now reveals a pleasant salinity. “The castles. So many great battles. You

can feel the history. I think that’s what makes it so magical.” This history is inextricably linked to ritual, observed in Scotland to this day. Take Beltane, a pagan ritual beginning serendipitously on Heughan’s birthday, April 30. “You’re supposed to stay up all night and wash your face in the fresh dew when the sun rises, then go to bed and dream of your future spouse,” he describes. “It’s all about rebirth and nature.”

We talk about other parts of the world that have shaped him, as I remark on his fusion accent: a bit Scottish for sure, but mixed with something else, sort of American and British, too. America’s opportunity and diversity captivate Heughan. He came here for the first time at 18, hostel hopping in San Francisco. “I remember looking at the Golden Gate Bridge for hours, playing my cassette of ‘(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay’ by Otis Redding over and over. I was living on $5 burritos — one a day. It’s all I could afford.” He speaks of Hawaii with reverence — the local culture’s connection to wildlife and the sea. He spent time with a fisherman and his family there who taught him the Indigenous way to fish: “Gut it straight away. Take out the heart, say a prayer, and throw it back into the ocean immediately to allow the soul of the fish to live on.” New Zealand also moves him. He was there recently and learned about tā moku, the art of Māori tattooing. “You sit with an artist and tell him your story. He chooses where it goes on your body and makes it there and then. He stuck [the initial sketch] on my left forearm here, and it was all about my mom and my brother and the absence of my father.” He wants to return to New Zealand and get the tattoo next time.

My gin has opened up even more, spreading out into softer, aromatic florals as Heughan uncorks a bottle of his whisky. “People have called you a global heartthrob.” I begin, “Is that a role you’re —”

“Who has?” His eyes grow bigger in feigned shock. (Fun fact: the Sam Heughan fanbase even has their own name — “Heughligans.”)

“Someone I talked to in the subway.”

“Right, right,” he nods gravely, pouring new glasses.

“Do you,” I continue, taking a sip, “feel comfortable in that role?” The whisky tastes like a spicy Werther’s caramel.

“My character is what some people aspire to, and I understand why. He’s this incredible human being who’s just so in love with his wife and does the most romantic things. Selfless. People then think you might be that person. I’m certainly not. But it’s something to aspire to.”

“Are you comfortable,” I press, “being an object of desire?” Heughan shares that in earlier years, he was treated in a way that would no longer be tolerated. “I’d be asked, ‘What’s under your kilt?’ or ‘How do you get your abs?’ I wish I did have abs! We were just in a different industry. I don’t have resentment or a grudge. But I would like to be seen for the work that I do, rather than my looks.”

While he’s still based in Scotland, Heughan also has a house in LA, a city he’s not exactly sold on. He toys with the idea of New York as his next home base. He loves it here. “The cocktail bars. Cycling along the West Side. SoHo. The river. Getting a ferry. I’m so into ferries! I’ll go to Staten Island, then come back again. We got a helicopter the other day back from the Hamptons — I don’t like helicopters. They’re not meant to fly. However, seeing the Statue of Liberty from there, it’s so good. New York could be my city.”

I show Heughan around some local spots that evening. We sit at the bar of Superbueno for mezcal drinks and tacos. The music gets louder and so do the crowds. Mouth full of al pastor, I semi-shout a question in Heughan’s direction, asking if he ever gets overstimulated. “No, not really,” he replies simply, between chewing. At 6 feet, 3 inches, Heughan towers over seemingly everyone. Maybe it’s calmer up there. There’s an overall good-natured quality to him; it’s soothing to be around.

We head to another bar, Mr. Fongs. The air is thick with the smell of trash and rats dart to and fro. A subway thunders overhead as we walk below a bridge in Chinatown. “This is awesome,” Heughan murmurs. We order the bar’s specialty: salty plum old-fashioneds. “I want a place where the second I walk out my door, I’m right in the center of all of it,” he says decidedly, whistling a little at the (notoriously strong) drink. “Right in the middle.”

Heughan is noticeably unadorned. I suggest some rings and an ear piercing for his New York era. A candle light flickers against his cheek, evoking another world — someplace old and rural and rugged. At this moment, I see his character, a fantasy projection of the leading man. But really, we’re just in Chinatown, weighing the pros and cons of earrings on men. “Sadly I don’t think I’m quite cool enough,” he sighs, “to pull that off.” ▪️

Our Contributors

Sophie Mancini Writer

Sophie Mancini is an editor at Departures. Born and raised in New York City, she holds a degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University and has a background as a writer in brand and editorial.

Diana Markosian Photographer

Diana Markosian (born in Moscow, 1989) is a Russian-American photographer of Armenian descent. Her work explores memory and place through a layered, interdisciplinary process that uses photography and video. Her photographs have been published in National Geographic, the New Yorker, and the New York Times.

Robert Ormerod Photographer

Robert Ormerod is a photographer interested in telling stories. He is based in Scotland, working across the U.K. for titles such as National Geographic, The Guardian Saturday magazine, The New York Times, T Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Tom Craig Photographer

Tom Craig is a photographer and director whose work has been featured in Vogue, i-D, and Vanity Fair. His work is driven by a desire to tell stories and the urge to travel. His work often blurs the line between fashion photography and straightforward reportage.

**Full article from @departures www.departures.com

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thetruthwilloutsworld · 1 year

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Instagram the_gin_cooperative

Sneak peek of the new #SassenachWildScottishGin from @samheughan and @SassenachSpirit distilled using various locally foraged botanicals from the Dumfries and Galloway region of Scotland, Sam's home area, Wild Scottish Gin captures the local wild larder.

Featuring Scottish Juniper, rhubarb, heather, Scot's Pine resin, bramble leaf, blaeberry, Crabapple and Toasted oats, the result is a fresh London Dry style gin with layers of balanced, fresh flavours and a luxurious, creamy, soft mouthfeel.

Screen grabs courtesy of Sam Heughan

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harveyb-wabbit92 · 10 months

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Spiderman Black Cat OC: Màiri Kim

Full name: Màiri Kim

Alias: Black Cat

Occupation: Student (formerly) Clerk at her father's pawn shop and Anti-hero.

Ethnicity: Scottish/Korean

Age: 18

Gender: Fem

Pronouns: She/her/they

Orientation: Pan

Height: 5'5"

Weight: is around 140.

Hair: Shoulder length black, but she likes to add neon streaks to it.

Eyes: Màiri has heterochromia, her right eye is gray and her left eye is brown

Skin tone: She's has a olive complexion, though she's gotten a little paler due to staying in a dimly lit room all day and only venturing out at night or when her parents want her go outside and touch grass. Hobie often jokes that she's becoming a vampire and might spontaneously combust if she ever comes into direct sunlight!

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Likes: Coffee, Going to the pub, hacking, Seeing Hobie's concerts, and playing video-games, She also likes watching 80's horror and sci-fi movies.

Her favorite foods are Bibimpap, Tteokbokki, Hotteok, Forfar bridie, Cranachan, Blaeberry pie (all made dairy free of course).

Her favorite animals are bunnies and dogs (she has pet rabbit named Gizmo) and she likes looking out for the weak by causing chaos in the system.

Dislikes: Cops, corruption, the government, needles, being force to socialize and anything made with dairy.....*She's lactose intolerant*

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Bio: Màiri is a childhood friend of Hobie Brown's who moved to New London from Scotland, they were pretty much inspirable pair until Hobie had became Spiderman started he distancing himself and stopped coming to school, leaving an already socially awkward Màiri feeling alone and abandoned by her friend, So she filled the void in by burying herself in her home and computer work.

Then one day while studying alone in the library; Màiri was approached by her science teacher Jack Hardy; who she thought was going lecture her for hiding indoors and not socializing with her peers again, but to her confusion he explained how he had noticed her talents with computer hacking (She may have tweaked with a few of her grades) and stealth skills, Màiri would often sneak in and out of class without being noticed...(or at least she thought she was unnoticed.) Instead of turning her into the school’s dean, the teacher encouraged her behavior and allowed her to continue her work.

Over time Hardy gained Màiri's trust and it wasn't long before the teacher told her that he was the infamous burglar known as the Cat! However there was a problem, he was currently dying of cancer and was looking for someone to be his successor, seeing so much hidden potential in Màiri he chose her.

Màiri who was tired of the same game day in and day out; blindly agrees and follows her teacher’s every move. Being young and impressionable Màiri believed she was doing good by helping her teacher break into museums, secret labs and shady companies to steal back what was stolen and unbury secrets hidden from the public.

Then she found out that Mr. Hardy was actually selling stuff they'd 'rescued' to other corrupt people and organizations like; Hydra, the Kingpin, A.i.M. etc. etc... Màiri was disgusted and horrified by it all and wanted to put a stop to it.

So she devised a plan.

The next time she and The cat went on a heist, she purposely botched the hack job and tripped the silent alarms; putting the whole building on lockdown and trapping her former mentor inside which got him caught by the authorities.

She also made sure to drop the locations of where they stashed all of the loot long with a list of his customers and finally Màiri made sure to erase any traces of her involvement with the situation before reintegrating back into a dull and quiet life....

...............................

Just kidding!~

She took up the mantle of Black cat; though in this case she's not an outwardly malicious burglar driven by greed but is instead more of a public nuisance if anything; She crank calls the emergency lines by dropping hints that she’ll be conducting a robbery from the Museum; getting everyone riled up and ready to rumble then not showing up, or has already done the heist and flaunts her achievements publicly before abandoning her loot somewhere for civvies or police to find rather keeping or selling it.

Though there have some exceptions to this. Like if Màiri any evidence about possible Drug smuggling, weapon deals or human trafficking ring, She'll send that data to the proper authorities (Or put a stop to it herself.), or on rare occasions Màiri is hired to find illegally purchased artifacts once found she will then steal it back and have it return to the rightful owners.

When she's not doing that she's often butting heads with Spiderpunk or trying to mend the rift between her and Hobie.

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Relatives:

Yeong Kim: Father

Aileen Kim (nee: MacAlastair): Mother

Ha-Eun Kim: Paternal Grandmother

Jeong Kim: Paternal Grandfather

Liam MacAlastair: Maternal Grandfather

Edith MacAlastair: Maternal Grandmother (Deceased)

Deacon MacAlastair (Cousin, they are not speaking terms.)

Dana MacAlastair (Maternal aunt and Deacon's mother)

Relationships:

Hobie Brown/Spiderpunk (Childhood friend, crush and super-rival)

Oscar Meyer {Best friend, her man in the chair.}

Connie Yong: (close friend, Oscar's fiancée)

Anne Townsend {Ex-girlfrend, Anne cheated on Màiri (With Màiri's cousin Deacon.)}

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Language Skills: Growing up in a Scottish/Korean household Màiri is bilingual, but due to her parents speaking mostly English around the house her Korean has gotten a bit rusty...like she can still hold a conversation, but brain farts do happen so she often has used a translator app to help her out.

Though the only people she ever speaks Korean to are her grandparents, who live with her parents. And her grandma only ever wants to complain about Màiri's mother which makes her very uncomfortable... But Màiri's grandfather on the other hand is a total sweetheart, which makes her wonder why he ever settled for her shrew of a grandma?

Tech skills: Màiri is a gray-hatter hacker she not a genius or anything special like that, she just has really has good faith in her skills, Oscar on the other hand. Hhe won’t deny that he is waaay better then her and could run circles around her.

Gymnast/parkour skills: Màiri used to be on a gymnastics team from age 10 to 15 and was almost scouted, but was thrown off the team after one of the girls framed her. Claiming Màiri had pushed her down some stairs and broke her foot to get her out of an upcoming competition, it was later found out to be a lie when the girl made a marvelous recovery in time for the competition....But by that time it was too late to get Màiri back on the team.

Musical skills: She knows how to play the violin, her grandpa on her mother’s side taught her, After getting kicked out of Gymnastics, Màiri pretty had nothing to do after school except help her Grandpa on his farm.

Then she found his old violin hidden away, he had stopped playing after her grandma died but decided to come out of retirement to teach his Sweet-pea the ropes... Màiri often plays when she needs to think on things.

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Powers: The previous Black cat injected Màiri with a watered down version of the super soldier serum, that gave her a healing factor and super human endurance while also boosting her agility and flexibility....

Fighting style: Màiri/Black cat prefers to go up close and personal when in combat, without any experience or martial art skills, she runs in head on like a complete amateur. Every time she fights, she will attack without a plan, showing that she is a complete amateur.

However, the more Màiri fights, the more she learns on how to adapt and going a step ahead from her opponent, she always manages to outwit her opponent by becoming stronger and is capable enough to block, evade, and attack at the right moment. This makes her a formidable and very unpredictable opponent.

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Equipment: A white Kevlar trench coat and a black armored bodysuit.

Cat eared headphones: that are designed to hack into private calls, communication lines and radio chatter,

cat-eye goggles: a pair of tactical goggles that have x-ray, thermal and night vision.

Retractable clawed gloves: these allow her climb and grapple onto walls, the blades are strong enough cut through glass and most metals.

Cat tails: which are a pair wrist mounted retractable wire ribbons they're very strong and have high elastic qualities that Màiri can use to swing around the city and keep up with a certain Spider.

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#spiderman oc #spiderpunk #hobie brown #hobie brown x oc #spiderpunk x oc #marvel black cat #Marvel oc: Màiri Kim #across the spiderverse #spiderman x oc #marvel oc #spider man across the spider verse

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rowanphotographyagain · 2 years

Photo

view from the blaeberry patch

#sky #weather #hillside #blaeberry #bilberry #landscape #nature photography #photographers on tumblr #phone

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guerrerense · 4 months

Video

flickr

Canadian Pacific; Blaeberry BC; 5/2004 por Steve Barry Por Flickr: Canadian Pacific Blaeberry, British Columbia May 2004 With a Canadian Rockies backdrop, Canadian Pacific AC4400CW 9673 leads a westbound stack train through some of the most spectacular scenery in North America.

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c-kiddo · 2 years

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congrats!! i hope healing goes well :3 sending you energies of having your tea always be perfect and once youre able to go out you find a rly cool bone 🌿🪲⭐️

thank u !!!! perfect tea would be yom :'-3 🍵 i did actually find a shoulder blade on my pre-surgery hike thing at th weekend :-3 its a deer or sheep one i think, based on what creatures are around.. its a bit decayed tho to see

#asks #went n climbed on glacial deposit big rock #and walked around moorlands #n peatbogs #so many blaeberries gonna happen in july/august

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cordeliaflyte · 3 months

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Yvonne Reddick

Muirburn

My father weighed a little less than at birth. I carried him in both hands to the pines as October brought the burning season. When I unscrewed the urn, bone-chaff and grit streamed out, with their gunpowder smell. I remembered the sulphur hiss of the match – how he taught me to breathe on the steeple of logs until the kindling caught, quickening flames.

That night, in sleep, I saw the forest clearing by the moor’s edge, and the ring of his ashes. A skirl of smoke began to rise – bracken curling, a fume of blaeberry leaves. Ants broke their ranks to scatter and flee, and a moth spun ahead of the fire-wind. I took the path over the heath at a run.

A voice at my shoulder said, “You’ll inherit fire.” And through the smoke I glimpsed a line of figures on the hillside, beating and beating the heather as the fire-front roared towards them. A volley of shouts: “Keep the wind at your back!” My grandmother threshing with a fire-broom, Dad hacking a firebreak. My stillborn brother, now grown, sprinting for the hollow where the spring once flowed, the whole hill flaring in the updraft.

And there: a girl, running for the riverside – she wore my face, the shade of ash.

#poetry

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scotianostra · 9 months

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On 11th August 1892 poet Christopher Murray Grieve was born in Langholm.

C M Grieve, or Hugh MacDiarmid to you and I lived above Langholm library, is it any wonder he would grow up with a love of words with access to any book that he wanted.This encouraged an interest in reading and in language that would remain with him throughout his life. MacDiarmid trained to be a teacher but decided not to pursue this and spent years in local journalism in Scotland and Wales before joining the the Royal Army Medical Corps on the outbreak of the First World War, surviving the war he returned to journalism in Montrose, he became Chief Reporter of the local paper was appointed Justice of the peace and served on the council.

Whereas having an admiration for poets like Burns and Hogg he felt that poetry of the era should reflect the times and not the over sentiment of past times. During his time in Montrose he started compiling and publishing poems, at the same time writing his own, in 1926 he published what was to become his most famous poem, A Drunk Man looks at a Thistle. He became involved in politics, was a founder member of the SNP before being expelled and joining the communist party at a time when communism was viewed very suspiciously .

MacDiarmid delighted in controversy and his autobiography Lucky Poet - published in 1943 - offended the officials of Langholm, after a time living in the remote Shetland island of Whalsay he moved to a cottage (with little in the way of comfort) near Biggar. Although never having made much of a living through his work he was much admired and his political beliefs saw him traveling to the old USSR and China. For a man not keen on sentimentality he had a deep felt love for Scotland and wasn’t shy in showing where he belonged by wearing the kilt often. There is a memorial cairn and installation to MacDiarmid just north of Langholm. It takes the form of a giant book and was designed by sculptor Jake Harvey. His poem The Little White Rose, is etched in stone on the wall of The Holyrood Parliament, along with many other Scottish verse, as you walk down The Canongate.

This is a wee bit of a poem by MacDiarmid that I like......

“Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?

Only as a patch of hillside may be a cliché corner

To a fool who cries ‘Nothing but heather!’ where in September another

Sitting there and resting and gazing around

Sees not only the heather but blaeberries

With bright green leaves and leaves already turned scarlet,

Hiding ripe , ; and amongst the sage-green leaves

Of the bog-myrtle the golden flowers of the tormentil shining;

And on the small bare places, where the little Blackface sheep

Found grazing, milkworts blue as summer skies;

And down in neglected peat-hags, not worked

Within living memory, sphagnum moss in pastel shades

Of yellow, green, and pink; sundew and butterwort

Waiting with wide-open sticky leaves for their tiny winged prey;

And nodding harebells vying in their colour

With the blue butterflies that poise themselves delicately upon them;

And stunted rowans with harsh dry leaves of glorious colour.

‘Nothing but heather!’ ̶ How marvellously descriptive! And incomplete!”

—

Hugh MacDiarmid, excerpt from ‘Dìreadh I’, from Complete Poems, Vol. II

#scotland #scottish #history #poet #makar

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outofangband · 2 years

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@tolkien-feels asked It's me again! I'm hoping to re-read CoH soon-ish so I've been thinking about it a lot and I was wondering... Using your amazing environmental knowledge, could you guess at all what the Gaurwaith eat to survive during that one horrible winter before Beleg shows up?

Flora, fauna, geography and environment of Arda masterlist

Disclaimer: I used both what we can extrapolate based on descriptions of the landscape and climate as well as my own headcanons and inspirations and reference books on similar habitats as well as books like The Atlas of Middle Earth and The Flora of Middle Earth

Ok so disclaimer aside!

As always please feel free to ask more or request more detail in any area or anything!

The Gaurwaith live mainly South of Brethil with Amon Rûdh being their base of operations after Beleg arrives. Brethil is a deciduous forest of mostly birch trees and it can likely be inferred that the area around it is also of a temperate climate with cold winters with potential for heavy snowfall

The area that they live in is described at least a few times as “the woods of Teglin” with Teglin being the tributary to Sirion that borders Brethil on its South side. Christopher Tolkien’s map of Beleriand also shows a forested area South of Brethil though not extending to Amon Rûdh and the Talath Dirnen. The map of the Narn also shows this.

The diet of the Gaurwaith was probably fairly rudimentary and consisted of meat, mostly root vegetables but others as well, occasional fruit, and combinations of ingredients like stews. During calmer times, wild herbs can be used to season food.

Deer (red and roe deer most likely), rabbit and game birds like pheasants and quail would probably be fairly easy to get for talented hunters and the former two could potentially last some time and the more skilled among them could make use of the skin and bones as well. Where salt or other supplies to store and keep the food is a different question of course. Wild carrot, common bistort, wild parsnip, garlic mustard, wild chives, cattails in swampier areas Prior to Túrin’s arrival it likely involved more stolen goods Blaeberry or European blueberry and lingonberry are both associated with birch forests as are scaber stalk mushrooms and Cantharellus cibarius, a species of golden chanterelle mushroom however both risk confusion with similar looking but inedible mushrooms. Wild strawberries, black currents, and crab apples also fit the climate.

If any are talented enough to fish, river trout and other abundant freshwater fish might be an option too

Chestnuts and hazelnuts (we see a mention of hazel thickets) could also likely be gathered and stored though.

I hope this is ok! let me know if you have any more requests or questions!

#the children of húrin #the silmarillion #Túrin #gaurwaith #brethil #musing and meta #the children of húrin

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